Alphabet’s revenue increased by 15 percent during the latest quarter, topping $88.3 billion. Powered by advertising and cloud services, profits surged 34 percent to $26.3 billion, exceeding Wall Street expectations of $22.9 billion. The company experienced continued growth in the online marketplace with popular consumer services such as Google Search and YouTube while also expanding in B2B with cloud offerings. All this as the government explores dismantling its business while competitors such as TikTok and Amazon come after its market share. Advertising growth slowed in Q3, yet still notched a healthy year-over-year increase of 10.4 percent. Continue reading Alphabet Profits Climb 34 Percent, Powered by Cloud and Ads

Propelled by increasing demand for artificial intelligence services, Microsoft cloud solutions, which includes the Azure platform, was the star of the quarter, bringing in $38.9 billion for 22 percent growth year-over-year. Revenue was $65.6 billion, up 16 percent, while profit increased by 11 percent, to $24.7 billion. While Microsoft financials don’t break out AI — now embedded across numerous products — Chairman and CEO Satya Nadella says AI “is on track to surpass an annual revenue run rate of $10 billion” by December 31, “making it the fastest business in our history to reach this milestone.” Continue reading AI Surges: Microsoft Quarterly Revenue Climbs to $65.6 Billion

IBM has updated its Guardium platform to optimize protections for security threats stemming from the current tech environment: “shadow AI” and quantum exposure. The new IBM Guardium Data Security Center leverages tools from both IBM Guardium AI Security and IBM Guardium Quantum Safe, allowing for cross-environment protection with unified controls in a single dashboard. Data monitoring and governance, data detection and response, data and AI security posture management and cryptography management to deflect quantum attacks can now be managed from an omniscient perspective, allowing security teams to integrate workflows. Continue reading Big Blue Updates Tech in IBM Guardium Data Security Center

Sports streamer FuboTV has launched new premium options from services including Paramount+, Showtime, FanDuel and NBA without the need for a basic Fubo subscription. FanDuel Sports Network (formerly Bally Sports Network) will be available in Fubo’s Pro base plan while Paramount+ With Showtime and NBA League Pass will be offered as add-on channel packages. In addition, the Fubo Free collection of nearly 200 FAST channels will be available to subscribers of the new standalone packages. Fubo “aggregates more than 400 live sports, news and entertainment networks and is the only live TV streaming platform with every Nielsen-rated sports channel.” Continue reading Fubo Now Offers Standalone Premium Subscription Services

Acting in advance of a California law that goes into effect on January 1, cloud gaming platform Steam has begun posting a notice that its customers are purchasing a license, not a product. The language that appears in the Steam shopping cart now includes the advisory that “purchase of a digital product grants a license for the product on Steam.” Signed into law last month, California’s AB 2426 is categorized a consumer protection law against false advertising for digital goods. Specifically, it requires online sellers provide a “conspicuous” advisory that licenses are limited in duration and can be revoked. Continue reading Steam Preemptively Adds License-Only Terms to Online Store

Accenture is forming an internal Nvidia Business Group staffed with 30,000 global employees trained to help clients “reinvent processes and scale enterprise AI adoption with AI agents,” the consulting firm announced. Accenture will also use its AI Refinery platform to help companies customize AI models and agents using the full Nvidia AI stack including AI Foundry, AI Enterprise and Omniverse. “With generative AI demand driving $3 billion in Accenture bookings in its recently closed fiscal year, the new group will help clients lay the foundation for agentic AI functionality,” Accenture said. Continue reading Accenture Has Plans for Scaling Enterprise AI with Nvidia Unit

Visual effects studio Digital Domain has brought its Autonomous Virtual Human project to Amazon Web Services, which will provide generative AI and machine learning tools and provide Digital Domain’s creations and processes a home in the global cloud. The collaboration “aims to propel the evolution and global reach of Digital Domain’s AVH technology and expand its use for multiple industries, including entertainment, gaming, healthcare, hospitality, and commercial applications,” Amazon said in a statement that emphasizes “AWS cloud services, particularly Amazon Bedrock,” as providing the infrastructure and adaptability “to drive AVH’s growth.” Continue reading Digital Domain Leverages AWS for Its Virtual Human Initiative

