Author: GW Alger

CNBC’s Steve Kovach joins ‘Power Lunch’ to report on Microsoft’s UAE AI deal.

Armed with more than $750 million in funding, Brett Adcock vows that Figure will become one of the most important businesses in the world. First, there is a lot of work to do. Adcock, the 38-year-old founder and CEO of robot maker Figure, is riding high. In January, the company announced a collaboration with BMW, with the goal of putting Figure’s robots to work at the German automaker’s Spartanburg, South Carolina manufacturing plant. Six weeks later, Figure raised $675 million at a $2.6 billion valuation from the likes of Microsoft, Nvidia, OpenAI Startup Fund and Jeff Bezos. At the same time, Figure signed a collaboration agreement with OpenAI to develop next generation AI models for humanoid robots. The valuation makes Adcock, who owns about 50% of the Sunnyvale, California company, a new billionaire. With his Figure stake and shares from a previous startup, he’s worth an estimated $1.4 billion. Even with all the money in the world, success is not assured.

I think a lot of people got wrong what Jensen Huang, Co-Founder and CEO of NVIDIA recently stated. It is easy to grab a “hot” statement without considering the full context and the more important message about what we as humanity should focus more in the age of AI.

I understand that most people don’t have time to sit through the full interview, thus I hope that this video provides a better context without creating unnecessary additional anxiety that we are all so familiar now in the face of AI and rapid change.

ASML is behind what’s arguably the most important technology in the world right now: extreme ultraviolet lithography machines. Without these $200 million EUV machines and the semiconductors they make, there’d be no artificial intelligence revolution and the global economy would begin to slow. While the machines made in the Netherlands are sold mostly to companies in Taiwan and South Korea – TSMC and Samsung – Intel was very late to the game. The US government meanwhile under both Donald Trump and Joe Biden has been scrambling to ensure none of the machines are sold to China.

Amazon CEO Andy Jassy joins CNBC’s ‘Squawk Box’ to discuss the state of the consumer, Amazon’s investment in AI, and much more.

Good and bad of latest AI models.

Since digital took over the world, analog has been sidelined into what seems like a niche interest at best. But this retro approach to computing, much like space operas, is both making a comeback because of its power and speed. What I really wanted to know, though, was this: How can analog computing impact our daily lives? Why might it be the future of AI? And what will that look like?