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Earth Intelligence

16 Jun 2024 — 6 min read

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Microsoft Datacenter Investment
OpenAI Announcements

Week Recap:

At Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC), Apple made several significant announcements centered around artificial intelligence and software updates. The keynote introduced 'Apple Intelligence,' a suite of AI features integrated into iOS 18, iPadOS 18, and macOS Sequoia. A major highlight was the partnership with OpenAI, bringing ChatGPT to these platforms to enhance user experiences with advanced AI capabilities. Key updates for iOS 18 include improved home screen customization and Rich Communication Services (RCS) support for better cross-platform messaging.
Frontier Communications, a telecommunications company, filed a data breach notice with the Maine Attorney General’s Office reporting that 751,895 individuals were affected by the incident. The notice confirmed that the attackers exfiltrated names, other personally identifiable information, and Social Security numbers, but did not provide specific details on the compromised data. The notification letter to the Maine AGO stated that financial information was not believed to be affected.
Elon Musk recently decided to withdraw his lawsuit against OpenAI, a case he had initiated based on claims that the organization had strayed from its original mission to develop AI for the benefit of humanity. Musk's legal action had alleged that OpenAI's shift towards a for-profit model and its close ties with Microsoft violated the founding agreement.
Recently, internal source code and data from The New York Times were leaked on the 4chan message board. This data was stolen from the company's GitHub repositories in January 2024. GitHub, a platform used for hosting and managing code, was the source of the breach. The leak, first spotted by VX-Underground, was posted by an anonymous user who shared a torrent link to a 273GB archive of the stolen data. 4chan is an anonymous online message board known for its varied content and as a source of internet leaks and rumors.
Broadcom Inc. announced a plan to split its stock 10-for-one following strong quarterly results and a significant rise in its share price, similar to a move recently made by Nvidia Corp. This stock split will take effect after trading closes on July 12, and trading on a split-adjusted basis will begin on July 15. The split aims to make Broadcom stock more accessible to a broader range of investors and employees, according to Chief Financial Officer Kirsten Spears.
TikTok, a leader in the social media world, confirmed that it is experimenting with a feature allowing users to take or upload photos to find similar products in TikTok Shop. This feature, is available to users in the United States and Southeast Asia, who will see a camera icon in the search bar within TikTok Shop.
U.S. inflation dropped to 3.3 percent in May, sparking hopes for early interest rate cuts and boosting the stock market. This data, released on Wednesday, came just before Federal Reserve officials were set to discuss their plans for rate cuts this year, and was slightly below economists' expectations.
Cybersecurity firm Cylance has confirmed that it has fallen victim to a cyberattack, and the data being sold on the dark web is legitimate. The company lost 34 million emails and other personally identifiable information (PII) belonging to customers, employees, and partners. This database is being sold for $750,000 by a seller named Sp1d3r, who is also responsible for a recent breach of Advance Auto Parts, where sensitive information from 380 million customer profiles was stolen and offered for $1.5 million.

Microsoft Datacenter Investment:

Microsoft plans to invest $7.16 billion (6.69 billion euros) in new data centers in Spain's northeastern region of Aragon, a growing hub for cloud computing in Europe. The regional government of Aragon confirmed that Microsoft has applied for a construction permit to build these data centers near Zaragoza, following a report by local newspaper El Heraldo. This investment will be distributed over the next 10 years.
This initiative comes shortly after Microsoft's announcement of a 2.1 billion euro investment in data centers in Madrid. Although Microsoft has not commented on the Aragon plans, it is evident that the company is significantly expanding its cloud infrastructure in Spain. Meanwhile, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft's main competitor, recently announced a 15.7 billion euro investment over the next decade to build data centers in Aragon, which will be powered entirely by renewable energy.

OpenAI Announcements:

In an all-hands meeting on Wednesday, CEO Sam Altman disclosed that OpenAI is generating approximately $3.2 billion in revenue from its products and services, according to an anonymous source familiar with the internal communications. Additionally, Altman mentioned that OpenAI is on track to earn around $200 million through access to its AI models offered via Microsoft Azure. These figures were first reported by
The Information, which noted that OpenAI's annualized revenue was $1.6 billion in late 2023. OpenAI, however, declined to comment on these reports. The company has quickly become a leader in AI development, largely due to the widespread popularity of ChatGPT, which has spurred significant interest in generative AI. Earlier this year, OpenAI completed a tender offer valuing the startup at $86 billion. In its efforts to increase revenue, OpenAI has been focusing on selling AI services to enterprise customers and developing a more powerful AI model to stay ahead of well-funded competitors.
This week, OpenAI hired Sarah Friar, former CEO of Nextdoor Holdings Inc., as its new chief financial officer. Friar, filling a role that has been vacant for two years, will help OpenAI invest in AI research and expand its global business operations. On Thursday, OpenAI announced that it is adding former NSA head and retired General Paul Nakasone to its board of directors and its newly formed Safety and Security Committee.
This move is part of OpenAI's efforts to convince skeptics that it is taking sufficient steps to ensure its models are safe as it works towards its goal of superintelligence. Nakasone, who led the military's Cyber Command in addition to his time at the NSA, brings valuable cybersecurity and national security expertise to the board.

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