tech

Rani Molla6/11/25

Snap spikes after becoming the latest tech company to announce AI glasses

Snap is trading higher today after the company announced yesterday it would be debuting new AI-powered smart glasses next year.

“The tiny smartphone limited our imagination,” Snap CEO Evan Spiegel told the audience at Augmented World Expo 2025 yesterday. “It forced us to look down at a screen instead of up at the world.”

For Snap, this is only the latest iteration of its line of smart glasses introduced in 2016, called Spectacles, which heretofore has mostly been a flop. The next generation, now abbreviated to Specs, “are uniquely positioned to understand the world through advanced machine learning [and] bring AI assistance into three-dimensional space,” the company says.

Snap, however, is joining pretty much every major tech company in telling us that AI-powered smart devices that aren’t phones are the future. As we’ve noted, those devices still need phones to work, and just because Silicon Valley happens to be pumped about face computers doesn’t mean people will buy them.

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Report: OpenAI may tailor a version of ChatGPT for UAE that prohibits LGBTQ+ content

in June of last year, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman appeared in Abu Dhabi, UAE along side Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang to announce “Stargate UAE,” a project that includes a 1-gigawatt AI data center in Abu Dhabi, and a commitment to invest in the Stargate USA project.

OpenAI has announced that it is interested in jumping on the “sovereign AI” train, helping countries roll out their own AI services that reflect their own language, culture, and version of history.

Today, Semafor is reporting that OpenAI is in talks to develop a tailored version of ChatGPT for UAE that would align with the kingdom’s conservative social laws and speech restrictions, such as disallowing discussion of LGBTQ+ content. The UAE-owned MGX investment firm is an investor in OpenAI.

The company announced its OpenAI for Countries initiative in May of last year, which aims to “help interested governments build sovereign AI capability in coordination with the U.S. government—rooted in democratic values, open markets, and trusted partnerships.”

The UAE is a monarchy with a history of human rights violations.

OpenAI’s plan for “democratic AI”

OpenAI’s plan for “democratic AI”

OpenAI has announced that it is interested in jumping on the “sovereign AI” train, helping countries roll out their own AI services that reflect their own language, culture, and version of history.

Today, Semafor is reporting that OpenAI is in talks to develop a tailored version of ChatGPT for UAE that would align with the kingdom’s conservative social laws and speech restrictions, such as disallowing discussion of LGBTQ+ content. The UAE-owned MGX investment firm is an investor in OpenAI.

The company announced its OpenAI for Countries initiative in May of last year, which aims to “help interested governments build sovereign AI capability in coordination with the U.S. government—rooted in democratic values, open markets, and trusted partnerships.”

The UAE is a monarchy with a history of human rights violations.

Allen & Co Brings Together Media And Tech Titans In Sun Valley

Analysts think Amazon’s sky-high capex is a good thing, even if there’s “shock value” for investors

That said, several analysts also lowered their price targets for Amazon the day after its downbeat earnings report.

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Big Tech’s $1.1 trillion cloud computing backlog

Now that the big dogs of cloud computing have all reported their quarterly earnings, we can step back and get a sense of the searing demand that AI is driving toward their businesses.

Amazon, Google, and Microsoft each reported hundreds of billions in RPO (remaining performance obligations) — signed contracts for cloud computing services that can’t yet be filled and haven’t yet hit the books.

Collectively, the big three cloud providers reported a $1.1 TRILLION backlog of revenue.

This gargantuan demand could be good news for the “neoscalers” like CoreWeave and Nebius. But even CoreWeave is reporting a substantial backlog of its own — $55 billion last quarter.

Apple of another’s AI

Apple is the only Big Tech company whose capex declined last quarter

One of these companies is not like the others.

Apple Headquarters in Cupertino of California

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Big Tech capital expenditure soared in 2025. It’s going up another 50% in 2026.

Last quarter was one for the record books when it came to Big Tech’s purchases of property and equipment. Combined, Amazon, Alphabet, Microsoft, and Meta spent nearly $400 billion on capex, sans leases, in total last year, mostly in service of building out the AI infrastructure that they hope will furnish their futures.

And 2026 is only getting more expensive.

The four are expected to spend 50% more in 2026 than in 2025: roughly $600 billion. Amazon said it’s on the hook for $200 billion in capex this year, while Google expects to spend between $175 billion and $185 billion. Not too far behind, Meta estimated its 2026 capex would be $115 billion to $135 billion. Microsoft didn’t give an estimate, but analysts have its 2026 calendar year capex at around $114 billion. However, it should be noted that analysts’ expectations for 2026 were way lower than the reality for the rest.

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