AMD takes on Nvidia, US takes on Chinese AI models and AI spending still spooks investors

AMD takes on Nvidia, US takes on Chinese AI models and AI spending still spooks investors Maybe Nvidia ultimately won’t win the entire AI enchilada, even as it reminded everyone this week that it offers everything you need to build AI factories. This week, Advanced Micro Devices also announced a raft of new graphics processing units, central processing units and other processors for physical AI and robotics. Nvidia may need to look over its shoulder, but it’s still the king, and looks stronger than ever. As theCUBE Research’s Dave Vellante noted, AMD CEO Lisa Su engineered an incredible turnaround, but this next one requires an entirely new kind of reinvention. The entire AI industry is also looking over its shoulder as Chinese models continue to surprise with their frontier-level capabilities — this week from Alibaba, for one. And the AI code repository Hugging Face also employed China’s Z.ai model to battle attackers after U.S. models didn’t allow it. Meantime, OpenAI said its own AI models broke out of testing and hacked Hugging Face, and U.S. lawmakers are proposing a “kill switch” for such situations. Anyway, the government is looking askance at the rise of Chinese models, accusing Moonshot AI of “distilling” other models to power its latest Kimi model that debuted last week. And it may crack down on Chinese model makers — though many people, including Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, think the charges of distillation ring a bit hollow. Investors remain unconvinced that AI will pay off for big tech companies. Alphabet had quite an impressive quarter, but its stock fell almost 15% Thursday, and Tesla’s shares fell almost 7%, on rising worries about all the costs of chasing the AI boom. IBM’s in a bit of a different pickle, as CEO Arvind Krishna again noted that despite rising AI business, the company didn’t have the products customers wanted, and its shares are down about 30% on the year. Others fared better, even if investors were still wary. Thanks to the demand for CPUs for running AI models, Intel crushed its second quarter. And even SAP, still laboring under fears that AI will crush enterprise software, had a big earnings beat. Two more big tech earnings weeks are coming up that will shed further light on whether the AI push is paying off — next week headlined by Microsoft, Meta, Amazon and Apple, the following week including AMD, Palantir and many others. This column will be on vacation for the next two weeks, returning Aug. 14. Enjoy the summer! But our reporters and analysts will be posting as usual throughout, so you can always see the latest on SiliconANGLE.com. Here’s all of this week’s enterprise and emerging-tech news and analysis from SiliconANGLE, theCUBE Research and beyond: Analysis, opinion and food for thought Why the next battle for technology IPOs begins years before companies go public Mark Zuckerberg launches AI optimism campaign He’s got to be kidding, right? Understanding the AI economy: Latest study from Google says AI is helping workers, not replacing them Data centers expected to use 4x more electricity by 2035 AI and data: China’s AI models put US on edge Policy Senior White House official accuses Moonshot AI of copying Anthropic’s leading frontier model US Treasury Secretary Bessent threatens sanctions against Chinese AI model makers Lawmakers call for a ‘kill switch’ after rogue AI causes alarm Anthropic settles with authors and publishers for $1.5B in landmark copyright case New models and services OpenAI launches Health in ChatGPT a day after lawsuit seeks to block it Google expands Gemini with cheaper models and a bug-hunter it keeps on a leash Alibaba previews Qwen3.8, claims it’s second only to Claude Fable 5 Cisco releases Antares, open-weight small models for locating code vulnerabilities Databricks and Microsoft expand Azure partnership into the 2030s OpenAI introduces Presence to help enterprises build AI agents Block launches Buzz, an open-source workspace for humans and AI agents Harness launches Agent DLC for developers to deploy AI agents using familiar processes and tools WekaIO revamps its AI data storage platform and unveils its first hardware for agentic workloads Komodor’s autonomous site reliability engineer Klaudia gets a better memory to reduce cloud complexity Exclusive: Speakeasy service tracks enterprise-wide AI agent spending ShelterZoom subsidiary Mithra launches AI ‘trust infrastructure’ platform Money matters AI materials science startup CuspAI raises $450M in funding Stripe reportedly in talks to buy buzzy AI model marketplace OpenRouter Sierra acquires TakeOff, the long-horizon AI agent platform Ropedia raises $22M to scale human-centric data collection for embodied AI SkyPilot nabs $20M to ease AI infrastructure management Infinity raises $15M to run AI inference on any chipset Real-time speech intelligence startup Cast Insights raises $4.5M to track the world’s TV, radio and podcasts Legal AI startup Vikk AI raises $4.2M to build lawyer ads inside AI search Around the enterprise: AMD rising New products and services Coverage around the AMD Advancing AI