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Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, right, greets OpenAI CEO Sam Altman during the OpenAI DevDay event in San Francisco on Nov. 6, 2023.

Justin Sullivan | Getty Images News | Getty Images

Tech giants aren’t doing much acquiring these days, due mostly to an unfavorable regulatory environment. But they’re finding other ways to spend billions of dollars on the next big thing.

Amazon’s $2.75 billion investment in artificial intelligence startup Anthropic, announced this week, was its largest venture deal and the latest example of the AI gold rush that’s prompting the biggest tech companies to fling open their wallets.

Anthropic is the developer behind the AI model Claude, which competes with GPT from Microsoft-backed OpenAI, and Google’s Gemini. Along with Meta and Apple, they’re all racing to integrate generative AI into their vast portfolios of products and features to ensure they don’t fall behind in a market that’s predicted to top $1 billion in revenue within a decade.

In 2023, investors pumped $29.1 billion combined into nearly 700 generative AI deals, an increase of more than 260% in value from the prior year, according to PitchBook.

A significant chunk of that money was strategic, in that it came from tech companies rather than venture capitalists or other institutions. Fred Havemeyer, head of U.S. AI and software research at Macquarie, said a fear of missing out is one factor driving their decisions.

“They definitely don’t want to miss out on being part of the AI ecosystem,” Havemeyer said. “I definitely think that there’s FOMO in this marketplace.”

Fear of missing out is underpinning 'super-charged momentum market': Evercore ISI's Julian Emanuel

The hefty investments are necessary because AI models are notoriously expensive to build and train, requiring thousands of specialized chips that, to date, have largely come from Nvidia. Meta, which is developing its own model called Llama, has said it’s spending billions on Nvidia’s graphics processing units, one of the many companies that’s helped the chipmaker bolster year-over-year revenue by more than 250%.

Whether going the building or investing route, there are a finite number of companies that can afford to play in the market. In addition to developing the chips, Nvidia has emerged as one of Silicon Valley’s top investors, taking stakes in a number of emerging AI companies, partly as a way to make sure its technology gets widely deployed. Similarly, Microsoft, Google and Amazon sometimes offer cloud credits as part of their investments.

In the Amazon-Anthropic deal announced on Wednesday, the two companies said they’ll work closely together in a variety of ways. Anthropic will be using Amazon Web Services for its computing needs as well as Amazon’s chips. Anthropic’s models will be distributed by Amazon to AWS customers.

Earlier this month, Anthropic launched Claude 3, its most powerful model and one that it says lets users upload photos, charts, documents and other types of unstructured data for analysis and answers.

Microsoft got into the business of generative AI investing earlier, putting $1 billion into OpenAI in 2019. The size of its investment has since swelled to about $13 billion. Microsoft heavily uses OpenAI’s model and offers open source models on its Azure cloud.

Alphabet is playing the part of builder and investor. The company has refocused much of its product development on generative AI, and its newly rebranded Gemini model, adding features into search, documents, maps and elsewhere. Last year, Google committed to invest $2 billion in Anthropic, after previously confirming it had taken a 10% stake in the startup alongside a large cloud contract between the two companies.

In this photo illustration, Gemini Ai is seen on a phone on March 18, 2024 in New York City. 

Michael M. Santiago | Getty Images

Havemeyer said tech giants aren’t just throwing money into the “hype cycle,” as these investments in AI startups align with their product road maps.

“I don’t think it’s frivolous,” he said.

Havemeyer said that alliances with big cloud providers not only bring much-needed cash to startups but also help them sign up customers.

The cloud companies are saying, “Come to us, work on our platform, have native access to the latest and greatest AI models, and also use our infrastructure,” Havemeyer said. “It’s also part of a much larger ecosystem play.”

“We’re seeing a lot of alliances appearing among those hyperscalers that have substantial scale, infrastructure and very deep pockets,” he added.

‘Shape the next decade’

In recent earnings calls, tech execs reiterated their focus on generative AI, making it clear to investors that they have to spend money to make money, whether it’s on internal development or through investing in startups.

Microsoft Chief Financial Officer Amy Hood said last year the company was adjusting its “workforce toward the AI-first work we’re doing without adding material number of people to the workforce.” She said Microsoft will continue to prioritize investing in AI as “the thing that’s going to shape the next decade.”

Leaders of Google, Apple and Amazon have also suggested to investors that they’re willing to cut costs broadly across departments in order to redirect more funding toward their AI efforts.

Startups are among the beneficiaries.

