News/Cloud
MongoDB jumps 44% as software tech stocks capture AI boom profits too
MongoDB led a surge in enterprise tech stocks this week, with shares jumping 44% in their best week on record alongside strong gains from Pure Storage (33%), Snowflake (21%), and Autodesk (8.4%). The rally signals that AI's financial benefits are finally flowing to downstream software companies, easing Wall Street concerns about whether artificial intelligence would boost or displace traditional enterprise technology businesses. The big picture: While Nvidia and cloud giants like Microsoft and Google have dominated AI's early winners' circle, this week's earnings results suggest enterprise software vendors are starting to capture meaningful value from the AI boom. MongoDB CEO...
read Aug 29, 2025Electric Feel: Japan’s data centers risk straining grid, tripling power use by 2034
Japan's data center expansion is about to reshape the country's entire electrical grid. By 2034, these digital powerhouses will consume as much electricity as 15-18 million households combined, driving 60% of the nation's total power demand growth and fundamentally altering how utilities plan and invest in infrastructure. This surge stems from a government-backed digital transformation initiative that selected Oracle, Google, and Microsoft as official cloud providers, triggering approximately $28 billion in hyperscaler investments. Hyperscalers—the massive cloud computing companies that operate data centers at enormous scale—are racing to build the digital backbone that will support Japan's AI ambitions and cloud computing...
read Aug 29, 2025Kuala Lumpur data centers to grow 31% annually through 2030
Malaysia's capital Kuala Lumpur and Jakarta, Indonesia's capital, are emerging as key data center markets in Southeast Asia, driven by hyperscale cloud expansion and surging AI infrastructure demand, according to new research from Structure Research, an independent research firm. The growth represents a strategic shift as both cities capitalize on regional spillover effects from Singapore and position themselves as critical hubs for the next wave of digital infrastructure deployment. What you should know: Both markets are experiencing explosive growth trajectories, with Kuala Lumpur leading the charge in percentage terms while Jakarta offers larger absolute market value. Kuala Lumpur's data center...
read Aug 29, 2025Disney and Reliance’s $8.5B JioStar hits 300M subscribers with AI features
Disney CEO Bob Iger joined Reliance Industries chairman Mukesh Ambani at the company's annual general meeting in Mumbai to celebrate the rapid success of JioStar, their joint venture that has emerged as a dominant force in India's media landscape with nearly 300 million paid subscribers. The appearance comes as Ambani unveiled major AI partnerships with Google and Meta, signaling Reliance's broader ambition to democratize artificial intelligence across India's enterprise sector. The big picture: The Reliance-Disney media merger, completed last year and valued at $8.5 billion, has created an Indian entertainment powerhouse that now commands significant market share across streaming and...
read Aug 29, 2025New AI ETF QBIG holds just 8 stocks—here’s why that matters
The Invesco Top QQQ ETF (QBIG) offers investors a streamlined approach to artificial intelligence investing by holding just eight stocks—the Magnificent Seven plus Broadcom. This actively managed fund, which launched last December, eliminates the complexity of stock-picking while providing exposure to mega-cap AI companies across multiple segments of the rapidly evolving artificial intelligence landscape. What you should know: QBIG's concentrated portfolio strategy focuses on the biggest players in AI, positioning investors to benefit from the technology's continued expansion. The ETF holds eight stocks total: the seven "Magnificent Seven" companies plus Broadcom (AVGO), creating what's described as an efficient proxy for...
read Aug 29, 2025Marvell stock plunges 11% as AI chip demand goes from hot to cool
Marvell Technology's shares plummeted 11.3% in premarket trading after the chipmaker delivered a disappointing data center outlook that fell short of investor expectations. The decline reflects growing concerns about the AI chip market's cooling momentum, as even companies positioned to benefit from artificial intelligence infrastructure buildouts struggle to meet lofty growth projections. What you should know: Marvell's third-quarter data center revenue is expected to remain flat sequentially, despite investor bets on the company's custom AI chips for cloud giants. CEO Matthew Murphy attributed the weakness to normal "lumpiness" when large cloud providers build infrastructure, but didn't specify the source of...
