DT Midstream Completes Bolt-On Midwest Pipelines Acquisition

Stay Ahead, Stay ONMINE

DT Midstream Completes Bolt-On Midwest Pipelines Acquisition

Detroit-based wellhead-to-market array of services provider DT Midstream, Inc. has completed the acquisition of a portfolio of three Federal Energy Regulatory Commission-regulated natural gas transmission pipelines from ONEOK, Inc. The company said in a media release that the acquisition is effective as of 11:59 p.m. CT on December 31, 2024. The total bill for the […]

The company said in a media release that the acquisition is effective as of 11:59 p.m. CT on December 31, 2024. The total bill for the acquisition landed at $1.2 billion, it said.

“The bolt-on acquisition of these premier pipelines is fully aligned with our pure play natural gas strategy”, said David Slater, DT Midstream President, and CEO. “This acquisition also increases the revenue contribution from our pipeline segment, supported by take-or-pay contracts with strong credit quality utility customers”.

DT Midstream has acquired 100 percent operating ownership in Guardian Pipeline, Midwestern Gas Transmission, and Viking Gas Transmission. The acquired pipelines have a total capacity of more than 3.7 billion cubic feet per day with approximately 1,300 miles across seven states in the attractive Midwest market region.

“We are happy to have on board the team members that support these assets, both in field operations and in DT Midstream’s new Tulsa office”, added Slater.

DT Midstream added that Guardian Pipeline, L.L.C. is an approximately 260-mile interstate pipeline that is interconnected to its Vector Pipeline, the Chicago Hub, and serves key Wisconsin demand centers.

Midwestern Gas Transmission is an interstate pipeline that stretches about 400 miles and operates in both directions, linking Appalachian supply to the Midwest market area from Tennessee to the Chicago Hub. This pipeline is connected to the Guardian Pipeline, DT Midstream said. Viking Gas Transmission is an approximately 675-mile interstate pipeline that connects key utility customers in Minnesota, Wisconsin, and North Dakota to Canadian supply at Emerson, Manitoba, DT Midstream added.

At the start of December, DT Midstream secured $650 million through private senior secured notes offering, to partly fund the acquisition.

To contact the author, email [email protected]

What do you think? We’d love to hear from you, join the conversation on the

Rigzone Energy Network.

The Rigzone Energy Network is a new social experience created for you and all energy professionals to Speak Up about our industry, share knowledge, connect with peers and industry insiders and engage in a professional community that will empower your career in energy.

Stay Ahead

Explore More Insights

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.

Cisco CEO Robbins on AI: Pressure to deploy is real

AI creates a massive demand for infrastructure, he said. “Not only GPUs, CPUs, LPUs, but networking infrastructure,” Robbins said. “Customers want to know how they are going to be monitoring applications, thinking about data… I think most everyone in this industry would say that sometime in the next 12 months,

Stratoshark brings Wireshark-style analysis to cloud system calls

Degioanni noted that cloud networking, especially in Kubernetes environments, can be very complex with various approaches like service mesh, ingress, and gateways. Stratoshark is designed to be agnostic to the specific cloud networking approach, focusing on collecting data at the endpoint level rather than relying on the networking layer. One

What Intel needs to do to get its mojo back

Step 2: Stay the course on IFS Intel is on a multiyear mission to reinvent itself as a foundry service and compete with TSMC and Samsung. If there is a knock on Gelsinger, it’s that he didn’t make it abundantly clear to the board and to investors that this is

OpenAI, SoftBank, Oracle lead $500B Project Stargate to ramp up AI infra in the US

Microsoft has first rights of refusal for AI infrastructure The development also means that Microsoft will no longer be the only exclusive partner for OpenAI when it comes to infrastructure for training AI or related workloads. However, in a blog post published this week, Microsoft has clarified that it will

