Shell reportedly mulling takeover of supermajor rival BP

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Shell reportedly mulling takeover of supermajor rival BP

Shell is evaluating the possibility of mounting a takeover bid for its rival BP, according to media reports. The speculation comes as BP’s share price continues to slide amid a “strategic reset” and “disappointing” Q1 financial results. Bloomberg, citing people familiar with the matter, reported that Shell is working with advisors on a potential acquisition. […]

Shell is evaluating the possibility of mounting a takeover bid for its rival BP, according to media reports.

The speculation comes as BP’s share price continues to slide amid a “strategic reset” and “disappointing” Q1 financial results.

Bloomberg, citing people familiar with the matter, reported that Shell is working with advisors on a potential acquisition.

However, Shell is reportedly waiting for further stock and oil price declines before deciding whether to pursue a bid.

Since the start of 2025, BP’s share price has fallen by about 13% amid global economic uncertainty due to US President Donald Trump’s trade policies.

Over the past 12 months, BP’s valuation has dropped by almost a third as its shares have lagged behind its supermajor rivals since the departure of former chief executive Bernard Looney.

His replacement as CEO, Murray Auchincloss, has since unveiled plans to slash investment in its low-carbon efforts by $5 billion in an attempt to turn BP’s fortunes around.

A decision on whether Shell will launch a bid for BP will likely depend on whether BP’s share prices continue to fall, Bloomberg said.

Industry analysts have long hinted at the potential merger of BP and Shell, particularly in recent years as their stock valuations continue to trail their American rivals.

In response to the Bloomberg story, a spokesperson for Shell said: “As we have said many times before, we are sharply focused on capturing the value in Shell through continuing to focus on performance, discipline and simplification.”

BP declined to comment on the reports.

Shell chief executive Wael Sawan told analysts on Friday that while the oil giant “will keep looking at inorganic opportunities” for growth, he currently sees buying back Shell’s own shares as the best value transaction for the firm.

Oil and gas mega mergers

If a deal to combine Shell and BP finally did go ahead, it would likely stand as one of the biggest deals ever in the oil and gas industry.

The sector has seen significant consolidation in recent years, with US supermajors Chevron and ExxonMobil making bids for rival firms.

In 2023, Chevron launched a $53 billion takeover attempt of US-listed rival Hess, while ExxonMobil agreed to buy Pioneer Natural Resources for $59.5 billion, the supermajor’s largest takeover in more than two decades.

The takeover trend has also taken hold in the North Sea offshore sector.

Supermajors Shell and Equinor announced last year they would combine their North Sea assets, while Ithaca Energy and Eni have also announced a tie-up.

More recently, Spanish operator Repsol is set to combine its North Sea assets with NEO Energy.

Harbour Energy also completed its $11.2bn buyout of German rival Wintershall Dea last year.

While the deal looks to be on hold for now, EnQuest has also considered a takeover of North Sea rival Serica Energy in recent weeks.

The flurry of mergers and combinations led EnQuest’s Bseisu to observe that ““the writing is on the wall for the North Sea”.

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Pantheon of college football gets a Wi-Fi upgrade

Notre Dame has fully adopted mobile ticketing and introduced grab-and-go concession stands, with plans to expand them further. Alcohol sales were recently approved, prompting efforts to support new services like mobile carts. In premium areas, fans can stream various games during events. Notre Dame also tested mobile ordering for concessions

The U.S. leads the world in AI (job) anxiety

The Americans have the highest search volume with a population-adjusted value of 440,000 search queries on the topic of AI job loss, while their attitude towards AI is moderately positive at 54.5%. The intensity score of 3 for the U.S. shows that the concern of losing jobs to AI is

Tigera extends cloud-native networking with Calico 3.30

This logging capability is exposed through two new components: Goldmane: A gRPC-based API endpoint that aggregates flow logs from Calico’s Felix component, which runs on each node. Whisker: A web-based visualization tool built with React and TypeScript that connects to the Goldmane API. The combination of these components provides detailed

