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Intel unveils new Core Ultra processors with 2X to 3X performance on AI apps

Join our daily and weekly newsletters for the latest updates and exclusive content on industry-leading AI coverage. Learn More Intel unveiled new Intel Core Ultra 9 processors today at CES 2025 with as much as two or three times the edge performance on AI apps as before. The chips under the Intel Core Ultra 9 […]

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Intel unveiled new Intel Core Ultra 9 processors today at CES 2025 with as much as two or three times the edge performance on AI apps as before.

The chips under the Intel Core Ultra 9 and Core i9 labels were previously codenamed Arrow Lake H, Meteor Lake H, Arrow Lake S and Raptor Lake S Refresh. Intel said it is pushing the boundaries of AI performance and power efficiency for businesses and consumers, ushering in the next era of AI computing.

In other performance metrics, Intel said the Core Ultra 9 processors are up to 5.8 times faster in media performance, 3.4 times faster in video analytics end-to-end workloads with media and AI, and 8.2 times better in terms of performance per watt than prior chips.

Intel hopes to kick off the year better than in 2024. CEO Pat Gelsinger resigned last month without a permanent successor after a variety of struggles, including mass layoffs, manufacturing delays and poor execution on chips including gaming bugs in chips launched during the summer.

Intel Core Ultra Series 2
Intel Core Ultra Series 2

Michael Masci, vice president of product management at the Edge Computing Group at Intel, said in a briefing that AI, once the domain of research labs, is integrating into every aspect of our lives, including AI PCs where the AI processing is done in the computer itself, not the cloud. AI is also being processed in data centers in big enterprises, from retail stores to hospital rooms.

“As CES kicks off, it’s clear we are witnessing a transformative moment,” he said. “Artificial intelligence is moving at an unprecedented pace.”

The new processors include the Intel Core 9 Ultra 200 H/U/S models, with up to 99 TOPS (a measure of AI performance) for the H versions. Other models being launched carry the Intel Core 200S, 200H, 100U and Intel Core 3 processor and Intel Processor names.

The chips have improvements for data security, and they come with built-in Intel Arc GPU with Intel XMX or Intel graphics.

Intel Core Ultra 200V series processors are focused on the enterprise.

For the flagship Intel Core Ultra 9 processor 285H, formerly codenamed Arrow Lake H, the chip has 2.2 times higher performance in Procyon AI Computer Vision, 3.3 times higher performance in Llama 3 8B, and 2.3 times higher performance in Stable Diffiusion 1.5 compared to the prior chip, the Intel Core Ultra 9 processor 185H (codenamed Meteor Lake H).

Intel is now under the temporary leadership of David Zinsner and Michelle Johnston Holthaus as co-CEOs. Zinsner is the CFO of Intel, while Holthaus is the general manager of Intel’s client computing group.

“Intel Core Ultra processors are setting new benchmarks for mobile AI and graphics, once again demonstrating the superior performance and efficiency of the x86 architecture as we shape the future of personal computing,” said Michelle Johnston Holthaus, interim co-CEO of Intel and CEO of Intel Products, in a statement. “The strength of our AI PC product innovation, combined with the breadth and scale of our hardware and software ecosystem across all segments of the market, is empowering users with a better experience in the traditional ways we use PCs for productivity, creation and communication, while opening up completely new capabilities with over 400 AI features. And Intel is only going to continue bolstering its AI PC product portfolio in 2025 and beyond as we sample our lead Intel 18A product to customers now ahead of volume production in the second half of 2025.”

The Intel Core Ultra Processor (V-SKUs) platform has NPU performance that hits 48 TOPS and 67 TOPS with a GPU. The V-SKUs have eight processor cores and run at P-Core Max Turbo frequency up to 5.1 GHz. Intel said its AI PCs use GPUs for high throughput, NPUs for low power AI workloads and CPUs for fast response with low-latency AI workloads. There are other variations on the Intel Core Ultra as well.

In other CES 2025 news, Intel is also unveiling its solutions for smart vehicles. Jack Weast, Intel Fellow and vice president of Intel Automotive, will unveil Intel’s next-gen architecture with AI inside for vehicles on Tuesday, January 7, at 3:30 p.m. Intel’s whole-vehicle approach is built to empower the next generation of intelligent software-defined vehicles.

