Meta beat Wall Street’s expectations for the second quarter — and it’s putting major resources into spending on both infrastructure and people, including chasing AI talent that comes with hefty compensation costs (although dollars alone aren’t always a determinant. One AI researcher reportedly turned down a billion dollars from Meta). Meanwhile, CEO Mark Zuckerberg laid out Meta’s perspective on the evolution of AI, and what AI will mean for humanity — his letter on “personal superintelligence” is linked below. Also not to be missed: Google’s bet on data centers in India, and the UAE’s G42 scoring a big win on Nvidia GPU access.
Kelly Hill
Executive Editor
RCRTech
AI Infrastructure Top 3
Meta momentum: Meta turned in nearly $48 billion in revenue and more than $18 billion in profits for Q2, beating Wall Street’s expectations. The company is spending on AI talent, but constrained on data center capacity (who isn’t?).
G42’s AI bet in Europe: G42 is set to access nearly half of Northern Data’s Nvidia GPU inventory in a major AI cloud deal, deepening the UAE firm’s growing footprint across Europe’s data infrastructure market.
Google bets big on India: Google plans a $6B, 1 GW data center in India’s Andhra Pradesh, backed by $2B in green power, aiming to anchor Asia’s largest facility and expand its AI and cloud footprint.
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AI Today: What You Need to Know
Meta targets “personal superintelligence”: Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said that the company’s models are starting to gain the ability to improve themselves, and lays out a vision for an era of “personal superintelligence”.
Intel’s spin off: Intel will spin off its Network and Edge Group (NEX) into a standalone company, refocusing on core CPU and AI businesses while inviting external investors to accelerate networking innovation.
Deep-fake AI ethics: Despite its ethical claims, open-source AI platform Hugging Face is hosting AI models that generate non-consensual deep-fake porn of celebrities, including minors – violating its own vaunted policies and values.
H2O says no to AI DC: U.K. water company Anglian Water is against plans for an AI data center on 435 acres in North Lincolnshire over concerns about flooding and water supply. The region described as “the driest part of the country”.
First AI-native bank: U.S.-based OffDeal claims to be the first AI-native investment bank, having streamlined sell-side M&A by replacing traditional roles with gen AI – enabling high bonuses for lean teams and challenging Wall Street’s rigid structure.
AI infra boom continues: While Meta and Microsoft made headlines this week with their earnings, companies like Vertiv and Applied Digital are benefiting from an estimated capex spend by hyperscalers of nearly $400 billion this year.
Digital Realty results: Digital Realty reported revenues of $1.49 billion in Q2, up 10% year-over-year. Its total lease bookings included $73 million in the 0–1 megawatt category and $17 million in interconnection.
EU AI Act actions: Google and Microsoft have signed on to the European Union’s AI Act framework of practices, despite concerns about it 1) being voluntary, and 2) that it potentially slows European AI development.
Do or do not: AWS offers up a rundown of conflicting decisions that companies face as they migrate to the cloud, advising: “It’s not about migrating a few workloads and seeing what sticks.”
AI at work: Microsoft researchers looked at workforce implications of generative AI and came up with a list of jobs likely and not likely to be impacted by AI. Bad news for translators and customer service reps; good news for medical assistants.