Plus: Google moves AI responsibility unit out of DeepMind. And the FBI disrupts a China-linked hacking network. Julie Chang hosts.
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[00:00:01] [SPEAKER_00] Here's your afternoon TNB Tech Minute for Wednesday, August 26th. I'm Julie Chang for The Wall Street Journal. Nvidia posted another quarter of record earnings Wednesday, but its shares traded slightly lower in after-hours trading amid market concerns over AI spending. For the quarter ending in July, Nvidia reported record sales of over $96 billion, beating expectations.
[00:00:24] [SPEAKER_00] Net income of $59.7 billion and earnings per share also beat analysts' expectations by wide margins. A flurry of dealmaking activity and product-related news over the past few months has thrust Nvidia even closer to the center of the AI boom. These and other recent developments, including reports of sharp price increases on Nvidia servers due to capacity crunch in memory chips, have raised investors' eyebrows in recent weeks. Nvidia's stock price closed about 1.5% lower.
[00:00:53] [SPEAKER_00] Google is transferring its roughly 90-person AI responsibility unit from research lab DeepMind into its global affairs organization, which handles public policy and lobbying. That's according to an internal email viewed by the journal. The change follows a recent reorganization where DeepMind co-founder and CEO Demis Hassabis transitioned to a chairman role.
[00:01:15] [SPEAKER_00] Employees raised concerns that moving out of DeepMind will restrict their insight into Google's Gemini AI model development, hampering their ability to identify relevant research questions. However, Helen King, DeepMind's VP who runs the responsibility team, reassured staff via an internal email that the changes won't affect the team's day-to-day work and mission. Time magazine previously reported that Google was considering reorganizing some of DeepMind's safety teams.
[00:01:42] [SPEAKER_00] And U.S. officials say they disrupted a China-linked hacking operation which targeted government networks at NASA, the Federal Reserve, the Department of Energy, and the Senate, as well as power companies and hospitals. The FBI says the operation, which has been active since 2018, was run by Chinese firm Nanjing Xinjiawei Network Technology, which sells access to hacked networks and stolen information to China's foreign and military intelligence services.
[00:02:08] [SPEAKER_00] Nanjing Xinjiawei couldn't immediately be reached for comment, but China has previously denied that it engages in hacking. And that's your TNB Tech Minutes. Check back tomorrow morning for another Quick Tech Update. So yeah, I appreciate it.