Energy, AI and Profiting in Global Trade

In Korea, the egret is the symbol of long life.

The amounts that that Big Tech has spent on profiting with AI are truly staggering.

WSJ: Some of the world’s biggest tech companies showed this week how the tens of billions of dollars they have bet on the artificial intelligence boom are starting to pay off. They also warned bigger investments are coming.

Revenue from cloud businesses at Amazon.com , Microsoft and Google reached a total of $62.9 billion last quarter. That figure is up 22.2% from the same period last year and marked at least the fourth straight quarter in which their combined growth rate has increased.

A ccelerating growth in cloud computing is the surest sign yet that spending by AI customers is beginning to justify the huge investments tech giants are making in infrastructure to power the technology.

“Demand continues to be higher than our available capacity,” Microsoft Chief Financial Officer Amy Hood said on a call with analysts.

All three companies warned Wall Street that their spending will go higher in the coming months , as did Meta Platforms , which invests in the infrastructure for its own AI applications on Instagram, WhatsApp and Facebook.?

Meta plowed $8.3 billion into new property and equipment last quarter , up from $6.5 billion in the same quarter a year ago, as it seeks to build the world’s most-used AI assistant.?

“Our AI investments continue to require serious infrastructure, and I expect to continue investing significantly there,” Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg said.

My Comment: Clearly AI and Energy Development are related as data centers require more and more of energy to power data centers. One example of how global trade finance can be used to solve the energy needs of the Big Tech data centers without harming our environment involves Fuel Cell Energy of Danbury, Ct. and the Export-Import Bank of the U.S. where I worked for 4 years before retiring from banking.

Critically this process of financial support creates local high paying jobs and is profitable.

Washington, DC – The Export-Import Bank of the United States (EXIM) recently finalized a transaction under its Project & Structured Finance Program to support Connecticut-based exporter FuelCell Energy Inc.

The transaction is a loan guarantee of almost $10 million that will support the financing of fuel cell modules that will replace existing fuel cell modules at the Hwaseong Baran Industrial Complex in South Korea, the world's largest fuel cell platform. The upgraded molten-carbonate fuel cell modules will replace existing units at the complex, supplying baseload power to the Korean market. Fuel cells are a chemical-based process for producing electricity which convert?hydrogen and concentrated forms of hydrogen, such as methane, into electricity with only water and carbon dioxide as its byproducts.

My Comment:

Crucially, the carbon dioxide byproduct of the molten carbonate fuel cell process is linked to other industrial processes that utilize rather than release as pollution this carbon dioxide.

EXIM: “This transaction further underscores EXIM’s dedication to supporting environmentally beneficial exports as outlined in our charter,” said EXIM President and Chair Reta Jo Lewis. “In addition to being at the forefront of the global energy transition, I am pleased that we can continue advancing our mission to support domestic jobs by advancing U.S. exports.

My Additional Comment: From a geopolitical point of view, whereas North Korea, part of the Quartet of Chaos:

is sending thousands of its young to fight and die in Ukraine, South Korea is importing American innovation to solve its power needs, needs that invariably include those of its data centers.

Critical Thought: For a fraction of what it has spent, Big Tech could have profited by utilizing AI in global trade finance.

Continued

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