AWS adds new cost metrics to its Budgets finance management tool

Dimensions, in the context of the AWS tool, are filters that can be set to break down the cost and usage of AWS services more granularly, helping enterprises identify areas of cost optimization. According to AWS, budgets can be filtered on the basis of specific AWS services, regions, linked accounts,

Technip Energies Wins Engineering Contract for QatarEnergy LNG Project

Technip Energies has been awarded a detailed engineering and design contract by Larsen & Toubro Limited’s Hydrocarbon business for a QatarEnergy LNG project in the North Field concession offshore Qatar. The project is named the North Field Production Sustainability Offshore Compression Project, of which Technip has completed the front-end engineering and design (FEED) phase, the company said in a news release. Technip defined the contract as “significant,” which it defined as representing revenue between $56.5 million and 282.5 million (EUR 50 million and 250 million). Under the contract, Technip Energies will provide detailed engineering design for two offshore compression complexes. Each complex will consist of large offshore platforms, flare platforms, interconnected bridges, and other associated structures, according to the release. Marco Villa, Chief Business Officer of Technip Energies, said, “We are pleased to be entrusted by L&T and QatarEnergy LNG for the detailed engineering design of the NFPS COMP 4 project. This selection highlights the confidence and trust in our engineering expertise and Technip Energies’ established capability to support Qatar’s energy security, ambitious projects and objectives”. SAF Project in Australia Further Technip Energies also won a FEED contract from Jet Zero Australia Pty Ltd for Project Ulysses, a bioethanol to sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) project located in Townsville, Australia. The FEED contract covers an extensive package of engineering activities, documentation and planning to refine the cost estimate for the project and develop detailed timelines, the company said in an earlier statement. The project aims to produce 102 million liters of SAF and 11 million liters of renewable diesel annually by 2028 using Australian bioethanol and technologies from Technip Energies and LanzaJet. Technip’s Hummingbird technology converts the bioethanol to sustainable ethylene and LanzaJet’s alcohol-to-jet technology transforms the ethylene to SAF, according to the statement. Sylvain Cabalery, SVP for Sustainable Fuels, Chemicals

BMI Cuts Henry Hub Price Forecast

In a BMI report sent to Rigzone by the Fitch Group on Thursday, BMI projected that the Henry Hub price will average $3.2 per million British thermal units (MMBtu) in 2025, $3.6 per MMBtu in 2026, $3.8 per MMBtu in 2027, and $4 per MMBtu across 2028 and 2029. A Bloomberg consensus included in the report forecast that the commodity will average $3.7 per MMBtu this year, $3.9 per MMBtu next year, $4.1 per MMBtu in 2027, $3.9 per MMBtu in 2028, and $4 per MMBtu in 2029. In a BMI report sent to Rigzone by the Fitch Group on February 10, BMI projected that the Henry Hub price would average $3.4 per MMBtu in 2025, $3.8 per MMBtu across 2026 and 2027, and $4 per MMBtu across 2028 and 2029. A Bloomberg consensus included in that report forecast that the commodity would come in at $3.4 per MMBtu in 2025, $3.7 per MMBtu in 2026, $3.8 per MMBtu in 2027, and $4 per MMBtu in 2028. That Bloomberg consensus did not include a Henry Hub price projection for 2029. “Due to the rapid natural gas stockpile build and a looser fundamental outlook we have revised our 2025 Henry Hub annual average price forecast to $3.2 per MMBtu, 5.9 percent lower than our previous forecast,” BMI analysts stated in the BMI report sent to Rigzone on Thursday. “U.S. natural gas prices are down 21.7 percent since the start of the year, as soft demand to end the heating season faces continued production growth,” they added. In the report, BMI analysts said an early end to the heating season saw natural gas in storage build by the middle of March, “several weeks earlier than historic trends”. “This led to a sharp drop in Henry Hub prices since then, falling by 28

