Friendship aside, AI comes first

Nearly a decade ago, Musk said , “A well-thought-out critique of whatever you’re doing is as valuable as gold. You should seek that from everyone you can, particularly your friends. Usually, your friends know what’s wrong, but they don’t want to tell you because they don’t want to hurt you”, particularly in the context of improving one’s work.?

Cut to the present: Musk has gone overboard and hurt his best bud Larry and the reasons are, well, justified.

Elon Musk wants to run fast?

Recently, Oracle and xAI ended their $10 billion cloud computing deal . The news sent Oracle’s stocks tumbling by 3% to close at $140.68 on Tuesday. Ellison is definitely not smiling.?

Ergo, comes a clarification post from Musk. “Our fundamental competitiveness depends on being faster than any other AI company. This is the only way to catch up,” he wrote.?

As a result, xAI has opted to build its own data centre rather than relying on Oracle’s cloud infrastructure. Musk’s firm is set to build one in Memphis, Tennessee, using NVIDIA chips supplied by Dell and Supermicro.

“Oracle is a great company; and there is another company that shows promise [which is] also involved in OpenAI GB200 cluster. But, when our fate depends on being the fastest by far, we must have our own hands on the steering wheel rather than be a backseat driver,” said Musk.

Musk’s AI startup xAI plans to purchase 100,000 NVIDIA? processors directly to construct what he claims will be “the most powerful AI training cluster in the world”.??

The real reason: The decision to cancel the xAI-Oracle deal comes in the backdrop of Oracle partnering with Microsoft to offer 100,000 NVIDIA Blackwell GPUs.?

In other words, Oracle will purchase the chips from NVIDIA and rent them to Microsoft, who will then make them available to OpenAI. The cluster is expected to be ready by the second quarter of 2025.?

Meanwhile, xAI has already acquired 24,000 H100 chips from NVIDIA through Oracle and is training its upcoming Grok 2, slated for release next month.

In other news, Microsoft has given up on the observer seat on OpenAI’s board as it is confident about the company’s direction and no longer sees the seat as necessary.?

Friendship: Still ON?

In a world of high-stakes investments, sometimes even billionaires like Ellison and Musk can find themselves on a rollercoaster ride of financial ups and downs.?

Ellison is a known car collector who embarked on an intriguing journey in 2018 when he invested in Tesla, the electric car maker led by the enigmatic Musk .?

While this investment may not have panned out as expected, Ellison's foray into Tesla was bold, to say the least. He disclosed the purchase of 3 million shares in the electric car company at the end of December 2022, only to witness Tesla's stocks tumble by a staggering 42%.?

Yet, despite the financial setback, Ellison remained steadfast in his support for Tesla. His investment was not solely about monetary gains; it was a testament to his belief in Tesla's mission to revolutionise the automotive industry.

United by passion?

In a surprising twist, Ellison joined Tesla's board in 2018, becoming an integral part of the company. This move resulted from a settlement with the SEC, which had challenged Musk's tweet claiming he had "secured" funding to take Tesla private at $420 a share.?

Ellison's presence on the board signified his commitment to Tesla's vision and signalled his alignment with Musk's ambitions.

The partnership between Ellison and Musk goes beyond Tesla's electric cars. Musk's ventures extend into space exploration with SpaceX, and Ellison has not been shy about voicing his admiration for Musk's rocket-landing feats. He exclaimed , "This guy is landing rockets on robot drones. Who else is landing rockets? Who are you?"?

Ellison's fascination with Musk's achievements in space exemplifies the mutual respect and admiration shared between these two tech titans.

Musk reportedly also got $1 billion from Ellison during his Twitter acquisition.?

Moreover, Ellison's willingness to invest in Musk's ventures, despite market fluctuations and financial uncertainties, showcases the power of visionaries. Both Ellison and Musk share a passion for pushing the boundaries of technology and innovation (and dislike Bill Gates ), making them a formidable team in the pursuit of solutions.

Check out the full story here. ?

Baidu Clocks 6,000 Driverless Rides Per Day in Wuhan

Baidu is clearly the darling of autonomous giants . Its robotaxis are currently available in four cities in China, including Wuhan, Beijing, Shanghai and Chongqing. In Wuhan alone, it caters to a population of seven to eight million covering an area of 3000 sq km.?

“Here in Wuhan, we have 6,000 driverless rides per day. So, all of them combined together is quite a big achievement,” said Helen K Pan , general manager and board of directors for Baidu Apollo, California, in an exclusive interaction with AIM.

Read the full story here .