Microsoft has taken stakes in Mistral, Figure and Humane, in addition to OpenAI. The company invested in Inflection AI before the startup essentially dissolved and joined Microsoft this month. Mistral is an open source-focused company that uses Azure’s cloud and offers its service to Azure clients.

Startup Figure AI is developing general-purpose humanoid robots.

Figure AI

Figure, a startup seeking to build a robot that walks like a human, has raised money from Microsoft, OpenAI and Nvidia and was valued last month at $2.6 billion.

Amazon’s biggest bet is Anthropic, pouring in a total of $4 billion so far. The company has also invested in open source AI platform developer Hugging Face.

Google’s investments include Essential AI, which is developing consumer AI programs and is backed by AMD and Nvidia. Alphabet and Nvidia are also investors in Runway ML, a generative AI company known for its video-editing and visual effects tools. Others in Nvidia’s portfolio include Mistral, Perplexity and Cohere.

Meanwhile, many of the Big Tech companies continue to spend internally on developing their own models.

Microsoft has invested in many of the techniques underpinning generative AI through its Microsoft Research division. Amazon reportedly has plans to train a bigger, more data-hungry model than even OpenAI’s GPT-4.

Apple researchers recently published details of their work on MM1, a family of small AI models that can take both text and visual input. Apple is in a different position than its peers in that it doesn’t sell a cloud service. Still, the tech giant is reportedly looking for AI partners, including potentially Google in the U.S. and Baidu in China. An Apple representative declined to comment on AI partners.

Creativity in dealmaking

Daniel Newman, CEO of technology analysis firm Futurum Group, said tech companies are having to get clever when it comes to investing in AI.

For example, OpenAI’s investment from Microsoft included profit sharing in a nonprofit wing, as well as credits to use Microsoft’s cloud service. Microsoft’s deal for Inflection AI amounted to an expensive acquihire, with some reports putting the total outlay at $1 billion. As part of the transaction, Microsoft hired Inflection AI founder Mustafa Suleyman to lead Copilot AI initiatives.

“I think we’re starting to see some creativity and dealmaking,” said Newman. With respect to Amazon’s agreement with Anthropic, he said an acquisition would be “a lot harder than investing.”

That’s because regulators across the globe are cracking down on Big Tech, making it more difficult to do sizable acquisitions. Even the investments are attracting scrutiny.

In January, the Federal Trade Commission announced it will conduct an extensive inquiry into the field’s biggest players in AI, including Amazon, Alphabet, Microsoft, Anthropic and OpenAI.

FTC Chair Lina Khan described the probe as a “market inquiry into the investments and partnerships being formed between AI developers and major cloud service providers.” The regulator has the authority to order companies to file specific reports or answer questions in writing about their businesses.

“We know regulators are becoming increasingly focused on the traditional path of closing an acquisition,” Newman said. “Right now, the game is having access to the most fundamental IP.”

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Oracle Cloud to deploy 50,000 AMD AI chips, signaling new Nvidia competition

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Oracle Cloud to deploy 50,000 AMD AI chips, signaling new Nvidia competition

We're still early in the AI cycle, says Bernstein's Stacy Rasgon

Oracle Cloud Infrastructure on Tuesday announced it will deploy 50,000 Advanced Micro Devices graphics processors starting in the second half of 2026.

AMD shares climbed about 2%. Oracle shares sank 4% while Nvidia was more than 3% lower.

The move is the latest sign that cloud companies are increasingly offering AMD’s graphics processing units as an alternative to Nvidia’s market-leading GPUs for artificial intelligence.

“We feel like customers are going to take up AMD very, very well — especially in the inferencing space,” said Karan Batta, senior vice president of Oracle Cloud Infrastructure.

Oracle will use AMD’s Instinct MI450 chips, which were announced earlier this year.

They are AMD’s first AI chips that can be assembled into a larger rack-sized system that enables 72 of the chips to work as one, which is needed to create and deploy the most advanced AI algorithms.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman appeared with AMD CEO Lisa Su at a company event in June to announce the product.

Read more CNBC tech news

Earlier this month, OpenAI announced a deal with AMD for processors requiring 6 gigawatts of power over multiple years, with a 1-gigawatt rollout starting in 2026. As part of the deal, and if the deployment goes well, OpenAI may end up owning as many as 160 million shares of AMD, or about 10% of the company.

In September, OpenAI entered into a five-year cloud deal with Oracle that could be worth as much as $300 billion.

OpenAI has historically been closely linked with Nvidia, whose chips were used to develop ChatGPT. Nvidia’s chips dominate the market for data center GPUs with more than 90% market share. Nvidia also invested in OpenAI in September.