Reducing uncertainty: securing your contingent workforce in the global energy sector

In the energy industry, filling short-term roles, as and when required, is challenging. Influencing factors, such as a wider range of job options due to expanding energy sources, talent leakage, and rules or regulatory changes like the recent amends to IR35, can affect personnel availability for fast-paced crew hire. How employers can overcome crew change challenges Managing contingency workforce requirements can be a logistical headache for global energy companies. Specific problems can arise in recruiting people across different countries, states and regions. Localised variations in recruitment laws, tax regulations, training and payment processes can be highly complex and time-consuming for employers to manage. Additionally, transport needs and visa and permit regulations must be taken care of, too. However, time is money. Avoiding delays by having the right people in the right place at the right time, compliant and ready to work, is essential. Global energy recruitment specialists Your recruitment partner must understand the energy industry’s specific challenges and how international energy companies do business. However, not all recruitment providers have the expertise, experience, technology or robust data infrastructure to overcome these challenges. Partnering with an energy sector recruitment specialist with a global footprint can reduce time, money, stress and hiring risks. In the last 20 years, JAB has worked across 34 locations, filling over 10,000 positions globally in the energy sector. With a dedicated energy team of 40 people, based in the UK, USA and Canada, our AI-enhanced app powered by Moblyze, it is a recognised trusted partner to its loyal client base. JAB focus on partnerships and professionalism, aligning skills and employer needs with smart, purpose-built tech. It works with clients throughout the recruitment project lifecycle, from early-stage planning to people resourcing, to support short-term and long-term workforce needs. Effective contingent workforce hiring The JAB app is specifically designed

Calls for energy policy shift ahead of Programme for Government

Aberdeen and Grampian Chamber of Commerce (AGCC) has written to the first minister ahead of Holyrood’s Programme for Government to demand policy to support the north-east energy sector. On Tuesday, the legislative programme for the next parliamentary year will be introduced by the Scottish government. The Scottish government website lists that the 2025 to 2026 programme will focus on “eradicating child poverty”, “growing the economy”, “tackling the climate emergency”, and “delivering high-quality and sustainable public services”. AGCC has argued that Scotland needs “pragmatic energy policy” that encompasses the benefits of oil and gas. Russell Borthwick, chief executive of AGCC, commented: “This region stands ready to help deliver economic growth for Scotland – but only if policy matches potential. “We urge the first minister to back the north-east, to restore business confidence, and to work with us to turn shared ambitions into action.” Oil and gas ‘in significant jeopardy’ In the letter to first minister John Swinney, the Aberdeen business group called for the Scottish Government to back new oil and gas projects such as Rosebank and Jackdaw. This is in line with findings from a recent report published by the chamber’s North Sea Transition Taskforce. AGCC warned Swinney that the Scottish oil and gas sector is “in significant jeopardy” due to the current tax regime and planning delays. However, both of these matters would fall under the powers of the UK government. The oil and gas sector has been vocal about the impacts of the windfall tax, which imposes a 78% rate on operators, and delays to Rosebank and Jackdaw came after a landmark court ruling that found Westminster’s approval of their environmental impact assessments (EIA) to be unlawful. © Supplied by Stop RosebankClimate campaigners celebrate outside the Court of Session in Edinburgh following a ruling overturning the approval of Equinor’s

