BIG TECH

AMD, Oracle partnership highlights Nvidia rivalry

AMD is putting up a fight in the battle for AI chip dominance.

On Tuesday, the company announced a partnership with Oracle to deploy thousands of its upcoming MI450 chips over the next year. Oracle will use 50,000 of its chips in data centers starting in the third quarter of next year, with plans to expand into 2027. 

“Together, AMD and Oracle are accelerating AI with open, optimized, and secure systems built for massive AI data centers,” said Forrest Norrod, executive vice president and general manager of data center solutions at AMD, in the announcement. 

AMD sits as the biggest competitor to Nvidia, angling to strengthen its place in the market with partnerships like this and its deal with OpenAI announced last week. Still, the gap between Nvidia and any rival in the AI chip space is vast. 

For reference, though AMD shipped 100,000 AI processors during the second quarter, Nvidia shipped 1.5 million during that same period, according to IDC data reported by Bloomberg. 

Plus, Nvidia’s dominance goes beyond lucrative partnerships and multi-billion-dollar investments. On Monday, the company announced that it’s donating its Vera Rubin architecture to the Open Compute Project, a project that sets standards and frameworks for data center design, allowing any company to implement it in its data centers. 

In doing so, Nvidia could enable its technology to become the foundation for so-called “gigawatt AI factories,” or data centers purpose-built for AI. 

Nvidia has set itself far apart from any rivals in the AI chip space, with sales outpacing competitors and demand outstripping supply. That influence wasn’t just built through partnerships, but also through investments, backing companies like OpenAI, Mistral, Reflection and Inflection. This sway could help solidify its technology as not just an option among AI infrastructure providers, but the standard for future data centers. 

That kind of pull may be hard for players like AMD to fight against.

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CONSUMER

Oura raises $900 million for AI push

AI is getting closer to us than ever before. 

Oura, a startup that creates health-tracking rings, raised $900 million in funding in a round led by Fidelity. The company claims its valuation now sits at around $11 billion, more than twice the amount of its previous valuation of $5.2 billion in December. 

The funding will accelerate the company’s AI and product innovations and fuel its global expansion, Oura said in a press release announcing the news. Oura said that it has sold more than 5.5 million rings since its debut in 2015, with over half of those sales occurring in the past year. The company is on track to hit $1 billion in annual sales this year. 

“Today, our technology supports consumers, employers, insurers, and clinicians working together to advance preventive health at scale,” CEO Tom Hale said in the announcement. 

Oura isn’t the only health tech company that’s leaning into AI. 

• Tonal, a home workout tech firm, said on Tuesday that it is expanding its AI-powered pilates classes to offer personalized workouts to 150,000 members. 

• In early October, Peloton unveiled a portfolio overhaul that includes AI-powered personal coaching that relies on computer vision for personalized guidance and tracking. 

• And Apple, one of the largest purveyors of health tech devices with its watch, now uses AI in place of blood pressure monitors to track spikes in blood pressure. 

As these companies get swept up in the broader AI frenzy, this tech stands to get closer and closer to its users in order to provide personalization that’s actually useful. However, given the popularity of these devices, consumers appear to be growing increasingly comfortable with the reality that they may be sacrificing privacy for utility. 

TOGETHER WITH TELEPORT

AI is plugging into your infrastructure—how closely are you watching?

Agentic AI systems using MCP, also sometimes called “USB-C for AI,” now access databases, APIs, and cloud applications autonomously—often bypassing many security guardrails.

In this blog, Teleport and AWS break down how to secure these workflows with ephemeral identity, Zero Trust, and real-time auditability—treating AI like any other privileged system.

See how to enforce least privilege for AI agents on AWS

WORLD

Big tech invests in India

On Tuesday, Google’s parent company, Alphabet, announced $24 billion investment in AI infrastructure, with $15 billion of that pot allocated for development in India. 

The investment will take place over the next five years, establishing an AI hub in India that includes a data center campus, gigawatt-scale compute capacity and the construction of an international subsea gateway. 

The deal is the company’s largest investment in India thus far, and marks the latest in a string of investments by major tech firms in India as demand for AI in the country skyrockets. 

• Last week, Anthropic announced plans to expand its global operations in India with the opening of an office in Bengaluru in early 2026, aiming to “serve India’s rapidly growing AI ecosystem.” Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei also met with Prime Minister Narendra Modi last week to discuss AI. 

• In August, OpenAI debuted a “Learning Accelerator” in India, which aims to bring AI to India’s teachers and students through “research, training, and deployment.” 

• Over the summer, Perplexity launched a partnership with Bharti Airtel, India’s second-largest telecom operator, to offer free subscription trials to Airtel customers. 

• And in January, Microsoft announced a $3 billion investment dedicated to cloud and AI infrastructure and adoption in India. 

Indian tech firms are reciprocating the love: Reliance Industries, a tech conglomerate run by India’s richest billionaire, Mukesh Ambani, has been forging partnerships with Google, Meta and Anthropic over the past several months to strengthen AI in the country.

LINKS

• Swedish startup Strawberry raises $6m to create an AI-powered browser

• AI-driven warehouse intelligence company Dexory raises $165m

• Anthropic and Salesforce expand partnership to bring Claude to regulated industries

• Microsoft to rent Nscale AI data center capacity in Portugal

• AI flood forecasting allows aid to reach farmers before disaster strikes

• Walmart partners with OpenAI to offer shopping on ChatGPT

• Firefox users can now set Perplexity as their default browser

• Suno AI: Create original songs with vocals and instruments from text prompts—no musical experience needed.

• Kandinsky 5.0 on fal: An open-source text-to-video model with cinematic quality at just $0.10 per 5-second video.

• Google Search & Discover: AI-powered features that surface trending topics and sports updates across the web.

• Mode Mobile: $75M+ revenue and 56K+ investors onboard. Accredited investors can still buy shares at just $0.50. (sponsored)

• Google DeepMind: Research Scientist, Model Optimization

• Amazon: Deep Learning Architect, Generative AI Innovation Center

• Harvey: Software Engineer, Product Security

• ServiceNow: Senior Applied Research Scientist

GAMES

POLL RESULTS

Do you believe AI will "supercharge humanity" as OpenAI leaders claim?

• Yes (28%)

• Partially (30%)

• No (25%)

• Too early to tell (17%)