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Google is bullish on the prospect of its more advanced artificial intelligence models coming to smartphones in the next year.  

The internet giant expects that its currently available Gemini large language model (LLM), which competes with Microsoft-backed OpenAI’s most powerful GPT-4 AI model, will begin to get embedded into devices starting next year.  

Google already offers Gemini Nano, which is the company’s most efficient model for “on-device” AI, across its Pixel devices and on all other capable Android devices. 

Brian Rakowski, vice president of product management for Google’s Pixel unit, said that he expects the company’s most advanced large language models, which are currently only accessible via remote data centers via an internet connection, to begin arriving on smartphones directly next year. 

“There are smaller versions of our Gemini model on the cloud,” Rakowski told CNBC. “There’s been quite a few breakthroughs to compress these models to get them to run on device.” 

“Some have already been proven and some are being explored for some applications. It’d be great having all models on device. It still has wondrous applications.” 

“Gemini Nano is performing at a level that our online models were at less than one year ago,” Rakowski added. “You can do a lot with these distilled small versions of the models on device.” 

“If you just follow that trajectory, some of that stuff we thought we would have had to go to the cloud for next year will be on device, which is pretty exciting, which is instantaneous without requiring a connection or subscription.” 

Large language models, or LLMs, are AI models capable of understanding and generating language in a humanlike way. Gemini Ultra is Google’s top LLM, clocking in at a whopping 1.56 trillion parameters. For comparison, OpenAI’s GPT-4 consists of 1.76 trillion parameters. 

Dreaming of a smartphone ‘supercycle’

Smartphone makers have been dreaming of a “supercycle” in their industry, driven by artificial intelligence, after a bruising few years that saw device sales slow aggressively. In 2023, smartphone sales fell to 1.16 billion units, the lowest point for unit shipments in a decade.  

Analysts say a supercycle is unlikely to occur within the next few years as there’s not enough going on in the market in terms of novel features and innovation that will convince people holding their aging smartphones to upgrade. 

“Unfortunately, we don’t expect that boom,” Francisco Jeronimo, vice president of data and analytics at research firm IDC, told CNBC. 

“The last supercycle we saw was between 2010 and 2015, where in five years the market grew five times from around 300 million smartphones per year to 1.5 billion.” 

Nonetheless, more and more smartphone makers are making big investments in AI in the hope that it will drive some more excitement around mobile technology. 

The likes of Humane, Rabbit, and China’s Meizu are betting on a future for smartphones that doesn’t even look like a traditional smartphone. These are devices that would be smaller and more compact, and that we could interact with via voice activation, like an Amazon Echo speaker but on the go. 

Google has been making huge bets on AI in an effort to gain an edge over its rivals like OpenAI, the Microsoft-backed company behind ChatGPT.

Google recently announced a major rebrand of Bard, its ChatGPT alternative, including a fresh app and subscription options. Bard was renamed Gemini, the same name as the suite of AI models that power the chatbot.

Android users can download a dedicated Android app for Gemini, while iPhone users can use Gemini in the Google app on iOS.

Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai highlighted the firm’s commitment to AI during the company’s Jan. 30 earnings call. Pichai said he eventually wants to offer an AI agent that can complete more and more tasks on a user’s behalf, including within Google Search, although he said there is “a lot of execution ahead.”

Likewise, chief executives at tech giants from Microsoft to Amazon have underlined their commitment to building AI agents as productivity tools. 

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Here’s how fusion energy could power your home or an AI data center

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Here's how fusion energy could power your home or an AI data center

Clean Start: Fusion energy gets new look from startup Type One Energy

The artificial intelligence boom has sent energy demand soaring. Some of the supercomputers sucking up all that power are helping to find new energy sources.

Fusion energy is the process of forcing two hydrogen atoms to combine and form one helium atom, which releases huge amounts of power. It uses a stellarator, a type of fusion reactor invented in the 1950’s that produces heat.

Until now, the technology was too difficult to deploy commercially.

But this old concept has brand new potential. Type One Energy, a startup based in Tennessee, claims to have proven that fusion energy will be able to produce electricity in the next decade.

“It’s going to create heat that’s going to boil water, make steam, run a turbine and put fusion electrons on the power grid on a 24/7 reliable basis,” said Type One Christofer Mowry.

AI has made it all practical.

“Things have really accelerated remarkably over the last five or six years,” Mowry said. “The supercomputers have allowed industry, academia and large institutions to develop now and actually test at large scale the science machines that demonstrate the process.”

