Google has released what it calls its most intelligent AI model yet, Gemini 2.5. The first 2.5 model release, an experimental version of Gemini 2.5 Pro, is a next-gen reasoning model that Google says outperformed OpenAI o3-mini and Claude 3.7 Sonnet from Anthropic on common benchmarks “by meaningful margins.” Gemini 2.5 models “are thinking models, capable of reasoning through their thoughts before responding, resulting in enhanced performance and improved accuracy,” according to Google. The new model comes just three months after Google released Gemini 2.0 with reasoning and agentic capabilities. Continue reading Google Debuts Next-Gen Reasoning Models with Gemini 2.5

Japanese tech investment firm Softbank has agreed to acquire Silicon Valley chip startup Ampere for $6.5 billion, indicating that technology originating in smartphones will eventually become integral to global data centers and the future of artificial intelligence. The eight-year-old Ampere sells chips based on Arm technology, the processor type used in virtually all mobile phones. SoftBank purchased Arm in 2016 and has since been working to ensure the technology becomes used more broadly. Softbank says it will allow Ampere to retain its own name, operating it as a wholly-owned subsidiary. Continue reading Softbank Agrees to Acquire Chipmaker Ampere for $6.5 Billion

Google has acquired Wiz, a multi-cloud security firm that will remain cloud-agnostic under its new ownership. In fact, the ability to expand its customer base to companies that use competing cloud services like AWS or Azure was a key incentive for Google to buy the five-year-old startup, whose mandate is “to help every organization secure everything they build and run in the cloud — any cloud.” Google agreed to pay $32 billion for the New York-based firm, which had annual revenue of $700 million last year and was on track to increase that to $1 billion in 2025. Wiz, which had been considering an IPO, was most recently valued at $12 billion. Continue reading Google Agrees to Buy Cybersecurity Startup Wiz for $32 Billion

Baidu has launched two new AI systems, the native multimodal foundation model Ernie 4.5 and deep-thinking reasoning model Ernie X1. The latter supports features like generative imaging, advanced search and webpage content comprehension. Baidu is touting Ernie X1 as of comparable performance to another Chinese model, DeepSeek-R1, but says it is half the price. Both Baidu models are available to the public, including individual users, through the Ernie website. Baidu, the dominant search engine in China, says its new models mark a milestone in both reasoning and multimodal AI, “offering advanced capabilities at a more accessible price point.” Continue reading Baidu Releases New LLMs that Undercut Competition’s Price

In an expansion of their existing strategic partnership, Salesforce and Google have entered into a seven-year, $2.5 billion deal that will allow Salesforce customers to build Agentforce agents using Gemini and to deploy Salesforce on Google Cloud. The companies plan to more tightly integrate connections between platforms like Salesforce Service Cloud and Google Cloud’s Customer Engagement Suite, as well as Slack and Google Workspace, “empowering AI agents and service representatives with unified data access, streamlined workflows, and advanced AI capabilities, regardless of platform,” the companies said. Continue reading Salesforce Brings Gemini to Agentforce in $2.5B Google Deal

LG Electronics is expanding distribution of the Gaming Portal unveiled at CES 2025 for LG Smart TVs. LG says that since that curtain-raiser, the platform has become available in 19 global markets for LG Smart TVs running webOS 23 and above. Starting in Q2, it will become available in additional markets on devices including LG Smart Monitors and StanbyME lifestyle screens. The LG Gaming Portal has partnerships with cloud game services including Xbox, Nvidia GeForce NOW and Amazon Luna, as well as the lesser-known Boosteroid, Blacknut and some native webOS app games. Continue reading LG Rolls Out Its All-in-One Gaming Portal to Multiple Platforms

Microsoft has created a quantum computing chip, Majorana 1, that relies on what it says is a “new state of matter” — one that exists beyond the primary liquid, solid, gas states that have underpinned science since Ancient Greece. Research into this fourth physical existence, called a “topological state,” earned three theoretical physicists the Nobel Prize in Physics in October. Unlike solids, liquids or gases, a topological state is not defined locally by how its particles are arranged, but by how their quantum wavefunction behaves — wrapping around itself globally, across the entire material. Continue reading Microsoft Calls New Topoconductor a Quantum Breakthrough

