News/Partnerships
LG wins $720M AI data center cooling contract in Indonesia
LG Electronics has secured a major contract to provide advanced cooling systems for a large-scale AI data center under construction in Jakarta, Indonesia. The project positions LG to significantly expand its business-to-business cooling solutions footprint across Asia, with ambitious targets to reach $720 million in annual chiller sales and triple data center cooling orders within two years. What you should know: LG will supply a comprehensive suite of thermal management technologies for the Jakarta facility, expected to be among Indonesia's largest data centers.• The cooling package includes chillers, computer room air handlers (CRAH), air handling units (AHU), computer room air...
read Aug 22, 2025University of North Dakota aims to become the state’s premier AI university
University of North Dakota President Andrew Armacost announced ambitious plans to make UND "the AI university for North Dakota" during his State of the University address on Thursday. The initiative is part of two "moonshot" goals that also include launching four new companies based on university research by the end of the school year, positioning UND as a leader in translating academic discoveries into practical applications. What you should know: Armacost outlined several major initiatives during the annual address, with AI leadership and entrepreneurship taking center stage. The university aims to become a national example of AI adoption through public-private...
read Aug 22, 2025Meta partners with Midjourney to enhance AI image generation on Facebook, WhatsApp
Meta is partnering with Midjourney to license its "aesthetic technology" for use in Meta's AI models and products, the company's new chief AI officer Alexandr Wang announced on Friday. The collaboration involves technical cooperation between research teams and represents Meta's continued push to enhance AI-generated imagery across its platforms, from Facebook posts to WhatsApp chats. What you should know: The partnership goes beyond simply integrating Midjourney's existing tools into Meta's services. Wang described it as a "technical collaboration between our research teams," suggesting deeper integration of Midjourney's image generation capabilities into Meta's AI infrastructure. Neither company disclosed specific terms of...
read Aug 22, 2025In the know: Anthropic provides 3 free AI fluency courses for educators
Anthropic has launched three new free AI Fluency courses designed specifically for educators and students, co-created with university partners and available under a Creative Commons license. The initiative comes as AI literacy becomes increasingly valuable in the job market, with LinkedIn research showing employers prefer candidates comfortable with AI tools over those with more experience but less AI confidence. What you should know: The courses target different audiences within higher education and focus on responsible AI integration rather than basic tool usage. AI Fluency for Educators helps teachers integrate AI into their teaching methods, from creating materials to enhancing classroom...
read Aug 22, 2025Apple explores Google partnership to power next-generation Siri
Apple is exploring partnerships with Google to power the next-generation Siri, with the tech giant conducting an internal "bake-off" between different AI models to determine the best approach. This development comes as Apple faces significant delays in delivering its promised AI-powered Siri redesign, originally announced for iOS 18 but now pushed to spring 2026. What you should know: Apple has approached Google to explore building a custom Gemini-based AI model that would run on Apple's servers to power the new Siri experience. Google has already begun training a model specifically designed to operate on Apple's infrastructure, according to Bloomberg's Mark...
read Aug 22, 2025Google’s AI Mode now books restaurants for $250/month subscribers
Google has introduced agentic AI capabilities to its AI Mode search feature that can help users find restaurants and make reservations automatically. The new functionality, currently limited to Google AI Ultra subscribers paying $250 per month, represents Google's latest attempt to bring AI agents into practical consumer applications after previous efforts like Duplex failed to gain widespread adoption. How it works: AI Mode now leverages Project Mariner, Google's AI agent technology, and partnerships with booking platforms to streamline restaurant discovery and reservation booking. Users provide details like party size, date, time, location, and preferred cuisine in a single text prompt....
read Aug 21, 2025Iowa teachers prepare for AI workforce with Google partnership
Iowa's College Community School District hosted professional development sessions for educators this week, featuring speakers from Google and the University of Iowa to help teachers understand how artificial intelligence will reshape the workforce their students will enter. The training comes as Cedar Rapids prepares for two major data center projects from Google and QTS, highlighting the growing intersection between AI infrastructure and educational preparation. What you should know: The professional learning sessions were designed to bridge the gap between current education practices and future workforce demands in an AI-driven economy. Superintendent Doug Wheeler emphasized that educators need to prepare students...
