Artificial Intelligence

Artificial Intelligence
Data centre startup Nscale raises US$2bn in funding round
United Kingdom-based artificial intelligence data centre company Nscale has raised US$2 billion at a $14.6 billion valuation in a new funding round, and has added former Meta and Yahoo executives to its board. The round was led by Aker ASA and 8090 Industries, with companies including Nvidia, Citadel, Lenovo, and Nokia investing. “Over the next 5 years, Artificial Intelligence will be integrated into every industry, every product, and every job,” said Nscale CEO Josh Payne when announcing the funding round. “This is leading to the largest infrastructure buildout in human history.” “Nscale is leading this buildout. We are building this foundation that the market sits on, the engine of superintelligence.” The company has also added former Meta COO Sheryl Sandberg, former Yahoo President Susan Decker, and former U.K. Deputy Prime Minister and Meta Global Affairs President Nick Clegg to its board, it said. Nscale previously raised $1.1 billion in a September funding round. While it did not disclose its valuation at the time, its latest $14.6 billion value is more than twice its valuation in September, sources told CNBC. In September, Nscale agreed to partner with Nvidia and OpenAI to establish the Stargate UK AI infr
Artificial Intelligence
Anthropic tries to avoid Pentagon blacklist
Anthropic has sued the United States Government to prevent it from being placed on a national security blacklist in an escalation of their dispute over how its technology can be used by the military. The privately-owned artificial intelligence (AI) model developer filed a complaint in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California on Monday (Tuesday AEDT) seeking to overturn a Pentagon decision that labelled Anthropic a “supply chain risk”. In the filing, the company, which is known for its Claude chatbot, said the decision violated its constitutional rights, including free speech and due process protections. “These actions are unprecedented and unlawful. The Constitution does not allow the government to wield its enormous power to punish a company for its protected speech,” Anthropic said. The Pentagon on Thursday formally placed a supply-chain risk designation on Anthropic after the company refused to remove guardrails preventing the use of its technology for autonomous weapons or domestic surveillance. This means defence contractors and suppliers have to assert they do not use Anthropic’s AI tools in work related to the Defense Department. The company has sought a formal review of the Departme
Artificial Intelligence
Anthropic back in AI negotiations with Pentagon
Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei has returned to negotiations with the United States Department of Defense, days after talks collapsed and the White House directed federal agencies to stop using the company's AI tools. Amodei is in discussions with Emil Michael, under-secretary of defence for research and engineering, in an attempt to salvage the relationship, the Financial Times reported, citing anonymous sources - with Bloomberg subsequently corroborating the renewed talks. The stakes are massive: Anthropic is preparing to go public. A supply-chain designation that lingers through an IPO roadshow is not merely reputational - it reprices the company's enterprise revenue assumptions entirely. Investors in AI infrastructure, or anyone holding OpenAI-adjacent positions, should note that the classified-network contract Anthropic vacated did not disappear. It just moved.It all kicked off a week ago…Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei told staff that near the end of negotiations with the U.S. Department of Defense, the Pentagon offered to accept the company's contract terms on one condition: delete a specific phrase about "analysis of bulk acquired data" - a clause Amodei said was "exactly matched the scenario we were most worried about".
Artificial Intelligence
Nvidia winding down investments in OpenAI, Anthropic
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang has said the company’s recent investments in OpenAI and Anthropic may be its last, as they plan to go public later this year. While Nvidia said in September that it would invest up to US$100 billion in OpenAI, this deal reportedly stalled amid Huang’s concerns over OpenAI’s business approach and growing competition in the artificial intelligence sector. It instead invested $30 billion during OpenAI’s funding round last week. “I think the opportunity to invest $100 billion in OpenAI is probably not in the cards,” Huang said at Morgan Stanley’s technology conference. “They're going to go public towards the end of the year, and so this might be the last time we'll have the opportunity to invest in a consequential company like this.” “And our $10 billion investment in Anthropic probably will be the last as well,” said Huang. This investment was announced in November, with the companies agreeing to partner on chip design and engineering. OpenAI is planning an initial public offering in 2026’s fourth quarter, per the Wall Street Journal. “There is definitely some excitement from various investors of ours to go public, and it is something that we are open to doing, but we need to figure out the right t
Artificial Intelligence
Carr says Anthropic made a mistake in DoD agreements
Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr said Anthropic “made a mistake” in its dealings with the Department of Defence (DoD) following the United States government blacklisting the AI firm. Anthropic has been in tense talks over the terms of its contract with the Pentagon. The startup asked for assurance that its technology would not be used for domestic mass surveillance of Americans or for fully autonomous weapons. The DoD wanted the AI firm to allow the military to use the models across all lawful use cases. Talks stalled last week after Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei said the company “cannot in good conscience” allow the use of its models under these conditions. In response, Carr told CNBC that Anthropic made a mistake. “There’s obviously rules of the road that are in place that are going to apply to every technology that the Department of War contracts with,” he said. President Donald Trump then ordered every U.S. government agency to “immediately cease” use of Anthropic’s technology. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth escalated matters with a post to X calling Anthropc a “supply-chain risk to national security”. “Effective immediately, no contractor, supplier, or partner that does business