Facebook is downsizing data storage expenditures by deleting old live video feeds. Meta Platforms announced that beginning this week “new live broadcasts can be replayed, downloaded or shared from Facebook Pages or profiles for 30 days, after which they will be automatically removed from Facebook.” Prior to removing the content, users will be notified they have 90 days to download or transfer the material to other storage or convert it to a new reel. Previously, such content was stored indefinitely. Facebook stores more than 100 petabytes of material with an estimated 500 terabytes added each day. Continue reading Facebook’s New Storage Policy Limits Live Video to 30 Days

Amazon is predicting more than $100 billion in capital expenditure for AI in 2025. The majority of that will be invested in the AWS cloud division, according to Amazon President and CEO Andy Jassy, indicating Big Tech is not planning to back down on AI. Amazon’s Q4 profit hit $20 billion, an 88 percent increase over the same period in 2023, and full year profit was $59.2 billion, a 94 percent increase, on revenue of $638 billion, an 11 percent rise. On an earnings call, Jassy said the $26.3 billion in Q4 2024 capex spending “is reasonably representative” of what the company can be expected to spend on an annualized basis this year. Continue reading AWS Cloud Computing Generates Half of Amazon’s Q4 Profits

OpenAI has launched Operator, a semi-autonomous AI agent that uses a proprietary web browser to execute tasks like planning a vacation using Tripadvisor or booking restaurant reservations through OpenTable. “It can look at a webpage and interact with it by typing, clicking and scrolling,” explains OpenAI. Operator is powered by a new model called Computer-Using Agent (CUA), and is available in research preview to ChatGPT Pro subscribers in the U.S. Combining GPT-4o’s computer vision capabilities with advanced reasoning, CUA is trained to interact with graphical user interfaces (GUIs) — parsing menus, clicking buttons and reading screen text. Continue reading OpenAI Operator Agent Available to ChatGPT Pro Subscribers

Just weeks after Nvidia announced the availability of its $249 “compact AI supercomputer,” the Jetson Orin Nano Super Developer Kit for startups and hobbyists, CEO Jensen Huang revealed the company is planning to launch a personal AI supercomputer called Project Digits with a starting price of $3,000. The desktop-sized system features the GB10 Grace Blackwell Superchip, which enables it to handle AI models with up to 200 billion parameters. Nvidia claims there is enough processing power to run high-end AI models (performing up to one quadrillion AI calculations per second) while the compact system can run from a standard power outlet. Continue reading CES: Nvidia Will Launch a $3,000 Personal AI Supercomputer

Microsoft anticipates spending $80 billion to construct AI data centers in fiscal 2025, which ends in June. More than half of that investment will fund U.S. infrastructure, according to company Vice Chair and President Brad Smith. The move aims to keep Microsoft, which owns a stake in OpenAI, a leader in artificial intelligence, and bolster the nation’s position in the global AI race, which Smith says it currently leads, “thanks to the investment of private capital and innovations by American companies of all sizes, from dynamic startups to well-established enterprises.” Continue reading Microsoft AI Forecast Includes $80B in Data Center Spending

CES Unveiled 2025 offered a preview of new technologies two days ahead of the official opening of the massive CES show floor in Las Vegas on January 7. From AI-powered tools and robotics to energy-saving innovations and immersive displays, the event showcased a spectrum of advancements. Among the more notable highlights included cognitive AI demonstrated by Neural Lab, the latest brain-computer interface tech from Naqi Logix, AR and smart glasses developed by companies such as Rokid and Mustard, and a variety of interesting video- and audio-related offerings to be showcased at CES. Continue reading CES Unveiled: Preview of Tech to Be Featured at Trade Show

Amazon Web Services has opened AWS Data Transfer Terminals in Los Angeles and New York. These secure physical locations allow customers to bring their storage devices for fast uploads to the AWS Cloud. The enterprise service can significantly reduce data ingestion time for use cases including uploads of “large datasets from fleets of vehicles collecting data in metro areas for training machine learning models” as well as “digital audio and video files from content creators for media processing workloads” and local government organizations compiling geographical and other smart city data. Continue reading AWS Opens Physical Locations for Fast, Secure Data Uploads

Couchbase, the publicly traded data platform for developers, has launched Capella AI Services with the aim of simplifying the process of developing and deploying agentic AI apps for enterprise clients. Capella AI joins the company’s flagship Couchbase Capella cloud data platform. AI offerings include model hosting, automated vectorization, unstructured data preprocessing and AI agent catalog services. Couchbase’s goal is to “allow organizations to prototype, build, test and deploy AI agents” while giving developers control over data across the development lifecycle, including secure data mitigation for large language models running outside the organization. Continue reading Couchbase Capella AI Helps Deploy Agents, Models, Services