Catherine Sbeglia Nin
Seeking silicon sovereignty
A new front in the U.S.-China AI race sees Alibaba and Baidu accelerating adoption of homegrown processors, easing dependence on Nvidia as U.S. export curbs and Beijing’s policy push narrow the performance gap. At the same time, SoftBank’s Vision Fund is bracing for up to 20% staff cuts as Masayoshi Son pivots squarely toward massive AI bets, from OpenAI and Ampere to the $500 billion Stargate project.
Huawei used its first Data Center Innovation Summit in Shanghai to showcase compute clusters, data lakes, and elastic facilities designed for the AI workload surge, underscoring how infrastructure has become the critical battleground. Intel, NVIDIA, and CoreWeave all figure into the trillion-dollar investment waves powering AI’s future, with Morgan Stanley projecting $3 trillion in global data center spending by 2029 — roughly the size of France’s economy in 2024. That scale raises a pressing question of whether AI data centers justify the spending spree.
And in a more unexpected twist, Pope Leo XIV rejected a proposal for a “virtual pope” AI avatar, calling it a hollow substitute that risks eroding truth, dignity, and human connection.
AI is growing fast — but so are questions around cost and control.
Catherine Sbeglia Nin
Managing Editor
RCRTech
AI Infrastructure Top 3
Alibaba, Baidu go domestic: Alibaba and Baidu are accelerating adoption of in-house AI chips, cutting dependence on Nvidia as U.S. curbs and Beijing’s policy push drive Chinese processors closer to global performance levels.
AI push shrinks Vision Fund: SoftBank’s Vision Fund is planning up to 20% staff cuts as CEO Masayoshi Son shifts focus to massive AI bets, including investments in OpenAI, Ampere, and the $500 billion Stargate project.
Huawei’s AI DC summit: Huawei talked compute clusters, data lakes, and elastic facilities at its first Data Center Innovation Summit in Shanghai this week. It is promoting a developing portfolio to handle expanding AI workloads.
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AI Today: What You Need to Know
U.S. AI needs chips: Intel’s Steve Orrin says private R&D is essential for delivering the U.S. AI Action Plan — pushing semiconductor production, infrastructure investment, and tech built for edge, federal, and private sectors alike.
Billion-dollar deals behind AI: Tech giants like Meta, Oracle, Microsoft, Google, OpenAI are committing trillions to data centers, cloud platforms, and energy grids — as the race is not just for AI innovation, but the infrastructure behind it.
“Biggest AI infra deployment in history”: NVIDIA and OpenAI have unveiled a massive multi-gigawatt, million-GPU deal with the Vera Rubin platform — 10+ gigawatts of compute — and NVIDIA pledging up to $100B in investment.
Another OpenAI deal looms: Analysts say that CoreWeave is positioned to benefit from OpenAI’s surge in GPU demand — expecting $20-23B in capex, rising revenue forecasts, and potential major contract wins.
The AI infra builders: Who are the investors behind the multi-trillion-dollar AI race? McKinsey identifies them as ‘builders’ such as real estate developers, ‘energizers’ like utilities, and ‘operators’ like hyperscalers — a look at the new AI ecosystem.
JPMorgan banks AI: A new study finds JPMorgan leads banking AI research with 37% of output, far ahead of peers. Just five banks are driving the whole AI finance boom. Sector research has surged sevenfold since 2019.
LoRaWAN edge AI push: Semtech has introduced two new LoRa Gen 4 transceivers to extend IoT connectivity with multi-protocol multi-band LoRa/LoRaWAN support for cost-optimized edge-AI applications.
The high price of AI: Global AI data center spending will hit $3T by 2029, Morgan Stanley says — half for construction, half for hardware. That’s France’s 2024 GDP. The BBC asks: Are AI data centers worth the spending spree?
Calling for AI safegaurds: At the U.N. General Assembly, member states push for legally binding AI safeguards to ensure accountability, mitigate risks, and regulate AI governance globally. The debate intensifies over how much is enough.
Virtual vicar vetoed: Pope Leo XIV has rejected a proposal for a “virtual pope” AI avatar, calling it a hollow substitute. He warns such AI risks eroding truth, dignity, and meaningful human relationships under tech’s cold shell.