Intel is offering a Core Ultra 9 vPro refresh.

Weast’s will showcase how Intel’s combination of AI-enhanced high-performance compute, intelligent power management and software-defined zonal controllers built on an open ecosystem enables a more sustainable, scalable and profitable automotive future.

Intel also showed off its Intel Core Ultra 200V Series processors (announced in September) for business users. It also updated its Intel vPro technology for IT departments.

For businesses striving to stay ahead in the AI era, Intel introduced Intel Core Ultra 200V series processors with Intel vPro. These new processors offer dramatic performance gains, enhanced efficiency, and robust security and manageability features to help modernize IT environments.

New Intel Core Ultra 200V series mobile processors with Intel vPro are empowering businesses with AI-driven productivity and enhanced IT management. The combination of performance, efficiency and industry-leading business computing with advanced security and manageability – all while enabling a seamless Microsoft Copilot+ experience – helps to deliver a robust platform for modern workplaces, Intel said.

It noted that the latest HP EliteBook X laptop with an Intel Core Ultra7 268V processor has up to 10.5 hours of battery life using Microsoft Teams, compared to similar rival machines with lower battery lives. On Microsoft 365 apps, it has up to 20.3 hours of battery life.

Intel has partnered with Microsoft to continue to advance AI-driven innovation, enhanced security, and superior performance into 2025. Copilot+ PCs powered by Intel Core Ultra 200V series processors unlock next gen AI productivity, all while delivering long lasting battery life, Intel said..

“Copilot+ PCs offer exceptional performance, battery life, enhanced AI experiences, and are all Secured-core PCs with the Microsoft Pluton security processor. Copilot+ PCs powered by Intel Core Ultra 200V series deliver on all these fronts, and we are excited to partner with Intel to bring a broad set of Copilot+ PCs to commercial audiences,” said Pavan Davuluri, CVP Windows + Devices at Microsoft, in a statement. “Intel Core Ultra 200V series Copilot+ PCs are an excellent choice for commercial customers looking to upgrade their existing Windows 10 PCs to Windows 11.”

Intel Core Ultra 200HX and H Series: Powering Creators and Gamers

For creators and gaming enthusiasts, Intel introduces the Core Ultra 200HX and H series mobile processors, delivering industry-leading performance, efficiency and platform capabilities, alongside a landmark reduction in power usage. These processors elevate mobile creativity and provide gamers with an immersive experience backed by powerful AI acceleration, Intel said.

“Our Intel Core Ultra 200HX and H series processors are built for the next generation of creators and gamers,” said Josh Newman, vice president of the Client Computing Group and general manager of Product Marketing and Management at Intel, in a statement. “With breakthrough compute and graphics performance, efficiency and AI capabilities, these processors will push the entire laptop experience to new heights.”

Key features of the Intel Core Ultra 200HX and H series mobile processors include:

  • Up to 24 cores – eight Performance-cores (P-cores) and 16 Efficient-cores (E-cores) – for HX-series up to 16 cores – six P-cores, eight E-cores and two low power E-cores – for H-series, based on Intel’s latest core architecture. These new processors give gamers, creators and professionals the computing power they need for gaming and creating on the go – including up to 41% better multi thread (MT) performance for Intel Core Ultra 200HX series compared to prior gen HX series processors.
  • The Intel Core Ultra 200H series features Intel Arc graphics with up to eight Intel Xe cores featuring Intel Xe Matrix extensions (XMX) for AI acceleration – providing up to 22% better gaming performance compared to prior gen H-series processors. Across the entire platform these processors deliver up to 99 TOPS (trillion operations per second) when using the graphics processing unit (GPU), central processing unit (CPU) and neural processing unit (NPU).
  • The Intel Core Ultra 200HX series processor is Intel’s first mobile enthusiast AI PC with a built-in NPU, providing 13 TOPS.
  • The Intel Core Ultra 200HX series processor provides the latest in bandwidth and connectivity, with as many as 48 total PCIe lanes (including PCIe 4.0 and 5.0) to connect the latest discrete GPUs and storage.
  • Packaging improvements result in a 33% smaller processor package overall, enabling new premium thin-and-light designs without compromising on performance.

Additionally, Intel is launching its Intel Core Ultra 200U series mobile processors featuring up to two P-cores and eight E-cores, Intel Xe LPG graphics, and up to 24 platform TOPS. Intel Core Ultra 200U series systems give users a great balance of performance, power efficiency and price.

