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Gizmodo
an hour ago
- Gizmodo
Oracle Will Reportedly Spend $1 Billion a Year on a Gas-Powered Data Center
Oracle is going all-in on its AI-focused cloud business, pouring billions into building massive new data centers. One site under construction in West Texas will reportedly cost the company around $1 billion just to keep the lights on. Bloomberg reported, citing unnamed sources familiar with the plans, that Oracle intends to spend more than $1 billion a year to run a new West Texas megasite on gas generators rather than wait for a utility hookup. It can take years to get approval and infrastructure to pull the kind of electricity these massive data centers need from local grids. Oracle's workaround shows just how much it's willing to spend, how fast it wants these sites running, and how little it cares for any environmental consequences. Oracle, founded all the way back in 1977 and best known for its business database software, has reinvented itself in the last decade or so as a player in cloud services, after years of initially dismissing the idea. Its big bet now is on AI-focused cloud computing. In recent years, Oracle has landed big deals with major tech firms and quickly built a reputation for handling AI projects. A big draw is the company's 'bare metal' approach, which gives clients their own dedicated servers—opposed to sharing them with other clients. This makes the servers faster and more secure. Oracle has now become the backbone for many AI companies. Things really took off for the company when TikTok came aboard, and by 2022, all U.S. user traffic on the app was flowing through Oracle servers. This deal quickly generated over $1 billion of annual revenue for the company. Today, the company is helping power Elon Musk's xAI from a Utah data center and building a cluster of tens of thousands of AI chips for Nvidia. All these deals have helped make Oracle founder Larry Ellison the second-richest man in the world, just behind Elon Musk. Oracle also recently signed what Bloomberg calls the largest single cloud deal ever with OpenAI for its Stargate project, an ambitious joint venture announced at the White House back in January. The AI company has agreed to develop about 4.5 gigawatts of data center power with Oracle. For context, one gigawatt is enough to power about 750,000 homes. Still, we've seen little movement in the real world to indicate the project is on track. Oracle's new gas-powered data center is going up in Shackelford County, Texas, not far from another one of its data centers in Abilene. Developed by Vantage Data Centers, the site will have a massive 1.4-gigawatt capacity, making it one of the largest data centers in the world. Oracle did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Gizmodo.
Wall Street Journal
an hour ago
- Wall Street Journal
TNB Tech Minute: Baidu Reports Lower Revenue Amid Weak Ad Business - Tech News Briefing
Full Transcript This transcript was prepared by a transcription service. This version may not be in its final form and may be updated. Speaker 1: Here's your afternoon TNB Tech Minute for Wednesday, August 20th. I'm Julie Chang for the Wall Street Journal. In earnings, Chinese search engine giant, Baidu, reported lower quarterly revenue amid a weaker performance in its core advertising business. Profit was better than expected though. Revenue for the second quarter fell 3.6 percent from a year earlier to 32.71 billion yuan, which equals to about 4.55 billion dollars. Baidu's CEO said the company's AI cloud business helped mitigate the near-term pressure on its online marketing business. Plus, General Motors has a new team focused on artificial intelligence. The automaker has been on a hiring spree the last eight months, bringing on board nearly a dozen hires from top tech companies, from Google to Meta to AWS. Its goal: to build a small but mighty AI team that'll assist the organization everywhere from factory production lines to the NASCAR racetrack, as well as help individual groups build AI workforces. Finally, we exclusively report that US battery companies are increasingly looking overseas for new manufacturing opportunities. Group14, a Seattle-based Silicon Valley materials maker, said it closed a $463 million funding round led by South Korean conglomerate SK. As part of that deal, Group14 will take control of the company's silicon battery material manufacturing in South Korea, having previously held a 25% stake in the joint venture. This comes at a time when support for clean tech wanes in the country. And that's a wrap for your TNB Tech Minutes. Tune in tomorrow morning for another quick Tech update.
Bloomberg
an hour ago
- Bloomberg
Alaska Air Will Flyer Choose Loyalty Plan
Alaska Air Group Inc. debuted a new loyalty program that will let members choose from three options to earn award points, the first such offering in the US industry. The Points Managing Editor Clint Henderson has more on the story. (Source: Bloomberg)
