Connect with us

Published

on

Inside a sprawling lab at Google headquarters in Mountain View, California, hundreds of server racks hum across several aisles, performing tasks far less ubiquitous than running the world’s dominant search engine or executing workloads for Google Cloud’s millions of customers.

Instead, they’re running tests on Google’s own microchips, called Tensor Processing Units, or TPUs.

Originally trained for internal workloads, Google’s TPUs have been available to cloud customers since 2018. In July, Apple revealed it uses TPUs to train AI models underpinning Apple Intelligence. Google also relies on TPUs to train and run its Gemini chatbot.

“The world sort of has this fundamental belief that all AI, large language models, are being trained on Nvidia, and of course Nvidia has the lion’s share of training volume. But Google took its own path here,” said Futurum Group CEO Daniel Newman. He’s been covering Google’s custom cloud chips since they launched in 2015.

Google was the first cloud provider to make custom AI chips. Three years later, Amazon Web Services announced its first cloud AI chip, Inferentia. Microsoft‘s first custom AI chip, Maia, wasn’t announced until the end of 2023. 

But being first in AI chips hasn’t translated to a top spot in the overall rat race of generative AI. Google’s faced criticism for botched product releases, and Gemini came out more than a year after OpenAI’s ChatGPT.

Google Cloud, however, has gained momentum due in part to AI offerings. Google parent company Alphabet reported cloud revenue rose 29% in the most recent quarter, surpassing $10 billion in quarterly revenues for the first time.

“The AI cloud era has completely reordered the way companies are seen, and this silicon differentiation, the TPU itself, may be one of the biggest reasons that Google went from the third cloud to being seen truly on parity, and in some eyes, maybe even ahead of the other two clouds for its AI prowess,” Newman said.

‘A simple but powerful thought experiment’

In July, CNBC got the first on-camera tour of Google’s chip lab and sat down with the head of custom cloud chips, Amin Vahdat. He was already at Google when it first toyed with the idea of making chips in 2014. 

Amin Vahdat, VP of Machine Learning, Systems and Cloud AI at Google, holds up TPU Version 4 at Google headquarters in Mountain View, California, on July 23, 2024.

Marc Ganley

“It all started with a simple but powerful thought experiment,” Vahdat said. “A number of leads at the company asked the question: What would happen if Google users wanted to interact with Google via voice for just 30 seconds a day? And how much compute power would we need to support our users?”

The group determined Google would need to double the number of computers in its data centers. So they looked for a better solution.

“We realized that we could build custom hardware, not general purpose hardware, but custom hardware — Tensor Processing Units in this case — to support that much, much more efficiently. In fact, a factor of 100 more efficiently than it would have been otherwise,” Vahdat said.

Google data centers still rely on general-purpose central processing units, or CPUs, and Nvidia’s graphics processing units, or GPUs. Google’s TPUs are a different type of chip called an application-specific integrated circuit, or ASIC, which are custom-built for specific purposes. The TPU is focused on AI. Google makes another ASIC focused on video called a Video Coding Unit. 

Google also makes custom chips for its devices, similar to Apple’s custom silicon strategy. The Tensor G4 powers Google’s new AI-enabled Pixel 9, and its new A1 chip powers Pixel Buds Pro 2. 

The TPU, however, is what set Google apart. It was the first of its kind when it launched in 2015. Google TPUs still dominate among custom cloud AI accelerators, with 58% of the market share, according to The Futurum Group.

Google coined the term based on the algebraic term “tensor,” referring to the large-scale matrix multiplications that happen rapidly for advanced AI applications.

With the second TPU release in 2018, Google expanded the focus from inference to training and made them available for its cloud customers to run workloads, alongside market-leading chips such as Nvidia’s GPUs.

“If you’re using GPUs, they’re more programmable, they’re more flexible. But they’ve been in tight supply,” said Stacy Rasgon, senior analyst covering semiconductors at Bernstein Research.

The AI boom has sent Nvidia’s stock through the roof, catapulting the chipmaker to a $3 trillion market cap in June, surpassing Alphabet and jockeying with Apple and Microsoft for position as the world’s most valuable public company.

“Being candid, these specialty AI accelerators aren’t nearly as flexible or as powerful as Nvidia’s platform, and that is what the market is also waiting to see: Can anyone play in that space?” Newman said.