Intel is also expanding its Intel Core Ultra 200S series desktop processors with 12 new 65-watt and 35-watt offerings. Featuring up to eight P-cores and 16 E-cores, these new processors will give customers an incredible blend of performance and power efficiency in a desktop CPU – whether for gaming, creating or using productivity applications.

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F5 grabs agentic AI startup Fletch to bolster security platform

“With the rise of APIs, microservices, and AI-driven workloads, ADCs have never been more critical. The deployment of modern, AI-driven workloads requires a solution that supports intelligent traffic management, provides robust security, and offers unified management across all environments,” said Kunal Anand, F5’s chief innovation officer, about ADSP. The platform

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Backup-as-a-service explained: Your guide to cloud data protection

BaaS supports private, public and hybrid cloud environments. Hybrid cloud, which pairs on-premises infrastructure with cloud-based storage and management, can help enterprises achieve what’s known as the “3-2-1 rule of backup,” a strategy whereby an enterprise keeps three copies of their data —  two in local storage, one offsite. However,

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CINEA Finalizes Grants for Five Cross-Border Energy Projects

The European Climate, Environment and Infrastructure Executive Agency (CINEA) on Monday executed grant agreements for five of 41 cross-border energy infrastructure projects selected for the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) for Energy. The European Commission, through CINEA, is set to award a total of EUR 1.25 billion ($1.43 billion) to the 41 projects, mostly to support their study phases. These projects constitute the first round of CEF for Energy funding under the revised Trans-European Networks for Energy (TEN-E) Regulation of the European Union. The top recipient among the five projects that received their grant certificates Monday is the Italian portion of the H2 Backbone project. CEF will provide EUR 24 million to state-backed Snam SpA for engineering and environmental studies, according to a press release by CINEA. H2 Backbone is part of the SoutH2 Corridor hydrogen pipeline system being developed by transmission system operators in Austria, Italy and Germany. SoutH2 Corridor, itself part of a broader project called the Europea Hydrogen Backbone, is planned to have 3,300 kilometers of pipelines, over 65 percent of which would be repurposed from existing lines, across the three countries. The Italian section accounts for 2,300 kilometers and will include several hundred megawatts of compression stations. Targeted to be put onstream 2030, SoutH2 Corridor aims to carry renewable hydrogen produced in North Africa to Europe. Meanwhile the Offshore Wind Connection South Brittany project of Réseau de Transport d’Électricité (RTE) received a grant certificate for EUR 21.8 million. “This investment will support technical studies and permitting for the offshore grid connecting future floating wind farms to South Brittany, helping to accelerate renewable energy deployment in the French North Atlantic Sea Basin”, CINEA said. A project to build an electricity exchange link between Landes in France and Navarra in Spain sealed EUR 11.1 million in CEF funding. RTE and Red Eléctrica de España will spend the

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Brazil Seeks $6.2B from Oil Industry to Shore Up Finances

Brazil’s energy ministry has proposed measures to raise around 35 billion reais ($6.2 billion) from the oil industry over the next two years to help the government meet its fiscal targets.  On Monday, Mines and Energy Minister Alexandre Silveira presented measures to President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva that include selling oil exploration licenses and a review of the reference prices used to calculate oil taxes, the ministry said in a message. If approved, it would be an alternative to a controversial increase in tax rates on some financial transactions.  Finance Minister Fernando Haddad has been struggling to deliver on promised fiscal goals due to lower-than-expected revenue and higher spending. Last week, Moody’s Ratings lowered Brazil’s credit outlook to stable from positive on expectations of larger fiscal deficits. The change in reference prices could erode margins for oil companies and have a negative impact on the investment environment, adding to existing concerns about licensing delays and lackluster exploration results, said Marcelo de Assis, an energy consultant.  “These are heavy measures that could cause more problems in the medium and long term,” de Assis said.  The ministry is pushing for the country’s oil regulator, known as the ANP, to review the reference prices used to calculate taxes paid by oil producers, including state-controlled Petrobras, before the end of July.  The oil and gas measures include a bill to authorize the federal government to sell oil production rights in areas of the pre-salt, Brazil’s most prolific offshore oil region, that haven’t been licensed yet. It would include areas near the giant Tupi, Mero and Atapu fields, and could raise 15 billion reais this year if approved by Congress. WHAT DO YOU THINK? Generated by readers, the comments included herein do not reflect the views and opinions of Rigzone. All comments are subject

