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BITF Double-downs On PJM with SDIG Acquisition + Babylon Staking Tx Fee Spike

W34 ’24 | 8.19-8.25 | Issue XCIV | Block Height 858432 Welcome to the latest issue of the Vibe Check, your weekly source at the intersection of Bitcoin, Energy, and Bitcoin Mining. Grab a ☕ and start the week with all the metrics and stories that shake and bake the Bitcoin Mining industry. Subscribe and […]

W34 ’24 | 8.19-8.25 | Issue XCIV | Block Height 858432

Welcome to the latest issue of the Vibe Check, your weekly source at the intersection of Bitcoin, Energy, and Bitcoin Mining.

Grab a ☕ and start the week with all the metrics and stories that shake and bake the Bitcoin Mining industry.

Subscribe and share with your friends, colleagues, and family!

W34 ‘24 Vibe Check

  • The Overview Vibe

  • Weekly Industry Metrics

  • Headlines & News

  • The Media Vibe

  • Energy Corner

  • The Meme Vibe

The Ohio Blockchain Council is running it back this year with AMPLIFY on Oct 3rd in Columbus, Ohio. Join leaders from the Ohio Bitcoin mining, energy, and digital infrastructure sectors for a day of education, networking, and opportunity! Get your Tickets HERE and use “VibeCheck” for 21% off. For speaking or sponsorship opportunities, reach out to [email protected].

The Overview Vibe

With the Fed projecting rate cuts this fall, Bitcoin stepped up to 7%+ to ~$64K this week. Hashprice tracked BTC price up to ~$47/PH/Day within this inter-epoch difficulty adjustment week. Even though hashrate marginally rose, miners will not catch their breath with the 4% upward difficulty adjustment projected early next week. With ERCOT reaching an all-time high this week, flexible load did its thing this week and helped keep Texans cool.

With 94% of all Bitcoin ever issued now mined, transaction fee discussions heat every time there is a spike. After weeks of decreasing fees (SHOUT OUT TO ALL UTXO CONSOLIDATORS), the Babylon staking debut on mainnet, transaction fees 200%+ of the blocksize reward over 18 hours on TH night. Hashprice briefly tagged $54/PH/Day before it all came down before the weekend. It’s a story as old as time, but I am sure miners didn’t hate the extra sats!

Across the mining space, “Always the Bridesmaid, Never the Bride” in going public terms, Texas-based Rhodium filed chapter 11 after weeks of “distressed” rumors. With the identity of creditors soon to come to light, it will be interesting how the sector engages with one of the last, if not the last levered-up miners from the last cycle. With a couple of large immersion sites across central Texas, I can imagine both HPC developers and BTC miners will keep their eye on these power+land assets.

The biggest news of the week was Bitfarms (BITF) doubling down on the PJM ISO with the acquisition of Stronghold Digital (SDIG) (see news section). Two months after announcing its entry into Pennslayvia, BITF expanded its PJM power footprint to 950 MW+ with this all-stock transaction. SDIG has been positioning for sale after the halvening, looking to land its 160 MW+ of waste coal power generation and data centers with a growth-seeking peer.

While some Twitter commentators call the deal expensive, it is clear that vertical integration and interconnection access are the best way to develop BITF’s HPC/BTC strategy while fending off the existing takeover efforts by Riot Platforms. Congrats to everyone involved on getting the deal across the line! I am excited to see large flexible load growth in the country’s largest ISO. Could this be the catalyst to get the M&A party started…or will we have to wait until Q1 for teams to eventually realize there is no way out outside of consolidation? Vamos a ver!

I hope everyone had a great weekend as we head into LABOR DAY WEEKEND VIBES!!!! You best call your mom, stay hydrated, and share the Vibe Check with at least 3 homies this week. Much love y’all!

Bitcoin/Mining Metrics

  • BTC price2: ~$64,066.94 @ EOW. +7.09% WOW.

  • Hash price1: $47.18 PH/Day @ EOW. +7.62% WOW.

  • Network Hashrate (SMA 7 Day)1: ~651 EH/s @ EOW. +0.62% WOW. 

  • Difficulty1: 86.87 T @ EOW. 0.00% WOW.

  • ASIC Retail Price (s19/m30 family)1: $6.38/TH/s @ EOW. 0.00% WOW.