Saxo Says Speculators Trimmed Crude Long Positions Ahead of OPEC+ Increase

In a commodities note posted on the Saxo Bank A/S website today, Ole Hansen, the company’s head of commodity strategy, highlighted that “speculators trimmed long positions in crude oil ahead of the latest OPEC+ production increase”. “Both Brent crude and WTI fell back toward the four-year lows last seen in the aftermath of the March sell-off triggered by President Trump’s so-called ‘Liberation Speech’,” Hansen stated in the note. “The drop followed OPEC+’s decision to extend the 411,000 barrels per day production increase planned for May into June. This move raised concerns about a potential global supply glut, especially at a time when trade tensions threaten to dampen demand,” he added. In the note, Hansen said, ahead of the weekend OPEC announcement, managed money long positions in crude oil declined by 15,700 contracts to 226,500, which he pointed out was “well below the five-year average of 426,000 and the one-year average of 272,000”. “This suggests that choppy price action, the loss of momentum, and continued macro-driven selling are weighing on speculative interest,” he warned in the note. In an oil report sent to Rigzone on Monday by the Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken AB (SEB) team, Ole R. Hvalbye, a commodities analyst at the company, outlined that OPEC+’s latest increase “brings the total combined output hikes for April, May, and June to 960,000 barrels per day – roughly 44 percent of the 2.2 million barrels per day of cuts agreed upon since 2022”. “If this pace continues, OPEC+ could fully unwind its voluntary cuts by the end of October 2025,” Hvalbye added. “With this backdrop, the trend of maintaining a 411,000 barrels per day increase is expected to continue, which will likely cap crude prices,” Hvalbye went on to state. Rigzone has contacted OPEC for comment on Hansen and Hvalbye’s statements. Rigzone has also contacted

Qatar Adds 875 MW of Solar Capacity

QatarEnergy said it has put online two photovoltaic generation facilities with a combined capacity of 875 megawatts (MW). The projects in the industrial cities of Mesaieed and Ras Laffan will raise Qatar’s solar power production capacity to 1,675 MW, according to a press release by the state-owned energy company. “The construction of solar power plants is one of Qatar’s most important initiatives to reduce carbon dioxide emissions, to develop sustainability projects, and to diversify electricity generation sources”, said Energy Affairs Minister Saad Sherida Al-Kaabi, who is also QatarEnergy president and chief executive. “These plants are expected to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by about 4.7 million tons annually”. The Gulf state aims to raise the share of renewable energy in its natural gas-dominated power mix from the current five percent to 18 percent by 2030, as declared in the Qatar National Renewable Energy Strategy released April 27, 2024. The strategy focuses on solar generation. Qatar now has three operational solar facilities, the other being the 800-MW Al-Kharsaa plant, which was put onstream 2022. The facility is owned by QatarEnergy, Marubeni Corp. and TotalEnergies SE. The three solar plants are expected to cover about 15 percent of total peak power demand, Al-Kaabi said. “We have moved beyond relying on the expertise of others for the construction, operation, and maintenance of solar power plants, and have begun implementing such projects using our own national expertise”, Al-Kaabi said. Last year QatarEnergy announced a new solar project with a generation capacity of 2,000 MW. It expects the Dukhan Solar Power Plan to start operation by 2030. Qatar relies on gas-powered thermal plants for over 90 percent, or 11.3 gigawatts, of its total power production, according to the renewables strategy prepared by the Qatar General Electricity and Water Corporation (Kahramaa). “However, the expected commissioning of 2.2

Engineers rush to master new skills for AI-driven data centers

According to the Uptime Institute survey, 57% of data centers are increasing salary spending. Data center job roles that saw the highest increases were in operations management – 49% of data center operators said they saw highest increases in this category – followed by junior and mid-level operations staff at 45%, and senior management and strategy at 35%. Other job categories that saw salary growth were electrical, at 32% and mechanical, at 23%. Organizations are also paying premiums on top of salaries for particular skills and certifications. Foote Partners tracks pay premiums for more than 1,300 certified and non-certified skills for IT jobs in general. The company doesn’t segment the data based on whether the jobs themselves are data center jobs, but it does track 60 skills and certifications related to data center management, including skills such as storage area networking, LAN, and AIOps, and 24 data center-related certificates from Cisco, Juniper, VMware and other organizations. “Five of the eight data center-related skills recording market value gains in cash pay premiums in the last twelve months are all AI-related skills,” says David Foote, chief analyst at Foote Partners. “In fact, they are all among the highest-paying skills for all 723 non-certified skills we report.” These skills bring in 16% to 22% of base salary, he says. AIOps, for example, saw an 11% increase in market value over the past year, now bringing in a premium of 20% over base salary, according to Foote data. MLOps now brings in a 22% premium. “Again, these AI skills have many uses of which the data center is only one,” Foote adds. The percentage increase in the specific subset of these skills in data centers jobs may vary. The Uptime Institute survey suggests that the higher pay is motivating workers to stay in the

