tech

Alibaba launches new data center powered by 10,000 of its custom chips

Alibaba announced a new data center in southern China, in a partnership with China Telecom powered by its own Zhenwu chips. The new data center will contain 10,000 of the homegrown chips, and may scale up to 100,000 over time. The data center will be used for both inference and training.

China is racing to build out its own sovereign AI capabilities, and is making significant progress.

While Chinese companies and labs have released many competitive AI models, such as Alibaba’s Qwen, Z.ai’s new GLM-5.1, and the disruptive DeepSeek R1, China is still behind the US when it comes to AI chips, and it has struggled to get hold of the latest Nvidia GPUs due to US export controls.

Alibaba launches data center with 10,000 of its own chips as China ramps up AI push

Alibaba launches data center with 10,000 of its own chips as China ramps up AI push

China is racing to build out its own sovereign AI capabilities, and is making significant progress.

While Chinese companies and labs have released many competitive AI models, such as Alibaba’s Qwen, Z.ai’s new GLM-5.1, and the disruptive DeepSeek R1, China is still behind the US when it comes to AI chips, and it has struggled to get hold of the latest Nvidia GPUs due to US export controls.

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Meta jumps after it releases Superintelligence Labs’ first model: Muse Spark

The first big release from Meta’s Superintelligence Labs is here — a new multimodal reasoning model called Muse Spark. Shares of Meta spiked on the news, extending gains it had made earlier in the day on optimism over the ceasefire with Iran. The stock was recently up about 9%.

Meta has been playing catch-up in the generative-AI race, watching startups OpenAI and Anthropic leap ahead with ever more capable models, after the bungled rollout of its Llama 4 models.

After an expensive hiring spree assembling an all-star team of AI researchers, investors have been eager to see the fruits of this team, and to see if the accompanying billions of capex dedicated to power it — $115 billion to $135 billion this year alone — were worth it.

Meta says the release is the first in a Muse family of models, which it says it will scale up from over time. The benchmark scores released by Meta show Spark to be capable, with solid scores among popular benchmarks, but not any huge leaps over leading models from Anthropic, OpenAI, xAI, and Google.

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in post on Threads:

“Looking ahead, we plan to release increasingly advanced models that push the frontier of intelligence and capabilities, including new open source models. We are building products that don't just answer your questions but act as agents that do things for you. I am optimistic that this will support a wave of creativity, entrepreneurship, growth, and health. I'm looking forward to sharing more soon.”

Introducing Muse Spark: Scaling Towards Personal Superintelligence

Introducing Muse Spark: Scaling Towards Personal Superintelligence

After an expensive hiring spree assembling an all-star team of AI researchers, investors have been eager to see the fruits of this team, and to see if the accompanying billions of capex dedicated to power it — $115 billion to $135 billion this year alone — were worth it.

Meta says the release is the first in a Muse family of models, which it says it will scale up from over time. The benchmark scores released by Meta show Spark to be capable, with solid scores among popular benchmarks, but not any huge leaps over leading models from Anthropic, OpenAI, xAI, and Google.

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in post on Threads:

“Looking ahead, we plan to release increasingly advanced models that push the frontier of intelligence and capabilities, including new open source models. We are building products that don't just answer your questions but act as agents that do things for you. I am optimistic that this will support a wave of creativity, entrepreneurship, growth, and health. I'm looking forward to sharing more soon.”

Anthropic’s revenue run rate just topped $30 billion — that’s ahead of OpenAI, depending on how you count

The Claude maker’s revenue run rate has tripled in three months, as Dario Amodei’s firm takes the software world by storm.

Tortoise and Hare

Psychic Boy Wearing Head Band

Anthropic: Our new Mythos model is so powerful, we can’t release it

The unusual announcement of the model highlights its alarming new cybersecurity capabilities.

tech

Jon Keegan4/7/26

Bloomberg: Apple’s foldable iPhone is on track for September after all

Scratch that... Actually, Apple’s foldable iPhone may be on track to debut later this year after all.

Hours after a report from Nikkei Asia said Apple was encountering engineering problems with the novel design that could lead to a delayed launch, Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman reports that sources within Apple say the premium foldable iPhone is still on track to launch in September, alongside the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Max.

Shares of Apple had plunged more than 5% on word of a possible delay, but pared losses on Gurman’s story.

According to the report, the foldable iPhone will cost more than $2,000 and will be a key part of the company’s plan to revamp the iPhone lineup.

Apple’s Foldable iPhone Remains on Track for September Debut

Apple’s Foldable iPhone Remains on Track for September Debut

Shares of Apple had plunged more than 5% on word of a possible delay, but pared losses on Gurman’s story.

According to the report, the foldable iPhone will cost more than $2,000 and will be a key part of the company’s plan to revamp the iPhone lineup.

tech

Jon Keegan4/7/26

Bezos poaches xAI cofounder from OpenAI for his Project Prometheus startup

The competition among AI startups for poaching top talent has a new contender.

The Financial Times reports that xAI cofounder Kyle Kosic has been poached from OpenAI by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos for his new AI industrial manufacturing startup, Project Prometheus.

Kosic was one of the original 11 cofounders of xAI and worked on the Colossus data center. Kosic left xAI in 2024 to return to OpenAI. Elon Musk is the last xAI cofounder still working for the company.

According to the report, Kosic will work on AI infrastructure in his new role at Project Prometheus, which has reportedly hired hundreds of staff in San Francisco, London, and Zurich.

Jeff Bezos’s new lab hires xAI co-founder from OpenAI

Jeff Bezos’s new lab hires xAI co-founder from OpenAI

Kosic was one of the original 11 cofounders of xAI and worked on the Colossus data center. Kosic left xAI in 2024 to return to OpenAI. Elon Musk is the last xAI cofounder still working for the company.

According to the report, Kosic will work on AI infrastructure in his new role at Project Prometheus, which has reportedly hired hundreds of staff in San Francisco, London, and Zurich.

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