Google completes acquisition of Wiz — its biggest ever

Today Google said it has completed its $32 billion acquisition of cybersecurity startup Wiz, the largest deal in the company’s history.

“This acquisition is an investment by Google Cloud to improve cloud security and enable organizations to build fast and securely across any cloud or AI platform,” the company wrote in the press release.

The companies agreed to the all-cash purchase last year, after quite a bit of back-and-forth.

Alphabet updated acquisitions chart — Sherwood News

Google Completes Acquisition of Wiz

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Rani Molla1h

Meta doubles down on custom inference chips after reportedly scrapping training chip

Meta said today that it’s expanding its custom silicon development to include four new generations of Meta Training and Inference Accelerator (MTIA) chips. The announcement comes just weeks after The Information reported that the social media company had scrapped its most advanced AI training chip, dubbed Olympus, after facing design challenges. In the meantime, it signed outside chip deals with Nvidiaand Advanced Micro Devices.

Early in its recent conference call, Broadcom CEO Hock Tan sought to reassure investors that the custom chip specialist’s relationship with the social media giant was only getting stronger.

“Now contrary to recent analyst reports, Meta’s custom accelerator MTIA road map is alive and well,” he said. “We’re shipping now.”

The new road map suggests Meta’s in-house chips will focus more on inference, which has more predictable workloads, over training — a technically more demanding area dominated by Nvidia:

“MTIA 300 will be used for ranking and recommendations training, and is already in production. MTIA 400, 450 and 500 will be capable of handling all workloads, but we will primarily use these chips to support GenAI inference production in the near future and into 2027.”

Meta CFO Susan Li told attendees at Morgan Stanley’s tech conference earlier this month that the company “eventually” plans to expand its custom chip design to include training models.

Expanding Meta’s Custom Silicon to Power Our AI Workloads

Early in its recent conference call, Broadcom CEO Hock Tan sought to reassure investors that the custom chip specialist’s relationship with the social media giant was only getting stronger.

“Now contrary to recent analyst reports, Meta’s custom accelerator MTIA road map is alive and well,” he said. “We’re shipping now.”

The new road map suggests Meta’s in-house chips will focus more on inference, which has more predictable workloads, over training — a technically more demanding area dominated by Nvidia:

“MTIA 300 will be used for ranking and recommendations training, and is already in production. MTIA 400, 450 and 500 will be capable of handling all workloads, but we will primarily use these chips to support GenAI inference production in the near future and into 2027.”

Meta CFO Susan Li told attendees at Morgan Stanley’s tech conference earlier this month that the company “eventually” plans to expand its custom chip design to include training models.

David Crowther, Claire Yubin Oh

Perp walk

Perplexity has been left behind in the AI wars

Once touted as a potential Google killer, the AI search engine’s traffic has been flat over the last year, while peers like Claude have surged ahead.

Amazon Wins Suit Against Perplexity, Blocking AI Shopping Agent

Rani Molla4h

Uber jumps on news it’s partnering with Amazon’s Zoox in Las Vegas and Los Angeles

Uber jumped premarket after announcing it will offer rides in Amazon-owned Zoox autonomous vehicles on its platform in Las Vegas later this summer and Los Angeles in the middle of next year, as part of a multiyear agreement. Zoox is currently testing in 10 US markets, while it’s available to the public in Las Vegas and select users in the Bay Area.

Uber separately announced a partnership with Serve Robotics and White Castle today to deliver food in Serve’s autonomous sidewalk robots.

Zoox is partnering with Uber | Zoox

Rani Molla4h

Tesla accelerates AI agent push as xAI’s Macrohard falters

Painting “MACROHARD” on the roof of an xAI data center hasn’t been enough to bring the company’s core AI office worker to life. Business Insider reports that the effort to compete with Microsoft has stalled amid staff and leadership departures and what appears to be a hiring freeze.

At the same time, Elon Musk’s public company, Tesla, seems to be accelerating its own AI agent project, dubbed “Digital Optimus.” It’s meant to perform tasks on a computer much like the Optimus robot would do in the real world.

Unlike Macrohard’s screenshot-based training approach, Tesla’s effort reportedly mirrors its Full Self-Driving system, processing information in real time rather than step by step.

Add this to the growing list of ways Musk’s empire is blurring together: SpaceX merged with xAI in February, and now Tesla appears to be absorbing one of xAI’s most ambitious projects, with some of Macrohard’s work and computing resources reportedly shifting to Tesla’s Autopilot team.

XAI's Macrohard project stalls as Tesla ramps up a similar AI agent effort

Unlike Macrohard’s screenshot-based training approach, Tesla’s effort reportedly mirrors its Full Self-Driving system, processing information in real time rather than step by step.

Rani Molla23h

Salesforce reportedly planning $25 billion bond sale to help fund $50 billion buyback

When Salesforce reported earnings last month, it announced a $50 billion share buyback as a show of confidence in its position at a time when investors are questioning AI’s impact on enterprise software. Now, to help fund that buyback, the company is reportedly seeking to sell up to $25 billion in debt — a record sum for Salesforce that could test investor appetite for a more leveraged balance sheet.

Moody’s Ratings called funding the buyback via a bond sale “a material shift in financial policy” and downgraded Salesforce’s credit rating to A2. S&P Global Ratings also lowered its outlook to negative.

Salesforce Plans to Raise Up to $25 Billion to Fund Buybacks

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