data and ai company

AMD's data center segment is now the primary driver of revenue and earnings growth, with a 57% increase reported in the first quarter. The company provided a higher-than-expected revenue forecast for the current quarter, signaling continued strong demand for AI-related chips.

Oracle faces a significant bank-debt challenge due to its massive data centre expansion for OpenAI, reportedly requiring $300 billion. Lenders struggle with exposure limits, impacting their ability to finance these projects. This comes as Oracle also plans substantial job cuts, highlighting financial pressures despite efforts to secure funding.

Asia Pacific organizations are shifting from cloud-first to multi-hybrid cloud strategies, modernizing private infrastructure to boost competitiveness and AI capabilities. This move embraces flexibility, financial control, and workload optimization, with a notable trend of workload repatriation driven by cybersecurity and performance needs.

Anthropic has secured significant compute capacity from Elon Musk's SpaceX, leasing the "Colossus 1" data center to bolster its AI model development. This deal, providing over 300 megawatts, is a major step in Anthropic's infrastructure expansion to rival competitors like OpenAI. The partnership also includes future plans for orbital AI compute capacity.

The Gates Foundation Trust holds a significant $3.6 billion stake in Caterpillar, a company increasingly vital for AI infrastructure. Caterpillar's Power Generation business is booming due to data center demand, with its stock soaring 183% in a year. This investment comes as the foundation itself announces substantial job cuts, impacting 20% of its workforce.

A Chinese court has delivered a landmark ruling. Companies cannot dismiss employees to replace them with AI. This decision protects worker rights amid rapid AI adoption. A tech company unlawfully fired a supervisor whose tasks were taken over by AI. The court found AI replacement is not a major change justifying contract termination.

Amazon CEO Andy Jassy reassured investors about significant AI spending, calling it a major technological transformation that will drive long-term growth. He cited the rapid success of AWS as a precedent, emphasizing that upfront capital expenditure on infrastructure like data centers will yield substantial returns over time, ultimately improving financial performance.

KPMG's advisory division, with 10,000 employees, now uses a dashboard to track AI usage, aiming for more frequent and sophisticated adoption. The company believes regular AI users produce higher-quality work and feel less stressed. While over 90% of US employees use AI weekly, some express concerns about the dashboard's accuracy and potential for manipulation.

Mahesh Kumar Goyal, Senior Data and AI Expert at Google LLC, urged enterprises to treat legacy systems as critical foundations for artificial intelligence rather than outdated technical debt. He warned against greenfield innovation and said AI and modernization must be unified, calling separation an architectural lie that produces impressive demos but weak real-world systems. Highlighting MCP and GraphRAG, he said they connect AI with legacy data, reduce risks, and unlock institutional knowledge for enterprises globally.

Google-parent Alphabet is close to becoming the world's most valuable company. A strong stock rally, booming cloud business, and AI advancements are driving this surge. Alphabet's significant AI investments are now paying off. Its Google Cloud segment shows rapid growth. Alphabet is also competing with Nvidia in selling custom AI chips.

US lawmakers are investigating Airbnb and AI firm Anysphere over their use of Chinese AI models, citing national security concerns. Concerns stem from potential data risks and vulnerabilities associated with AI trained by China's censorship regime. Airbnb CEO previously highlighted reliance on Alibaba's Qwen model for its speed and cost-effectiveness.

Amazon is reportedly shifting its hiring strategy towards AI, with its largest recruitment drive in 2026 expected to heavily utilize AI-led interviews via its new Connect Talent platform. This system aims to automate screening, interviews, and note generation for large-scale hiring, including seasonal roles, with minimal human involvement.

Former Tesla HR chief Valerie Capers Workman believes fears of AI replacing white-collar jobs are overstated. She suggests AI will augment human capabilities, allowing professionals to focus on strategic tasks rather than being entirely replaced. Workman urges adaptation and skill-building to leverage AI for business outcomes, predicting a more productive future.

Tech layoffs in 2026 have already surpassed 92,000 jobs across 98 companies, making it the worst year for tech employment since the post-pandemic bust. Meta, Amazon, Microsoft, Snap, Oracle, and Block are among the biggest names cutting staff, with AI infrastructure spending cited as the primary driver. But beneath the efficiency narrative lies a more complicated story—one of overhiring, debt, and a workforce reckoning that's far from over.

The Pentagon has signed agreements with seven major AI companies, including SpaceX and Google, to deploy their technology on classified military networks. These deals aim to bolster national security by integrating AI into high-tier environments for intelligence and battlefield support. Notably, Anthropic was excluded following a dispute over AI usage limitations.

A Microsoft study reveals workplace culture, not technology, hinders AI adoption. Employees are eager, but outdated systems, incentives, and leadership alignment lag. Despite fears of falling behind, few feel rewarded for AI experimentation. Companies must restructure work processes to truly leverage AI's potential, according to the report.

Amazon is now offering all employees access to external AI coding tools like Anthropic's Claude Code and OpenAI's Codex, a move driven by developer demand. Previously restricted, these powerful assistants will now run on Amazon Bedrock, enhancing infrastructure and providing developers with more choices beyond the in-house Kiro tool, reflecting Amazon's deepening AI partnerships.

Palantir CEO Alex Karp urges AI companies to abandon "AI slop" and focus on functional software services, citing the company's significant growth driven by demand for its platform. He contrasts Palantir's "actual results" rooted in data with low-quality AI content, emphasizing the platform's impact on essential infrastructure and the battlefield.

LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman is pushing back on the wave of tech layoffs being pinned on AI, warning that the label often hides older drivers like pandemic-era overhiring. In a post on X, Hoffman urged people not to ignore "other factors, including hiring trends 2020-2023." His comment lands amid major job cuts at Coinbase, Meta, Snap and Block.