read Aug 21, 2025Microsoft brings AI-powered Copilot to NFL sidelines for real-time coaching
Microsoft has extended its NFL partnership to integrate AI-powered features into the familiar sideline Surface tablets, introducing GitHub Copilot-based play filtering and Microsoft 365 Copilot dashboards for game analysis. The multiyear deal transforms the existing Surface tablet infrastructure into an AI-driven coaching tool that could fundamentally change how teams make strategic decisions during games. What you should know: The enhanced system connects every NFL team's sideline viewing setup to more than 2,500 Surface Copilot Plus PCs, complete with prominent "Copilot" branding. A GitHub Copilot-based feature filters plays and makes strategy recommendations based on current game situations. Microsoft 365 Copilot powers...
read Aug 21, 2025Delphi scales AI chatbots to 100M vectors using Pinecone database
Delphi, a San Francisco AI startup that creates personalized "Digital Minds" chatbots, has successfully scaled its platform using Pinecone's managed vector database to handle over 100 million stored vectors across 12,000+ namespaces. The partnership enabled Delphi to overcome critical scaling challenges that were threatening its ability to maintain real-time conversational performance as creators uploaded increasing amounts of content to train their AI personas. The scaling challenge: Delphi's Digital Minds were drowning in data as creators uploaded podcasts, PDFs, and social media content to train their personalized chatbots. Open-source vector stores buckled under the company's needs, with indexes ballooning in size...
read Aug 21, 2025Vodafone Idea partners with IBM to build AI hub for 200M subscribers
Vodafone Idea, India's third-largest telecom operator, has forged a strategic partnership with IBM to integrate artificial intelligence throughout its operations, marking a significant step in the carrier's digital transformation efforts. The collaboration establishes a dedicated AI innovation hub designed to modernize telecom operations and accelerate service delivery in one of the world's most competitive mobile markets. The partnership addresses a critical challenge facing Indian telecom operators: managing increasingly complex networks while delivering faster, more reliable services to over 200 million subscribers. As data consumption surges and 5G networks expand across India, telecom companies must streamline operations and reduce costs to...
read Aug 20, 2025NASA and IBM’s AI model predicts solar flares 16% better than standard methods
NASA and IBM have developed an AI model called Surya that can predict what the sun will look like hours into the future, including the appearance of potentially dangerous solar flares. The breakthrough could provide crucial early warnings for space weather events that threaten satellites, power grids, and astronauts, with the model showing 16% better accuracy than standard machine learning approaches in predicting solar flares within 24 hours. How it works: The Surya model was trained on nine years of ultra-high-resolution solar imagery from NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory, which captures the sun in 13 different wavelengths. The AI learned to...
read Aug 20, 2025Canada builds sovereign AI infrastructure to keep data cozy, warm and at home
Canada is making a bold play for AI independence. Buzz High Performance Computing (Buzz HPC), a subsidiary of publicly-traded Hive Digital Technologies, has partnered with Bell Canada to build nationwide AI infrastructure that keeps sensitive data entirely within Canadian borders—a concept known as "sovereign AI." This partnership addresses a growing concern among governments and enterprises: maintaining control over their most sensitive data while accessing cutting-edge AI capabilities. Rather than relying on foreign cloud providers, Canadian organizations will soon have access to powerful AI computing resources hosted exclusively in Canadian-owned facilities. The infrastructure backbone The collaboration centers on Bell AI Fabric,...
read Aug 18, 2025SoftBank acquires $375M Ohio plant for AI data center manufacturing
SoftBank Group, the Japanese telecommunications and investment giant, has acquired a Foxconn manufacturing facility in Ohio for $375 million, marking a significant step in the company's ambitious push into artificial intelligence infrastructure. The acquisition transforms the former electric vehicle plant into a hub for AI data center equipment production, positioning SoftBank as a key player in America's rapidly expanding AI infrastructure landscape. This purchase represents more than just a real estate transaction—it's a strategic move within Stargate, a massive $500 billion joint venture between SoftBank, OpenAI, and Oracle that aims to revolutionize AI computing capacity across the United States. The...
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, 2025Rogers sells 9 data centers to InfraRed to reduce $26B debt
Rogers Communications has signed a definitive agreement to sell nine data centers from its Rogers Business portfolio to InfraRed Capital Partners for an undisclosed sum. The transaction represents part of Rogers' broader strategy to divest non-core assets and reduce debt, while maintaining operational control over facilities critical to its network infrastructure. What you should know: The sale involves Tier 2 and 3 data centers across key Canadian cities with a combined capacity of up to 49 MW. Rogers will retain its corporate data centers used for internal network and IT operations. The telecom giant will continue selling data center services...
