Latest news with #DataCenters
Globe and Mail
26-05-2025
- Business
- Globe and Mail
Amazon Just Sent a Massive Warning to Nvidia Investors
Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA) has seen its sales soar on the back of a few big customers spending heavily to outfit data centers with as many of the chipmaker's GPUs as they can buy. Its top three customers accounted for 34% of sales last year. Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) is likely one of those big customers. The cloud computing giant spent over $93 billion in capital expenditures over the last 122 months, primarily focused on building out data centers for artificial intelligence (AI). That number will climb above $100 billion this year. While there's a lot of overhead, including buildings, server racks, networking equipment, and more, a good chunk of that spending goes to Nvidia for its leading-edge GPUs. Where to invest $1,000 right now? Our analyst team just revealed what they believe are the 10 best stocks to buy right now. Continue » But Nvidia's chips aren't the only ones Amazon uses in its servers, and the company just sent a signal that a competitor could be taking up more space in its data centers this year. Amazon's newest AI investment Amazon was caught flat-footed as generative AI took off in late 2022, but it's invested heavily to catch up with its competitors ever since. It made a $4 billion investment in Anthropic early last year, and it added another $4 billion in November. The most recent deal included a strategic partnership where Anthropic will use Amazon's custom silicon for large language model training and inference. Amazon's custom AI chips are designed in partnership with Marvell Technologies. Marvell also makes networking chips and other data center chips among a broader silicon portfolio. Amazon made a small equity investment in the company in late 2021 well before it chose the chipmaker for its custom Trainium and Inferentia chips. Amazon recently made another AI investment. Its first-quarter 13F filing with the SEC revealed a purchase of 822,234 shares of Advanced Micro Devices (NASDAQ: AMD). Those shares are worth about $90 million at today's price, which isn't a huge investment for a company generating tens of billions of dollars in free cash flow every quarter. However, that's still enough to make it Amazon's third-largest marketable equity holding in its portfolio. AMD is Nvidia's closest competitor when it comes to advanced GPUs. It's also the only company Intel has licensed to use its x86 CPU architecture, which is essential for Windows PCs and servers. The chipmaker is well positioned to gain market share on both fronts (GPUs and CPUs), and Amazon's equity investment could signal an acceleration in AMD's sales to the largest cloud computing company in the world. A $500 billion market AMD CEO Lisa Su believes the AI accelerator market -- which includes GPUs and custom silicon solutions like Marvell's -- will grow at an average rate of 60% per year from 2025 through 2028 to reach $500 billion. While Nvidia will likely take the bulk of that spend, smaller companies are positioned to gain market share over that period with improved price performance. Not to mention, AMD and other chipmakers offer cloud providers a chance to diversify away from reliance on Nvidia, ensuring Nvidia's chip prices don't balloon out of control. Indeed, AMD recently struck a deal with Oracle to deploy a cluster of 30,000 AMD MI355X accelerators, which helped push AMD's data center segment revenue 57% higher year over year in the first quarter. AMD's existing data center partnerships for its EPYC CPUs with all the hyperscalers put it in a great position to expand those relationships with its Instinct GPUs. On top of the opportunity in GPUs, AMD has become a leading provider of CPUs for cloud computing. That can be attributed to Intel falling behind in technological capabilities relative to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing, where AMD prints its chips. As a result, AMD can offer better price performance with its more power-efficient chips. With better CPUs and a competitive GPU lineup, AMD should continue to take up more and more real estate in the hyperscalers' data centers. Investors can buy AMD stock today for 27-times forward earnings. That's a premium to the overall market, but a discount relative to Nvidia, which trades closer to 32-times earnings. That said, Nvidia continues to grow faster than AMD thanks to its pricing power and scale, so it may deserve a premium to AMD. Amazon very likely bought shares at a better valuation than investors can get today, but its stake in AMD is a strong indication that the chipmaker is continuing to make progress in gaining market share. Given AMD's solid CPU business and the upside potential of gaining share in the fast-growing AI accelerator market, the stock looks less risky than Nvidia at its current price. Should you invest $1,000 in Advanced Micro Devices right now? Before you buy stock in Advanced Micro Devices, consider this: The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the 10 best stocks for investors to buy now… and Advanced Micro Devices wasn't one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years. Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $639,271!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $804,688!* Now, it's worth noting Stock Advisor 's total average return is957% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to167%for the S&P 500. Don't miss out on the latest top 10 list, available when you join Stock Advisor. See the 10 stocks » *Stock Advisor returns as of May 19, 2025 John Mackey, former CEO of Whole Foods Market, an Amazon subsidiary, is a member of The Motley Fool's board of directors. Adam Levy has positions in Amazon and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Advanced Micro Devices, Amazon, Intel, Nvidia, Oracle, and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing. The Motley Fool recommends Marvell Technology and recommends the following options: short May 2025 $30 calls on Intel. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
National Post
23-05-2025
- Business
- National Post
Backblaze Publishes Q1 2025 Drive Stats Report Highlighting Hard Drive Reliability Trends
Article content Over 317,000 drives analyzed; four models recorded zero failures; high-capacity drives (20TB+) outperform average. Article content Article content SAN MATEO, Calif. — Backblaze, Inc. (Nasdaq: BLZE), the cloud storage innovator providing a modern alternative to traditional cloud providers, last week published its Q1 2025 Drive Stats report, offering detailed analysis on the performance and reliability of 317,833 hard drives which underpin its cloud storage offerings and are deployed in its global data centers and represent over four exabytes of data under management. Article content Trusted by IT leaders and storage professionals since 2013, this latest installment in Backblaze's long-running cloud infrastructure quarterly series reveals key reliability insights across manufacturers, models, and drive capacities. Significant findings include the four drive models with zero failures this quarter, notable patterns in high-capacity drive reliability, and important failure trend data for drives reaching the five-year operational milestone. Article content Leveraging our own Backblaze B2 Cloud Storage solution in conjunction with data analysis tools, Snowflake and Trino, we were able to implement a new process of optimizing data collection and analytics. That allowed us to run lightweight queries against cached, structured tables—showcasing a great use-case for the combination of those three services. Article content 'As a leading cloud storage company, Backblaze has over 300,000 hard drives supporting over four exabytes of customer data. We aim to help companies and individuals worldwide with their storage needs, and I'm proud of our team for sharing insights we've learned over nearly two decades of managing data,' said Gleb Budman, CEO at Backblaze. Article content The latest report includes detailed annualized failure rate (AFR) statistics for 26 drive models, with the overall quarterly failure rate increasing slightly from 1.35% to 1.42%. Notable findings include four models achieving zero failures this quarter, including a 4TB HGST drive and three Seagate models (8TB, 12TB, and 14TB). Meanwhile, higher-capacity drives (20TB+) are performing well with a combined AFR of 0.72%, lower than the overall fleet average—though all drives in that population are well under a year old. Article content All data featured in the report is freely available for download as raw files on the Backblaze Hard Drive Test Data page, allowing other cloud storage and IT professionals and researchers to perform their own analyses. Since beginning these quarterly reports in 2013, Backblaze has established the industry's largest publicly accessible dataset on hard drive reliability, covering over 450 billion drive days of operation. Article content Article content Article content Article content Article content Contacts Article content Article content Article content
CNA
13-05-2025
- Business
- CNA
US weighs letting UAE buy over a million advanced Nvidia chips, Bloomberg News reports
The Trump administration is weighing a deal that would allow the UAE to import more than a million advanced Nvidia chips, a quantity that far exceeds limits under Biden-era AI chip regulations, Bloomberg News reported on Tuesday. The deal, which is still being negotiated and could change, would let the UAE import 500,000 of the most advanced chips on the market each year from now to 2027, the report said, citing people familiar with the matter. While one-fifth would be set aside for the Abu Dhabi AI firm G42, the rest will go to U.S. companies building data centers in the Gulf nation, according to the report.
