Oracle's 5GW Data Center for OpenAI, Amazon's $20B Investment, and AMD's MI350 Chips Unveiled - Silicon Brief #22

Hi there,

In this edition of Silicon Brief, we're diving into the latest developments in AI chips and data centers. Amazon has announced a significant $20 billion investment in Pennsylvania, aimed at expanding its data center capabilities. Meanwhile, Oracle is planning a massive 5GW data center in the US to support OpenAI by 2026. These moves highlight the growing demand for robust infrastructure to support AI advancements.

On the hardware front, AMD has unveiled its new MI350 AI chips and cloud service, alongside the Helios AI Server and MI400 chips, in partnership with OpenAI. Additionally, VeriSilicon has launched an energy-efficient NPU for mobile AI, showcasing the ongoing innovation in AI chip technology. Stay tuned as we explore these stories and more in this edition.

CoreWeave has announced a Power Purchase Agreement in Spain to use solar and wind energy for its data centers, including a new center with a 100MW solar farm. Meta Platforms Inc has entered into an agreement with XGS Energy to develop 150 megawatts of geothermal electricity in New Mexico, supporting its AI expansion with sustainable energy. The EPRI Executive Director presented to a U.S. House Science Subcommittee on how nuclear technologies could support the growing energy needs of AI data centers.

NovoLINC has appointed Bob Wenner as Chief Operating Officer to advance their AI data center cooling solutions. The Ultra Ethernet Consortium released UEC Specification 1.0 to improve AI and HPC networking. ABB and Applied Digital are collaborating on AI-ready data centers in North Dakota. Databricks and Google Cloud are integrating Gemini AI models into Databricks' platform. MIPS and Cyient Semiconductor are developing RISC-V-based solutions for AI power delivery. Supermicro launched AI solutions with AMD Instinct™ MI350 series GPUs for enhanced AI training performance.

David Sacks, the White House AI czar, addressed the issue of AI chip smuggling and warned that strict regulations could push customers towards China's AI market. Amazon Web Services plans to launch its second secret cloud region, Secret-West Region, to bolster AI capabilities for federal agencies. At the GTC conference in Paris, NVIDIA highlighted Nebul as a key European AI cloud provider. Taiwan's International Trade Administration has imposed export controls on Huawei and SMIC, requiring government approval for exports to these companies, potentially affecting China's AI chip development.

Amazon is investing $20 billion in Pennsylvania to enhance its cloud infrastructure, while Giga Computing will present its AI data center innovations at ISC 2025. Oracle plans a 5GW US data center for OpenAI by 2026, and Saudi Arabia and the UAE are competing for AI leadership in the Middle East. Vantage Data Centers has raised €720 million in a Euro ABS deal, and WEKA and Nebius have partnered for GPU-as-a-Service. Edgenet has launched edge data centers in Mexico, and NVIDIA is expanding its DGX Cloud Lepton for European developers.

VeriSilicon has launched an energy-efficient NPU for mobile AI applications, while Phison Electronics introduced a PCIe 5.0 SSD controller with an AI module. Sivers Semiconductors secured a contract with aiRadar for a 28GHz antenna module. Elliptic Labs optimized its AI platform for Ceva's NeuPro-Nano NPU. Supermicro expanded AI solutions for NVIDIA in Europe, and Diraq and QM enhanced quantum computing with NVIDIA. Synopsys and Broadcom achieved PCIe 6.x interoperability, and PCI-SIG released the PCIe 7.0 specification. AMD unveiled MI350 AI chips and a cloud service, along with the Helios AI server and MI400 chips in partnership with OpenAI. Nota AI achieved 100% accuracy in its traffic solution, and OpenAI plans to use AMD's new GPUs alongside Nvidia and in-house chips.