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Amazon Web Services CEO Adam Selipsky speaks at the Bloomberg Technology Summit in San Francisco on June 22, 2023.

David Paul Morris | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Amazon on Tuesday announced a new chatbot called Q for people to use at work.

The product, announced at Amazon Web Services’ Reinvent conference in Las Vegas, represents Amazon’s latest effort to challenge Microsoft and Google in productivity software. It comes one year after Microsoft-backed startup OpenAI launched its ChatGPT chatbot, which has popularized generative artificial intelligence for crafting human-like text in response to a few lines of human input.

A tier for business users will cost $20 per person per month. A version with additional features for developers and IT workers will cost $25 per person per month. The Copilot for Microsoft 365 and Duet AI for Google Workspace for business workers both cost $30 per person per month.

Initially, Q can help people understand the capabilities of AWS. People will be able to talk with it in communication apps such as Salesforce’s Slack and software developers’ text-editing applications, Adam Selipsky, CEO of AWS, said onstage at Reinvent. It will also appear in AWS’ online Management Console.

The tool can automatically make changes to source code so developers have less work to do, Selipsky said. The service will be able to connect to more than 40 enterprise systems, he said. That includes Microsoft 365, Dropbox, Salesforce and Zendesk, along with AWS’ S3 data-storage service. People will also be able to upload and ask questions about documents while interacting with Q.

“AWS Q will be a game changer for AWS customers who have a plethora of service options, oftentimes overlapping to navigate,” wrote Steven Dickens, vice president and practice leader at the Futurum Group, a technology industry research firm. “AWS has resisted the urge to make an AI assistant for each service in its portfolio and, as a result, I expect to see Q become widely adopted in the months ahead by both developers and cloud admins alike.”

Amazon has introduced a handful of end-user applications over the years. There are tools for managing supply chains, email, encrypted messaging, video calling, customer service and marketing outreach. None has been been a runaway hit, and much of the revenue AWS generates comes from core computing and storage services.

A preview version of Q is available now.

This is breaking news. Please check back for updates.

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Microsoft enters portable gaming with new ROG Xbox Ally devices

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Microsoft enters portable gaming with new ROG Xbox Ally devices

Microsoft ROG Xbox Ally and Ally X Handheld devices

Source: Xbox

Microsoft Xbox players will soon be able to take their favorite games anywhere with the launch of the new ROG Xbox Ally handhelds.

This is a first for Xbox, which has never released a handheld before.

The devices, developed in collaboration with ASUS, offer a full-screen Xbox experience meant for portable play.

Players will be able to access Xbox games, stream content, and play on the go with built-in support for cloud gaming.

“Players can look forward to an approachable gaming experience that travels with you wherever you go, featuring several new and first-of-their kind features on both devices,” Microsoft said in a press release.

The announcement follows last week’s debut of Nintendo‘s flagship Switch 2 and sets the stage for a new chapter in portable gaming.

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Vantage raises $820 million in a first-of-its-kind cloud and AI data center deal in Europe

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Vantage raises 0 million in a first-of-its-kind cloud and AI data center deal in Europe

U.S. data center operator Vantage has raised 720 million euros ($821.4 million) — the first of its kind deal in Europe.

The asset-backed securitization (ABS) deal, the first ever euro-denominated with data center assets on the continent, involves four data centers in Germany.

The company said it will be paying on average a 4.3% coupon on the bonds issued through the process.

In an ABS, Vantage raises money by using its data center infrastructure and future revenues from the facilities as collateral.

Vantage said it will use the funds primarily to pay off existing construction loans previously secured for the facilities.

“We believe the ABS market in particular is kind of best suited for our type of asset, which is real estate centric, high credit quality tenants, long term leases, something that is almost perfect for the ABS investor,” Sharif Metwalli, chief financial officer of Vantage Data Centers, told CNBC.

Vantage added that despite the large sum borrowed, the demand from investors exceeded the amount raised.

“So this transaction was actually pretty highly levered, frankly,” Rich Cosgray, senior vice president of global capital markets at Vantage Data Centers told CNBC. “It was higher leverage than our prior transaction and we had some investors that just weren’t comfortable at that leverage level.”

“Yet, despite that, we were basically two and four times oversubscribed on the respective financings, and we were able to tighten pricing pretty meaningfully through the marketing process,” Cosgray added.

The four facilities — two in Berlin and two in Frankfurt — have access to around 55 megawatts of power and “are fully leased to hyperscale customers,” the company said in a statement. The four facilities were valued at more than $1 billion earlier this year.

Last year, Vantage also raised £600 million through the first-ever securitization of a data center in Europe, the Middle East and Asia (EMEA). The deal involved two units from the company’s Cardiff campus with 148 megawatts of electricity power. Across the region, the company has 2,500 megawatts of data center capacity either operational or under development.

The transaction was led by Barclays Bank and Deutsche Bank as joint lead managers and Vantage was represented by the British law firm Clifford Chance.

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IonQ buys UK quantum startup Oxford Ionics for more than $1 billion

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IonQ buys UK quantum startup Oxford Ionics for more than  billion

Cheng Xin | Getty Images

IonQ is buying United Kingdom-based quantum computing startup Oxford Ionics in a deal valued at nearly $1.1 billion.

Shares gained about 4%.

The companies said in a release that the deal will combine IonQ’s quantum computing hardware and software knowledge with Oxford Ionics’ semiconductor chip technologies. The company aims to deliver breakthroughs in the field and capitalize on growing revenue opportunities.

“We believe the advantages of our combined technologies will set a new standard within quantum computing and deliver superior value for our customers through market-leading enterprise applications,” said IonQ CEO Niccolo De Masi in a release.

The deal, which is expected to close this year, includes $1.065 billion worth of IonQ shares and about $10 million in cash. The merged company expects to build systems with 256 qubits by 2026, over 10,000 by 2027 and 2 million by 2030.

Interest in quantum computing has skyrocketed in recent months after technology giants Microsoft and Alphabet announced new chip breakthroughs. Experts tout the technology’s ability to solve intricate computing tasks unachievable by other computers.

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IonQ’s CEO previously told CNBC that he wants the company to become the “800-pound gorilla” in the quantum world.

Shares of Maryland-based company, which went public through a special purpose acquisition company in late 2021, are down about 6% year to date. The stock has soared more than 400% from a year ago.

WATCH: IonQ CEO on earnings: Leading the world in ‘the quantum internet’

IonQ CEO on earnings: Leading the world in 'the quantum internet'

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