Sources: Hashrate Index1, Bitbo2

Weekly Hashprice – Block Height 858418 – Hashrate Index

Weekly Hashprice – Block Height 858418 – Hashrate Index

Mempool Stats – Block Height 858418 – mempool.space

Mining Stats – Block Height 858418 – mempool.space

Headlines & News

Featured

  • Bitcoin Mining Opportunity Is Worth About $74B, JPMorgan Says – CoinDesk.

  • Bitfarms to Acquire Stronghold Digital Mining – Press Release, Presentation, Prepared Remarks. 

  • Bitcoin Fees Spike Amid Babylon Staking Mainnet Launch – TheMinerMag.

  • Crypto industry accounts for almost half of corporate donations in 2024 election, report says – CNBC.

  • FERC rejects Basin Electric’s cryptocurrency mining rate proposal – UtilityDrive.

General PubCo Updates

Capital Markets & M&A

  • Riot Nears 20% in Bitfarms, Close to Trigger ‘Poison Pill’ – TheMinerMag.

  • Gryphon Acquires Ultra Low-Cost Power Mining Operations at ~$0.01/kWh – Press Release.

Regulatory/Legal Updates

  • Bitcoin Miner Greenidge Sues NY Regulator over Permit Renewal – TheMinerMag.

  • Malaysian Police Steamroll 985 Bitcoin Miners Again in Power Theft Crackdown – TheMinerMag.

  • National Power Administration of Paraguay Seizes 693 Miners in Illegal Bitcoin Mining Operation – Bitcoin.ComNews.

  • Bitcoin miner Rhodium files for Chapter 11 in the Texas Southern Bankruptcy Court – TheMiningPod.

Research/Reports/Newsletters

The Media Vibe

Energy Corner

The Meme Vibe

Meme Source

Meme Source

Subscribe and keep your eye out for the development of the Vibe Check throughout 2024!

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Stay ahead with more perspectives on cutting-edge power, infrastructure, energy,  bitcoin and AI solutions. Explore these articles to uncover strategies and insights shaping the future of industries.

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Quantum networking advances on Earth and in space

“Currently, the U.S. government is not investing in such testbeds or demonstrations, ensuring it will be a follower and not a leader in the development of technical advances in the field,” said a report released last year by the Quantum Economic Development Consortium, a global association of more than 250

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Who wins in networking in 2025 and beyond?

In this third team, we also find vendors most interested and active in the IoT opportunity, two of which are usually not considered enterprise vendors at all: Ericsson and Nokia. Both these companies are actively pursuing new IoT strategies, and while they are surely hoping that broad public-sensor IoT will

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Cisco researchers highlight emerging threats to AI models

Cisco security researchers this week detailed a number of threats they are seeing from bad actors trying to infect or attack AI’s most common component – the large language model. Some techniques used to hide messages or attacks from anti-spam systems are familiar to security specialists: “Hiding the nature of

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SSE on track despite stormy weather

SSE (LON: SSE) has upped its energy production across its portfolio of wind, gas and coal power through the most recent quarter affected by Storm Eowyn. The Perth-headquartered firm “good operational performance against variable weather conditions” in an update on its third quarter. It added operating profit expectations across its business units “remain unchanged” albeit it cautioned full year performance remains subject to a number of factors, including more weather. Generation output from its SSE Renewables division increased 26% in first nine months to the end of December compared to same period in prior year, SSE said. It added its “renewables fleet continue to experience periods of variable weather conditions” in January when Storm Eowyn hit, which the Met Office has described as “the UK’s most powerful windstorm for over a decade“. With its growing portfolio of investments in onshore and offshore wind in the UK, it said it’s massive Dogger Bank wind farm was still expected to complete in the second half of 2025.  SSE has a 40% stake in the project alongside Equinor (OSL: EQNR) 40% and Eni (IT: ENI) 20%. It added a second vessel has been reserved for the project from 2026 to support turbine installation across the second and third phases of the project. © Supplied by ProservProserv’s holistic cable monitoring system has been deployed at Dogger Bank wind farm. It also reported it has achieved first power at its 101MW Yellow River onshore wind farm that it has made a financial investment decision (FID) in its 208MW Strathy South onshore wind farm. It said it’s SSEN Transmission business, in which it holds a 75% stake along with Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan Board which owns 25%, published its “bold blueprint to deliver at least £22 billion of critical grid infrastructure in the five years to 2031”.

