Microsoft has begun deploying its home‑grown Maia 200 AI inference chip in its data centers while confirming it will continue purchasing GPUs from Nvidia and AMD. CEO Satya Nadella emphasized the company’s ongoing partnerships and the need to stay ahead in AI hardware. The Maia 200, designed for high‑performance AI model inference, will first be used by Microsoft’s Superintelligence team as they develop frontier models, and will also support OpenAI models on Azure. The move reflects a hybrid strategy of building in‑house chips while leveraging external suppliers. Read more →

Tech giants including OpenAI, Microsoft, Nvidia, Oracle, and Meta are pouring billions of dollars into new AI‑focused data centers. Partnerships such as the Stargate project promise up to $500 billion in future spending, while Microsoft alone targets $80 billion for AI‑enabled facilities. The rapid build‑out is driving unprecedented demand for power, water, and infrastructure, raising alarms about energy consumption, water use, and rising traffic incidents near construction sites. Executives like AMD’s Lisa Su dismiss worries, arguing demand far outweighs any potential oversupply. Read more →

Amazon is reportedly in preliminary discussions to invest as much as $10 billion in OpenAI, a deal that would see the AI lab using Amazon's AI chips. The potential agreement could value OpenAI at more than $500 billion. The move follows Amazon's earlier $8 billion investment in Anthropic and its recent launch of the Trainium chip series. OpenAI's shift to a for‑profit model has opened the door to new partnerships beyond its long‑time backer Microsoft. The proposed investment would add to a series of circular deals linking AI startups with hardware and cloud providers. Read more →

Amazon is in advanced discussions with OpenAI about a $10 billion investment that would also see the AI startup adopt Amazon's Trainium chips and increase its use of Amazon Web Services. The proposed deal could lift OpenAI's valuation past $500 billion while deepening the company's reliance on Amazon's cloud and hardware infrastructure. At the same time, OpenAI continues to expand relationships with other technology partners, including Microsoft, NVIDIA, Oracle and AMD, prompting investors to scrutinize the circular nature of its financing and compute arrangements. Read more →

IBM announced a cash purchase of data‑infrastructure firm Confluent for $11 billion, offering $31 per share—about 50 % above the prior closing price. The deal is intended to boost IBM’s data and automation portfolio as cloud migration and AI adoption accelerate. IBM says Confluent’s real‑time streaming platform will complement its existing products and enhance its AI, automation, data, and consulting services. The acquisition is expected to improve EBITDA and free cash flow within two years and marks IBM’s largest buy in years, following recent moves such as the HashiCorp purchase and partnerships with Anthropic and AMD. Read more →

At a recent Wired interview, AMD chief executive Lisa Su rejected the notion that the artificial‑intelligence sector is in a bubble. She argued that fears of an AI bubble are overstated and highlighted the growing demand for chips to power data‑center workloads. Su also discussed AMD’s expanding relationship with OpenAI, which will deploy billions of watts of Instinct GPUs over several years, and reaffirmed the company’s focus on rapid innovation to stay ahead of rivals such as Nvidia. Read more →

OpenAI announced an ownership stake in Thrive Holdings, a private‑equity‑style firm backed by Thrive Capital that aggregates AI‑focused companies. While the deal’s financial terms remain confidential, OpenAI will embed its engineering, research, and product teams within Thrive’s portfolio to accelerate AI adoption. The partnership follows OpenAI’s recent circular investments in infrastructure firms such as Advanced Micro Devices and CoreWeave, underscoring a broader strategy of aligning with companies that can embed its technology. Analysts say the move will be closely watched to gauge whether the combined entities can generate sustainable growth or simply inflate valuations. Read more →

OpenAI announced a multi‑year agreement with Amazon to purchase $38 billion in cloud computing services. The partnership will see the company shift immediately to Amazon Web Services, with full capacity expected by the end of 2026 and the option to expand beyond 2027. The deal follows OpenAI’s recent restructuring that removed the need for Microsoft’s approval on such purchases and aligns with its broader plan to spend over $1 trillion on computing power in the next decade. Analysts note the massive spending may signal an emerging AI investment bubble. Read more →

AMD is collaborating with the U.S. Department of Energy to create two sovereign AI supercomputers, Lux and Discovery, at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. The systems will use AMD Instinct GPUs, EPYC CPUs and advanced networking, and are slated for deployment in the mid‑to‑late 2020s. Backed by a $1 billion mix of public and private funding, the machines aim to boost U.S. scientific research, energy innovation, health breakthroughs, and national security, giving the country an early advantage in AI‑driven discovery. Read more →

OpenAI has signed significant agreements with AMD and Broadcom to supply AI chips and accelerators for its data‑center deployments. The AMD deal focuses on large‑scale GPU production, while Broadcom will provide custom AI accelerators and Ethernet systems. Both partnerships underline OpenAI's strategy to diversify its silicon supply and reduce reliance on a single vendor. However, the majority of the chips are still expected to be fabricated by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), whose capacity constraints and geographic concentration remain a critical bottleneck for the broader AI and semiconductor industries. Read more →