Over 70% of Scots champion UK oil and gas as majority back clean power plans

The latest in a series of polls gauging opinion on the UK energy sector has found that the vast majority of locals yet again support domestic North Sea oil and gas production. A survey by advisory firm True North has found that 71% of Scots believe the UK should meet its own oil and gas demand rather than importing supply from other countries. Only 16% said that the country should favour imports over domestic production. However, support for oil and gas has tumbled year-on-year since 2023 when 76% said that the UK should produce its own hydrocarbons, in 2024 that figure stood at 75%. The UK has a dwindling resource of oil and gas as the North Sea basin depletes, in addition to this, government policy over the past few years has led to operators looking to more welcoming fiscal climates. Almost a third say EPL no discouragement for oil Less than a quarter of respondents, 23%, said that the controversial energy profits levy (EPL), or windfall tax, has been effective in reducing household bills with as few as 8% saying the measure had been “very effective”. Last year the headline rate of tax for North Sea operators climbed to 78% as Labour removed the EPL’s investment allowances. Keir Starmer’s government chose to retain capital allowances under the windfall tax, a move which was welcomed by North Sea firms. With that said, there are a number of operators that are looking to diversify their portfolios out of the UK or leave the country entirely. Last year, UK tax drove Apache to announce its North Sea exit, while the UK’s largest producer of oil and gas, Harbour Energy, acquired German firm Wintershall Dea to diversity its portfolio. Harbour completed the takeover last September in a deal worth $11.2 billion (£8.53bn). Independent

Cerulean Winds picks Ardersier as deployment port for massive floating wind project

UK floating wind developer Cerulean Winds has selected Haventus-owned Ardersier as the deployment port for a trio of Scottish wind projects. Cerulean Winds secured the three 1 GW leases as part of the Scottish government’s Innovation and Targeted Oil and Gas (INTOG) round in 2023. Once built, the Aspen, Beech and Cedar projects will include more than 300 wind turbines, with Cerulean expecting to make a final investment decision in 2026. Cerulean said Aspen, its first project, will help foster Scotland’s supply chain and direct more than £1 billion of investment into manufacturing and support services, with Ardersier acting as a strategic hub. © Supplied by Cerulean WindsAn artist’s impression of the North Sea Renewables Grid. North Sea. The port facility, located near Inverness, is undergoing a £400 million redevelopment focused on repositioning the former oil and gas fabrication yard or the offshore wind sector. Cerulean said its selection of the Ardersier Energy Transition Facility marks a “major step” toward creating a “world-leading floating offshore wind” industrial base. By 2050, the floating wind sector could contribute an estimated £47 billion to the UK economy and employ 100,000 people according to industry body Renewable UK. Ardersier deal an ‘important moment’ Cerulean Winds founding director Dan Jackson said the agreement with Ardersier is an “important moment” for the future of the UK floating wind sector. “The UK and Scottish governments have been very supportive, however more is needed,” Jackson said. © Supplied by Cerulean WindsDan Jackson of Cerulean Winds. “We must act now to capture the domestic economic benefits. “If too slow, the building and maintenance of this new technology will become entrenched in established international supply chains before the bow wave of Scotwind projects even begin, with supply chains rapidly consolidating around early-mover regions in the North Sea and Asia.” Cerulean is targeting

Venture Global Slashes IPO Price Range by More Than 40 Pct

Venture Global Inc. slashed the marketed range for its initial public offering, lowering the market value it could fetch. The liquefied natural gas exporter is marketing 70 million shares in the offering for $23 to $27 each, a more than 40% drop from the $40 to $46 per share range it had targeted earlier, according to an earlier filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. At the top of the new range, the company would now have a market value of about $65 billion, down from the $110 billion mark at the top of the previous range, based on the outstanding shares. Investors approached during the marketing of the deal wanted a lower valuation range, according to people familiar with the matter, who asked not to be identified as the information isn’t public. A representative for Venture Global didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment. The lower pricing would come as a setback for potential IPO candidates in the US energy sector, which have been looking to Venture Global’s offering to help revive sentiment around first-time share sales in the sector. Just six energy IPOs priced on US exchanges in 2024, raising $667 million to mark the lowest volume for the sector in 21 years, data compiled by Bloomberg show. Still, Venture Global is targeting a lofty valuation relative to competitors. Cheniere Energy Inc., the largest LNG exporter in the US, has a market value of $56 billion after jumping more than 50% over the past year. Venture Global, founded outside of Washington, DC, was viewed as a startup compared to the established energy companies and climbed to quickly build two export facilities in Louisiana. The company is locked in arbitration battles with some of the world’s biggest energy players, which are also its customers. BP Plc and Shell Plc are