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North America Loses More Rigs

North America dropped five rigs week on week, according to Baker Hughes’ latest North America rotary rig count, which was released on May 30. The U.S. dropped three rigs week on week and Canada cut two during the same timeframe, taking the total North America rig count down to 675, comprising 563 rigs from the U.S. and 112 rigs from Canada, the count outlined.  Of the total U.S. rig count of 563, 548 rigs are categorized as land rigs, 13 are categorized as offshore rigs, and two are categorized as inland water rigs. The total U.S. rig count is made up of 461 oil rigs, 99 gas rigs, and three miscellaneous rigs, according to Baker Hughes’ count, which revealed that the U.S. total comprises 508 horizontal rigs, 42 directional rigs, and 13 vertical rigs. Week on week, the U.S. land rig count dropped by five, its offshore rig count increased by two, and its inland water rig count remained unchanged, the count highlighted. The country’s oil rig count dropped by four, its gas rig count increased by one, and its miscellaneous rig count remained unchanged, week on week, the count showed. The U.S. horizontal rig count dropped by three week on week, and its vertical and directional rig counts remained unchanged during the same timeframe, the count revealed. A major state variances subcategory included in the rig count showed that, week on week, New Mexico, Ohio, Oklahoma, and West Virginia each dropped one rig. Pennsylvania added one rig week on week, the count outlined. A major basin variances subcategory included in Baker Hughes’ rig count showed that, week on week, the Cana Woodford basin dropped two rigs, and the Ardmore Woodford, Granite Wash, Permian, and Utica basins each dropped one rig. The Eagle Ford basin was shown to have added

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Rosneft Revenue Down 8.5 Percent QoQ on Lower Urals Prices

Rosneft Oil Co. has reported RUB 2.28 trillion ($28.85 billion) in revenue for the first quarter (Q1), down 8.5 percent from the prior three-month period on weaker Urals crude oil prices. The Russian state-owned integrated oil and gas company produced 3.68 million barrels per day (bpd) of liquid hydrocarbons in the January-March 2025 period, constrained by “challenging weather conditions in Central Russia, and oil production cap in compliance with the decisions of the Russian Government”, Rosneft said in an online statement. Gas output averaged 1.37 million barrels of oil equivalent (boe) a day, totaling 20.2 billion cubic meters (713.36 billion cubic feet). “Greenfield projects in the Yamal-Nenets Autonomous District commissioned in 2022 account for around a third of the Company’s gas production”, Rosneft noted. In Q1 2025 it commissioned over 600 wells, 76 percent of which were horizontal. On Saturday the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) announced a total increase of 411,000 bpd for the July production of Russia and seven other OPEC+ members, accelerating the gradual return of 2.2 million bpd of voluntary cuts. Meanwhile Rosneft’s refining volumes totaled 19.5 million metric tons, down quarter-on-quarter. “The refining volume trend is attributable to optimization of refinery utilization in view of the current pricing environment and demand, and the need for maintenance and repair works”, it said. Rosneft sold 2.2 million metric tons of gasoline and diesel on the St Petersburg International Mercantile Exchange, 1.7 times the required volume, according to the company. “In the reporting period, the Company operated in the context of continuous deterioration of the macroeconomic environment that included lower prices and wider discounts for Russia’s Urals crude oil, new sanction restrictions, as well as a stronger ruble”, commented Rosneft chair and chief executive Igor Sechin. Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization fell 15.5 percent sequentially

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QPM Secures Two New Funding Agreements

