Susana Schwartz
Building the AI superhighway through partnerships and collaborations
The need for connectivity, performance, and resiliency has pushed companies to work across geographic boundaries and competencies, with hyperscalers, telcos, hardware manufacturers, and other stakeholders working together in novel ways.
A major AI network-infrastructure project between Qatar-based telco Gulf Bridge International (GBI) and Nokia will establish a high-capacity terrestrial fiber optic network through Iraq, enhancing connectivity and resilience to outages between the Middle East, Europe, and Asia. In addition, the project will elevate Iraq’s standing as a critical new hub in global telecommunications networks, linking the Gulf to other global hubs. With this new terrestrial “north route” to Europe, enterprise customers and regional operators will be able to securely and directly connect to data centers and cloud “on-ramps” operated by major hyperscalers like AWS, Azure, Google, and others. The deal will also enable GBI to deliver more than 50 terabits (TB) of capacity to its enterprise customers.
Another partnership that will draw together dissimilar companies with different but complementary core competencies is that of Japan’s SoftBank and Korea’s Samsung. SoftBank, as an investment and financial company, and manufacturing giant Samsung, have forged an R&D partnership to develop AI-powered 6G technology. This collaboration is particularly salient as new frequency bands like 7 GHz spectrum evolve to potentially integrate AI directly into networks. SoftBank’s network expertise and deployment capabilities will help Samsung accelerate 6G and AI-RAN development. In addition to “AI-RAN,” the two companies will focus on Large Telecom Models (AI systems designed for telecom networks), and “AI and RAN,” which would ultimately turn single-purpose cell towers into distributed computing nodes.
Another collaboration that drew attention last week was the OpenAI, Oracle, and Vantage Data Centers deal, which will expand the $500 billion Stargate project to Ozaukee County, Wisconsin. The campus, to be located outside Milwaukee in Port Washington, will include four data centers producing approximately 1 GW of AI capacity. The $15 billion-plus project will focus on renewable energy from solar, wind, and battery storage, with 70% of capacity going to the data center campus, and 30% to other Wisconsin consumers.
This Wisconsin project is one of five Stargate projects now slated for the U.S. — the others being in Shackelford County, Texas; Doña Ana County, New Mexico; Lordstown, Ohio; and Milam County, Texas.
Susana Schwartz
Technology Editor
RCRTech
AI Infrastructure Top Stories
Critical AI paths: Qatar-based telco Gulf Bridge International (GBI) and Nokia will enhance east-west internet connectivity for high-end AI apps. Enterprises and regional operators along the route can connect to hyperscalers’ data centers and cloud platforms.
Samsung, SoftBank partner on AI-RAN: The companies will examine how AI can enhance RAN orchestration, integrate network workloads, and improve UX and efficiency. Under the AI for RAN framework, AI will be used to enhance radio network performance and automation.
$15B+ Wisconsin AI data hub: OpenAI, Oracle, and Vantage will build a data center campus near Milwaukee, with nearly 1 GW of computing capacity and four hyperscale facilities. The project aims for 100% zero-emission energy, water-positive systems, and biodiversity protection.
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AI Today: What You Need to Know
Biggest financing ever for AI infra: Banks are preparing a $38 billion debt sale to fund two major data centers tied to Oracle, which triggered a sharp rally in AI mining stocks last Friday.
Innovative 840 MW (thermal) pool reactor: The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission successfully completed its final Environmental Impact Statement for Bill Gates-backed TerraPower’s Natrium reactor in Wyoming, a 345 MWe nuclear reactor.
Expansion of Anthropic-Google relationship: Anthropic announced it would deploy up to 1 million Google Cloud TPUs to increase compute resources for AI R&D. The deal is worth tens-of-billions of dollars and marks a recalibration in enterprise AI infrastructure strategy.
India pursues semiconductor dominance: “The world believes in India,” said Prime Minister Modi about locally made semiconductors. India is rapidly developing semiconductor chipsets for high-tech applications such as CCTVs, servers, and high-performance computing.
CoreWeave growth prediction: On the “The Real Eisman Playbook” podcast, MoffettNathanson analyst Nick Del Deo said CoreWeave’s revenue could scale to “mid-$20s billion” by 2028. That suggests its revenue might multiply “nearly 5x” from the 2025 projection of $5.3 billion.
SVB Fintech Report: Silicon Valley Bank releases its annual Fintech Report, with data showing AI can offer long-term transformation, but more immediate impact may come with blockchain (driven largely by increasing acceptance of stablecoins).
The Netherlands-China trade tensions: As tensions spiked between Europe and Beijing last week, Dutch Prime Minister Dick Schoof said his country’s seizure of Chinese-owned chipmaker Nexperia was not a “measure against China,” but rather about “mismanagement by the CEO.”