Oil Prices Slip Amid Tariff Threats and Russia Sanctions

Oil edged lower after President Donald Trump threatened tariffs on China and the European Union, while traders continued to assess the fallout from unprecedented US sanctions on Russia. West Texas Intermediate settled below $76 a barrel after swinging between gains and losses for much of Wednesday’s session. Crude’s recent run of declines has been partly spurred by the bearish implications of a renewed global trade conflict that poses risks to consumption and growth. Trump on Wednesday widened his threats to include a 10% tariff on China and the EU, two of the world’s largest energy markets. The new threats follow Trump’s plans to impose tariffs as high as 25% on goods from Canada and Mexico, which are major crude suppliers to the US. The possibility of tariffs on Canadian oil already is pushing a flood of crude out of the country to the US to beat potential levies. Still, the Canada tariffs would result in higher gasoline costs for American consumers, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. warned last year. Oil traders also are still digesting the most comprehensive set of sanctions on Russian oil to date. State-owned refiner Indian Oil Corp. said it sees a supply hit of up to 2 million barrels a day from the measures. The value of Dubai crude has soared relative to other benchmarks as traders scramble for alternative supplies. Trump said he’s likely to impose more penalties on Moscow if President Vladimir Putin doesn’t negotiate on Ukraine. Crude remains higher so far this year, helped by the Russia sanctions and frigid weather in the northern hemisphere. A historic winter storm caused bitter cold from Texas to North Carolina Wednesday, upending regional energy markets. “Oil’s 2025 uptrend reflects unsustainable bullish momentum, primarily fueled by transient factors: winter demand, a short-term Chinese export boost ahead of US

Trump freezes IRA funding

President Donald Trump suspended all Inflation Reduction Act funding disbursements in an executive order Monday, part of a sweeping set of directives to begin setting the new administration’s energy agenda. The action, dubbed “Terminating the Green New Deal,” also pauses all funding disbursements for the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, commonly known as the bipartisan infrastructure law. The two laws were hallmarks of former President Joe Biden’s domestic policy agenda, rolling out billions of dollars in federal funding for clean energy construction and manufacturing projects. Federal agencies have 90 days to submit reviews and spending recommendations to the Office of Management and Budget and National Economic Council. While it is not uncommon for new presidential administrations to pause funding disbursements for review, the move underscores Trump’s commitment to roll back the Biden administration’s climate policies. Trump also signed an executive order Monday withdrawing the U.S. from the Paris Agreement. The funding pauses were part of a larger “Unleashing American Energy” executive order, which specifically called out the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Formula Program and the Charging and Fueling Infrastructure Discretionary Grant Program for review of their processes for issuing grants, loans and contracts. The various moves were part of a broader slate of executive actions from Trump as he sets his energy agenda, focused on unleashing “America’s affordable and reliable energy and natural resources.” Trump also called for the end of the “electric vehicle mandate,” and revoked President Biden’s 2021 executive order that called for half of new vehicles sold in the U.S. to be electric by 2030. The president has been critical of the mandate in the past, as well as of EV tax credits provided under the IRA. Tax credits make up much of the IRA’s spending, compared to grants and loans. A Biden administration official told reporters Friday that roughly 84%,

Ignoring Chinese offshore wind investment “would be crazy”, GB Energy chair says

The chairman of the UK Labour government’s publicly-owned GB Energy says the company will be “unapologetically long-term’ in its approach to investment. Speaking at the Scottish Offshore Wind Conference in Glasgow, Juergen Maier said GB Energy will be a “national energy champion” for the UK, but he warned it “can’t solve all of the policy challenges”. He also said ignoring potential investment from Chinese firm Mingyang, which is exploring building a turbine facility in Scotland, “would be crazy”, and urged the renewable energy industry to increase engagement with communities to combat net zero “naysayers”. What will GB Energy do? Since its establishment last year, questions have been raised about the exact role GB Energy will play in the UK energy sector and how the company will operate, as well as how many jobs it will create. Prior to the election, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said floating wind will be the “priority” for GB Energy. But there have also been calls for the company to invest its initial £8.3 billion budget in other sectors including green hydrogen, tidal energy and long duration energy storage. While Labour has made GB Energy a central component of its political messaging, Maier reiterated he himself is not politician. © Supplied by DESNZGB Energy chairman Juergen Maier. Image: DESNZ “I am heading and building a state-owned, arm’s length independent energy body, which is different to being a politician,” he said. “We have a strong role to play in that [policy discussion]… but we can’t solve all of the policy challenges.” The former chief executive of Siemens Energy UK said GB Energy will invest “very strategically” and be “unapologetically long-term” in its approach. “That is the role of Great British Energy, we want to be here in 20 years’ time, and who knows how many governments

US GPU export limits could bring cold war to AI, data center markets

Eighteen countries, including the UK, Canada, Sweden, France, Germany, Japan, and South Korea, are exempted from the AI export caps. The Biden administration had previously banned the export of some powerful AI chips to China, Russia, and other adversaries in rules from 2022 and 2023. But other countries friendly to the US, including Mexico, Israel, India, and Saudi Arabia, would be subject to the quotas. The export limits would take effect 120 days from the Jan. 13 order, and it’s unclear whether the incoming Trump administration will amend or rewrite the rule, although Trump has targeted China as a primary economic competitor of the US. The cost of AI In addition to cutting off most of the world from large AI chip purchases, the rule will force countries such as China and Russia to pump up their own AI capabilities, ultimately reducing US AI leadership, claims Aible’s Sengupta.

