AI This Week

Amazon pushed its AI ambitions into new territory with a suite of updates that bring its advanced assistant beyond the smart speaker and into browsers, phones, and wearable tech. The company rolled out a redesigned Alexa mobile app that makes the assistant central to the experience and launched Alexa+ in web browsers, letting users chat, upload documents, control calendars and smart devices, and even book tasks. It also revealed progress on Bee, a wearable AI that transcribes conversations and offers insights. These moves signal a fresh push to catch up with popular AI rivals and leverage its huge installed device base.

Elon Musk confirmed xAI acquired a third facility, dubbed “Macrohardrr,” pushing its AI training capacity toward a massive 2 gigawatts. The purchase significantly expands the company’s growing data center footprint in the Memphis area, a central piece of its Colossus AI infrastructure project. xAI is financing this ambition with aggressive fundraising efforts. Recent reports indicate the company is in advanced talks to raise about $15 billion in equity funding. The expansion gains further momentum from important government contracts. The U.S. Department of War recently struck a deal to deploy xAI’s Grok models on its official defense platform, marking a key adoption of the technology.

China now mandates its chipmakers use at least 50% domestically made equipment to expand capacity in a major move to build a self-sufficient semiconductor supply chain. The undocumented rule forces companies seeking state approval for new factories to prove they meet the threshold. This policy directly advances Beijing’s goal of reducing reliance on foreign technology, especially after recent U.S. export restrictions. The directive is compelling Chinese manufacturers to select local suppliers over available foreign options. While authorities offer some flexibility for the most advanced production lines where domestic tools are scarce, the long-term objective points toward 100% domestic sourcing, significantly altering the global market.

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella is overhauling his leadership team in a major move to forge the company’s AI strategy. The shake-up signals a dramatic pivot as the tech giant plots a course extending far beyond its deep and defining partnership with OpenAI. After investing billions to weave OpenAI’s technology into products like Copilot and Bing, Microsoft is now building a new foundation. This reorganization aims to diversify its AI assets and reduce its strategic reliance on a single, vital ally, fundamentally reshaping its approach to the AI race. The changes suggest Microsoft is preparing to secure its own long-term dominance.

Meta Platforms joins the year-end AI spending frenzy, agreeing to acquire Manus, a Singaporean startup building autonomous AI agents. The price tag tops $2 billion. This deal culminates a flurry of activity from tech titans, including SoftBank’s recent data-center investments and Nvidia’s pact with Groq, as they scramble for dominance. Manus hit a $100 million revenue run rate with shocking speed, reshaping how consumers use AI. Analysts are already comparing the move to Meta’s landmark acquisitions of Instagram and WhatsApp, signaling a deep bet on the future of AI interaction. Meta plans to integrate the technology across its product lines while keeping the existing service live.