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, 2025Envision and Solos launch $399 AI glasses for blind users
Envision has partnered with Solos to launch the Ally Solos Glasses, camera-equipped smart glasses specifically designed for blind and low-vision users. The $399 pre-order price represents a significant discount from the planned $699 retail price, positioning these accessibility-focused smart glasses as a more affordable alternative in the growing assistive technology market. Key details: The Ally Solos Glasses combine hardware from Solos with Envision's specialized AI assistant to provide comprehensive visual assistance. The glasses can read and translate text, describe surroundings, search the web, and recognize people, objects, and signs through built-in cameras. Information is delivered via open-ear speakers integrated into...
read Aug 14, 2025Ai2 secures $152M from NSF and NVIDIA for open scientific AI research
Ai2, a Seattle-based nonprofit AI research institute, has secured $152 million in combined funding from the National Science Foundation ($75 million) and NVIDIA ($77 million) to build a national-level open AI ecosystem for scientific research. The partnership will establish the Open Multimodal AI Infrastructure to Accelerate Science (OMAI) project, positioning Ai2 to advance both AI-driven scientific discovery and the fundamental science of AI itself through fully transparent, reproducible models. What you should know: The OMAI project represents a major federal investment in open-source AI infrastructure specifically designed for scientific applications. Led by Dr. Noah A. Smith, Senior Director of NLP...
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 14, 2025SuperOps and AWS launch AI agent marketplace for IT firms
SuperOps, a software company, and Amazon Web Services have launched an AI agent marketplace for managed service providers and IT firms, set to debut in beta next month. The partnership addresses a growing disconnect between business leaders' enthusiasm for AI agents—with some CFOs allocating 25% of their AI budgets to them—and the practical challenges of implementing these tools effectively. What you should know: The marketplace will serve as a curated shopping platform where MSPs and IT professionals can browse and select agents tailored to their specific operational needs. Developers will also be able to sell their agents through the platform,...
read Aug 14, 2025Eli Lilly signs $1.3B AI drug discovery deal to, er, expand obesity dominance
Eli Lilly has signed a $1.3 billion deal with privately held Superluminal Medicines to discover and develop AI-powered small-molecule drugs for obesity and other cardiometabolic diseases. The partnership gives Lilly access to Superluminal's proprietary AI platform for drug discovery, strengthening the pharmaceutical giant's position in the obesity treatment market estimated to reach $150 billion by the next decade. What you should know: The deal centers on Superluminal's AI-driven platform that targets G-protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs), a class of proteins influencing metabolism, cell growth, and immune responses. Lilly will receive exclusive rights to develop and commercialize drug candidates discovered using Superluminal's platform....
read Aug 13, 2025Helium cooling aims to eliminate AI data centers’ massive water waste
Here's an idea they'd like to float by you: helium, not water. Data centers powering artificial intelligence are generating unprecedented amounts of heat, forcing the industry to rethink how it keeps these digital powerhouses from overheating. A new partnership between Tidal NRG and Innov8 Gases aims to solve this mounting challenge with an unexpected solution: helium-based cooling systems that could eliminate the massive water consumption plaguing traditional data center operations. The collaboration addresses a critical bottleneck in AI infrastructure. As companies race to deploy increasingly powerful AI models, the computing hardware required for training and running these systems generates enormous...
read Aug 13, 2025LG CNS partners with Vietnam telecom giant to build hyperscale AI data center
LG CNS has partnered with Vietnam Posts and Telecommunications Group (VNPT) and Korea Investment Real Asset Management to develop a hyperscale artificial intelligence data center in Vietnam. The collaboration represents a significant expansion into Southeast Asia's rapidly growing data center market, projected to reach $30.5 billion by 2030, while supporting Vietnam's national digital transformation priorities. What you should know: The partnership will establish a comprehensive AI infrastructure project spanning facility construction, hardware deployment, and network systems.• The three parties signed a Memorandum of Understanding at the Korea-Vietnam Business Forum in Seoul to advance the AI facility construction.• A dedicated technical...
read Aug 13, 2025Hidden Door launches AI role-playing platform with creator revenue sharing
Hidden Door has launched an AI-driven role-playing platform that allows users to create fan fiction within iconic fictional worlds through partnerships with creators and IP rights holders. The platform launches with titles including "Pride and Prejudice," "The Call of Cthulhu," "The Wizard of Oz," and "The Crow," offering a revenue-sharing model that aims to address AI copyright concerns while creating new monetization opportunities for content creators. How it works: The platform combines AI-driven storytelling with tabletop role-playing game mechanics to let fans expand on original creator visions.• Players create characters and embark on adventures guided by an omniscient AI Narrator,...
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