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Hard Numbers: Hey big spender, an iPhone boost, Google’s robot coders, Super Micro’s super downfall
200 billion: Capital expenditures from four of the largest US tech companies — Amazon, Microsoft, Meta, and Google — are set to exceed $200 billion this year, inflated by enormous spending on artificial intelligence software and hardware investments. Amazon’s spending alone surged 81% in a year, leading CEO Andy Jassy to assure investors the company’s bets will pay off. These are record sums at a time when Wall Street seems hesitant to keep rewarding excessive spending on AI.
46 billion: Apple reversed its fortunes after a bad year of iPhone sales, selling more than $46 billion of its signature smartphone between July and September — a 6% increase year over year. The company’s new iPhone 16 is part of its push into artificial intelligence — marketed as a phone capable of handling all of its Apple Intelligence features, such as a supercharged Siri, new writing tools, and call transcription — which started rolling out last week. The company hopes that AI can convince customers old and new that it’s time to pay up for a new iPhone, which starts at $799.
25: More than 25% of all new code produced by Google is written by artificial intelligence, according to CEO Sundar Pichai. AI produces the code, which is then reviewed and accepted by human engineers. A recent Stack Overflow survey found that 76% of all software developers are using or are planning to use AI to code.
45: Super Micro Computer, a key supplier of Nvidia servers, saw its stock fall 45% after its auditor, Ernst & Young, resigned because it was “unwilling to be associated with the financial statements prepared by management.” Once one of the hottest AI stocks, the company has now wiped out all of its 2024 gains.A man holds a laptop computer as cyber code is projected on him in this illustration.
How Iran is messing with the US election
Iranian-linked groups have been trying to disrupt the 2024 US presidential election, according to a recent report from Microsoft’s Threat Analysis Center.
On Aug. 10, former President Donald Trump’s campaign claimed that Iranian actors had hacked, stolen, and distributed its internal documents. While the Trump campaign provided few specifics, the claim came a day after Microsoft issued a report detailing Iranian attempts to sow discord online around the upcoming election. The Trump campaign hack appears to line up with what Microsoft called a “spear phishing email” sent from an Iranian-linked group to a “high-ranking official on a presidential campaign.”
Further, Microsoft found that the Iranian group, called Storm-2035, set up four fake news websites, disguised as legitimate American news outlets, with the intention of polarizing American voters on political issues, including LGBTQ rights and the ongoing Israel-Hamas conflict. The group used generative AI-based tools, the report said, to write article headlines and rephrase stolen content to boost traction with search engines. They also used AI tools to plagiarize existing US publications, the report said, but didn’t offer additional specifics.
Microsoft said that while they have seen malicious actors from China, Russia, and Iran trying to incorporate generative AI into their operations, “recently many actors have pivoted back to techniques that have proven effective in the past — simple digital manipulations, mischaracterization of content, and use of trusted labels or logos atop false information.” AI isn’t a breakthrough technology for these groups just yet — though they’re clearly trying to incorporate them into their operations.
Clint Watts, who runs the Microsoft Threat Analysis Center, said Iran’s goal is different from Russia’s past attempts to affect US elections. “Russia is very different. They're very focused on shaping the outcome of the election,” he told NPR. “Iran is focused as much on just breaking the ability of an election to occur" and interrupting the mechanics of voting. In 2021, the US Justice Department indicted two Iranian nationals who sent threatening materials to voters and spread disinformation about election integrity in the run-up to the 2020 presidential election.
Microsoft has previously reported that Russia is actively seeking to undermine US support for Ukraine through online influence campaigns. CNN reported on Aug. 12 that the FBI is investigating the breach.Are Microsoft and OpenAI friends or foes?
The move comes amid two notable currents: First, OpenAI recently announced a search engine product called SearchGPT, though it’s still a prototype. That product genuinely could compete with the Bing search engine. But more importantly, antitrust regulators are sniffing around the relationship between the two companies, looking for anticompetitive behavior. Both the United Kingdom’s Competition and Markets Authority and the US Federal Trade Commission are investigating the two companies — so much that Microsoft recently ditched its OpenAI board seat.
So, are the two AI giants friends or foes? Well, it’s complicated.
Come inside the tech lab making accessibility fun
It all started with gaming, modifications for joysticks, and controllers that allow disabled veterans to once again play their favorite video games. Now, Microsoft’s Inclusive Tech Lab is a haven of innovation and creativity, featuring toys and tools created by and for the disability community. Come along as Program Manager Solomon Romney takes GZERO on an exclusive tour of the lab making accessibility awesome.
Watch more interviews from Global Stage.
