Safe Superintelligence, founded by former OpenAI chief scientist Ilya Sutskever, secures $2 billion funding at a $32 billion valuation despite having no public product, with major investors including Andreessen Horowitz, Alphabet, and Nvidia backing the 20-employee startup developing AI models on Google's TPUs.
Google's Ironwood AI processor, designed for its Gemini AI models and simulated reasoning, unleashes an astounding 42.5 Exaflops of computing power through clusters of up to 9,216 liquid-cooled chips with enhanced interconnect, surpassing previous Google TPUs in speed and efficiency.
IBM has launched the z17 mainframe, engineered specifically for AI and generative AI workloads, featuring high-capacity Telum II processors, compatibility with IBM's Spyre accelerator chips, and new performance management and operating system tools.
Ex-Google AI Chief Ilya Sutskever's startup Safe Superintelligence (SSI), backed by $1 billion, is tapping Google Cloud's powerful TPU chips in its quest to develop safe, superintelligent AI systems, marking another AI computing deal between Google and a former employee's startup.
Google has unveiled Ironwood, a colossal seventh-generation Tensor Processing Unit (TPU) designed for inference, boasting unparalleled computational power over 24 times greater than the world's largest supercomputer, marking a groundbreaking leap in energy-efficient inference capabilities.
Nvidia, a leader in AI chips, faces challenges navigating Trump's trade tensions and tariffs that threaten its global supply chain and exports to China, prompting CEO Jensen Huang to fortify the company's dominance through expanding research and talent pipelines worldwide.
Intel, facing manufacturing struggles, is in talks with TSMC for a joint venture where TSMC would operate Intel's factories, taking a 20% stake, as the White House pushes for the deal to revive Intel's chip production, with TSMC also courting other chipmakers to join.
AMD's CEO Lisa Su cautioned about potential semiconductor tariffs' short-term impact while endorsing resilient supply chains and US manufacturing, as the company finalizes its $4.9 billion ZT Systems acquisition to strengthen hyperscaler compute infrastructure.
Chip stocks plunged despite being exempted from tariffs, signaling persistent industry headwinds stemming from potential semiconductor-specific tariffs, weakening demand due to existing tariffs, uncertainties around export restrictions, AI regulations, and infrastructure project pullbacks.
Chinese companies employ various tactics, including smuggling, exploiting loopholes, leveraging subsidiaries, utilizing cloud services, and innovating with alternative chips, to circumvent U.S. restrictions on advanced semiconductor technology.