Sustainability, grid demands, AI workloads will challenge data center growth in 2025

Cloud training for AI models Uptime believes that most AI models will be trained in the cloud rather than on dedicated enterprise infrastructure, as cloud services provide a more cost-effective way to fine-tune foundation models for specific use cases. The incremental training required to fine-tune a foundation model can be done cost-effectively on cloud platforms without the need for a large, expensive on-premises cluster. Enterprises can leverage on-demand cloud resources to customize the foundation model as needed, without investing the capital and operational costs of dedicated hardware. “Because fine-tuning requires only a relatively small amount of training, for many it just wouldn’t make sense to buy a huge, expensive dedicated AI cluster for this purpose. The foundation model, which has already been trained by someone else, has taken the burden of most of the training away from us,” said Dr. Owen Rogers, research director for cloud computing at Uptime. “Instead, we could just use on-demand cloud services to tweak the foundation model for our needs, only paying for the resources we need for as long as we need them.” Data center collaboration with utilities Uptime expects new and expanded data center developers will be asked to provide or store power to support grids. That means data centers will need to actively collaborate with utilities to manage grid demand and stability, potentially shedding load or using local power sources during peak times. Uptime forecasts that data center operators “running non-latency-sensitive workloads, such as specific AI training tasks, could be financially incentivized or mandated to reduce power use when required.” “The context for all of this is that the [power] grid, even if there were no data centers, would have a problem meeting demand over time. They’re having to invest at a rate that is historically off the charts. It’s not just

UK Government’s Bold AI Plan: A Game-Changer for Data Centers and Economic Growth?

The UK government has presently announced its comprehensive “AI Opportunities Action Plan,” positioning artificial intelligence as a cornerstone for economic growth and public service transformation over the next decade. The bold initiative, spearheaded by Prime Minister Keir Starmer, aims to make Britain a global leader in AI development and adoption, with significant implications for the data center industry. Britain’s ambitious AI roadmap taps into the growing synergy between artificial intelligence and data infrastructure. With dedicated AI Growth Zones and a focus on sustainable energy, the UK is setting the stage for an AI-driven economy that aligns with the next generation of data center demands. The data center industry should watch these developments closely, as they signal opportunities for long-term growth in a rapidly evolving market. AI Infrastructure Prioritization Meets Major Private Sector Investments The UK government plan introduces “AI Growth Zones,” areas designed to streamline planning approvals for data centers and enhance access to energy infrastructure. These zones will focus on de-industrialized regions, providing a dual benefit of revitalizing local economies and accelerating the rollout of AI infrastructure. The first such zone will be established in Culham, Oxfordshire, leveraging local expertise in sustainable energy research, including fusion technologies. Leading tech firms, including Vantage Data Centers, Nscale, and Kyndryl, have committed £14 billion to AI infrastructure development under the plan, creating 13,250 jobs across the UK, according to a press release. Vantage Data Centers alone plans to invest over £12 billion to establish one of Europe’s largest campuses in Wales and additional facilities nationwide, generating 11,500 jobs. Plan Harnesses AI for Both Public, Private Sectors A significant component of the plan is a proposed 20x increase in public compute capacity by 2030, starting with the development of a new supercomputer to support AI innovation. Alongside this supercharging of

Prologis and Skybox Advance Warehouse Conversion Strategy with Illinois Data Center Sale

