Hard Numbers: Honor’s ambitions, MGX’s cash infusion, Meta finances its data center needs, Anthropic’s funding round, TSMC’s US takeover

​Chinese technology company Honor displays their new technology before the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain, on March 2, 2025.

Chinese technology company Honor displays their new technology before the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain, on March 2, 2025.

REUTERS/Bruna Casas
10 billion: On Sunday, Chinese smartphone maker Honor pledged $10 billion in AI investments over the next five years and said it’s working with Google and Qualcomm to develop an AI “agent” that can help users complete tasks. Honor was spun off from Huawei in 2020 after the Chinese tech giant was hit with US sanctions.

50 billion: The fund MGX, led by the UAE’s national security adviser Sheikh Tahnoonbin Zayed Al Nahyan, is set to receive a $50 billion cash infusion from multiple Emirati sources to spend on artificial intelligence, according to a report Wednesday in the Wall Street Journal. MGX was recently named as one of the funders of OpenAI’s Stargate data center infrastructure plan, heralded by President Donald Trump just after he took office in January.

35 billion: Meta is in talks to raise $35 billion to finance its data center ambitions around AI, according to a Thursday report from Bloomberg. Apollo Global Management is set to lead the funding package for Meta, which previously said it would spend $65 billion on AI this year alone.

61.5 billion: Anthropic announced that it has raised $3.5 billion in a Series E funding round led by Lightspeed Venture Partners. The new round gives the Claude maker a $61.5 billion valuation, making it one of the most valuable privately held companies in the world.

$100 billion: Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, the world’s largest contract chipmaker, is expected to announce a $100 billion investment in the US over the next four years, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday. The money will help build new chip factories in the US and add to the CHIPS Act-supported construction the company has already started.

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Viewpoint: China’s annual NPC meeting to address lackluster economy and Trump threat
VCG via Reuters Connect

Beijing is warning top artificial intelligence leaders – including researchers and corporate leaders – to avoid traveling to the United States owing to security concerns, according to a report published Saturday by the Wall Street Journal.

Elon Musk listens as President Donald Trump speaks in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC, on Feb. 11, 2025.
REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque

Donald Trump’s administration laid off 170 employees at the National Science Foundation in February as part of a government-wide staff reduction. Critics say the cuts, which included artificial intelligence specialists, could hurt American competitiveness in AI research. While the agency said Monday it will reinstate 84 workers following a court ruling on March 3, experts warn the cuts, combined with looming government-wide staff reductions, could severely hamper the agency.