Accessibility is critical for the world's disability community
An estimated 1.6 billion people, roughly 18% of the world’s population, are part of the disability community, and that number grows each year. Yet Microsoft’s Chief Accessibility Officer Jenny Lay-Flurrie says only 2% of websites globally are accessible. As Disability Pride Month comes to an end, GZERO’s Tony Maciulis spoke to her about confronting challenges at work and home while embracing the diversity of different abilities.
Watch more interviews from Global Stage.
- The Graphic Truth: More disabled Americans are working and studying ›
- Eddie Ndopu: "People with disabilities need to be in leadership" ›
- UN Global Advocate Eddie Ndopu: Changing how the world thinks about disability ›
- Should internet be free for everyone? A Global Stage debate ›
- Come inside the tech lab making accessibility fun - GZERO Media ›
Microsoft’s Inflection deal gets a closer look
The UK’s antitrust regulator is scrutinizing Microsoft’s unique relationship with Inflection AI. The PC giant did what some have called an “acqui-hire” — not buying the company outright, but rather hiring many of its former leaders and employees instead.
Microsoft poached the once-$4 billion startup’s co-founders Mustafa Suleyman and Karén Simonyan as well as “most of its staff.” It paid $650 million to license Inflection’s technology, which is how investors will get their returns. Now, the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority is looking at whether the deal is a “de facto merger,” a decision it’s expected to make by Sept. 11.
Microsoft is already facing scrutiny for its $13 billion investment in OpenAI in the US and UK, choosing to relinquish its non-voting board seat to stave off further criticism last week. We’re watching for how Microsoft fares in court, and whether it changes its tack in competing for the top talent and tech in AI development.An image of OpenAI CEO Sam Altman is seen on a mobile device screen in this illustration.
OpenAI announces next model and new safety committee
OpenAI announced that it is training a new generative AI model to eventually replace GPT-4, the industry-standard model that powers ChatGPT and Microsoft Copilot.
But the OpenAI board of directors also said that it’s forming a new Safety and Security Committee to advise it on the risks posed by powerful AI. After the previous board of directors abruptly fired CEO Sam Altman for not being candid with them in November 2023, OpenAI staffers and lead investor Microsoft pressured the board to rehire Altman. It worked: Altman rejoined the company, and most of the old board members resigned.
OpenAI has sought to be an industry leader in generative AI while staying in the good graces of regulators looking to rein in its ambitions. OpenAI took the Biden administration’s voluntary pledge to mitigate AI risks in July 2023, and Altman recently joined the Department of Homeland Security’s new Artificial Intelligence Safety and Security Board.
The US has done little to curb the ambitions of its most prominent AI firms, but that good grace is dependent on the appearance of being a reliable and trustworthy actor — one that will propel Silicon Valley ahead of other global tech hubs while building AI that can help humanity, not harm it.
People walk behind the logo of SoftBank Corp in Tokyo.
Hard Numbers: SoftBank’s hardy investment, Grok gets cash infusion, Humane’s rescue plan, Kenya’s tech upgrade, News Corp and OpenAI strike a deal
6 billion: Elon Musk’s AI startup, xAI, has raised $6 billion from venture capital investors such as Andreessen Horowitz and Sequoia Capital, plus Saudi Arabia’s Prince Alwaleed bin Talal and Kingdom Holding Company. The new funding round boosts the value of xAI, which makes the AI chatbot Grok, to $24 billion. Musk is a cofounder of OpenAI but severed ties with the firm in 2018 and has since sued the ChatGPT maker, alleging it abandoned its founding principles.
750 million: Humane, the company that recently released an AI-powered pin to scathing reviews, is reportedly looking for a buyer to swoop in. While customers have to cough up $699 for the signature pin, a corporate buyer would need to pay between $750 million and $1 billion — if the company’s current management fetches any interest, that is.
1 billion: Microsoft and the UAE-based tech giant G42 are pouring $1 billion into a geothermal-powered data center in Kenya. This East African investment is the first big announcement since Microsoft invested $1.5 billion in G42 in April, a deal brokered by the Biden administration. Microsoft and G42 also pledged to work on local language and skills training initiatives with the Kenyan government and companies in the country.
250 million: OpenAI struck a licensing deal with News Corp., the parent company of The Wall Street Journal, reportedly worth $250 million over five years. News Corp’s stock rose on the announcement, and the deal represents a burgeoning revenue stream for news companies. But the deal isn’t without critics: The Information’s founder Jessica Lessin wrote that publishers like News Corp need to know their worth with AI companies, hungry for content, and not rush into any deal for “relative pennies.”