OpenAI's Blockbuster AMD Deal Is a Bet on Near-Limitless Demand for AI OpenAI's latest move in the race to build massive data centers in the US shows it believes demand for AI will keep surging--even as skeptics warn of a bubble. Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, Lisa Su, CEO of Advanced Micro Devices, and Michael Intrator, CEO of CoreWeave, arrive to testify during the Senate on Thursday, May 8, 2025.Photograph: Tom Williams; Getty Images Save this storyOpenAI announced on Monday that it will acquire several data centers' worth of chips from AMD in a blockbuster deal that could also give OpenAI the option to acquire a roughly 10 percent stake in the chipmaker. It's another bold bet from OpenAI that demand for generative artificial intelligence will continue rising--bubble be damned. "Excited to partner with AMD to use their chips to serve our users!" OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said on X, adding that the company will also ramp up its investments in Nvidia chips. He added: "The world needs much more compute " OpenAI said in a blog post this morning that it would commit to purchasing 6 gigawatts' worth of AMD chips over the next several years.

The chief financial officer for the chip manufacturer Intel, David Zinsner, has announced his company received 5.7bn as part of a deal negotiated with the administration of United States President Donald Trump. During an investor conference on Thursday, Zinsner said that Intel, a leader in the US development of semiconductor chips, received the funds on Wednesday evening. Last week, the White House revealed the federal government would take a 10 percent stake in the struggling tech giant, based in Santa Clara, California. As part of the deal, the government negotiated a five-year warrant for an additional 5 percent of Intel's shares, in case the company should cease to own more than 51 percent of its manufacturing operations. "I don't think there's a high likelihood that we would take our stake below 50 percent," Zinsner said.

Hyundai has sealed its acquisition of Boston Dynamics as it pushes further into the field of robotics. The completed deal means the Korean car maker now owns an 80 percent stake in the company, known for its commercially available robo-dog Spot, valuing it at $1.1 billion. As a result of the acquisition, Hyundai is the third company to own Boston Dynamics, an MIT spinoff that was purchased by Google in 2013 and later Softbank in 2017, which still retains a 20 percent stake through an affiliate. Hyundai's grand plan for the company is to create a "robotics value chain" that spans robot component manufacturing, construction and automation. While the company has been exploring Star Wars-style walking vehicles that rely on robotics, it seems it's just as interested in Boston's warehouse workers including box stackers Handle and Stretch.

Boston Dynamics is now officially part of Hyundai Motor Group. The Korean conglomerate has struck a deal with Softbank to acquire a controlling interest -- an 80 percent stake -- in the robotics company for $1.1 billion. Softbank will retain a 20 percent stake through one of its affiliates. The companies have been in talks since at least early November, and the deal is expected to be finalized in June 2021. According to their announcement, Hyundai decided to purchase a controlling stake in the robotics firm, because it "possesses multiple key technologies for high-performance robots equipped with perception, navigation, and intelligence."

Five Japanese automakers will join a self-driving technology joint venture formed last year by Toyota Motor Corp. and SoftBank Corp., sources close to the matter said Wednesday. Mazda Motor Corp., Suzuki Motor Corp., Subaru Corp., Isuzu Motor Ltd., and Toyota's minivehicle-making unit Daihatsu Motor Corp. will each buy a stake of less than 10 percent in Monet Technologies Inc., they said. Currently, SoftBank owns 40.2 percent of the joint company, with Toyota holding a 39.8 percent stake. Honda Motor Corp. and Toyota's truck-making subsidiary Hino Motor Ltd. already have a 10 percent stake each in the venture. Monet is developing next-generation mobility services using autonomous driving technology.

Carlos Ghosn's ouster as chairman of Nissan Motor Co. signals that the automaker is seeking to reshape itself to better deal with a rapidly changing market environment, breaking from nearly two decades under his charismatic leadership style, according to some analysts. Chasing volume and sharing costs were a large part of Ghosn's business strategy for one of the world's most successful auto partnerships -- the alliance between Nissan, Renault SA and Mitsubishi Motors Corp. -- led by the Brazil-born executive. Nissan officials say they intend to maintain the alliance due to its benefits, even as the company's board on Thursday approved the dismissal of Ghosn as chairman following his arrest for alleged financial misconduct. Ghosn, sent in by Renault in 1999, closed plants, cut thousands of jobs and streamlined its supply chain to pull the automaker back from the brink of bankruptcy. He set lofty numerical targets to propel growth at Nissan, and as a result, the Japanese-French alliance he forged in pursuit of greater economies of scale grew into one of the world's biggest auto groups.

Reliance Industries Limited today said it has completed an acquisition of close to 73 percent stake in artificial intelligence-based education technology provider Embibe. "RIL, Embibe and the other stakeholders have completed all the closing conditions and have successfully completed the sale and purchase of the shareholding of the existing investors in Embibe to RIL. With this transaction, RIL will hold 72.69 percent (on fully diluted basis) in Embibe," RIL said in a BSE filing. RIL in April had announced that it has entered into agreements to acquire close to 73 percent stake in education technology provider Individual Learning Private Ltd (Embibe) and plans to invest USD 180 million into the company over the next three years. Embibe will use the capital over the next three years towards deepening its R&D on AI in education, as well as business growth and geographic expansion, catering to students across K-12, higher education, professional skilling, vernacular languages and all curriculum categories across India and internationally.

DETROIT – Japanese technology conglomerate SoftBank will spend $2.25 billion (about ¥245 billion) to secure a nearly 20 percent stake in General Motors' autonomous vehicle unit. GM said Thursday that it will also sink another $1.1 billion into its GM Cruise automated division. The capital infusion is designed to speed large-scale deployment of self-driving'robotaxis' next year. The move widens the SoftBank Vision Fund's influence in ride-hailing services. The fund closed a deal in January to spend about $9 billion for a 15 percent stake in Uber, and also owns a stake in China's top ride-hailing firm Didi Chuxing.

ABU DHABI – Japan and its top trade partner in the Middle East, the United Arab Emirates, agreed on Monday to expand economic, political and defense cooperation. Tokyo and Abu Dhabi also signed an investment protection agreement, capping off a two-day visit by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to the oil-rich Gulf state. Abe arrived late Sunday on the first leg of a Middle East tour that will also take him to Jordan, Israel and the Palestinian territories. In a joint statement, the two countries praised growing trade between them. They "stressed the importance of further enhancing trade, investments, and business such as renewable energy, sustainable water desalination … artificial intelligence, health care and medical equipment," the statement said.

The sun had only just come up Friday, but the young self-driving car industry had already moved into a new era. From the bench, federal Judge William Alsup, recovering from a sore throat, called it: "This case is now ancient history." Waymo v. Uber, the first great legal fight over autonomous vehicles, ended in a peace treaty Friday morning: Uber gave Google's sister company a 0.34 percent stake in its business (worth $245 million or $163 million, depending on how you count Uber's worth), and pledged not to use any of Waymo's software or hardware in its vehicles. "I want to express regret for the actions that have caused me to write this letter," Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi wrote in a statement posted on the ride-hailing company's website. Waymo had alleged that when longtime Google engineer Anthony Levandowski resigned to start his own company, he took thousands of vital technical documents with him, including blueprints for the lidar laser sensor he had helped develop.