Artificial Intelligence
Nvidia sees the light with US$4bn investments
NVIDIA will invest US$2 billion (A$2.8 billion) each in photonics and optical technology manufacturers Lumentum Holdings and Coherent Corp under multi-year strategic agreements. The share prices of the two companies surged to record highs in response to the announcements. The computer chip giant said the agreements included multi-billion dollar purchase commitments and future capacity access rights for advanced laser components and, in the case of Coherent, optical networking products. NVIDIA said it was investing $2 billion in each company to support research and development, future capacity and operations as the companies build out their United States based manufacturing capabilities. “AI (artificial intelligence) has reinvented computing and is driving the largest computing infrastructure buildout in history,” NVIDIA founder and Chief Executive Officer Jensen Huang said in a news release. He said NVIDIA and Lumentum were advancing the world’s most sophisticated silicon photonics to build the next generation of gigawatt-scale AI factories. NVIDIA and Coherent were pioneering next-generation silicon photonics to enable AI infrastructure at unprecedented scale, speed and energy efficiency. The investments and
Artificial Intelligence
Anthropic: AI's US$380bn software sector killer agent
If you want to understand why your SaaS (software as a service) portfolio is currently bleeding out on the pavement, stop looking at interest rates and start observing the quiet, teetotal siblings commanding the world’s fourth-most valuable private entity. Anthropic was supposed to be the "good guy" research lab, serving as the ethical handbrake and the designated driver at the OpenAI frat party. But as of this week - with a fresh US$30 billion Series G in the bank and an eye-whopping $380 billion valuation - the "safety" outfit has effectively morphed into the most dangerous force in enterprise software. Instead of just engineering a superior chatbot, the company has perhaps rung in the death knell for the per-seat subscription model, fundamentally altering the economics of the industry.From Chatbot to Co-Worker How? with a seismic update to Claude, Anthropic has shifted from generative to agentic AI with its computer use capabilities. Its ‘Claude Cowork’ doesn't just offer advice; it navigates operating systems and executes tasks across apps like the widely adopted Salesforce. Crucially, it creates a "Constitutional" audit trail - satisfying the compliance demands of risk-averse CIOs. The AI disruptor removes the
Artificial Intelligence
Google accelerates AI image push with Nano Banana 2 launch
Google DeepMind has launched Nano Banana 2, its latest image generation model, formally designated Gemini 3.1 Flash Image. The short version: it takes what Nano Banana Pro could do and runs it at Flash speed. The original Nano Banana arrived in August last year and became one of the bigger AI consumer hits of 2025 and was followed up with a Pro version in November, which traded speed for quality. Nano Banana 2, is the attempt to stop users having to make that call.What's actually changedThe most useful upgrade for anyone producing content at scale is subject consistency - the model can now maintain character and object fidelity across up to five characters and 14 objects in a single workflow, without losing the thread between sessions. Text rendering has also been improved - you can now generate legible copy inside images for things like marketing mockups, and translate that text into other languages directly within the image. Resolution runs from 512px through to 4K across multiple aspect ratios, which puts it in range for professional production work. The model also pulls from Gemini's real-time web search to keep outputs grounded in current visual references - handy for infographics, data visualisations, or ac
Artificial Intelligence
Nvidia hails record quarterly revenue, AI inflection point
Nvidia, the world’s largest publicly traded company, has reported a 94% leap in net income for the fourth quarter of the 2026 financial year (Q4 FY26). The artificial intelligence (AI) giant said net income rose to US$42.96 billion in the quarter ending 25 January 2026 from $22.091 billion in the previous corresponding period. Diluted earnings per share (EPS) surged 98% to $1.76, with revenue climbing 73% to a quarterly record of $68.127 billion. According to LSEG estimates, markets were expecting diluted EPS of $1.53 on revenue of $66.21 billion. Data centre revenue in Q4 rose 75% to a record $62.3 billion for the company that makes high-performance graphics processing units (GPUs) used for powering and training AI models like Chat GPT. The record Q4 revenue from data centres was driven by the major platform shifts like accelerated computing and AI. For the FY26 year, net income rose 65% to $120.067 billion and diluted EPS jumped 67% to $4.90 on revenue which increased 65% to $215.938 billion. Nvidia also forecast Q1 FY27 revenue above market estimates at $78 billion, plus or minus 2%, compared with analysts' average estimate of $72 .60 billion, according to data compiled by LSEG.Source: NvidiaFounder and Chi

Artificial Intelligence

Data centre startup Nscale raises US$2bn in funding round

Anthropic tries to avoid Pentagon blacklist

Anthropic back in AI negotiations with Pentagon

Nvidia winding down investments in OpenAI, Anthropic

Carr says Anthropic made a mistake in DoD agreements

Nvidia sees the light with US$4bn investments

Anthropic: AI's US$380bn software sector killer agent

Google accelerates AI image push with Nano Banana 2 launch

Nvidia hails record quarterly revenue, AI inflection point

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