(Sherwood News)

Microsoft, Amazon, and Google all have cumulonimbus-sized cloud backlogs

The top cloud companies can’t keep up with the searing demand for AI computing.

10/31/25 3:15PM

Now that Microsoft, Amazon, and Google have reported their earnings, we can get a deeper look at just how much demand for AI computing is fueling their record revenues.

The big three cloud companies all saw double-digit revenue growth (year on year) for their cloud businesses, and are pledging huge capital expenditure spending to meet the white-hot demand.

Microsoft reversed course from its earlier guidance for slowing capex growth, and now is expecting FY 2026 to be higher. Amazon said that it will rack up $125 billion in capex spending by the end of the year, and Google said it should end this year with between $91 billion and $93 billion in capex.

Last quarter alone, Amazon, Google, Microsoft, and Meta spent nearly $100 billion on capex to build massive data centers and buy billions’ worth of Nvidia GPUs, which will hopefully make a dent in all of that booked cloud business.

Jon Keegan12h

Google testing Gemini app for Mac, aims to compete with Claude Cowork and Codex

Bloomberg reports that Google is testing a new version of its Gemini AI app that runs on Apple’s Mac computers.

Currently both OpenAI’s Codex and Anthropic’s Claude have Mac apps, which allow for deeper AI automation with files on the computer.

Google is testing a feature called Desktop Intelligence, which grants Gemini access to the items on the user’s screen, according to the report. The app is currently in beta testing.

Google Begins Testing Gemini Mac App to Match ChatGPT and Claude

Google is testing a feature called Desktop Intelligence, which grants Gemini access to the items on the user’s screen, according to the report. The app is currently in beta testing.

Jon Keegan13h

Bezos seeks $100 billion for AI-enhanced manufacturing fund, WSJ reports

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos is seeking to raise a $100 billion fund that would purchase manufacturing companies and use AI to automate their work processes, according to a new report from The Wall Street Journal.

The fund would use technology from Project Prometheus, where Bezos was recently named co-CEO. The startup aims to apply the latest generative-AI breakthroughs to reinvent industrial manufacturing.

The $100 billion fund would be used to buy existing manufacturing businesses to transform, per the report.

Bezos has reportedly met with the heads of sovereign wealth funds in the Middle East and recently traveled to Singapore as part of the fundraising effort.

Exclusive | Jeff Bezos in Talks to Raise $100 Billion for AI Manufacturing Fund

The $100 billion fund would be used to buy existing manufacturing businesses to transform, per the report.

Bezos has reportedly met with the heads of sovereign wealth funds in the Middle East and recently traveled to Singapore as part of the fundraising effort.

Jon Keegan16h

OpenAI acquires Astral, adding talent to Codex team

OpenAI has acquired open-source Python tool developer Astral, bringing aboard additional coding talent for its Codex team.

The company said the acquisition will help Codex “expand beyond coding” by helping address a wider range of development tasks, such as planning, testing, and code maintenance.

OpenAI said Codex has seen “3x user growth and 5x usage increase” since the start of 2026, and has over 2 million weekly active users.

Software development is emerging as one of the key battlegrounds where OpenAI is competing for market share with Anthropic, which has been enjoying success with its Claude Code product.

OpenAI said it will continue to support Astral’s open-source software projects.

OpenAI to acquire Astral

OpenAI said Codex has seen “3x user growth and 5x usage increase” since the start of 2026, and has over 2 million weekly active users.

Software development is emerging as one of the key battlegrounds where OpenAI is competing for market share with Anthropic, which has been enjoying success with its Claude Code product.

OpenAI said it will continue to support Astral’s open-source software projects.

Rani Molla17h

Elon Musk gives an estimate for Tesla’s AI6 chip timeline... while the AI5 is still unfinished

Tesla CEO Elon Musk said yesterday that the company’s AI6 chip could, with “some luck and acceleration using AI,” be finalized and sent to manufacturing by December. For those paying attention, Tesla hasn’t confirmed that its previous chip, the AI5, has reached tape-out, with Musk saying only that the design is in “good shape” and “almost done.” Still, Musk is already talking about subsequent chips AI6, AI7, AI8, and beyond.

Here’s a roundup of when these chips are expected, what they’re supposed to do, and what Musk himself has said about them.

While the AI5 and AI6 will be made by TSMC and Samsung, respectively, Musk has said Tesla eventually aims to manufacture its future AI chips at Tesla’s upcoming Terafab factory in Austin.

Rani Molla19h

NHTSA expands Tesla FSD probe, focusing on whether system can detect when cameras can’t see the road

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said it is expanding its probe into Tesla’s Full Self-Driving system into an engineering analysis covering about 3.2 million Teslas, a majority of its vehicles that are on the road in the US, Reuters reports.

The agency is focusing on Tesla’s “degradation detection system,” which is meant to recognize when its camera-based technology cannot reliably perceive the road and prompt drivers to intervene:

“Available incident data raise concerns that Tesla’s degradation detection system, both as originally deployed and later updated, fails to detect and/or warn the driver appropriately under degraded visibility conditions such as glare and airborne obscurants. In the crashes that ODI has reviewed, the system did not detect common roadway conditions that impaired camera visibility and/or provide alerts when camera performance had deteriorated until immediately before the crash occurred.”

Tesla CEO Elon Musk has long argued that the company’s self-driving approach does not require the expensive lidar sensors used by rivals such as Waymo.

NHTSA deepens probe into Tesla's driver-assistance system