Now that we know Apple’s using Google’s TPUs to train its AI models, the real test will come as those full AI features roll out on iPhones and Macs next year.

Broadcom and TSMC

It’s no small feat to develop alternatives to Nvidia’s AI engines. Google’s sixth generation TPU, called Trillium, is set to come out later this year.

Google showed CNBC the sixth version of its TPU, Trillium, in Mountain View, California, on July 23, 2024. Trillium is set to come out later in 2024.

Marc Ganley

“It’s expensive. You need a lot of scale,” Rasgon said. “And so it’s not something that everybody can do. But these hyperscalers, they’ve got the scale and the money and the resources to go down that path.”

The process is so complex and costly that even the hyperscalers can’t do it alone. Since the first TPU, Google’s partnered with Broadcom, a chip developer that also helps Meta design its AI chips. Broadcom says it’s spent more than $3 billion to make these partnerships happen.  

“AI chips — they’re very complex. There’s lots of things on there. So Google brings the compute,” Rasgon said. “Broadcom does all the peripheral stuff. They do the I/O and the SerDes, all of the different pieces that go around that compute. They also do the packaging.”

Then the final design is sent off for manufacturing at a fabrication plant, or fab — primarily those owned by the world’s largest chipmaker, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, which makes 92% of the world’s most advanced semiconductors.

When asked if Google has any safeguards in place should the worst happen in the geopolitical sphere between China and Taiwan, Vahdat said, “It’s certainly something that we prepare for and we think about as well, but we’re hopeful that actually it’s not something that we’re going to have to trigger.”

Protecting against those risks is the primary reason the White House is handing out $52 billion in CHIPS Act funding to companies building fabs in the U.S. — with the biggest portions going to Intel, TSMC, and Samsung to date.

Processors and power

Google showed CNBC its new Axion CPU,

Marc Ganley

“Now we’re able to bring in that last piece of the puzzle, the CPU,” Vahdat said. “And so a lot of our internal services, whether it’s BigQuery, whether it’s Spanner, YouTube advertising and more are running on Axion.”

Google is late to the CPU game. Amazon launched its Graviton processor in 2018. Alibaba launched its server chip in 2021. Microsoft announced its CPU in November.

When asked why Google didn’t make a CPU sooner, Vahdat said, “Our focus has been on where we can deliver the most value for our customers, and there it has been starting with the TPU, our video coding units, our networking. We really thought that the time was now.”

All these processors from non-chipmakers, including Google’s, are made possible by Arm chip architecture — a more customizable, power-efficient alternative that’s gaining traction over the traditional x86 model from Intel and AMD. Power efficiency is crucial because, by 2027, AI servers are projected to use up as much power every year as a country like Argentina. Google’s latest environmental report showed emissions rose nearly 50% from 2019 to 2023 partly due to data center growth for powering AI.

“Without having the efficiency of these chips, the numbers could have wound up in a very different place,” Vahdat said. “We remain committed to actually driving these numbers in terms of carbon emissions from our infrastructure, 24/7, driving it toward zero.”

It takes a massive amount of water to cool the servers that train and run AI. That’s why Google’s third-generation TPU started using direct-to-chip cooling, which uses far less water. That’s also how Nvidia’s cooling its latest Blackwell GPUs.

Despite challenges, from geopolitics to power and water, Google is committed to its generative AI tools and making its own chips. 

“I’ve never seen anything like this and no sign of it slowing down quite yet,” Vahdat said. “And hardware is going to play a really important part there.”

Continue Reading

Technology

Apple has its best week since July 2020 after White House visit

Published

on

By

Apple has its best week since July 2020 after White House visit

U.S. President Donald Trump and Apple CEO Tim Cook shake hands on the day they present Apple’s announcement of a $100 billion investment in U.S. manufacturing, in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., August 6, 2025.

Jonathan Ernst | Reuters

Apple shares rose 13% this week, its largest weekly gain in more than five years, after CEO Tim Cook appeared with President Donald Trump in the White House on Wednesday.

Shares of the iPhone maker rose 4% to close at $229.35 per share on Friday for the company’s largest weekly gain since July 2020. The week’s move added over $400 billion to Apple’s market cap, which now sits at $3.4 trillion.