QPM Energy Limited has executed two funding agreements with foundation customer Dyno Nobel Ltd. to refinance existing facilities and strengthen QPM’s balance sheet. QPM said in a regulatory filing that there will be no change to the existing Development Funding Facility, which is being used to fund the drilling of new wells and other infrastructure optimization and development projects at the MGP. The company said that the facilities will be used to fully repay its existing working capital facility with Dyno, currently drawn to $27 million, and provide a stable, funded platform to underpin the growth of QPM’s gas supply and energy portfolio. QPM’s existing $80 million Development Funding Facility with Dyno Nobel remains in place and may be increased to $120 million. QPM has drawn down $38.3 million from the DFF to fund the Teviot Brook South 7 well drilling program, existing well workovers, and optimization works on the MGP gas-gathering infrastructure. QPM said it is currently finalizing plans for a new production well drilling program, which is set to start later this year. It intends to fund these wells under the Development Funding Facility. The Development Funding Facility is not repaid in cash but rather amortized as QPM delivers gas into the NGSA with Dyno Nobel. QPM has agreed to grant Dyno a further option to extend the NGSA by another four years. “In just under two years, we have reinvigorated the MGP and developed an exciting integrated energy business. These funding agreements with Dyno Nobel represent another important step in this transformation. From July 2025, the business will transition to a much lower cost structure under the new contracts with Townsville Power Station and North Queensland Gas Pipeline. In combination with the new funding agreements announced today, QPM has established a stable and secure long-term business that

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Tamboran Raises $38.7MM from First Tranche of Private Placement

Tamboran Resource Corporation has closed the first tranche of its Private Investment Public Equity (PIPE) of Common Stock to fund ongoing drilling activities to reach plateau production at the proposed SS Pilot Project. Tamboran said in a regulatory filing that it expects to receive gross proceeds of approximately $55.4 million upon closing the second tranche of the PIPE, before deducting placement agent fees and other offering expenses. Pursuant to the closing of the first tranche, Tamboran Resources issued 2,180,515 common shares at $17.74 per share. The first tranche raised approximately $38.7 million, with Bank of America acting as the sole placement agent. The second tranche, expected to close in August 2025, will involve the issuance of an additional 940,729 shares at the same price, pending approval from Tamboran’s shareholders, the company said. This includes a $1 million investment from certain company directors, also subject to shareholder approval. The overall transaction saw strong support, notably a $10 million placement from Formentera Partners, an entity founded by Bryan Sheffield, at the same share price as other investors, Tamboran said. Tamboran added that certain non-affiliated investors will participate in the second tranche with a total of $5.7 million. Furthermore, Tamboran signed a binding agreement with Daly Waters Energy LP (DWE) under which DWE will acquire a non-operating and non-controlling interest across 10,000 acres within two areas of Tamboran’s post-checkerboard acreage position for a consideration of $15 million. The transaction is subject to certain conditions including DWE receiving approval from the Formentera Australia Fund LP’s Limited Partner Advisory Committee and obtaining regulatory approvals. Tamboran said the transaction does not require shareholder approval. 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

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HPE Nonstop servers target data center, high-throughput applications

HPE has bumped up the size and speed of its fault-tolerant Nonstop Compute servers. There are two new servers – the 8TB, Intel Xeon-based Nonstop Compute NS9 X5 and Nonstop Compute NS5 X5 – aimed at enterprise customers looking to upgrade their transaction processing network infrastructure or support larger application workloads. Like other HPE Nonstop systems, the two new boxes include compute, software, storage, networking and database resources as well as full-system clustering and HPE’s specialized Nonstop operating system. The flagship NS9 X5 features support for dual-fabric HDR200 InfiniBand interconnect, which effectively doubles the interconnect bandwidth between it and other servers compared to the current NS8 X4, according to an HPE blog detailing the new servers. It supports up to 270 networking ports per NS9 X system, can be clustered with up to 16 other NS9 X5s, and can support 25 GbE network connectivity for modern data center integration and high-throughput applications, according to HPE.

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AI boom exposes infrastructure gaps: APAC’s data center demand to outstrip supply by 42%

“Investor confidence in data centres is expected to strengthen over the remainder of the decade,” the report said. “Strong demand and solid underlying fundamentals fuelled by AI and cloud services growth will provide a robust foundation for investors to build scale.” Enterprise strategies must evolve With supply constrained and prices rising, CBRE recommended that enterprises rethink data center procurement models. Waiting for optimal sites or price points is no longer viable in many markets. Instead, enterprises should pursue early partnerships with operators that have robust development pipelines and focus on securing power-ready land. Build-to-suit models are becoming more relevant, especially for larger capacity requirements. Smaller enterprise facilities — those under 5MW — may face sustainability challenges in the long term. The report suggested that these could become “less relevant” as companies increasingly turn to specialized colocation and hyperscale providers. Still, traditional workloads will continue to represent up to 50% of total demand through 2030, preserving value in existing facilities for non-AI use cases, the report added. The region’s projected 15 to 25 GW gap is more than a temporary shortage — it signals a structural shift, CBRE said. Enterprises that act early to secure infrastructure, invest in emerging markets, and align with power availability will be best positioned to meet digital transformation goals. “Those that wait may find themselves locked out of the digital infrastructure they need to compete,” the report added.