ExtraHop looks to eliminate ‘extra hops’ in NDR stack

This deep visibility allows ExtraHop to provide insights across the entire network stack, from basic connectivity to application-level transactions. “The benefit of going all the way through Layer 7 is I can actually see a database transaction going through on the wire,” Vasani said. “If you have application teams complaining about database query latency, we can map it to what session was that tied to and what flows was it tied to from a network perspective and is this really an app server issue, or is it a network issue, or is it an endpoint issue?” The new sensor integrates with ExtraHop’s RevealX platform, feeding telemetry into the company’s cloud-scale ML/AI engine that powers its detection and analysis capabilities. “The sensor collects the telemetry, feeds it into an ML/AI engine that sits in the cloud, and then we layer in workflow engines on top to enable the various use cases,” Vasani said. In modern distributed enterprise environments, network visibility must extend beyond traditional data centers. ExtraHop’s all-in-one sensor is designed to address this reality with deployment options that span physical appliances, virtual machines and cloud environments. ExtraHop has both virtual and physical hardware appliances for sensor deployment. ExtraHop sensors can plug into a network through multiple methods including, Network Tap, SPAN (Switched Port Analyzer) port, packet broker or a cloud provider’s vTAP capabilities.

AI’s energy appetite drives interest in nuclear power

In its new report, Deloitte said that its analysis of figures from the World Nuclear Association, the American Nuclear Society, the U.S. Department of Energy, and others showed that new nuclear power could potentially meet about 10% of the projected increase in data center demand over the next decade, assuming capacity is also significantly expanded by between 35GW and 62GW, and 30% of the expansion is earmarked for data centers. “Nuclear energy presents a potential solution for meeting some of the growing electricity demands of data centers, with its reliable and clean energy profile,” Deloitte’s report said, noting five key advantages of the technology: Reliable baseload power: Nuclear reactors operate 24/7, regardless of the weather, providing the reliable power so important to data centers. In addition, Deloitte said, “Their capacity factor, exceeding 92.5%, outperforms other sources like natural gas (56%) and renewables like wind (35%) and solar (25%).” High energy density: A small amount of fuel generates a lot of power, which minimizes the need for fuel storage and transportation. “This efficiency can translate to a smaller physical footprint and enhanced sustainability,” Deloitte said. Scalable power output: A full-sized reactor typically generates 800 megawatts (MW) or more of electricity, which accommodates the needs of large data centers. Low carbon emissions: Nuclear power plants produce virtually no greenhouse gas emissions during operation. Enhanced land use efficiency: Compared to other energy sources, nuclear power plants require relatively little land. Gartner’s Johnson echoed these advantages, and also predicted that nuclear energy, and small modular reactors (SMRs) in particular, will “provide a viable answer” to the question of what to do when electricity demand exceeds supply. They can, he said, “ensure independence from grid power fluctuations by providing dedicated on-site power for large data centers.” However, both Gartner and Deloitte also highlighted challenges in

Nvidia AI supercluster targets agents, reasoning models on Oracle Cloud

Oracle has previously built an OCI Supercluster with 65,536 Nvidia H200 GPUs using the older Hopper GPU technology and no CPU that offers up to 260 exaflops of peak FP8 performance. According to the blog post announcing the availability, the Blackwell GPUs are available via Oracle’s public, government, and sovereign clouds, as well as in customer-owned data centers through its OCI Dedicated Region and Alloy offerings. Oracle joins a growing list of cloud providers that have made the GB200 NVL72 system available, including Google, CoreWeave and Lambda. In addition, Microsoft offers the GB200 GPUs, though they are not deployed as an NVL72 machine.

