Intel's manufacturing and design operations face challenges, with potential Intel Foundry spinout being discussed; OpenAI has made outsize gains with a new funding round, while Oracle is taking a novel approach to interfacing with competitors in the multicloud space.
Critically, Intel's manufacturing volumes have been outpaced by TSMC (Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company), most visible in its A12 iPhone processor, which has a critical business lead over anything Intel has ever done, according to a Forbes article by Patrick Moorhead.
OpenAI has reportedly raised billions in new funding, increasing the valuation of the company to $150bn. The UAE Investment fund has played a significant role in this surge. The success of OpenAI has led to other AI companies, such as Glean Technologies, seeing investment boosts.
Contrary to expectations, Oracle and AWS have joined forces at Oracle Cloudworld. Observers consider this move key to the evolution of multicloud strategies: Oracle is taking a more inclusive approach, creating consistent cloud environments across different platforms, thereby enabling businesses to use its services without being locked into a single cloud vendor.
Oracle is also rocketing ahead in AI databases, as the company asserts its ability to harmonise data across multiple formats — SQL, JSON and Graph — within a single database. This further cements its position as a major player in the market.
The potential of cloud infrastructure to support the next wave of AI innovation is shown by the likes of OpenAI and Glean. Agentic systems — AI systems that can self-assemble and adapt in real time — will be the biggest drivers of productivity gains in the years ahead.