read Aug 28, 2025OpenAI upgrades Realtime API with phone calling and image support
OpenAI has upgraded its Realtime API to general availability and launched gpt-realtime, its most advanced speech-to-speech model, with new capabilities including remote Model Context Protocol (MCP) support, image inputs, and phone calling functionality. These enhancements enable developers to build more sophisticated voice agents that can access broader tools and data sources while maintaining natural, human-like interactions across multiple languages and complex tasks. What you should know: The Realtime API updates significantly expand what voice agents can accomplish through enhanced connectivity and multimodal capabilities. The API now supports remote MCP servers, allowing voice agents to seamlessly perform actions from connected apps...
read Aug 28, 2025Microsoft unveils in-house AI models that run on fewer chips, free it from overreliance on OpenAI
Microsoft has unveiled two powerful AI models it developed in-house, MAI-Voice-1 and MAI-1-preview, marking the company's strategic shift away from relying solely on OpenAI's technology. The move positions Microsoft's AI division, led by Mustafa Suleyman, in direct competition with OpenAI and other industry leaders while giving the tech giant greater control over its AI destiny. What you should know: Microsoft's new models prioritize cost-effectiveness over raw computational power, using significantly fewer resources than competitors. MAI-Voice-1 is a speech model that runs on a single GPU (a specialized computer chip for AI processing) and can produce a minute of audio in...
read Aug 27, 2025Snowflake raises 2026 forecast to $4.4B as AI drives analytics demand
Snowflake raised its fiscal 2026 product revenue forecast to $4.40 billion, up from $4.33 billion, driven by strong enterprise demand for AI-powered data analytics services. The cloud analytics company's shares jumped 11% in extended trading as organizations increasingly prioritize artificial intelligence spending and modernize their data infrastructure. Key financial results: Snowflake's second-quarter performance met expectations while showing strong growth momentum. Product revenue reached $1.09 billion for the quarter ended July 31, aligning with analyst estimates compiled by LSEG, a financial data provider. Remaining performance obligations—a key metric for booked revenue—hit $6.9 billion, representing 33% growth year-over-year. The revised annual forecast...
read Aug 21, 2025Cloud company claims AI bots now account for 80% of website traffic, threatening server stability
Fastly's new report reveals that AI crawlers and fetchers are overwhelming websites with traffic that accounts for a staggering 80 percent of all AI bot activity, with some bots hitting sites with over 39,000 requests per minute. The surge is primarily driven by Meta (52% of crawler traffic) and OpenAI (98% of fetcher traffic), creating unsustainable server loads that threaten website performance and the business models of content creators. What you should know: AI bots are fundamentally reshaping internet traffic patterns, with crawlers scraping training data and fetchers delivering real-time responses creating new operational challenges. Fastly, a cloud services company,...
read Aug 19, 2025Google strikes nuclear power deal to fuel AI data centers
Google has struck a groundbreaking deal to power its data centers with advanced nuclear energy, marking a significant shift in how tech giants plan to meet their soaring electricity demands. The partnership involves Kairos Power, a nuclear technology company, and the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), one of America's largest public power providers, to build a next-generation reactor specifically designed to support Google's operations. The collaboration centers on the Hermes 2 plant in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, which will begin delivering clean electricity to Google's data centers in Tennessee and Alabama starting in 2030. This represents the first time a U.S. utility...
read Aug 18, 2025Palo Alto Networks forecasts $10.5B revenue from AI-driven cybersecurity demand
Palo Alto Networks forecast fiscal 2026 revenue and profit above Wall Street estimates, driven by growing demand for its AI-powered cybersecurity solutions. The company's strong outlook reflects an AI-driven upgrade cycle as enterprises accelerate cloud adoption and modernize security operations amid a wave of high-profile cyberattacks. Key financial projections: Palo Alto's guidance significantly exceeded analyst expectations across multiple metrics. The company projected annual revenue between $10.48 billion and $10.53 billion, above analysts' average estimate of $10.43 billion. Adjusted profit per share is expected to reach $3.75 to $3.85, surpassing estimates of $3.67 for the fiscal year. First-quarter revenue forecast of...
