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Artificial Intelligence

Artificial Intelligence
Applied Digital jumps on US$5bn hyperscaler lease deal
AI infrastructure developer Applied Digital just locked in another multi-billion dollar contract with a mystery American hyperscaler, sending shares in the bitcoin miner-cum-AI infrastructure giant up 325% for the year so far. The Dallas-based outfit announced a US$5 billion lease agreement with a U.S.-based investment-grade hyperscaler for 200 megawatts (MW) of AI compute capacity at its Polaris Forge 2 campus in North Dakota. The 15-year commitment brings APLD's total infrastructure footprint across both North Dakota facilities to 600MW, up from zero at the start of 2024. Shares jumped 7% in premarket trading on Wednesday before settling to close up 4%, extending a monster 325% rally year-to-date as investors pile into AI infrastructure plays. The cloud giant also secured first right of refusal for an additional 800MW of rack space, representing the full 1-gigawatt expansion potential of Polaris Forge 2.From Bitcoin miner to AI landlordAPLD has executed one of the sharpest pivots in tech, transforming from a struggling cryptocurrency mining operation into a hyperscale colocation developer in just under three years. It's been busy the last couple of months, too, expanding its CoreWeave agreement in August, bringing
Artificial Intelligence
OpenAI's Atlas browser targets Google Chrome dominance
OpenAI fired a shot across Google's bow on Tuesday, unveiling ChatGPT Atlas - an AI-powered web browser that directly challenges Chrome's 71.9% stranglehold on the global browser market. The launch marks OpenAI's most aggressive expansion yet, beyond its core chatbot product, tapping into 800 million weekly active users whilst simultaneously hoovering up valuable data about consumer browsing behaviour. It could accelerate a fundamental shift in how people search online - moving away from Google's traditional keyword-based results toward conversational AI tools that synthesise information on the fly. Alphabet shares dropped 1.8% in afternoon trading following the announcement - a telling reaction to what analysts see as an existential threat to Google's US$200 billion advertising empire.Agent mode does the heavy liftingAtlas distinguishes itself through a persistent ChatGPT sidebar that can summarise content, compare products and analyse data from any website in real-time. But the real innovation lies in "agent mode" - now available to paid subscribers - which allows ChatGPT to autonomously complete tasks from start to finish without human intervention. In Tuesday's demonstration, OpenAI developers showcased the brow
Artificial Intelligence
Meta invests US$1.5 billion into new Texas AI data centre
Meta announced that it is investing US$1.5 billion (A$2.3 billion) in a “cutting-edge” AI-focused data centre in El Paso, Texas. This would be the company's 29th facility of this kind globally and third in Texas. This adds to the total US$10 billion Meta has invested in Texas and more than 2,5000 full-time employees across the state between its data centres, offices and research lab. It comes as the social media giant attempts to expand infrastructure to support AI workloads and is expected to come online in 2028. The data centre will eventually have a 1 gigawatt capacity for high-end computing chips, according to Meta’s blog post. Meta has also been spending aggressively on AI as it attempts to catch up to rivals OpenAI and Alphabet, which have been developing top-of-the-line AI models. Earlier this year, Meta announced a major data centre project in Louisiana, which President Donald Trump said could cost as much as US$50 billion. The social media giant is also set to spend as much as US$72 billion this year in capital expenditures, including AI-related infrastructure projects. Meta has also said the new Texas data centre will be matched with 100% renewable energy through using a closed-loop, liquid-cooled
Artificial Intelligence
Oracle follows its instinct with 50,000 AMD GPU order
Tech infrastructure giant Oracle will become the first hyperscaler to deploy 50,000 AMD Instinct MI450 GPUs in a publicly available AI supercluster. The rollout kicks off Q3 2026 and scales through 2027 and beyond as Oracle's cloud push amplifies and extends AMD's hot streak in locking down heavyweight AI infrastructure contracts. Oracle Cloud Infrastructure will integrate AMD's "Helios" rack architecture, bundling the MI450 GPUs with next-gen EPYC CPUs codenamed "Venice" and advanced Pensando networking codenamed "Vulcano". "By bringing together the latest AMD processor innovations with OCI's secure, flexible platform and advanced networking powered by Oracle Acceleron, customers can push the boundaries with confidence," Oracle Cloud Infrastructure VP Mahesh Thiagarajan said. "Through our decade-long collaboration with AMD - from EPYC to AMD Instinct accelerators - we're continuing to deliver the best price-performance, open, secure, and scalable cloud foundation in partnership with AMD to meet customer needs for this next era of AI." The reveal follows a cavalcade of blockbuster agreements for both players. AMD's shares have rocketed nearly 35% over the past fortnight, hitting a 52-week peak of US$240.10 before
Artificial Intelligence
Walmart partners with OpenAI for Instant Checkout
Walmart has teamed up with OpenAI to allow shoppers to make faster purchases directly through its AI chatbot, ChatGPT. In a media release, Walmart said the move is to help the grocery chain keep up with consumers by allowing shoppers to purchase items directly through the chatbot using Instant Checkout. “There is a native AI experience coming that is multi-media, personalised and contextual,” Walmart CEO and President Doug McMillon said. “We are running towards that more enjoyable and convenient future with Sparky and through partnerships, including this important step with OpenAI.” OpenAI first announced ChatGPT’s Instant Checkout with its Etsy partnership, which is available for U.S. users. It allows ChatGPT users to search for items through prompts and purchase items directly from the chatbot. The Instant Checkout feature is also expected to be expanded to Shopify in the future. While none of the companies partnering with OpenAI on the feature have disclosed any financial terms of the deals, OpenAI said it would charge companies a fee for transactions completed through ChatGPT. Alongside the OpenAI deal, Walmart also has an AI-powered shopping assistant on its app called Sparky. At the time of writing

Technology

Artificial Intelligence

Applied Digital jumps on US$5bn hyperscaler lease deal

OpenAI's Atlas browser targets Google Chrome dominance

Meta invests US$1.5 billion into new Texas AI data centre

Oracle follows its instinct with 50,000 AMD GPU order

Walmart partners with OpenAI for Instant Checkout

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