Deep Data Center: Neoclouds as the ‘Picks and Shovels’ of the AI Gold Rush

In 1849, the discovery of gold in California ignited a frenzy, drawing prospectors from around the world in pursuit of quick fortune. While few struck it rich digging and sifting dirt, a different class of entrepreneurs quietly prospered: those who supplied the miners with the tools of the trade. From picks and shovels to tents and provisions, these providers became indispensable to the gold rush, profiting handsomely regardless of who found gold. Today, a new gold rush is underway, in pursuit of artificial intelligence. And just like the days of yore, the real fortunes may lie not in the gold itself, but in the infrastructure and equipment that enable its extraction. This is where neocloud players and chipmakers are positioned, representing themselves as the fundamental enablers of the AI revolution. Neoclouds: The Essential Tools and Implements of AI Innovation The AI boom has sparked a frenzy of innovation, investment, and competition. From generative AI applications like ChatGPT to autonomous systems and personalized recommendations, AI is rapidly transforming industries. Yet, behind every groundbreaking AI model lies an unsung hero: the infrastructure powering it. Enter neocloud providers—the specialized cloud platforms delivering the GPU horsepower that fuels AI’s meteoric rise. Let’s examine how neoclouds represent the “picks and shovels” of the AI gold rush, used for extracting the essential backbone of AI innovation. Neoclouds are emerging as indispensable players in the AI ecosystem, offering tailored solutions for compute-intensive workloads such as training large language models (LLMs) and performing high-speed inference. Unlike traditional hyperscalers (e.g., AWS, Azure, Google Cloud), which cater to a broad range of use cases, neoclouds focus exclusively on optimizing infrastructure for AI and machine learning applications. This specialization allows them to deliver superior performance at a lower cost, making them the go-to choice for startups, enterprises, and research institutions alike.

Soluna Computing: Innovating Renewable Computing for Sustainable Data Centers

Dorothy 1A & 1B (Texas): These twin 25 MW facilities are powered by wind and serve Bitcoin hosting and mining workloads. Together, they consumed over 112,000 MWh of curtailed energy in 2024, demonstrating the impact of Soluna’s model. Dorothy 2 (Texas): Currently under construction and scheduled for energization in Q4 2025, this 48 MW site will increase Soluna’s hosting and mining capacity by 64%. Sophie (Kentucky): A 25 MW grid- and hydro-powered hosting center with a strong cost profile and consistent output. Project Grace (Texas): A 2 MW AI pilot project in development, part of Soluna’s transition into HPC and machine learning. Project Kati (Texas): With 166 MW split between Bitcoin and AI hosting, this project recently exited the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, Inc. planning phase and is expected to energize between 2025 and 2027. Project Rosa (Texas): A 187 MW flagship project co-located with wind assets, aimed at both Bitcoin and AI workloads. Land and power agreements were secured by the company in early 2025. These developments are part of the company’s broader effort to tackle both energy waste and infrastructure bottlenecks. Soluna’s behind-the-meter design enables flexibility to draw from the grid or directly from renewable sources, maximizing energy value while minimizing emissions. Competition is Fierce and a Narrower Focus Better Serves the Business In 2024, Soluna tested the waters of providing AI services via a GPU-as-a-Service through a partnership with HPE, branded as Project Ada. The pilot aimed to rent out cloud GPUs for AI developers and LLM training. However, due to oversupply in the GPU market, delayed product rollouts (like NVIDIA’s H200), and poor demand economics, Soluna terminated the contract in March 2025. The cancellation of the contract with HPE frees up resources for Soluna to focus on what it believes the company does best: designing

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.

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

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

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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