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TriMas Completes Arrow Engine Sale

TriMas Corp., a Michigan-based manufacturer of engineered products, has completed the sale of its Arrow Engine business to IES Infrastructure Solutions LLC, a division of IES Holdings Inc. TriMas confirmed in a media release that the sale marks the end of its direct presence in the oil and gas market. “Founded in 1955, Arrow Engine was a legacy TriMas business and part of the TriMas portfolio for several decades”, Thomas Amato, TriMas President and Chief Executive Officer, said. “We are pleased to place this business with IES Infrastructure Solutions, the right partner to take Arrow Engine to the next level. This move is another important step in optimizing TriMas’ business portfolio”. Arrow Engine supplies natural gas engines commonly used in remote applications, including oil field pump jacks and compressors. These engines and replacement parts are designed for use in oil and natural gas production, as well as other industrial sectors. Arrow Engine distributes its products globally, with a primary focus on the United States and Canada, according to TriMas. Arrow Engine manufactures its engine line and offers a wide array of spare parts for various industrial engines, even those not produced by Arrow Engine, TriMas said. With estimated 2024 revenues of approximately $20 million, Arrow Engine will operate within IES’ Infrastructure Solutions segment and retain its existing brand name, TriMas said. “We remain committed to ensuring a smooth transition to IES Infrastructure Solutions while continuing to deliver the highest level of service to Arrow Engine’s customers”, said Amato. TriMas selected Holland & Knight as its outside legal counsel, while Woodward Park Partners acted as exclusive financial advisor and led the sale process. The company added that as a result of the sale, the Specialty Products business will include only Norris Cylinder’s financial performance in 2025, with just one month of Arrow

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Tackling mental health as a young professional

This article is my reaction to the damaging narrative that “student years are the best years of your life”, while also casting light on some of the challenges facing young professionals that may impact their mental health, and discussing how I have personally overcome such barriers. “These will be the best years of your life!” These infamous words have been recited to children and students for decades. Used as a prompt to remind the youth to appreciate what they currently have, and acknowledge that life may not be so straightforward in the ‘real world’ of work, this phrase always comes with good intentions. However, with little over 15 months in full-time employment, I am here to argue against what I believe to be a negative and damaging narrative, and to provide some much healthier insight in order to encourage other young professionals. While I agree that life as a student can be one of month-long vacations, easier flexibility and a generally more relaxed day-to-day schedule, I want to contradict this narrative that the ‘real world’ is nothing more than a place of 9-5s, deadlines and Excel sheets. When I started full time work in September of 2023, this exact narrative had been drilled into my head. The fun was well and truly over, I thought, and the joys of life were going to end before I knew it. I had so much anxiety to enter what appeared to be a very big, and a very bad, world. This couldn’t be further from the truth, and whilst I cannot speak on behalf of my entire generation, I would say that this could be a real deterrent towards young people considering full-time work options after graduation. I believe that, as a whole, we need to raise awareness of the benefits of full-time

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Scotland’s Mocean Energy targets Australia and US for expansion

Scottish wave energy developer Mocean Energy is targeting international expansion in Australia and the US as it looks to secure its first commercial orders in 2025. Founded in 2015, Edinburgh-headquartered Mocean first launched its prototype Blue X wave energy converter (WEC) for testing off the coast of Orkney in 2021. The Blue X later played a key role in the renewables for subsea power (RSP) project, focused on decarbonising power supplies for subsea oil and gas operations. The project involved a subsea battery designed by Aberdeen’s Verlume and North Sea operators including Shell and TotalEnergies. Since the Blue X returned to shore, Mocean has focused on commercialising its prototype with the launch of the Blue Star model. Alongside the Blue Star, Mocean is also developing a larger, second-generation WEC known as Blue Horizon, which it hopes to deploy at utility-scale globally. Speaking to Energy Voice, Mocean Energy co-founder and managing director Cameron McNatt said the company is close to securing its first commercial WEC orders in 2025. But at the same time, Mocean also has its eyes on further international expansion within offshore oil and gas, as well as other sectors of the so-called ‘blue economy’. The company recently secured a partnership with German subsea engineering firm SubCtech, and McNatt sees significant opportunities for the firm Down Under. Mocean Energy’s Australia push In fact, McNatt said Australia is potentially Mocean’s “biggest focus altogether” due to its significant wave resources and the nature of its offshore oil and gas sector. “Particularly the west coast and the south coast of Australia have one of the biggest wave resources in the world,” he said. © Supplied by Mocean EnergyMocean Energy co-founder and managing director Cameron McNatt “I think the interest in Australia is so big because there’s a lot of subsea development down