Microsoft has released a suite of “Trustworthy AI” features that address concerns about AI security and reliability. The four new capabilities include Correction, a content detection upgrade in Microsoft Azure that “helps fix hallucination issues in real time before users see them.” Embedded Content Safety allows customers to embed Azure AI Content Safety on devices where cloud connectivity is intermittent or unavailable, while two new filters flag AI output of protected material. Additionally, a transparency safeguard providing the company’s AI assistant, Microsoft 365 Copilot, with specific “web search query citations” is coming soon. Continue reading New Microsoft Safety Tools Fix AI Flubs, Detect Proprietary IP

Alibaba Cloud last week globally released more than 100 new open-source variants of its large language foundation model, Qwen 2.5, to the global open-source community. The company has also revamped its proprietary offering as a full-stack AI-computing infrastructure across cloud products, networking and data center architecture, all aimed at supporting the growing demands of AI computing. Alibaba Cloud’s significant contribution was revealed at the Apsara Conference, the annual flagship event held by the cloud division of China’s e-retail giant, often referred to as the Chinese Amazon. Continue reading Alibaba Cloud Ups Its AI Game with 100 Open-Source Models

After previewing its Windows App unified gateway last year, Microsoft is now rolling it out wide. This means accessing the Windows operating system from mobile devices is intended to increase productivity via a cloud-based workflow. The Windows App is now generally available on Windows, macOS, iOS, iPadOS, and via web browser, and in public preview for Android. Microsoft couches the app as a secure way “to connect to Windows across Windows 365, Azure Virtual Desktop, Remote Desktop, Remote Desktop Services, Microsoft Dev Box, and more.” Continue reading Microsoft Offers Mobile Windows App for Android and Apple

Amazon will become the newest member of the Motion Picture Association (MPA), a move that is likely to have significant ramifications as the e-commerce giant throws its weight behind the global entertainment trade and lobbying organization. As the parent of both the Prime Video streaming service and MGM Studios, as well as the force behind Amazon Web Services, the company has clout across both entertainment and technology at a level that is unparalleled among MPA principals. At $2 trillion, it becomes the largest MPA member by market cap. Netflix, which joined in 2019, is capped at $300 billion. Continue reading Amazon MGM Studios and Prime Video Latest to Join the MPA

BlackRock has joined forces with Microsoft to launch what will initially be a $30 billion investment fund to finance AI infrastructure — concentrating primarily on building data centers and developing energy projects. The amount could quickly scale to about $100 billion. Abu Dhabi-based tech investment firm MGX is also participating, as is Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP), which owns, operates and invests across energy, transport, digital and waste management. BlackRock announced it is in the process of acquiring GIP, and says a deal expected to close next month. The new fund is called Global AI Infrastructure Investment Partnership (GAIIP). Continue reading BlackRock Teams with Microsoft to Advance AI Infrastructure

Dolby Labs has introduced cloud-based solutions to support clients with real-time, interactive streaming capabilities. The announcement, made from IBC 2024 in Amsterdam, follows Dolby’s July acquisition of streaming tools provider THEO Technologies, which services top sports, media and entertainment companies worldwide. Dolby and THEO promise streaming that is “more interactive, personalized, and delivered with extremely low latency.” Dolby will also offer a new capability, THEOads, providing an advertising environment “that is optimized for the dynamic nature of live content.” Continue reading Dolby to Expand Its Cloud-Based Live Streaming with THEO

Senza is a connected TV app that parent Synamedia says can “transform the economics of reaching viewers” by offloading streaming controls from set-top boxes and dongles to the cloud. Synamedia claims Senza can reduce streaming costs by up to 90 percent while maintaining content security. The platform can be used to deliver to home TV screens as well as offsite locations such as bars, hotels and stadiums. “Senza moves the user experience from devices — such as connected TVs and streaming sticks — into the cloud and offers an HTML5 interface to quickly launch free, low-cost or premium services,” according to the company. Continue reading Synamedia Reimagines TV Streaming with New Cloud Device

IBM is the first cloud customer for Intel’s Gaudi 3 AI accelerator chip, which it will make available in early 2025. The Gaudi 3 will be available for hybrid and on-site environments via the IBM Cloud, as part of Watsonx AI and on IBM data platforms. Gaudi 3, which began shipping in Q2 and is expected to go into mass production later this year, is IBM’s AI challenger to GPU accelerators from Nvidia and AMD, the latter having in January begun shipping its own HPC solution, the MI300X. Unlike that chip and Nvidia’s Hopper H100 and more recent Blackwell B200, the Gaudi 3 is not a GPU, but built on an architecture specifically for inference and deep learning. Continue reading IBM Cloud Is First to Widely Implement Intel Gaudi 3 AI Chips