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☆ Tech partnerships with power companies for AI in doubt after government rejects key Amazon agreement
▼ + stars: | 2024-11-04 | by ( Spencer Kimball | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

Technology companies' push to directly power artificial intelligence with nuclear plants hit a major roadblock, after a federal regulator rejected a request to increase power for an Amazon data center. Constellation Energy and Vistra Corp. tumbled nearly 8% and more than 3%, respectively, in sympathy. The Amazon data center campus can still use 300 megawatts of power from the Susquehanna nuclear plant, according to Talen. The FERC decision does not impact Constellation's plans to restart the Three Mile Island nuclear plant in 2028 through a power purchase agreement with Microsoft . Tech companies are increasingly turning to nuclear power because it is reliable and does not emit carbon dioxide emissions.

Persons: Vistra, Talen, Mark Christie Organizations: Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, Susquehanna, Independent, Talen Energy, Amazon, Constellation Energy, Vistra Corp, Microsoft, Tech, Nvidia, Constellation Locations: Pennsylvania, Susquehanna, Ohio, New Jersey, Talen

☆ Sam Altman-backed nuclear startup Oklo to start site work for Idaho microreactor
▼ + stars: | 2024-09-25 | by ( Spencer Kimball | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

He expects Oklo to break ground at the Idaho site in 2026, with plans to have the reactor up and running by the following year. The CEO acknowledged there's a risk the 2027 start date gets pushed out depending on how long the NRC review takes. The average nuclear reactor in the current U.S. fleet is around 1,000 megawatts, according to the Department of Energy. The CEO acknowledged the NRC review could delay the 2027 start date for the Idaho microreactor: "There's definitely risk. At the end of the day, we can't control the NRC review timeline," he said.

Persons: Jacob DeWitte, Oklo, DeWitte, there's, Sam Altman's SPAC, Altman, Oklo's Organizations: CNBC, Department of Energy, Idaho National Laboratory, Nuclear Regulatory Commission, AltC, Department of Energy ., Industry, Constellation Energy, NYSE, NRC, World Health Organization, Idaho Locations: Idaho, Idaho Falls, Aurora

A unit of Pennsylvania's Three Mile Island nuclear plant will be restarted as part of a new energy-sharing agreement with Microsoft, which plans to use it to power the data centers it operates as part of its push into artificial intelligence. Today, energy has become the new coin of the realm for companies investing in artificial intelligence. That's because the data centers tasked with running the complex calculations needed to power artificial intelligence applications require enormous amounts of power. Restarting Unit 1 will mean bringing 800 megawatts back onto the grid, greater than the amount of hydroelectric power supplied by the Hoover Dam. Microsoft's vice president of energy touted the clean-energy benefits of reviving the facility in a statement.

Persons: Bobby Hollis, Satya Nadella Organizations: Microsoft, Constellation Energy, Constellation, BlackRock Locations: Michigan, Iowa, United States

☆ Microsoft's $3.2 bln UK investment to drive AI growth
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-30 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Britain's Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and Microsoft President Brad Smith attend the AI Safety Summit in Bletchley Park, near Milton Keynes, Britain, November 2, 2023. Britain, where the economy is forecast to be sluggish in the coming years, is pushing for private investment to help fund new infrastructure, particularly in growth industries like AI. "Today's announcement is a turning point for the future of AI infrastructure and development in the UK," Sunak said in a statement on Thursday. Since then, the UK regulator waved through a restructured version of Microsoft's $69 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard , putting Britain back in Microsoft's favour. The investment includes a training plan to help ensure Britons have the skills they need to build and work with AI, it added.

Persons: Rishi Sunak, Brad Smith, Toby Melville, Sunak, Microsoft's, Smith, Jeremy Hunt, Sarah Young, Elaine Hardcastle Organizations: Britain's, Microsoft, REUTERS, U.S ., Activision Blizzard, Thomson Locations: Bletchley Park, Milton Keynes, Britain, Microsoft's, London

☆ Why Oracle's latest AI deal adds to the stock's buying appeal
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-09 | by ( Kevin Stankiewicz | In Kevinstankiewicz | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

The multi-year deal will ultimately give Microsoft access to more of Nvidia 's (NVDA) cutting-edge AI chips, which have been in short supply since the launch of OpenAI's ChatGPT last year intensified investments in AI technology. Nvidia is the world's dominant AI chipmaker, and its processors are housed in data centers operated by Oracle, Microsoft and other cloud-computing firms. In forging close ties with Nvidia, Oracle has made its cloud-computing operations more competitive relative to larger providers like Amazon (AMZN), Microsoft and Alphabet (GOOGL). The latest Oracle-Microsoft agreement also carries positive implications for Nvidia, further illustrating just how much demand there is for Nvidia's AI chips. Jim waits 45 minutes after sending a trade alert before buying or selling a stock in his charitable trust's portfolio.