read Aug 18, 2025Google Gemini now runs natively on Oracle’s cloud infrastructure
Google has partnered with Oracle to bring its Gemini AI models directly to Oracle Cloud Infrastructure, marking a significant departure from typical exclusive cloud-AI partnerships. This integration allows enterprise customers to access Gemini's advanced language and multimodal capabilities natively within Oracle's cloud environment, bypassing traditional barriers to cross-cloud AI adoption and positioning Oracle as a multi-vendor AI platform provider. What you should know: Oracle customers can now consume Gemini models as part of the Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Generative AI suite, not just as external APIs. The partnership starts with Gemini 2.5 and plans to expand to include models for image,...
read Aug 15, 2025Delete emails to help conserve water (and support data centers), England drought officials say
England's National Drought Group has advised millions of residents to delete old emails and photos to help conserve water during the country's driest six-month period since 1976. The unusual recommendation stems from the fact that data centers storing digital information require vast amounts of water to cool their systems, creating an unexpected link between digital habits and water conservation during drought conditions. What you should know: England is experiencing severe drought conditions with five areas under formal drought declarations and reservoirs averaging just 67.7% full compared to the typical 80.5% for this time of year. The affected regions include Yorkshire;...
read Aug 14, 2025Northern Data partners with Core42 to bring 10K GPUs to Europe
Northern Data, a German cloud computing company, has struck a major partnership with Core42, the cloud division of UAE-based artificial intelligence holding company G42, to dramatically expand AI computing capacity across Europe. The agreement grants Core42 access to up to 10,000 graphics processing units (GPUs) from Northern Data's Taiga Cloud platform, representing one of the largest AI infrastructure deals announced this year. This partnership reflects the growing global race to build "sovereign AI infrastructure"—computing resources that nations and regions can control independently rather than relying entirely on foreign cloud providers. For businesses, this means potentially faster, more reliable access to...
read Aug 14, 2025Oracle partners with Google to offer Gemini AI through cloud services
Oracle and Google's cloud computing units have struck a deal allowing Oracle to offer Google's Gemini AI models through its cloud services and business applications. The partnership enables Oracle customers to access Google's text, video, image, and audio generation capabilities while paying through Oracle's existing cloud credit system, advancing Oracle's strategy of providing diverse AI options rather than pushing proprietary technology. What you should know: This collaboration mirrors Oracle's recent partnership with Elon Musk's xAI from June, establishing a pattern of strategic AI integrations. Software developers using Oracle's cloud can now tap into Google's Gemini models for content generation across...
read Aug 13, 2025Perplexity AI makes $34.5B bid for Chrome amid Google antitrust breakup
Perplexity AI, an artificial intelligence search company, has submitted a $34.5 billion bid to acquire Google's Chrome browser, marking the first public attempt by an outside party to break up a key piece of the tech giant. The dramatic move comes as Google awaits a federal judge's decision on potential antitrust remedies, with the Department of Justice explicitly calling for Chrome's divestiture to level the playing field for search competitors. What you should know: Google faces its most significant antitrust challenge since the Microsoft case over two decades ago, with Chrome at the center of the dispute. A federal ruling...
read Aug 13, 2025SK Hynix forecasts 30% annual high-bandwidth memory growth through 2030 as AI demand surges
SK Hynix is forecasting explosive growth in the high-bandwidth memory (HBM) market, projecting a 30% annual expansion through 2030 as AI infrastructure demand surges globally. The South Korean memory giant's optimistic outlook comes as it solidifies its position as Nvidia's primary HBM supplier, with the custom HBM sector expected to reach tens of billions of dollars by decade's end. What you should know: SK Hynix anticipates sustained AI demand will drive unprecedented growth in specialized memory technology over the next six years. The company projects 30% annual growth rates for HBM through 2030, fueled by expanding AI infrastructure requirements from...