Tech giants are rapidly expanding AI data centers to meet soaring demand for generative models. Projects like OpenAI's Stargate partnership, Meta's Hyperion facility, and new builds in Texas and Louisiana illustrate the scale of investment. The growth brings heightened energy use, with some centers consuming gigawatts and accounting for significant portions of regional electricity. Stakeholders debate the environmental impact, the role of renewable versus fossil‑fuel grids, and the political push‑back from local communities. At the same time, analysts warn that the massive supply of compute may outpace consumer demand, raising concerns about a potential AI bubble. Read more →

OpenAI announced a partnership with Broadcom to develop its own custom AI accelerator chips, aiming to diversify its compute supply and lessen reliance on Nvidia. The collaboration targets the creation of up to 10 gigawatts of bespoke AI hardware for OpenAI's data centers, with deployment slated for the second half of 2026 and completion by the end of 2029. The move follows prior multi‑gigawatt deals with AMD and Nvidia and reflects a broader industry push toward in‑house chip design to secure compute capacity for advanced models. Read more →

OpenAI is accelerating its AI compute ambitions by teaming with Broadcom to design and deploy custom AI accelerators, targeting a rollout of 10 gigawatts of chips by 2029. The partnership adds to existing agreements with NVIDIA, AMD and Oracle, which together promise tens of gigawatts of additional capacity. CEO Sam Altman has outlined a longer‑term vision of 250 gigawatts of compute over eight years, a scale that would require multi‑trillion‑dollar financing. The combined deals signal OpenAI’s push to secure the hardware foundation needed for its next generation of models while diversifying its supply chain across several chip makers. Read more →

Renowned designer Jony Ive is collaborating with OpenAI on a palm‑size, screenless AI device that captures audio and visual cues to respond to user requests. The effort has encountered technical challenges, including limited computing capacity and difficulty fine‑tuning conversational flow. OpenAI recently announced a multibillion‑dollar data‑center partnership with AMD, a move praised by CEO Sam Altman to boost compute power. The venture joins a crowded field of AI wearables, such as the Rabbit R1 and Humane AI Pin, which have struggled to gain traction, while Meta’s Ray‑Ban glasses have seen sales surge. OpenAI also completed a $6.5 billion acquisition of Ive’s design firm, io. Read more →

OpenAI announced a multi‑year agreement to purchase a massive volume of AMD chips, including the right to acquire roughly a 10 percent stake in the chipmaker. The deal commits OpenAI to buying six gigawatts of AMD Instinct MI450 GPUs over the coming years, with the first gigawatt slated for deployment in the second half of 2026. In addition to expanding its AMD partnership, OpenAI will continue to invest in Nvidia hardware. The agreement is positioned as a key component of a broader U.S. push to build AI data centers and reflects the growing demand for compute power across the generative‑AI ecosystem. Read more →

AMD and OpenAI have entered a multi‑year agreement that lets OpenAI buy up to 160 million AMD shares at a nominal price while securing a substantial supply of AMD AI chips. The deal adds roughly 6 gigawatts of AMD‑based compute capacity to OpenAI’s growing AI infrastructure, complementing its existing relationships with Nvidia and its own silicon efforts. Industry sources say the partnership does not alter OpenAI’s broader compute strategy, including its work with Microsoft and Broadcom. Read more →

OpenAI announced a strategic partnership with AMD to procure AMD's Instinct GPUs for large‑scale AI infrastructure. The agreement envisions deploying up to six gigawatts of compute power, with the first gigawatt slated for the second half of 2026. In addition to the hardware purchase, OpenAI will acquire 160 million AMD shares at a nominal price, potentially giving it a ten‑percent stake in the chipmaker. The deal positions AMD as a core compute partner and underscores OpenAI’s push to diversify its hardware sources beyond its existing relationships. Read more →

A side‑by‑side look at three leading AI accelerators—Huawei's Ascend 950 series, Nvidia's H200 (GH100 Hopper), and AMD's Radeon Instinct MI300 (Aqua Vanjaram). The comparison covers architecture, process technology, transistor counts, die size, memory type and capacity, bandwidth, compute performance across FP8, FP16, FP32 and FP64, and target scenarios such as large‑scale LLM training, inference, and high‑performance computing. Availability timelines differ, with each vendor positioning its chip for data‑center and HPC workloads. Read more →

Enterprise AI model maker Cohere announced a $100 million extension to its recent financing, pushing its valuation to $7 billion. The company also unveiled a partnership with AMD, enabling its Command-family models to run on AMD Instinct GPUs while maintaining support for Nvidia hardware. Co‑founder Aidan Gomez, noted for his role in the original transformer paper, highlighted the focus on enterprise customers seeking AI sovereignty. New investors include the Business Development Bank of Canada and Nexxus Capital Management. The announcement was made at a TechCrunch event in San Francisco. Read more →

AMD used the Hot Chips event to detail its Instinct MI350 family and the flagship MI355X DLC rack. The two‑U system houses 128 GPUs, 36 TB of HBM3e memory, and delivers up to 2.6 exaflops of FP4 precision performance. Flexible node designs support both air‑ and liquid‑cooling, with an 8‑GPU configuration reaching 73.8 petaflops at FP8. AMD also referenced its roadmap, noting the MI400 slated for 2026 with HBM4 and higher throughput, while briefly comparing Nvidia’s upcoming Vera Rubin systems. Read more →