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NGOs win critical seabed minerals skirmish with Norwegian government

A year ago, Norway became the first country to back deep sea mineral prospecting in its waters, with a government plan to launch an exploration licenses bidding round this year (2025). Barely 11 months later, last December, the Norwegians suspended activity indefinitely, having been sued by a non-governmental organisation (NGO) – the widely respected Worldwide Fund for Nature (WWF). It was January 2024 when the Storting (Norwegian parliament) voted in favour of opening about 280,000 sq. km (108,000 square miles) of sea space between Jan Mayen island and the Svalbard archipelago for seabed minerals exploration. It argued that the world needed minerals for the green transition, and that it was necessary to explore the possibility of extracting seabed minerals in a big way from the Norwegian Continental Shelf. Despite the size of the prospective prize, minor political party SV (Socialist Left) tabled a demand that the Oslo government scrap its first licensing round, comprising 386 blocks, in return for support for the budget for 2025, which is also an election year. Clearly spooked, Prime Minster Jonas Gahr Stoere claimed it was a “postponement”. But even before the Storting’s January vote, Norway’s PM had come under pressure from the EU. On November 9 2023, 119 European parliamentarians from 16 European countries called for a halt to Norway’s plans to start deep sea mining in the Arctic. This will have been viewed as deeply hurtful at the Oslo Parliament. An open letter was issued, signed by Members of the European Parliament, as well as national and regional parliaments. It emphasised that the green transition could not be used to justify harming marine biodiversity and the world’s largest natural carbon sink (the ocean), especially when alternatives already exist. Norway’s decision to proceed with deep sea mining, the letter said, could also set a

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Aberdeen’s Well-Safe solutions secures contract extension with Eni

Aberdeen-headquartered well decommissioning specialist Well-Safe Solutions has secured a contract extension with Italian oil major Eni (IT: ENI). As part of the agreement, the Well-Safe Protector rig will deploy to the Dutch sector of the North Sea to decommission selected subsea and platform wells. Well-Safe said Eni recently exercised another 90 day option for the jack-up rig under a newly agreed contract amendment for an undisclosed value. The Protector will execute the work in direct continuation with the previously declared option, which began in November last year. After completing the latest extension, the Protector will move directly onto a contract with Spirit Energy focused on the York field in the UK North Sea. The multi-operator commitments will see the Protector rig under contract until at least August 2025, with additional longer-term options also agreed as part of the Eni deal. The amendment gives Eni increased flexibility, with the option for an additional 120 days work commencing immediately after the Spirit Energy contract. Well-Safe said if Eni exercises these options, it could keep the Protector outside the UK continental shelf until the fourth quarter of 2026. Well-Safe Protector The Protector has been operational in the North Sea continuously since August 2023. In that time, the rig has decommissioned 25 wells across Dutch and UK waters for operators Eni, Ithaca Energy (LON: ITH) and Neptune Energy. Well-Safe Solutions chief executive Phil Milton said well decommissioning continues to make up a considerable portion of overall North Sea decommissioning activity. Milton pointed to recent Offshore Energies UK (OEUK) forecasts which showed an expected 50% increase in well decommissioning across 2024. “Operators around the world are looking for specialist well decommissioning providers with a market-leading track record of delivering safe, efficient well decommissioning operations,” Milton added. “Since the Well-Safe Protector first mobilised in August 2023, it

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Linux containers in 2025 and beyond

The upcoming years will also bring about an increase in the use of standard container practices, such as the Open Container Initiative (OCI) standard, container registries, signing, testing, and GitOps workflows used for application development to build Linux systems. We’re also likely see a significant rise in the use of bootable containers, which are self-contained images that can boot directly into an operating system or application environment. Cloud platforms are often the primary platform for AI experimentation and container development because of their scalability and flexibility along the integration of both AI and ML services. They’re giving birth to many significant changes in the way we process data. With data centers worldwide, cloud platforms also ensure low-latency access and regional compliance for AI applications. As we move ahead, development teams will be able to collaborate more easily through shared development environments and efficient data storage.

