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Jun 16, 2025
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Welcome back! Amazon will spend $13 billion over the next four years on new data centers in Australia. Executives of Meta Platforms, OpenAI and Palantir will advise the U.S. Army on technology. Google is planning to stop the majority of its work with Scale AI.
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Amazon will spend $13 billion over the next four years on new data centers in Australia that will help the company expand its artificial intelligence business. The large investment is a major coup for Australia and, more broadly, reflects the determination of web giants like Amazon to capitalize on the interest in AI across the globe.
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Three prominent technology executives whose firms develop artificial intelligence said Friday they are joining a new U.S. Army innovation corps to help the military upgrade its technology. Meta Platforms Chief Technology Officer Andrew Bosworth, Palantir Chief Technology Officer Shyam Sankar, OpenAI Chief Product Officer Kevin Weil and Bob McGrew, a former OpenAI chief research officer, said in social media posts that they would be serving as technical experts to advise the Army’s modernization efforts. The executives implied they would advise the new unit in their free time. The announcement builds on the deepening ties between tech companies and the U.S. government and military. Last year, OpenAI and defense tech startup Anduril said they would jointly develop AI software for U.S. anti-drone systems to improve
their ability to detect and respond to aerial threats. Around the same time, Meta said that it would allow U.S. government agencies and contractors working on defense and national security to use its AI models for military purposes.
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Google is planning to stop the majority of its work with Scale AI after rival Meta took a 49% stake in Scale and hired its CEO in a deal announced this week, Reuters reported on Friday. The decision, while not surprising, would still result in a blow to Scale’s business. Google is Scale’s largest customer and had planned to spend $200 million this year on Scale’s data labeling services, Reuters reported. Google is already in talks with Scale’s rivals as it seeks to switch vendors, according to Reuters. After this story was published, a Scale
spokesperson declined to comment on the company’s work with Google. Google likely fears that Meta will have access to their research road map because of its partial ownership of Scale. In recent months, Scale CEO Alexandr Wang had begun to provide advice to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, who felt Wang provided perspective on Meta’s AI problems from working with other research labs, The Information reported. Still, OpenAI’s chief financial officer said this week that the ChatGPT maker, a rival to both Meta and Google, plans to continue its work with Scale.
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Waymo, Google’s self-driving car unit, said Saturday that it suspended its taxi service in all of Los Angeles this weekend due to “upcoming protests”. On Saturday, protestors gathered in Los Angeles, San Francisco and other cities against President Trump’s immigration policies, in what some were calling “No Kings” rallies. Waymo is adjusting its fleet and service area in other cities, according to a spokesperson for the company. The company last week had suspended service to downtown Los Angeles and the Mission District of San Francisco after protesters in Los Angeles set fire to at least five of its cars. The cars are estimated to cost around $250,000, according to executives in the autonomous vehicle industry, though Waymo has never disclosed the figure. Waymo started accepting paying customers in Los Angeles in April of last year.
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Chinese tech giant Tencent Holdings is neither considering nor pursuing an acquisition of South Korean videogame developer Nexon Co. contrary to media reports, according to a person with direct knowledge of Tencent’s investment plans. Last week, Bloomberg reported that Tencent had reached out to the family of Nexon’s late founder Kim Jung-ju to discuss a possible deal to acquire the South Korean company. But the person, who also has direct knowledge of Tencent’s relationship with Nexon, said Tencent hasn’t held any discussions with Nexon, its parent company NXC Corp. or Kim’s family about such a deal. The idea of acquiring Nexon, which currently has a market capitalization of nearly $16 billion, wouldn’t fit into Tencent’s strategy as its priority is investing in artificial intelligence, the person
said. Tencent, one of the world’s largest videogame publishers, has invested in game developers around the world. But apart from its multi-billion-dollar deal for Finland’s Supercell in 2016, Tencent has typically invested only hundreds of millions of dollars in many of its strategic deals. Its biggest recent deal was a $1.3 billion investment earlier this year for a quarter stake in a subsidiary of French game maker Ubisoft. Tencent, which has an existing partnership to publish Nexon’s hits such as Dungeon & Fighter Mobile in China, has no need to own Nexon, the person said, adding that the two companies are discussing plans to develop Chinese content for Dungeon & Fighter Mobile given the game’s popularity in China.
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Walmart, Amazon, Expedia and other companies have explored whether to issue their own stablecoins in the U.S. amid a rush into the market ahead of legislation moving ahead in Washington that would legitimize the tokens, The Wall Street Journal reported. The companies are exploring using stablecoins to circumvent traditional payment systems, which could help reduce fees and allow them to pay overseas suppliers faster. They have also explored using stablecoins issued by others, such as a consortium of merchants, the publication reported. Financial companies are also looking into
stablecoins. The Depository Trust and Clearing Corp., the clearinghouse that processes U.S. stock trades, along with a consortium of big banks including JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Citigroup and Wells Fargo, are considering whether to issue the coins. Amazon’s efforts are still in the early stages, and some of the discussions have been about issuing its own coin for online purchases, the publication said. Representatives from Amazon, Walmart and Expedia did not immediately reply to requests for comment. Stablecoins are pegged 1:1 to dollars and backed by cash and U.S. Treasurys. They are used by crypto traders and for international money transfers. The U.S. Congress is deliberating stablecoin legislation that would legitimize the tokens, with a Senate floor vote set for next Tuesday. The legislation, if approved, could pave the way for their broader use
in payment and finance.
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Anne Wojcicki, the co-founder and former CEO of 23andMe, will purchase the bankrupt company’s assets for $305 million, the genetic testing company said Friday. Regeneron Pharmaceuticals had agreed to pay $256 million for the bankruptcy assets last month, but the bankruptcy court held a final round of bidding on Friday for the assets, which include the company’s personal genome testing business, as well as its telehealth arm Lemonaid Health. Wojcicki’s nonprofit, the TTAM Research Institute, won. (TTAM is an acronym for Twenty Three And Me.) Wojcicki had previously offered to buy the company for $40 million in March, the Wall Street Journal reported, but the company’s board rejected the proposal as too modest. She stepped down as CEO when it filed for bankruptcy later that month. Backed by investors including GV, Sequoia Capital and Wojcicki’s former husband Sergey Brin, 23andMe had become popular with consumers in the late 2000s’ for its saliva kits, which promised to tell users the countries of their ancestors and susceptibility to certain diseases. But it struggled to retain early momentum and was further hobbled by a hack last year that exposed information on almost 7 million customers. The bankruptcy filing caused alarm among lawmakers. More than two dozen states sued to block the sale of consumers’ DNA without their permission. And 22 congresspeople | | | |