Apple is the third-most valuable company, behind Nvidia and Microsoft and ahead of Alphabet and Amazon.

At the White House on Wednesday, Cook appeared with Trump to announce Apple’s plans to spend $100 billion on American companies and American parts over the next four years.

Apple’s plans to buy more American chips pleased Trump, who said during the public meeting that because the company was building in the U.S., it would be exempt from future tariffs that could double the price of imported chips.

Investors had worried that some of Trump’s tariffs could substantially hurt Apple’s profitability. Apple warned in July that it expected over $1 billion in tariff costs in the current quarter, assuming no changes.

“Apple and Tim Cook delivered a masterclass in managing uncertainty after months and months of overhang relative to the potential challenges the company could face from tariffs,” JP Morgan analyst Samik Chatterjee wrote on Wednesday. He has an overweight rating on Apple’s stock.

Cook’s successful White House meeting also comes two weeks after Apple reported June quarter earnings in which overall revenue jumped 10% and iPhone sales grew by 13%.

WATCH: Santoli’s Last Word: Apple helps drive S&P higher

Santoli's Last Word: Apple helps drive S&P higher

Continue Reading

Technology

Tesla Robotaxi scores permit to run ride-hailing service in Texas

Published

on

By

Tesla Robotaxi scores permit to run ride-hailing service in Texas

In an aerial view, the Tesla headquarters is seen in Austin, Texas, on July 24, 2025.

Brandon Bell | Getty Images

Tesla has been granted a permit to run a ride-hailing business in Texas, allowing the electric vehicle maker to compete against companies including Uber and Lyft.

Tesla Robotaxi LLC is licensed to operate a “transportation network company” until August 6, 2026, according to a listing on the website of the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation, or TDLR. The permit was issued this week.

Elon Musk’s EV company has been running a limited ride-hailing service for invited riders in Austin since late June. The select few passengers have mostly been social media influencers and analysts, including many who generate income by posting Tesla fan content on platforms like X and YouTube.

The Austin fleet consists of Model Y vehicles equipped with Tesla’s latest partially automated driving systems. The company has been operating the cars with a valet, or human safety supervisor in the front passenger seat tasked with intervening if there are issues with the ride. The vehicles are also remotely supervised by employees in an operations center.

Musk, who has characterized himself as “pathologically optimistic,” said on Tesla’s earnings call last month that he believes Tesla could serve half of the U.S. population by the end of 2025 with autonomous ride-hailing services.

The Texas permit is the first to enable Tesla to run a “transportation network company.” TDLR said Friday that this kind of permit lets Tesla operate a ride-hailing business anywhere in the state, including with “automated motor vehicles,” and doesn’t require Tesla to keep a human safety driver or valet on board.

Tesla didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

As CNBC previously reported, Tesla robotaxis were captured on camera disobeying traffic rules in and around Austin after the company started its pilot program. None of the known incidents have been reported as causing injury or serious property damage, though they have drawn federal scrutiny.

Elon Musk confirms plan for Tesla robotaxis in Austin, Texas next month

In one incident, Tesla content creator Joe Tegtmeyer reported that his robotaxi failed to stop for a train crossing signal and lowering gate-arm, requiring a Tesla employee on board to intervene. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has discussed this incident with Tesla, a spokesperson for the regulator told CNBC by email.

Texas has historically been more permissive of autonomous vehicle testing and operations on public roads than have other states.

A new law signed by Texas Republican Gov. Greg Abbott goes into effect this year that will require AV makers to get approval from the state before starting driverless operations. The new law also gives the Texas Department of Motor Vehicles the authority to revoke permits if AV companies and their cars aren’t complying with safety standards.

Tesla’s AV efforts have faced a number of challenges across the country, including federal probes, product liability lawsuits and recalls following injurious or damaging collisions that occurred while drivers were using the company’s Autopilot and FSD (Full Self-Driving) systems.

A jury in a federal court in Miami last week determined that Tesla should hold 33% of the liability for a fatal Autopilot-involved collision.

And the California DMV has sued Tesla, accusing it of false advertising around its driver assistance systems. Tesla owners manuals say the Autopilot and FSD features in their cars are “hands on” systems that require a driver ready to steer or brake at any time. But Tesla and Musk have shared statements through the years saying that a Tesla can “drive itself.”