But OpenAI leaders say the company needs as much computing power as possible, which means it needs AI chips from multiple suppliers. OpenAI also has plans to design its own AI chips with Broadcom.

“I think AMD has done a really fantastic job, just like Nvidia, and I think both of them have their place,” Batta said.

Tuesday at Oracle AI World, founder and Chairman Larry Ellison is set to take the stage and share his views on the latest OpenAI deal and what his company is doing to stay ahead of its main cloud competitors – Microsoft, Amazon and Google

“Oracle has already shown it is willing to place big bets and go all in to meet the AI moment. The company must now prove that beyond capacity, it can capitalize on its massive underlying data and enterprise capabilities … to add meaningful value to the enterprise AI wave,” said Daniel Newman, CEO of The Futurum Group, on the sidelines of Oracle’s conference.

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Major real estate developers are fast becoming power brokers

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Major real estate developers are fast becoming power brokers

Aerial view of the Apple Data Center in Mesa near Phoenix, Arizona, U.S. on August 6, 2017. Picture taken on August 6, 2017. Apple plans to build its second data center in China at Ulanqab City in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region.

Jim Todd | Reuters

A version of this article first appeared in the CNBC Property Play newsletter with Diana Olick. Property Play covers new and evolving opportunities for the real estate investor, from individuals to venture capitalists, private equity funds, family offices, institutional investors and large public companies. Sign up to receive future editions, straight to your inbox.

The sudden surge in demand for data is fast creating new commercial real estate sectors – not just data centers, but so-called quantum real estate and powered land.

The former refers to structures designed to house specialized quantum computers. The latter is land prepared and ready for data center operations, with a focus on obtaining a reliable and sufficient power supply. That land would have to be secured with the permits, utility commitments and infrastructure needed to deliver power to a data center.

There are currently about 20,000 acres of powered land sitting under operational data centers around the world. Roughly 40,000 acres of powered land, almost 2 billion square feet, are needed to support current projections for data center growth over the next five years, according to a new research paper from Hines, a global real estate investment manager. That’s equivalent to just under the size of three Manhattans or about 1½ times the size of Paris.

Hines, which has been developing data centers for more than 20 years, has pivoted to a new business in just the past year. It is now securing power and entitlements for hyperscale sites. What that means on the ground is mapping grids, negotiating with landowners and providing financial guarantees to grid operators, who now demand it.

“The challenge isn’t building walls anymore. It’s getting megawatts to the site,” said David Steinbach, Hines’ global chief investment officer. “Hines is focused on this front-end work, making land AI-ready before the buildings even rise.”

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Steinbach said powered land has become its own investable asset class, because power rights themselves are scarce and valuable. Once grid connections and permits are secured, you’ve created a tradeable asset with clear demand from hyperscalers and operators, he said. 

The competition for powered land is being led more by tech companies and energy producers than real estate developers, but Hines clearly doesn’t want to be left behind. 

The smartest capital today isn’t chasing square footage — it’s enabling computation,” said Steinbach, citing the recent Nvidia deal with Intel to co-develop chips for data centers and personal computers. “Nvidia‘s $5 billion bet on Intel isn’t just a chip deal, it’s a seismic signal that AI infrastructure is the new oil.”

In August, Silver Lake, a global private equity firm focused on technology investment, along with Commonwealth Asset Management, a real estate and infrastructure investment firm, announced the launch of a powered land platform aimed at data center development. It will deploy $400 million of capital “to assemble a global portfolio of strategically located powered land sites to address the key scarce input in meeting the escalating demand for data centers,” according to a news release.

The platform is currently operating in and targeting high-growth markets across the U.S., Canada and the U.K., where power access is becoming increasingly scarce.

“This investment represents a long-term commitment to not only meeting the immediate needs of AI-driven data center growth but also positioning the company as a leader in the future of digital infrastructure and a one-stop shop for rapidly growing developers and hyperscalers,” said Lee Wittlinger, managing director at Silver Lake, in the release. “Our innovative approach to land and power solutions, combined with strategic relationships with key energy partners, will enable us to meet the evolving demands of hyperscalers with a holistic, differentiated approach.”

Data center hubs will now have to expand beyond already crowded markets like northern Virginia and into power-rich regions in the Midwest and Texas. Hines’ research paper points to big opportunities right now in Europe, where undersupply and growing demand could mean big potential for both developers and investors. It also highlights the Middle East as an emerging market with growing potential as governments there invest heavily in artificial intelligence, renewables and grid infrastructure.

This is not to say that this new concept of powered land is without challenges, including securing the appropriate land, managing entitlement processes with local governments, and working with utility providers to obtain sufficient commitments.  