Dozens of other companies are working on different approaches to fusion energy, but Mowry said Type One is so far the only one with the proven stellarator technology to implement at existing power plants. It will soon be tested with the Tennessee Valley Authority.

TDK Ventures is betting that Mowry is right.

“With Type One Energy solutions, we expect outsized return potential,” said Nicola Sauvage, president of TDK Ventures. “Fusion is no longer science fiction, and Type One Energy’s technology is catching up fast to the vision of this low-cost, continuous green energy.”

Type One is also backed by Breakthrough Energy Ventures, Centaurus Capital, GD1, Foxglove Capital, and SeaX Ventures, and has raised a total of $82.4 million.

Fusion energy is different from nuclear power, and there’s no risk of a nuclear accident. The power source has no long-term radioactive waste, and, according to Mowry, can’t be weaponized.

But for handling AI, it could be a critical solution. Fusion energy can be deployed anywhere, whether it’s next to a data center or near a large industrial park that needs clean, reliable energy.

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CoreWeave shares soar 19% after $2 billion debt offering

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CoreWeave shares soar 19% after  billion debt offering

Michael Intrator, Founder & CEO of CoreWeave, Inc., Nvidia-backed cloud services provider, gestures during the company’s IPO at the Nasdaq Market, in New York City, U.S., March 28, 2025. 

Brendan Mcdermid | Reuters

CoreWeave shares popped 19% after announcing a $2 billion debt offering.

The renter of artificial intelligence data centers powered by Nvidia chips said it had priced the notes at 9.25%, with a June 2030 maturity date. The deal represents a $500 million increase from its initial announcement.

CoreWeave said it plans to use the capital to pay off outstanding debt. The company confirmed to CNBC that the debt offering was five times oversubscribed.

In its first-quarter earnings report last week, CoreWeave said that it raised a total of $17.2 billion in equity and debt “to support its strategy to drive the next generation of cloud computing for the future of AI.” The company topped revenues expectations but posted wider-than-expected net loss and said it plans to spend big on capital expenditures to support infrastructure demand.

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During an interview with CNBC’s “Squawk on the Street” last week, CEO Michael Intrator defended CoreWeave’s spending plans after some investors cast doubt on its debt, and demand durability. He said the company is meeting “demand signals” from some of its major clients.

In a call with analysts, CoreWeave said it has no debt maturities until 2028 other than payments related to vendor financing and “self-amortizing debt through committed contract payments.” The company said it had about $3.8 billion in current debt and $4.9 billion in non-current debt at the end of the quarter.

A year ago, CoreWeave announced that it had raised $7.5 billion in debt, led by Blackstone and Magnetar, to more heavily invest in its cloud data centers. CoreWeave said in its IPO prospectus that it was “one of the largest private debt financings in history and signals the confidence that debt investors have in funding our company to build and scale the next generation AI cloud.”

CoreWeave counts Nvidia and Microsoft among its biggest customers and has signed two seperate deals with OpenAI, totaling nearly $16 billion.

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Amazon CEO Andy Jassy says tariffs haven’t dented consumer spending

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Amazon CEO Andy Jassy says tariffs haven't dented consumer spending

Andy Jassy, CEO of Amazon, speaks during an unveiling event in New York on Feb. 26, 2025.

Michael Nagle | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Amazon CEO Andy Jassy said Wednesday that the company hasn’t seen any signs of consumers tightening their wallets in the face of President Donald Trump’s sweeping tariffs.

Jassy’s comments came during Amazon’s annual shareholder meeting, which was held virtually on Wednesday.

“We have not seen any attenuation of demand at this point,” Jassy said during a question-and-answer portion of the meeting. “We also haven’t yet seen any meaningful average selling price increases.”

Amazon and other retailers continue to digest the impact of Trump’s tariffs. Rival retailer Walmart warned last week that consumers could start seeing price hikes from tariffs later this month and in June. Within days, that sparked the ire of Trump, who urged the company to “EAT THE TARIFFS.”

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Target said Wednesday it will likely need to hike prices on some items, while Home Depot said it expects to maintain its current pricing levels.

Jassy said last month the company made some “strategic forward inventory buys” to stock up on goods and is “pretty maniacally focused” on keeping prices low for shoppers.

Some third-party sellers, which account for roughly 60% of products sold, have increased prices on certain items, while others have opted to keep prices steady, Jassy said on Wednesday.

“I think that the diversity and the size of our marketplace really helps customers have the best selection of the best prices,” Jassy said.

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