Meta’s $29 Billion AI Power Play

👋 Good morning/evening (wherever you are). It’s Friday.

Meta is betting big on AI infrastructure and control.

They’re raising $29 billion from firms like Apollo and KKR, not just to build data centers but to secure long-term dominance across hardware, software, and product layers.

This isn’t just about compute.

It’s a long-term play for dominance across hardware (new data centers), software (a possible Llama pivot), and product layers like Ray-Ban AI, voice assistants, and future agents.

It’s a full-stack power play:

• Building a U.S.-based AI cloud empire

• Funding it with outside capital from Apollo, KKR, and others

• Potentially turning Llama into a premium, closed-source product

It’s aggressive, expensive, and high-stakes.

If it works, Meta could join OpenAI/Microsoft and Google/DeepMind as the third AI superpower.

OK let’s keep going ↓

🔥 Creative highlights

Here’s two popular posts this week:

1. Your Brain Is Broken On Purpose

   If we’re really about to finish our final invention, what happens to the instinct that built it?

2. Vlogwartz…16 million views in 16 days 

   If creative teams had full access to the Harry Potter IP, could they have made something this viral, this quickly?

💡 Here’s what you should know

• Anthropic launches Economic Futures Program

  New $50K grants and policy symposia aim to explore AI’s impact on jobs, productivity, and the economy.

• OpenAI starts using Google Cloud TPUs to power ChatGPT

  The company is now renting Google’s tensor processing units (TPUs) alongside Nvidia GPUs to scale compute capacity and reduce inference costs, marking its first major use of non‑Nvidia chips.

• OpenAI acquires Crossing Minds team

  Crossing Minds, known for AI-powered recommendation systems, brings expertise in personalization and retrieval-based AI to help shape the next phase of assistant development.

• Microsoft delays next-gen AI chip to 2026

  Production of Microsoft’s Maia chip, codenamed Braga, has been pushed back due to design changes and staffing issues, with early performance expected to lag behind Nvidia’s Blackwell.

• Texas to build world’s largest AI energy campus

  Texas Tech and Fermi America plan an 18M sq ft data center campus powered by nuclear, solar, wind, and gas. The project aims to bring 1 GW online by 2026 as part of a major AI infrastructure push.

• Trump plans executive orders to fast-track AI infrastructure

  The White House is preparing actions to speed up grid access, unlock federal land for data centers, and streamline permitting as part of a broader plan to expand U.S. AI capacity and compete with China.

• Germany moves to block DeepSeek

  German regulators say DeepSeek violates GDPR by sending user data to China, urging Apple and Google to delist the app. A ban in Germany could trigger broader EU restrictions.

💰 The numbers

• Meta seeks $29B from Apollo, KKR, and others to scale U.S. AI data center buildout.

• CoreWeave is in talks to acquire $5B infrastructure firm Core Scientific to expand its AI cloud footprint.

• Uber may back Travis Kalanick’s bid to acquire Pony.ai’s U.S. operations.

• Reconova, an Intel-backed AI vision firm, plans a $100M Hong Kong IPO.

• The Dutch government is investing €70M ($75M) in a national AI plant, with total funding possibly hitting €200M ($215M).

• Mandolin raised $40M to automate specialty drug paperwork with AI agents, targeting a $250B market projected to hit $1.5T by 2032.

• Metaview raised $35M in Series B from GV (Google Ventures) and others to power its AI notetaker tool that captures and structures interview notes.

• Niural raised $31M Series A to grow its AI-native global PEO platform.

• DRIMCO raised $5M to speed up requirement analysis with AI tools.

🧠 Thought starters

• AI tool cuts patient death risk by 35% using nurse shift notes

• Denmark moves to give people copyright over their own image

• Quantum AI outperforms the fastest supercomputers

• China's Next AI Breakthrough - Physical AI

  ⏱️ 3:05 min (YouTube)

😂 Meme of the day

Thanks for reading,

Eddie

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