Meta this week announced that it was buying 200 megawatts of solar energy from multinational electric utility Engie, adding to the tech firm’s considerable 12-plus gigawatts renewable power portfolio.The news comes as tech companies ramp up their AI ambitions, adding data centers at a breakneck pace and boosting demand for power to the point that half of all new AI servers could be underpowered by 2027. Meta has been steadily adding new capacity, announcing in December that it would be building a 2-gigawa ...

Tesla, along with three other industry partners, quietly backed an Illinois Environmental Protection Agency application that won $100 million in funding to build electric truck charging stations across the state, TechCrunch has learned.The award was the biggest given out by the Biden Administration’s Federal Highway Administration last week in the second round of what’s known as the Charging and Fueling Infrastructure program. The CFI program gave out a total of $636 million to 49 applicants in this round, ...

Group 1 - Google is collaborating with The Associated Press to create a real-time information feed for its Gemini chatbot app, aiming to enhance user experience and usefulness of results [1][2] - The new feed is intended to provide users with up-to-date information, although no timeline or regional availability details have been provided [2] - Google has a long-standing partnership with The Associated Press, reflecting a trend among AI companies to work with news organizations to improve AI accuracy [3] Group 2 - Other AI companies, such as OpenAI, have also formed partnerships with various publishers to enhance their AI offerings, indicating a broader industry trend [4] - Some agreements include training components, allowing AI vendors to train models on publishers' archives, which serves both journalism and copyright protection purposes [5] - Despite these partnerships, a study indicated that such deals have not significantly improved AI products, as evidenced by misquotations from AI models like ChatGPT [6]

Change Healthcare, the UnitedHealth-owned healthtech company that lost more than 100 million people’s sensitive health data in a ransomware attack last year, said on Tuesday that the company has “substantially” completed notifying affected individuals about the massive data breach.The February 2024 ransomware attack on Change Healthcare, one of the biggest processors of patient billing in the United States, resulted in months-long outages that disrupted care across the U.S. healthcare system. The data breac ...

Company Strategy - Intel plans to spin off its corporate venture arm, Intel Capital, into a standalone fund with Intel as an "anchor investor" [1] - The move aims to provide greater autonomy and flexibility to attract external capital [1] - Intel expects Intel Capital to begin operating independently in the second half of 2025 and will be rebranded [1] - The separation is seen as a win-win scenario, allowing the fund to access new capital sources while maintaining a strategic partnership with Intel [2] - This step supports Intel's broader strategy to maximize asset value and drive greater focus and efficiency across the business [2] Historical Context - Intel Capital was established in 1991 under former Intel executive vice president Les Vadasz [2] - Its original mission was to support the development of Intel's ecosystem through equity investments in strategic companies [2] - Since 2014, Intel Capital has increased its investments in AI startups, including notable portfolio companies like SambaNova, AI21 Labs, Figure, and Anyscale [3] Operational Details - The existing Intel Capital team will move to the new fund, and business operations will continue as normal during the transition [4] - Intel Capital currently has over $5 billion in assets under management [5] - Over the last 30 years, Intel Capital has invested in more than 1,800 companies across sectors like silicon, 5G, devices, and cloud [5] - The fund has deployed more than $20 billion in cash across markets including North America, Western Europe, Israel, and Asia Pacific [5]

In Brief Meta is reducing its workforce by about 5% through performance-based terminations, Bloomberg reported on Tuesday. The company plans to hire new people to fill the roles, CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in an internal memo to staff.“I’ve decided to raise the bar on performance management and move out low-performers faster,” Zuckerberg said in the note. “We typically manage out people who aren’t meeting expectations over the course of a year, but now we’re going to do more extensive performance-based cuts d ...

Apple has joined a consortium creating next-gen technology to link together chips in AI data centers.The consortium, the Ultra Accelerator Link Consortium, is developing a standard called UALink, which connects the AI accelerator chips found within a growing number of server farms. As of Tuesday, Apple is a member of the consortium’s board, along with Alibaba and semiconductor company Synopsys. In a statement, Apple director of platform architecture Becky Loop said that UALink “shows great promise” in addr ...

In an announcement Tuesday, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Amazon’s cloud computing division, said it plans to invest $5 billion in Mexico over the next 15 years as a part of a “long-term commitment” in the region. A portion of that investment is a new server region in Mexico launching today, AWS Mexico, that will allow AWS customers to run applications and serve users from AWS data centers located in the country. AWS estimates that construction and ongoing operation of AWS Mexico will add roughly $10 billion t ...

Company Strategy and Leadership - Microsoft has established a new engineering organization named CoreAI — Platform and Tools, aimed at accelerating AI infrastructure and software development within the company [1][2] - Jay Parikh, former VP and global head of engineering at Meta, will lead the new division and report directly to Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella [1] - The new organization combines Microsoft's existing Dev Div and AI platform teams, along with some employees from the Office of the CTO division [2] Focus and Priorities - Microsoft's focus for the coming year will be on "model-forward" applications that are expected to "reshape all application categories" [3] - The reorganization of developer teams under CoreAI ensures that AI remains a top priority for the company [2]

Funding and Tesla's Application - The Department of Transportation announced $636 million in funding for electric vehicle charging infrastructure, with 49 applicants receiving awards [1] - Tesla's application for nearly $100 million to fund a big rig charging corridor was not approved, and its name was not among the list of recipients [1] - Tesla partnered with California's South Coast Air Quality Management District for the project, which confirmed the company had applied for this round [1] Tesla's Electric Big Rig Program - Tesla has faced challenges in getting its electric big rig program operational, with only early versions of the Tesla Semi delivered to customers like Pepsi and Frito-Lay [2] - The company is still constructing a facility in Nevada to build its electric semi truck, which was first revealed in 2017 [2] Tesla's Funding Request and Project Details - Tesla initially requested funding in 2023 from the Charging and Fueling Infrastructure (CFI) program, part of a bipartisan infrastructure deal signed into law in 2021 [3] - The company planned to use $24 million of its own money along with the funding to build nine electric semi-truck charging stations from northern California to the southern border of Texas [3] - Each station was supposed to have eight 750kW chargers for the Tesla Semi and four other chargers open to other electric trucks, a requirement for federal funding [4] Project TESSERACT and Funding Rounds - The project, named "Transport Electrification Supporting Semis Operating in Arizona, California, and Texas" (TESSERACT), was passed over in early 2024 when the first round of CFI awards was announced [5] - The first round saw $623 million in funding go to 47 applicants [5] - Another $521 million was awarded to 51 applicants in August 2024, and applications for a new round of funding began in mid-2024 [6] Tesla's Continued Efforts and Workforce Changes - Tesla continued pursuing the charging corridor idea after being left out of the first round, with former policy VP Rohan Patel stating that some sites along the 1,800-mile route were viable even without funding [6] - The status of Project TESSERACT became unclear after Tesla laid off more than 10% of its workforce, including significant cuts to its charging team [7] Future Funding and Political Impact - The bipartisan infrastructure law allocated $2.5 billion for the CFI program, leaving the possibility of another round of funding [8] - The FHWA's website currently states there is no estimated date for the next funding opportunity, and the priorities of the incoming Trump administration could impact programs like this [8]