Yahoo
07-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Schneider Electric (ENXTPA:SU) Hosts Shareholder
Schneider Electric experienced a 12% price rise over the past month, a move potentially influenced by a recent shareholder and analyst call on May 6, 2025, providing stakeholders insight into its strategic direction and performance metrics. Contributing to this momentum, Schneider Electric announced the launch of EcoConsult for Data Centers, targeting improved operational efficiency, which may have aligned well with market trends showing mixed performances amid anticipation of the Federal Reserve's interest rate decision. These events appear to have bolstered confidence despite the broader mixed market conditions. Buy, Hold or Sell Schneider Electric? View our complete analysis and fair value estimate and you decide. ENXTPA:SU Revenue & Expenses Breakdown as at May 2025 Trump's oil boom is here — pipelines are primed to profit. Discover the 22 US stocks riding the wave. The recent 12% price rise of Schneider Electric's shares, potentially driven by strategic initiatives and market alignment, highlights investor optimism. The announcement of EcoConsult for Data Centers might enhance operational efficiency and revenue growth in energy management, especially given the growing demand for electrification and digitalization. Additionally, the focus on high-margin services and global expansion could strengthen net margins, supporting earnings forecasts. Analysts expect revenue to grow 7.2% annually over the next three years, supported by strategic investments and innovations like AirSeT technology. Over a five-year period, Schneider Electric achieved a total return of 182.11%, reflecting strong shareholder value creation. This performance contrasts with its 1-year performance, which matched the French Electrical industry's return of 3.7%. Compared to the broader market performance, Schneider's focus on sustainability and innovation appears aligned with industry trends that favor electrification and digital solutions. The current share price of €204.2 remains at a 20.5% discount to the analyst consensus price target of €258.06. If the company's earnings reach €6.3 billion by 2028 as projected, achieving a PE ratio of 28.6x, investor sentiment may further strengthen. However, currency volatility and China's market challenges could pose risks to achieving these growth targets. Shareholders are encouraged to evaluate these factors alongside analyst projections to form their own views on Schneider Electric's market position and future potential. Click to explore a detailed breakdown of our findings in Schneider Electric's financial health report. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. We provide commentary based on historical data and analyst forecasts only using an unbiased methodology and our articles are not intended to be financial advice. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. We aim to bring you long-term focused analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Simply Wall St has no position in any stocks mentioned.
Reuters
06-05-2025
- Business
- Reuters
WEC Energy posts higher first-quarter profit on strong power demand
May 6 (Reuters) - WEC Energy (WEC.N), opens new tab reported a first-quarter profit on Tuesday that rose 16.4% on the back of increased power consumption by residential, industrial and commercial customers. Power consumption is expected to reach record highs in 2025 and 2026, driven by AI and data centers as well as residential and commercial customers, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. The Reuters Power Up newsletter provides everything you need to know about the global energy industry. Sign up here. WEC Energy's natural gas deliveries in Wisconsin, excluding natgas used for power generation, rose 15.5% in the first quarter. The company provides natural gas to customers via its units We Power and Wisconsin Public Service. Residential power use rose by 5.5% and total retail deliveries increased by nearly 3%, WEC Energy said. The company's first-quarter operating revenue rose 17.5% to $3.15 billion, compared with analysts' average expectation of $2.82 billion, according to data compiled by LSEG. WEC Energy's total operating expenses rose 18.5% to $2.21 billion, while interest expenses rose 16.1%. The company, which provides electricity and gas to nearly 4.7 million customers in Wisconsin, Illinois, Michigan and Minnesota, reaffirmed its annual profit forecast. Milwaukee-based WEC Energy's net income rose to $724.2 million, or $2.27 per share, in the first quarter, from $622.3 million, or $1.97 per share, a year earlier.
