TNB Tech Minute: Nvidia Joins $160 Million Funding for Applied Digital

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[00:00:31] [SPEAKER_00]: Here's your TNB Tech Minute for Thursday, September 5th.

[00:00:35] [SPEAKER_00]: I'm Zoe Thomas for The Wall Street Journal.

[00:00:38] [SPEAKER_00]: Applied Digital is raising $160 million in financing from investors including chip giant Nvidia.

[00:00:46] [SPEAKER_00]: Applied Digital builds and leases out data center space.

[00:00:50] [SPEAKER_00]: It's also started an AI cloud computing operation fueled by Nvidia's chips.

[00:00:55] [SPEAKER_00]: Investors will purchase new shares of the NASDAQ-listed company.

[00:00:58] [SPEAKER_00]: Applied Digital's CEO said the money will be used to fund the company's growth

[00:01:02] [SPEAKER_00]: and to help underpin planned debt financing deals.

[00:01:07] [SPEAKER_00]: A new firm from OpenAI co-founder Ilya Sutskover has raised $1 billion from investors.

[00:01:14] [SPEAKER_00]: Safe Superintelligence or SSI, which launched in June, aims to build

[00:01:18] [SPEAKER_00]: quote, safe artificial intelligence models.

[00:01:21] [SPEAKER_00]: In a post on X, SSI said its investors include Andreesen Horowitz, Sequoia Capital and SV Angel.

[00:01:28] [SPEAKER_00]: Ilya Sutskover left OpenAI in May, a few months after helping with the initial

[00:01:33] [SPEAKER_00]: ousting of CEO Sam Altman. He says he regretted that move days later.

[00:01:38] [SPEAKER_00]: News Corp., owner of The Wall Street Journal and Dow Jones Newswires,

[00:01:42] [SPEAKER_00]: has a content licensing partnership with OpenAI.

[00:01:46] [SPEAKER_00]: And Verizon is buying the largest pure-play fiber internet provider in the U.S.,

[00:01:51] [SPEAKER_00]: Frontier Communications, in a $20 billion all-cash deal.

[00:01:55] [SPEAKER_00]: The deal would significantly expand Verizon's fiber footprint across the U.S.

[00:02:01] [SPEAKER_00]: It's expected to close in about 18 months.

[00:02:04] [SPEAKER_00]: Verizon already has 7.2 million fiber locations.

[00:02:08] [SPEAKER_00]: It says it plans to build out an additional 2.8 million fiber locations by the end of 2026.

[00:02:14] [SPEAKER_00]: For a deeper dive into what's happening in tech, check out Friday's Tech News Briefing podcast.