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Let’s Go Build Some Data Centers: PowerHouse Drives Hyperscale and AI Infrastructure Across North America

PowerHouse Data Centers, a leading developer and builder of next-generation hyperscale data centers and a division of American Real Estate Partners (AREP), is making significant strides in expanding its footprint across North America, initiating several key projects and partnerships as 2025 begins.  The new developments underscore the company’s commitment to advancing digital infrastructure to meet the growing demands of hyperscale and AI-driven applications. Let’s take a closer look at some of PowerHouse Data Centers’ most recent announcements. Quantum Connect: Bridging the AI Infrastructure Gap in Ashburn On January 17, PowerHouse Data Centers announced a collaboration with Quantum Connect to develop Ashburn’s first fiber hub specifically designed for AI and high-density workloads. This facility is set to provide 20 MW of critical power, with initial availability slated for late 2026.  Strategically located in Northern Virginia’s Data Center Alley, Quantum Connect aims to offer scalable, high-density colocation solutions, featuring rack densities of up to 30kW to support modern workloads such as AI inference, edge caching, and regional compute integration. Quantum Connect said it currently has 1-3 MW private suites available for businesses seeking high-performance infrastructure that bridges the gap between retail colocation and hyperscale facilities. “Quantum Connect redefines what Ashburn’s data center market can deliver for businesses caught in the middle—those too large for retail colocation yet underserved by hyperscale environments,” said Matt Monaco, Senior Vice President at PowerHouse Data Centers. “We’re providing high-performance solutions for tenants with demanding needs but without hyperscale budgets.” Anchored by 130 miles of private conduit and 2,500 fiber pathways, Quantum Connect’s infrastructure offers tenants direct, short-hop connections to adjacent facilities and carrier networks.  With 14 campus entrances and secure, concrete-encased duct banks, the partners said the new facility minimizes downtime risks and reduces operational costs by eliminating the need for new optics or extended fiber runs.

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Blue Owl Swoops In As Major Backer of New, High-Profile, Sustainable U.S. Data Center Construction

With the global demand for data centers continuing to surge ahead, fueled by the proliferation of artificial intelligence (AI), cloud computing, and digital services, it is unsurprising that we are seeing aggressive investment strategies, beyond those of the existing hyperscalers. One of the dynamic players in this market is Blue Owl Capital, a leading asset management firm that has made significant strides in the data center sector. Back in October 2024 we reported on its acquisition of IPI Partners, a digital infrastructure fund manager, for approximately $1 billion. This acquisition added over $11 billion to the assets Blue Owl manages and focused specifically on digital infrastructure initiatives. This acquisition was completed as of January 5, 2025 and IPI’s Managing Partner, Matt A’Hearn has been appointed Head of Blue Owl’s digital infrastructure strategy. A Key Player In Digital Infrastructure and Data Centers With multi-billion-dollar joint ventures and financing initiatives, Blue Owl is positioning itself as a key player in the digital infrastructure space. The company investments in data centers, the implications of its strategic moves, and the broader impact on the AI and digital economy highlights the importance of investment in the data center to the economy overall. With the rapid growth of the data center industry, it is unsurprising that aggressive investment fund management is seeing it as an opportunity. Analysts continue to emphasize that the global data center market is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 10.2% from 2023 to 2030, reaching $517.17 billion by the end of the decade. In this rapidly evolving landscape, Blue Owl Capital has emerged as a significant contributor. The firm’s investments in data centers are not just about capitalizing on current trends but also about shaping the future of digital infrastructure. Spreading the Wealth In August 2024, Blue Owl

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Global Data Center Operator Telehouse Launches Liquid Cooling Lab in the UK to Meet Ongoing AI and HPC Demand

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Flexential Partners with Lonestar to Support First Lunar Data Center

