Connect with us

Published

on

Jensen Huang, co-founder and chief executive officer of Nvidia, at the London Tech Week exposition in London, UK, on Monday, June 9, 2025.

Bloomberg | Bloomberg | Getty Images

LONDON — Wherever Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang goes, excitement follows — this time, all the way to London Tech Week.

The Nvidia boss — whom Wedbush analyst Daniel Ives dubs the “godfather of AI” — is more like a rockstar these days, given his wide-spanning effect on the AI industry.

“The amount of infrastructure required for AI wouldn’t be possible without that man,” one attendee at London Tech Week said.

“He’s like Iron Man,” the attendee added, referencing the popular Marvel superhero who is a tech billionaire inventor under the name of Tony Stark.

Floods of people crowded outside the main stage at London Tech Week as they attempted to get in for Nvidia boss Jensen Huang’s talk.

Arjun Kharpal | CNBC

The lines to get into the Olympia auditorium were already building around 40 minutes before Jensen was set to take the stage alongside U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer. Not everyone managed to get in — but there were helpfully screens around the venue where people could catch a glimpse of Huang’s talk.

People sat at other stages in the venue to watch Nvidia’s CEO speaking with U.K. PM Keir Starmer as there wasn’t enough room in the keynote stage.

Arjun Kharpal | CNBC

The Nvidia CEO gave his continued bullish assessment of artificial intelligence, calling it an “incredible technology” and saying it should be seen as infrastructure, just like electricity. 

UK gets glowing endorsement from Huang 

There weren’t any multi-billion dollar investments touted at London Tech Week. But the biggest win for Starmer and the U.K. by far was Huang’s lavish praise for the country.

Wearing his trademark leather jacket, Huang called the U.K. the “envy of the world” that is in the midst of a “Goldilocks circumstance,” boasting a vibrant venture capital ecosystem, as well as budding AI entrepreneurs from leading firms including Google DeepMind, Synthesia, Wayve and ElevenLabs.

Speaking alongside Huang, Starmer spoke in an animated manner as he touted Nvidia’s investments in the U.K. Earlier in the day, the U.S. chipmaker announced a new “U.K. sovereign AI industry forum,” as well as commitments from cloud vendors Nscale and Nebius to deploy new facilities containing thousands of its Blackwell GPU chips.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang speaking at London Tech Week 2025.

Ryan Browne | CNBC

Starmer spoke at length about AI’s promise and the ways in which it could ease the burdens faced by the U.K.’s public sector institutions, from hospitals to schools.

Huang added that the U.K. is “such a great place to invest,” noting that Nvidia plans to partner with the country to upskill tech workers and build out domestic AI infrastructure.

“Infrastructure enables more research — more research, more breakthroughs, more companies,” the Nvidia chief said. “That flywheel will start taking off. It’s already quite large, but we’re just going to get that flywheel going.”

Starmer thanked Huang for his point, commenting that “the confidence it gives when you explain it that way is huge.”

“From our point of view, we’re really pleased to be seen that way,” the U.K. leader said.

The pair shook hands at the end.

Altogether, there was a lot of energy in the room. Huang said he was “excited” for London Tech Week, and he was met with a round of applause from the audience.

Europe wants a piece of Huang

Countdown to Apple's WWDC: Here's what to expect

Continue Reading

Technology

Microsoft enters portable gaming with new ROG Xbox Ally devices

Published

on

By

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.

Continue Reading

Technology

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

Published

on

By

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.

Continue Reading

Technology

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

Published

on

By

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.

Read more CNBC tech news

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'

Continue Reading

Trending