Persons: Bing, OpenAI's ChatGPT, Larry Ellison, Jim Cramer, Ellison, Oracle's, Safra, We've, —, Jim, Jim Cramer's, Justin Sullivan Organizations: Microsoft, Oracle, Oracle Cloud Infrastructure, Nvidia, Street, Club, U.S, Financial Times, CNBC Locations: China, Redwood Shores , California

☆ US officials say they're worried a Chinese-owned bitcoin mine in Wyoming will pose a national security threat, NYT reports
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-14 | by ( Hannah Getahun | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

The mine is connected to multiple Chinese companies and sits across from a Microsoft data center. The company said that its placement near the data center, which supports the Pentagon, was unrelated. AdvertisementAdvertisementPentagon officials monitoring a Bitcoin operation in Wyoming that sits across from a Microsoft data center and a nearby military base are worried that the owners' ties to China could pose a national security threat, per The New York Times. The Cheyenne, Wyoming, center was one such mine, per the Times. Li Jiaming, the president of Bit Origin Ltd., said that the Microsoft data center or the nearby military base had nothing to do with why the area was chosen.

Persons: —, Francis E, Li Jiaming, Jiaming Organizations: Pentagon, Microsoft, Service, New York Times, Warren Air Force Base, Foreign Investment, Times, Microsoft's Data, The Times, Origin, Officials Locations: Wyoming, China, Cheyenne , Wyoming, Cayman Islands

☆ Oracle founder Larry Ellison makes first-ever trip to Microsoft headquarters for cloud announcement
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-14 | by ( Jordan Novet | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

Larry Ellison, the co-founder, chairman and chief technology officer of Oracle , has been going up against Microsoft to in database software for more than 30 years. He has also had to deal with clients looking to connect their Oracle and Microsoft products. Putting the Oracle equipment in Azure data centers means that applications will be able to quickly access data from the databases. Nadella said the new collaboration might help companies more quickly move their workloads from their existing data centers to the public cloud. But Ellison controls 42% of Oracle's outstanding shares, while Gates owns just over 1% of Microsoft stock, according to FactSet.

Persons: Larry Ellison, Bill Gates, Monfils of, Alexander Zverev of, Satya Nadella, Ellison, It's, Nadella, haven't, Paul Allen, Gates, McNamee Organizations: Oracle, Microsoft Co, BNP, Microsoft, Bing, Sun Microsystems, Windows, U.S . Justice Department, Bloomberg, Partners Locations: Alexander Zverev of Germany, Indian Wells, Calif, Seattle, Redmond, Washington

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — The cost of building an artificial intelligence product like ChatGPT can be hard to measure. To keep it cool on hot days, data centers need to pump in water — often to a cooling tower outside its warehouse-sized buildings. The estimate includes indirect water usage that the companies don’t measure — such as to cool power plants that supply the data centers with electricity. It was also thirsty in Iowa, drawing more potable water to its Council Bluffs data centers than anywhere else. Its fourth and fifth data centers are due to open there later this year.

Persons: “, OpenAI, ”, Shaolei Ren, ChatGPT, ” Ren, you’re, Ren, Steve Gaer, Gaer, Brad Smith, ” Smith, —, O'Brien Organizations: DES, Microsoft, Google, University of California, Las, Associated Press, workloads, supercomputing, West, West Des Moines Water Works Locations: DES MOINES, Iowa, Des Moines, Riverside, Oregon, Las Vegas, San Francisco, West Des Moines , Iowa, California, West Des Moines, Arizona, West Des, Providence , Rhode Island

☆ Leaked email shows Microsoft's VP in charge of data center energy is leaving a month after his promotion, joining an executive exodus
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-29 | by ( Eugene Kim | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Microsoft's VP of Energy Brian Janous is leaving. Brian Janous, Microsoft's VP in charge of data center energy strategy, is leaving just a month after being promoted to his current position, Insider has learned. Janous spent more than 11 years at Microsoft, primarily overseeing the company's cloud infrastructure energy and sustainability efforts. He was the first employee on Microsoft's energy team and was promoted to VP of Energy in June 2023, according to his Linkedin page. Janous is the latest executive to leave Microsoft's broader Cloud Operations and Innovations team, which manages the company's all-important cloud infrastructure.

Persons: Energy Brian Janous, Janous, Brian Janous, Microsoft's, Aditya Dalmia, Brian, Noelle Walsh, Scott Guthrie, Jennifer Weitzel, Osvaldo Morales, Michael Czamara, Dan Madrigal, Jeffrey Cox, Eugene Kim Organizations: Energy, Microsoft, Microsoft's CVP, Cloud Infrastructure, Planning, Industry, Operations, Innovations, Cloud Infrastructure Lease, Data, GM, Tejas Sukhadia, Innovation Locations: Microsoft's

☆ Microsoft is bringing an A.I. chatbot to data analysis
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-23 | by ( Jordan Novet | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

Scott Guthrie, executive vice president of Microsoft's cloud and artificial intelligence group, speaks at the Microsoft CIO Summit in Redmond, Washington, on Feb. 1, 2023. Microsoft 's hefty investment in artificial intelligence chatbots is finding its way into data analysis. For example, the data can be tapped in Synapse Data Science for collaborating on AI models and Power BI business intelligence software for building charts and dashboards. A single Copilot will be available for the tools in the Microsoft Fabric portfolio, which includes Data Factory, Synapse Data Engineering, Synapse Data Warehousing, Synapse Real-Time Analytics and a new monitoring tool called Data Activator, in addition to Power BI and Synapse Data Science, a Microsoft spokesperson said. He said that Copilot will be able to write formulas using Microsoft's Data Analysis Expressions language in Power BI.

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