Flexential, a leading provider of secure and flexible data center solutions, this month announced that it has joined forces with Lonestar Data Holdings Inc. to support the upcoming launch of Freedom, Lonestar’s second lunar data center. Scheduled to launch aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket via Intuitive Machines, this mission is a critical step toward establishing a permanent data center on the Moon. Ground-Based Support for Lunar Data Storage Flexential’s Tampa data center will serve as the mission control platform for Lonestar’s lunar operations, providing colocation, interconnection, and professional services. The facility was chosen for its proximity to Florida’s Space Coast launch operations and its ability to deliver low-latency connectivity for critical functions. Flexential operates two data centers in Tampa and four in Florida as part of its FlexAnywhere® Platform, comprising more than 40 facilities across the U.S. “Flexential’s partnership with Lonestar represents our commitment to advancing data center capabilities beyond conventional boundaries,” said Jason Carolan, Chief Innovation Officer at Flexential. “By supporting Lonestar’s space-based data center initiative, we are helping to create new possibilities for data storage and disaster recovery. This project demonstrates how innovative data center expertise can help organizations prepare for a resilient future with off-world storage solutions.” A New Era of Space-Based Resiliency The growing demand for data center capacity, with U.S. power consumption expected to double from 17 GW in 2022 to 35 GW by 2030 (according to McKinsey & Company), is driving interest in space-based solutions. Storing data off-planet reduces reliance on terrestrial resources while enhancing security against natural disasters, warfare, and cyber threats. The Freedom data center will provide resiliency, disaster recovery, and edge processing services for government and enterprise customers requiring the highest levels of data protection. The solar-powered data center leverages Solid-State Drives (SSDs) and a Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) edge

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Why DeepSeek Is Great for AI and HPC and Maybe No Big Deal for Data Centers

In the rapid and ever-evolving landscape of artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing (HPC), the emergence of DeepSeek’s R1 model has sent ripples across industries. DeepSeek has been the data center industry’s topic of the week, for sure. The Chinese AI app surged to the top of US app store leaderboards last weekend, sparking a global selloff in technology shares Monday morning.  But while some analysts predict a transformative impact within the industry, a closer examination suggests that, for data centers at large, the furor over DeepSeek might ultimately be much ado about nothing. DeepSeek’s Breakthrough in AI and HPC DeepSeek, a Chinese AI startup, this month unveiled its R1 model, claiming performance on par with, or even surpassing, leading models like OpenAI’s ChatGPT-4 and Anthropic’s Claude-3.5-Sonnet. Remarkably, DeepSeek developed this model at a fraction of the cost typically associated with such advancements, utilizing a cluster of 256 server nodes equipped with 2,048 GPUs. This efficiency has been attributed to innovative techniques and optimized resource utilization. AI researchers have been abuzz about the performance of the DeepSeek chatbot that produces results similar to ChatGPT, but is based on open-source models and reportedly trained on older GPU chips. Some researchers are skeptical of claims about DeepSeek’s development costs and means, but its performance appears to challenge common assumptions about the computing cost of developing AI applications. This efficiency has been attributed to innovative techniques and optimized resource utilization.  Market Reactions and Data Center Implications The announcement of DeepSeek’s R1 model led to significant market reactions, with notable declines in tech stocks, including a substantial drop in Nvidia’s valuation. This downturn was driven by concerns that more efficient AI models could reduce the demand for high-end hardware and, by extension, the expansive data centers that house them. For now, investors are re-assessing the

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Microsoft will invest $80B in AI data centers in fiscal 2025

And Microsoft isn’t the only one that is ramping up its investments into AI-enabled data centers. Rival cloud service providers are all investing in either upgrading or opening new data centers to capture a larger chunk of business from developers and users of large language models (LLMs).  In a report published in October 2024, Bloomberg Intelligence estimated that demand for generative AI would push Microsoft, AWS, Google, Oracle, Meta, and Apple would between them devote $200 billion to capex in 2025, up from $110 billion in 2023. Microsoft is one of the biggest spenders, followed closely by Google and AWS, Bloomberg Intelligence said. Its estimate of Microsoft’s capital spending on AI, at $62.4 billion for calendar 2025, is lower than Smith’s claim that the company will invest $80 billion in the fiscal year to June 30, 2025. Both figures, though, are way higher than Microsoft’s 2020 capital expenditure of “just” $17.6 billion. The majority of the increased spending is tied to cloud services and the expansion of AI infrastructure needed to provide compute capacity for OpenAI workloads. Separately, last October Amazon CEO Andy Jassy said his company planned total capex spend of $75 billion in 2024 and even more in 2025, with much of it going to AWS, its cloud computing division.