event: AMD debuts next-generation AI infrastructure for frontier models, agentic workloads and autonomous robots Microsoft to use AMD’s AI-optimized Helios racks in Azure AI infrastructure systems redefine the AMD-Nvidia rivalry as inference reshapes the market Jensen says not so fast: Nvidia doubles down on AI factories as it showcases massive Vera Rubin performance gains Analysis from Zeus Kerravala: Nvidia Vera Rubin: Inside the agentic AI factory that rewrites the CPU playbook Anthropic to buy up to 2 gigawatts of GPU capacity from AMD And ICYMI, Dave Vellante’s pre-event analysis to put it all in context: AMD’s next reinvention: A new playbook for the AI era Yikes, if even a quarter of all this is true, that’s a Meta mess: Meta’s infrastructure team needs a culture reset (per SemiAnalysis) Google reportedly developing ‘Frozen v2’ AI chip optimized for Gemini models Intel to manufacture firewall chips for Fortinet, its first public foundry customer Oracle debuts Base Database Cloud@Customer system for on-premises databases Whop releases command-line interface to let business owners and their AI agents access digital commerce Earnings Alphabet’s stock sinks after it bumps up AI infrastructure spending yet again IBM cuts outlook as software and mainframe weakness weighs on results Intel posts its highest revenue growth in 15 years, crushing expectations in its latest results SAP shrugs off fears of AI eating software with big earnings beat AI server maker Supermicro’s stock gains on $60B order backlog and stronger margins ServiceNow beats estimates and raises outlook as AI passes $1B in bookings Tesla earnings miss despite strong EV sales; Elon Musk preaches robotaxi caution Texas Instruments beats Q2 2026 estimates, shares fall after hours Mobileye reports bullish Q2 but stock drops Pegasystems stock tumbles 10% as AI challenges drive Q2 earnings, revenue miss STMicroelectronics profit misses estimates, shares fall 14% RingCentral earnings beat, revenue tops estimates Other money matters Oracle secures $7B contract to supply the Pentagon with vital software and services Travis Kalanick’s industrial automation startup Atoms raises $1.7B in funding Mistral AI strikes multibillion-dollar deal with Microsoft to build out Azure infrastructure in Europe AI data center builder Fluidstack raises $830M at $7.5B valuation AI chip startup Etched more than doubles valuation in new $300M round Policy France to become first EU nation to ban social media for children under 15 Cyber beat: OpenAI agents go rogue Attack & response OpenAI says its own AI models broke out of testing and hacked Hugging Face Hugging Face uses open-weights Z.ai GLM 5.2 to battle attacker after commercial frontier model refusal New services Box adds security controls to govern AI agents working with enterprise content Exclusive: Fig launches Figaro AI agent and brings CI/CD to security operations Google rolls out selfie video sign-in for account recovery Cato Networks and CrowdStrike partner to unify network and endpoint security NowSecure adds AI-native testing to keep pace with AI-built mobile apps Ivanti adds predictive remediation to get ahead of the patch backlog Lookout launches tool to expose vulnerable code hidden inside mobile apps Swimlane launches AI security operations center for managed security services providers OneSpan debuts DigipassONE platform to modernize bank authentication AWS turns Security Hub into an AI and multicloud security control plane Money matters AI-native endpoint security startup Glow is born a unicorn after raising $180M Neo Security bags $100M to build the secure control layer for enterprise AI agents AegisAI banks $36M as AI spear-phishing surges fivefold in a year Abstract Security raises $25M Series A extension, recurring revenue up 380% Exclusive: StrongestLayer raises $4.1M for reasoning-based email security Elsewhere in tech: Robots march on Humanoid raises $152M at $1.35B valuation to bring human-like robots into factories IBM acquires quantum computing research lab HRL Bluecore Energy raises $10M to put nuclear reactors on barges Comings and goings Amazon cut jobs in its artificial general intelligence group as it reportedly shuts its AI agent research lab. Hmm. Monday.com cut 20% of workforce as it restructures for the AI era. Mobileye founder and CEO Amnon Shashua is stepping down after 27 years. No successor was named as a CEO search gets underway. Meta named Assaf Keren, a former chief security officer at Qualtrics and a former chief information security officer at PayPal, as its next CISO, succeeding Guy Rosen, who will leave in 2026 (per Bloomberg). Chris Hall, Trump’s latest AI czar, has already resigned after three months. What’s next Earnings Monday, July 27: Cadence, F5 Networks Tuesday, July 28: Commvault, PayPal, NXP Semi, Seagate Wednesday, July 29: Microsoft, Qualcomm, Arm, Samsung, Meta, Equinix, Tenable, Fortinet, Robinhood, Check Point Software Thursday, July 30: Amazon, Apple, Coinbase, Rivian Image: SiliconANGLE/Reve A message from John Furrier, co-founder of SiliconANGLE: Support our mission to keep content open and free by engaging with theCUBE community. 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