Susana Schwartz
Meta's race to build 'hundreds-of-GWs-of power'
Mark Zuckerberg was burning up Threads this week with announcements about a new AI infrastructure initiative, Meta Compute; investment in three massive nuclear plants (Oklo, TerraPower, and Vistra for 6.6 GW of power); and the hiring of a new Meta president, former Trump advisor and banker Dina Powell McCormick. He is clearly showing zeal in his pursuit of revolutionizing AI development, and unlike other hyperscalers, his efforts are focused on internal ambitions for social media platforms and what he calls “personal superintelligence,” as opposed to multi-tenant cloud business for which infrastructure is sold “as a service” at companies like Microsoft Azure, AWS, Google Cloud, and Oracle. Wall Street seemed to support Meta’s AI plans with a strong “buy” consensus rating, but there were a few notable detractors, which I report on in today’s lead story, which you can read here and below.
Susana Schwartz
Technology Editor
RCRTech
AI Infrastructure Top Stories
Meta accelerates AI infrastructure strategy: Meta is cementing its place in the ‘AI Arms Race’ with three new nuclear deals for 6.6 GW of power; Meta Compute; and former Trump advisor Dina Powell McCormick as president of Meta.
NTT, Sumitomo, and JA Mitsui partner: NTT Data Group, Sumitomo Corp., and JA Mitsui Leasing will build and operate the Intra-Asia Marine Cable, a major submarine communications system connecting Japan with key markets across Asia.
Why Singtel’s fiber pilot matters: Singtel became the first operator in Singapore to test 50Gbps XGS-PON, targeting AI-heavy, immersive and multi-device digital use cases, showing how ultra-high-speed fiber can support AI workloads, and more.
AI Today: What You Need to Know
Nvidia can ship H200 chips to China: The Trump administration approved Nvidia H200 chip exports to China, but on the condition that there will be third-party testing to confirm the chips’ technical AI capabilities before shipping to China.
Apple teams up with Google AI: Apple’s models for Apple Intelligence will be based on Google’s Gemini AI models and its cloud computing services. Those models will power Apple’s personal assistant, Siri, and other AI features.
NTT – WSJ survey on enterprise AI: In the survey, 68% of global CEOs plan to increase AI investment in the next two years even though only 18% believe their technology infrastructure is highly optimized to support AI at scale.
Microsoft new 5-point plan for AI: Microsoft announced a five-point plan for Community-First AI Infrastructure, in an effort to be a “good neighbor” in the communities in which it is building data centers and AI infrastructure.
Microsoft President makes pledge: Microsoft President Brad Smith said, “Our pledge to each of these communities is that we will pay our way as a company, to ensure that our data centers don’t increase your electricity prices.
San Diego County reevaluates data centers: San Diego County will study AI data center impacts before approving new facilities. The Board of Supervisors will examine large AI data centers’ impact local infrastructure, water use, and power.