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John Deere unveils more autonomous farm machines to address skill labor shortage

Join our daily and weekly newsletters for the latest updates and exclusive content on industry-leading AI coverage. Learn More Self-driving tractors might be the path to self-driving cars. John Deere has revealed a new line of autonomous machines and tech across agriculture, construction and commercial landscaping. The Moline, Illinois-based John Deere has been in business for 187 years, yet it’s been a regular as a non-tech company showing off technology at the big tech trade show in Las Vegas and is back at CES 2025 with more autonomous tractors and other vehicles. This is not something we usually cover, but John Deere has a lot of data that is interesting in the big picture of tech. The message from the company is that there aren’t enough skilled farm laborers to do the work that its customers need. It’s been a challenge for most of the last two decades, said Jahmy Hindman, CTO at John Deere, in a briefing. Much of the tech will come this fall and after that. He noted that the average farmer in the U.S. is over 58 and works 12 to 18 hours a day to grow food for us. And he said the American Farm Bureau Federation estimates there are roughly 2.4 million farm jobs that need to be filled annually; and the agricultural work force continues to shrink. (This is my hint to the anti-immigration crowd). John Deere’s autonomous 9RX Tractor. Farmers can oversee it using an app. While each of these industries experiences their own set of challenges, a commonality across all is skilled labor availability. In construction, about 80% percent of contractors struggle to find skilled labor. And in commercial landscaping, 86% of landscaping business owners can’t find labor to fill open positions, he said. “They have to figure out how to do

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2025 playbook for enterprise AI success, from agents to evals

Join our daily and weekly newsletters for the latest updates and exclusive content on industry-leading AI coverage. Learn More 2025 is poised to be a pivotal year for enterprise AI. The past year has seen rapid innovation, and this year will see the same. This has made it more critical than ever to revisit your AI strategy to stay competitive and create value for your customers. From scaling AI agents to optimizing costs, here are the five critical areas enterprises should prioritize for their AI strategy this year. 1. Agents: the next generation of automation AI agents are no longer theoretical. In 2025, they’re indispensable tools for enterprises looking to streamline operations and enhance customer interactions. Unlike traditional software, agents powered by large language models (LLMs) can make nuanced decisions, navigate complex multi-step tasks, and integrate seamlessly with tools and APIs. At the start of 2024, agents were not ready for prime time, making frustrating mistakes like hallucinating URLs. They started getting better as frontier large language models themselves improved. “Let me put it this way,” said Sam Witteveen, cofounder of Red Dragon, a company that develops agents for companies, and that recently reviewed the 48 agents it built last year. “Interestingly, the ones that we built at the start of the year, a lot of those worked way better at the end of the year just because the models got better.” Witteveen shared this in the video podcast we filmed to discuss these five big trends in detail. Models are getting better and hallucinating less, and they’re also being trained to do agentic tasks. Another feature that the model providers are researching is a way to use the LLM as a judge, and as models get cheaper (something we’ll cover below), companies can use three or more models to

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OpenAI’s red teaming innovations define new essentials for security leaders in the AI era

Join our daily and weekly newsletters for the latest updates and exclusive content on industry-leading AI coverage. Learn More OpenAI has taken a more aggressive approach to red teaming than its AI competitors, demonstrating its security teams’ advanced capabilities in two areas: multi-step reinforcement and external red teaming. OpenAI recently released two papers that set a new competitive standard for improving the quality, reliability and safety of AI models in these two techniques and more. The first paper, “OpenAI’s Approach to External Red Teaming for AI Models and Systems,” reports that specialized teams outside the company have proven effective in uncovering vulnerabilities that might otherwise have made it into a released model because in-house testing techniques may have missed them. In the second paper, “Diverse and Effective Red Teaming with Auto-Generated Rewards and Multi-Step Reinforcement Learning,” OpenAI introduces an automated framework that relies on iterative reinforcement learning to generate a broad spectrum of novel, wide-ranging attacks. Going all-in on red teaming pays practical, competitive dividends It’s encouraging to see competitive intensity in red teaming growing among AI companies. When Anthropic released its AI red team guidelines in June of last year, it joined AI providers including Google, Microsoft, Nvidia, OpenAI, and even the U.S.’s National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), which all had released red teaming frameworks. Investing heavily in red teaming yields tangible benefits for security leaders in any organization. OpenAI’s paper on external red teaming provides a detailed analysis of how the company strives to create specialized external teams that include cybersecurity and subject matter experts. The goal is to see if knowledgeable external teams can defeat models’ security perimeters and find gaps in their security, biases and controls that prompt-based testing couldn’t find. What makes OpenAI’s recent papers noteworthy is how well they define using human-in-the-middle

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