Prologis, among the global leaders in industrial real estate, has taken another major step into the data center market with the sale of a newly developed turnkey data center in Illinois. With the deal for the sale announced last December, partnering with Skybox Datacenters, Prologis had initially converted one of its existing warehouses into a 32 megawatt (MW) facility, demonstrating as far back as 2021 the growing appeal of adaptive reuse for digital infrastructure. As reported by Data Center Dynamics’ Dan Swinhoe: “Skybox said the facility was located in the Elk Grove village area of the city. Images shared by Skybox and Prologis suggest it was Chicago 1, the data center the two companies completed in early 2022 […] DCD reached out for more information. Prologis confirmed Chicago 1 has been sold; the powered shell has been completed, with the turnkey development is in process. The facility spans 190,000 sq ft on a ten-acre site.” The converted facility’s buyer, HMC Capital, sees this acquisition as a marquee asset for its newly launched DigiCo Infrastructure REIT, which targets high-quality data center investments across the United States and Australia. The deal highlights the rapid evolution of Prologis’ data center strategy and the increasing convergence of industrial real estate and digital infrastructure. Prologis’ Growing Presence in Data Centers Prologis is no stranger to data center development, having been featured in prior DCF coverage for its strategic moves into the rapidly burgeoning sector. The Illinois project reflects Prologis’ focus on unlocking higher-value uses for its vast portfolio of warehouses. According to Dan Letter, President of Prologis, “Warehouse conversions in key markets offer a compelling growth opportunity while delivering outsized returns to our investors and meeting customer demand for digital infrastructure.” To support this strategy, Prologis has aggressively scaled its power procurement capabilities, securing 1.6

President Biden’s Executive Order on AI Data Center Construction: Summary and Commentary

Issued this week, President Biden’s “Executive Order on Advancing United States Leadership in Artificial Intelligence Infrastructure” represents a transformative policy moment for the data center industry if implemented, underscoring the convergence of two equally transformative forces: the AI revolution and the clean energy transition. For the data center industry, the policy marks a clear shift toward a strategic, mission-critical role in national security and economic resilience. The Executive Order’s vision also aligns with definitively emerging trends in the contemporary data center industry, particularly the pivot toward sustainability and energy efficiency. The policy’s emphasis on clean energy infrastructure—whether through nuclear, geothermal, or long-duration storage—addresses the industry’s growing focus on renewable power. However, executing this vision will require massive investments in grid modernization and streamlined permitting processes, which have historically been bottlenecks for large-scale infrastructure projects. The directive to align new AI electricity demands with clean energy sources puts a spotlight on the challenges posed by AI’s computational intensity. Hyperscale operators and colocation providers will need to redouble their rethinking of power procurement strategies, with a renewed focus on distributed energy resources and partnerships with utility providers. Additionally, the Executive Order’s call for high labor standards and community engagement reflects growing federal acknowledgment of data centers’ societal footprint. While the industry has made strides in community outreach, such measures ensure data center developments are not just sustainable but also equitable, creating jobs and fostering goodwill in the communities where they operate. For what it explicitly defines as “frontier AI data centers,” the Executive Order also seeks to provide a regulatory framework to streamline development, while ensuring robust cybersecurity and supply chain integrity. Importantly though, balancing the urgency of AI infrastructure development with the complex demands of energy transition and national security will require unprecedented levels of public-private collaboration. The Executive Order apparently isn’t just

Edged Data Centers Builds for the Future On Heels of Innovative Nuclear Power Partnership

MERLIN Properties and Edged Energy to Build Gigawatt-Scale AI Data Center Campuses in Spain To wit, in a furtherance of its groundbreaking partnership in Europe, MERLIN Properties and Edged Energy are collaborating with the regional government of Extremadura, Spain, to establish two state-of-the-art data center campuses. These facilities, designed to support the burgeoning demand for generative AI and advanced computing, promise to set new standards for sustainability and efficiency in the data center industry. A Vision for Sustainability and Growth in Extremadura The data centers, located in Navalmoral de la Mata (Cáceres Province) and Valdecaballeros (Badajoz Province), will each deliver up to 1 GW of IT capacity. Featuring industry-leading innovations, the campuses will boast an average PUE of 1.15, ensuring ultra-efficient operations. Edged says the project represents a significant leap forward in green data center development, aligning with Extremadura’s commitment to leveraging innovation and technology for economic and environmental progress. “Our mission is to create data centers for positive impact, and we are proud to contribute to the Iberian Peninsula’s growing digital economy,” said Jakob Carnemark, CEO of Edged Energy. “The region offers unprecedented fiber connectivity with massive submarine connections worldwide and boasts reliable, abundant, and low-cost renewable energy.” Harnessing Renewable Energy and Cutting-Edge Cooling Technology The Extremadura facilities will operate entirely on electricity from renewable sources, capitalizing on the region’s vast sustainable energy capacity. Extremadura currently produces six times the electricity it consumes, making it an ideal location for gigawatt-scale data centers. The project’s waterless cooling system, ThermalWorks, will enable the facilities to operate without consuming water, a critical innovation for such regions with limited water resources. The system will support ultra-high rack densities of up to 200kW per rack to accommodate the advanced computing demands of AI workloads. Strategic Location and Connectivity The Iberian Peninsula is rapidly becoming

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

Stay Ahead, Stay ONMINE