“This isn’t just a tech story,” said Steinbach. “It’s a building cycle story reshaping how and where the real estate business develops for decades to come.”

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Big bank earnings, Broadcom’s OpenAI chip deal, record-high car prices and more in Morning Squawk

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Big bank earnings, Broadcom's OpenAI chip deal, record-high car prices and more in Morning Squawk

A sign is posted in front of a Broadcom office in San Jose, California, on Dec. 12, 2024.

Justin Sullivan | Getty Images

This is CNBC’s Morning Squawk newsletter. Subscribe here to receive future editions in your inbox.

Here are five key things investors need to know to start the trading day:

1. Broadcom’s boon

OpenAI made its latest artificial intelligence partnership official yesterday, announcing a custom chip deal with Broadcom. Shares of the chipmaker closed Monday’s session nearly 10% higher following news of the partnership, though the stock pulled back by 3% in premarket trading this morning.

Here’s what to know:

  • The companies — which have been working together for 18 months — are building and deploying 10 gigawatts of custom AI accelerators as part of the deal.
  • While the financial terms of the agreement weren’t disclosed, analysts were quick to suggest that OpenAI is the unnamed $10 billion customer that Broadcom touted in September. But Charlie Kawwas, president of Broadcom’s semiconductor solutions group, told CNBC that the mystery customer is a different company.
  • With the deal, CNBC’s MacKenzie Sigalos reports, OpenAI is venturing into the chipmaking business and increasingly positioning itself as a competitor to hyperscalers.
  • Other chip stocks including Nvidia, Taiwan Semiconductor, On Semiconductor and Micron Technology also saw upside in yesterday’s session.
  • Tech stocks led the market’s rebound to start the week, with the S&P 500 clawing back more than half of what it lost in Friday’s sell-off.
  • Oaktree Capital Management co-founder Howard Marks said he isn’t describing the AI trade as a “bubble” just yet. “The valuations are … high but not crazy,” he told CNBC.

2. Bank teller

Jamie Dimon, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of JPMorgan Chase & Co. speaks during an event honoring local construction workers who helped build the firm’s new headquarters at 270 Park Avenue, in the Midtown area of New York City, U.S., Sept. 9, 2025.

Shannon Stapleton | Reuters

3. Peace deal

U.S. President Donald Trump speaks to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at Ben Gurion International Airport before boarding his plane to Sharm El-Sheikh, on October 13, 2025 in Tel Aviv, Israel.

Chip Somodevilla | Getty Images

President Donald Trump traveled to Israel and Egypt yesterday to finalize a peace deal he said ended the war in Gaza. Trump first arrived in Tel Aviv to mark the release of Israeli hostages taken by Hamas during its 2023 invasion of Israel, saying in a speech at the Israeli parliament that the “long and painful nightmare” was over for both Israelis and Palestinians.

Experts told CNBC’s Lori Ann LaRocco that despite the ceasefire, ocean carriers likely won’t return to the Red Sea in the near future. The Houthi rebels who have launched attacks on trade vessels in the body of water said they will not stop targeting the maritime routes.

4. The rare earth row

A view of mining facilities at the MP Materials rare earth mine in Mountain Pass, California, U.S. January 30, 2020.

Steve Marcus | Reuters

Shares of U.S. rare earth miners are continuing to rally before the opening bell this morning. The stocks notched solid gains in Monday’s session after China’s tightening of export controls led Trump to reignite the U.S.-China trade dispute.

As CNBC’s Spencer Kimball reports, Beijing’s restrictions on rare earth exports could hit the U.S. defense industry, in particular. The Defense Department is reportedly speeding up its effort to stockpile $1 billion worth of the critical minerals, which are crucial components of several U.S. weapons systems. The fact that the U.S. doesn’t have its own rare earth reserve is “scandalous,” Jeremy Siegel of the University of Pennsylvania told CNBC yesterday.

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5. If the price is right

A 2019 Nissan Motor Co. Rogue sport utility vehicle (SUV) sits on the lot at a car dealership in Joliet, Illinois, U.S., on Wednesday, Oct. 2, 2019.

Daniel Acker | Bloomberg | Getty Images

The Daily Dividend

Oracle CEO Magouyrk: ‘Of course’ OpenAI can pay $60 billion per year

CNBC’s MacKenzie Sigalos, Ashley Capoot, Spencer Kimball, Sam Meredith, Lori Ann LaRocco, Liz Napolitano, Holly Ellyatt, Samantha Subin and Mike Wayland contributed to this report. Josephine Rozzelle edited this edition.

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