Since 2016, Musk has been promising that Tesla would soon be able to turn all of its existing EVs into fully autonomous vehicles with a simple, over-the-air software update. In 2019, he said the company would put 1 million robotaxis on the road by 2020, a claim that helped him raise $2 billion at the time from institutional investors.

Those promises never materialized and, in the robotaxi market, Tesla lags way behind competitors like Alphabet’s Waymo in the U.S. and Baidu’s Apollo Go in China.

Tesla shares are down 18% this year, by far the worst performance among tech’s megacaps.

WATCH: What we saw at Tesla’s robotaxi launch in Texas

We went to Texas for Tesla's robotaxi launch. Here's what we saw

Continue Reading

Technology

Trade Desk tanks almost 40% on CFO departure, tariff concerns and competition from Amazon

Published

on

By

Trade Desk tanks almost 40% on CFO departure, tariff concerns and competition from Amazon

Jeff Green, CEO of The Trade Desk.

Scott Mlyn | CNBC

Shares of The Trade Desk plummeted almost 40% on Friday and headed for their worst day on record after the ad-tech company announced the departure of its CFO and analysts expressed concerns about rising competition from Amazon.

The Trade Desk, which went public in 2016, suffered its steepest prior drop in February, when the shares fell 33% on a revenue miss. In its second-quarter earnings report late Thursday, the company beat expectations on earnings and revenue, but the results failed to impress investors.

The Trade Desk, which specializes in providing technology to companies that want to target users across the web, said finance chief Laura Schenkein is leaving the job and being replaced by Alex Kayyal, who has been working as a partner at Lightspeed Ventures.

While some analysts were uneasy about the sudden change in the top finance role, the bigger concern is Amazon’s growing role in the online ad market, as well as the potential impact of President Donald Trump’s tariffs on ad spending.

Amazon has emerged as a significant player in the digital advertising market in recent years, and is now third behind Google and Meta. Last week, Amazon reported a 23% increase in ad revenue for the second quarter to $15.7 billion, which beat estimates.

Read more CNBC Amazon coverage

Amazon’s ad business has largely been tied to its own platforms, with brands paying up so they can get discovered on the sprawling marketplace. However, Amazon’s demand-side platform (DSP), which allows brands to programmatically place ads across a wider swath of internet properties, is gaining more resonance in the market.

“Amazon is now unlocking access to traditionally exclusive ‘premium’ ad inventory across the open internet, validating the strength of its DSP and suggesting The Trade Desk’s value proposition could erode over time,” Wedbush analysts wrote on Friday.

The Wedbush analysts lowered their rating on The Trade Desk to the equivalent of hold from buy, and cited Amazon’s recent ad integration with Disney as a sign of the company’s aggressiveness.

Executives at The Trade Desk were asked about Amazon on the call, and responded by suggesting that the companies don’t really compete, emphasizing that Amazon is conflicted because it will always prioritize its own properties.

Simon: The consumer's never been more in control than they are right now

“A scaled independent DSP like The Trade Desk becomes essential as we help advertisers buy across everything and that we have to do that without conflict or compromise,” CEO Jeff Green said on the call. “It is my understanding that Amazon nearly doubled the supply of Prime Video inventory in the recent months. That creates a number of conflicts.”

For the second quarter, The Trade Desk reported a 19% increase in year-over-year revenue to $694 million, topping the $685 million estimate, according to analysts polled by LSEG. Adjusted earnings per share of 41 cents beat estimates by a penny.

Looking to the third quarter, the Trump administration’s tariffs were also a theme, as the company forecast revenue of at least $717 million, representing growth of 14% at minimum.

“From a macro standpoint, some of the world’s largest brands are absolutely facing pressure and some amount of uncertainty,” Green said. “Some have to respond more than others to tariffs. Many are managing inflation worries and the related pricing that comes with that.”  

With Friday’s slump, The Trade Desk shares are now down 53% for the year, while the S&P 500 is up about 9%. The Trade Desk was added to the S&P 500 in June.

WATCH: Trade Desk shares sink

Trade Desk shares sink on tariff warning

Continue Reading

Trending