read Aug 13, 2025Tornado Valley? Google invests $9B in Oklahoma AI and cloud infrastructure
Google will invest an additional $9 billion in Oklahoma over the next two years to expand its artificial intelligence and cloud computing infrastructure. The massive investment underscores the intensifying competition among Big Tech companies to secure strategic locations and talent as demand for AI services and cloud computing continues to surge. Key details: The investment will fund significant infrastructure expansion across two Oklahoma locations.• Google plans to build a new data center campus in Stillwater while expanding its existing facility in Pryor.• The expansion aims to bolster U.S. AI and cloud capacity to meet growing demand for these services.• The...
read Aug 12, 2025AI cloud provider CoreWeave reports $1.21B revenue, $30.1B backlog
CoreWeave, an Nvidia-backed AI cloud computing company, exceeded Wall Street revenue expectations for the second quarter, reporting $1.21 billion against analyst estimates of $1.08 billion. The strong performance reflects surging demand for GPU-based infrastructure needed to train and run large AI models. What you should know: CoreWeave operates exclusively in GPU-based cloud computing, providing access to Nvidia chips that are essential for AI development. The company currently operates 33 AI data centers across the United States and Europe, focusing solely on GPU infrastructure rather than traditional CPU-based cloud services. Revenue backlog reached $30.1 billion as of June 30, indicating strong...
read Aug 12, 2025Claude Sonnet 4 expands to 1M tokens for enterprise coding
Anthropic announced that Claude Sonnet 4 can now process up to 1 million tokens of context in a single request—a fivefold increase that allows developers to analyze entire software projects or dozens of research papers without breaking them into smaller chunks. The expansion, available in public beta through Anthropic's API and Amazon Bedrock, represents a significant leap in how AI assistants can handle complex, data-intensive tasks while positioning the company to defend its 42% share of the AI code generation market against intensifying competition from OpenAI and Google. What you should know: The expanded context capability enables developers to load...
read Aug 12, 2025Australia’s first sovereign AI data center launches in 2026 via Dell-Macquarie deal
Macquarie Data Centres, part of the Macquarie Technology Group, and Dell Technologies are partnering to establish Australia's first sovereign AI infrastructure facility, combining Dell's AI technology with locally-operated data center infrastructure. The initiative addresses growing concerns about Australia's lack of investment in domestic AI capabilities, which experts warn poses national security and economic risks in an increasingly competitive global AI landscape. What you should know: The Dell AI Factory with Nvidia will be hosted in Macquarie's purpose-built IC3 Super West data center, a 47MW facility designed specifically for high-power AI workloads. The facility is scheduled for completion in mid-2026 and...
read Aug 12, 2025AWS launches OpenAI’s first open-weight models in 6 years
AWS has launched day-of-launch availability of two new open-weight models from OpenAI on Amazon Bedrock and Amazon SageMaker, breaking Microsoft's traditional exclusivity with OpenAI. This marks the first time OpenAI has released open-weight models since GPT-2 in 2019, allowing AWS customers to fine-tune the models for specific use cases without directly interacting with OpenAI. What you should know: The two new models—gpt-oss-120b and gpt-oss-20b—represent OpenAI's first open-weight releases in six years. Open-weight models have visible parameters that allow AWS customers to fine-tune them for specific use cases, though the underlying training data isn't visible like in fully open-source models. OpenAI...
read Aug 11, 2025On-premises GPU servers cost same as 6-9 months of cloud
A new analysis reveals that on-premises GPU servers cost roughly the same as six to nine months of equivalent cloud capacity, yet most AI executives remain unaware of this stark mathematical reality. This hidden cost structure means companies could save hundreds of thousands of dollars over three to five years by reconsidering their cloud-first AI infrastructure strategies. The big picture: While cloud computing promised flexible, pay-as-you-go scaling, AI workloads break these traditional assumptions in ways that make cloud economics misleading for sustained GPU-intensive operations. Key cost comparisons: The financial gap between cloud and on-premises becomes stark when examined closely. A...
read