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An illuminated Google logo is seen inside an office building in Zurich, Switzerland.

Arnd Wiegmann | Reuters

Google announced Monday it is investing 36 billion Thai baht, or $1 billion, into Thailand for the creation of a new data center and expansion of the country’s cloud infrastructure.

The move marks a ramp-up of Google’s expansion in Asia, putting artificial intelligence at the heart of its international push at a time when it is facing intense competition from companies such as Microsoft and OpenAI.

The investment would see the company create its first data center in Thailand, Google said in a post on its Thailand blog Monday.

Data centers are the backbone of today’s modern digital economy, fueling the rise of cloud computing technology that enables access to storage, compute and analytics services via the internet.

Google said its debut Thai data center will be located in Chonburi, an eastern province of Thailand.

The facility will “help support the growing demand for Google Cloud and AI innovations, as well as popular Google services such as Google Search, Google Maps and Google Workspace” in Thailand, Jackie Wang, Google’s Thailand country lead, said in the blog post, according to an English translation taken via Google Translate.

Beyond developing infrastructure, the $1 billion investment from Google into Thailand is “also about unlocking new opportunities for businesses, educators and all Thais,” Wang said in the blog post.

“As AI transforms industries, it is more important than ever to educate and upskill Thais to use this technology,” she added.

Thailand’s digital economy is the second-largest in Southeast Asia and is expected to reach $50 billion by 2025, Google, Temasek and Bain & Company said in a 2023 report by e-Conomy SEA.

Google is investing in the region with a focus on AI as it faces pressure from its rival tech giants when it comes to both AI and cloud computing.

The internet giant currently dominates globally when it comes to its search engine technology. But the firm has increasingly come under threat from the surge of generative AI tools such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT.

It is a technology that Google helped pioneer through its early research on so-called transformer models, which are the bedrock of many of the most-popular generative AI models.

However, today Google finds itself under threat from the use of generative AI products, such as ChatGPT and Perplexity, an AI-powered search engine, to find information about things.

Last week, Google filed an antitrust lawsuit with the European Commission accusing Microsoft of abusing its dominant position in the cloud industry to undermine competition.

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Amazon extends Prime Day to four days, starting July 8

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Amazon extends Prime Day to four days, starting July 8

An Amazon worker moves boxes on Amazon Prime Day in the East Village of New York City, July 11, 2023.

Spencer Platt | Getty Images

Amazon is extending its Prime Day discount bonanza, announcing that the annual sale will run four days this year.

The 96-hour event will start at 12:01 a.m. PT on July 8, and continue through July 11, Amazon said in a release.

For the first time, the company will roll out themed “deal drops” that change daily and are available “while supplies last.” Amazon has in recent years toyed with adding more limited-run and invite-only deals during Prime Day events to create a feeling of urgency or scarcity.

Amazon launched Prime Day in 2015 as a way to secure new members for its $139-a-year loyalty program, and to promote its own products and services while providing a sales boost in the middle of the year. In 2019, the company made Prime Day a 48-hour event, and it’s since added a second Prime Day-like event in the fall.

Prime Day is also a significant revenue driver for other retailers, which often host competing discount events.

WATCH: How Amazon is using AI to revolutionize robotics

How Amazon is using AI to revolutionize robotics

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SK Hynix shares extend gains to over 2-decade highs as parent group reportedly plans AI data center

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SK Hynix shares extend gains to over 2-decade highs as parent group reportedly plans AI data center

Illustration of the SK Hynix company logo seen displayed on a smartphone screen.

Sopa Images | Lightrocket | Getty Images

Shares in South Korea’s SK Hynix extended gains to hit a more than 2-decade high on Tuesday, following reports over the weekend that SK Group plans to build the country’s largest AI data center.

SK Hynix shares, which have surged almost 50% so far this year on the back of an AI boom, were up nearly 3%, following gains on Monday. 

The company’s parent, SK Group, plans to build the AI data center in partnership with Amazon Web Services in Ulsan, according to domestic media. SK Telecom and SK Broadband are reportedly leading the initiative, with support from other affiliates, including SK Hynix. 

SK Hynix is a leading supplier of dynamic random access memory or DRAM — a type of semiconductor memory found in PCs, workstations and servers that is used to store data and program code.

The company’s DRAM rival, Samsung, was also trading up 4% on Tuesday. However, it’s growth has fallen behind that of SK Hynix.

On Friday, Samsung Electronics’ market cap reportedly slid to a 9-year low of 345.1 trillion won ($252 billion) as the chipmaker struggles to capitalize on AI-led demand. 

SK Hynix, on the other hand, has become a leader in high bandwidth memory — a type of DRAM used in artificial intelligence servers — supplying to clients such as AI behemoth Nvidia. 

A report from Counterpoint Research in April said that SK Hynix had captured 70% of the HBM market by revenue share in the first quarter.

This HBM strength helped it overtake Samsung in the overall DRAM market for the first time ever, with a 36% global market share as compared to Samsung’s 34%. 

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OpenAI wins $200 million U.S. defense contract

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OpenAI wins 0 million U.S. defense contract

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman speaks during the Snowflake Summit in San Francisco on June 2, 2025.

Justin Sullivan | Getty Images News | Getty Images

OpenAI has been awarded a $200 million contract to provide the U.S. Defense Department with artificial intelligence tools.

The department announced the one-year contract on Monday, months after OpenAI said it would collaborate with defense technology startup Anduril to deploy advanced AI systems for “national security missions.”

“Under this award, the performer will develop prototype frontier AI capabilities to address critical national security challenges in both warfighting and enterprise domains,” the Defense Department said. It’s the first contract with OpenAI listed on the Department of Defense’s website.

Anduril received a $100 million defense contract in December. Weeks earlier, OpenAI rival Anthropic said it would work with Palantir and Amazon to supply its AI models to U.S. defense and intelligence agencies.

Sam Altman, OpenAI’s co-founder and CEO, said in a discussion with OpenAI board member and former National Security Agency leader Paul Nakasone at a Vanderbilt University event in April that “we have to and are proud to and really want to engage in national security areas.”

OpenAI did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The Defense Department specified that the contract is with OpenAI Public Sector LLC, and that the work will mostly occur in the National Capital Region, which encompasses Washington, D.C., and several nearby counties in Maryland and Virginia.

Meanwhile, OpenAI is working to build additional computing power in the U.S. In January, Altman appeared alongside President Donald Trump at the White House to announce the $500 billion Stargate project to build AI infrastructure in the U.S.

The new contract will represent a small portion of revenue at OpenAI, which is generating over $10 billion in annualized sales. In March, the company announced a $40 billion financing round at a $300 billion valuation.

In April, Microsoft, which supplies cloud infrastructure to OpenAI, said the U.S. Defense Information Systems Agency has authorized the use of the Azure OpenAI service with secret classified information. 

WATCH: OpenAI hits $10 billion in annual recurring revenue

OpenAI hits $10 billion in annual recurring revenue

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