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Cisco bolsters DNS security package

The software can block domains associated with phishing, malware, botnets, and other high-risk categories such as cryptomining or new domains that haven’t been reported previously. It can also create custom block and allow lists and offers the ability to pinpoint compromised systems using real-time security activity reports, Brunetto wrote. According to Cisco, many organizations leave DNS resolution to their ISP. “But the growth of direct enterprise internet connections and remote work make DNS optimization for threat defense, privacy, compliance, and performance ever more important,” Cisco stated. “Along with core security hygiene, like a patching program, strong DNS-layer security is the leading cost-effective way to improve security posture. It blocks threats before they even reach your firewall, dramatically reducing the alert pressure your security team manages.” “Unlike other Secure Service Edge (SSE) solutions that have added basic DNS security in a ‘checkbox’ attempt to meet market demand, Cisco Secure Access – DNS Defense embeds strong security into its global network of 50+ DNS data centers,” Brunetto wrote. “Among all SSE solutions, only Cisco’s features a recursive DNS architecture that ensures low-latency, fast DNS resolution, and seamless failover.”

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HPE Aruba unveils raft of new switches for data center, campus modernization

And in large-scale enterprise environments embracing collapsed-core designs, the switch acts as a high-performance aggregation layer. It consolidates services, simplifies network architecture, and enforces security policies natively, reducing complexity and operational cost, Gray said. In addition, the switch offers the agility and security required at colocation facilities and edge sites. Its integrated Layer 4 stateful security and automation-ready platform enable rapid deployment while maintaining robust control and visibility over distributed infrastructure, Gray said. The CX 10040 significantly expands the capacity it can provide and the roles it can serve for enterprise customers, according to one industry analyst. “From the enterprise side, this expands on the feature set and capabilities of the original 10000, giving customers the ability to run additional services directly in the network,” said Alan Weckel, co-founder and analyst with The 650 Group. “It helps drive a lower TCO and provide a more secure network.”  Aimed as a VMware alternative Gray noted that HPE Aruba is combining its recently announced Morpheus VM Essentials plug-in package, which offers a hypervisor-based package aimed at hybrid cloud virtualization environments, with the CX 10040 to deliver a meaningful alternative to Broadcom’s VMware package. “If customers want to get out of the business of having to buy VM cloud or Cloud Foundation stuff and all of that, they can replace the distributed firewall, microsegmentation and lots of the capabilities found in the old VMware NSX [networking software] and the CX 10k, and Morpheus can easily replace that functionality [such as VM orchestration, automation and policy management],” Gray said. The 650 Group’s Weckel weighed in on the idea of the CX 10040 as a VMware alternative:

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Indian startup Refroid launches India’s first data center CDUs

They use heat exchangers and pumps to regulate the flow and temperature of fluid delivered to equipment for cooling, while isolating the technology cooling system loop from facility systems. The technology addresses limitations of traditional air cooling, which industry experts say cannot adequately handle the heat generated by modern AI processors and high-density computing applications. Strategic significance for India Industry analysts view the development as a critical milestone for India’s data center ecosystem. “India generates 20% of global data, yet contributes only 3% to global data center capacity. This imbalance is not merely spatial — it’s systemic,” said Sanchit Vir Gogia, chief analyst and CEO at Greyhound Research. “The emergence of indigenously developed CDUs signals a strategic pivot. Domestic CDU innovation is a defining moment in India’s transition from data centre host to technology co-creator.” Neil Shah, VP for research and partner at Counterpoint Research, noted that major international players like Schneider, Vertiv, Asetek, Liquidstack, and Zutacore have been driving most CDU deployments in Indian enterprises and data centers. “Having a local indigenous CDU tech and supplier designed with Indian weather, infrastructure and costs in mind expands options for domestic data center demand,” he said. AI driving data center cooling revolution India’s data center capacity reached approximately 1,255 MW between January and September 2024 and was projected to expand to around 1,600 MW by the end of 2024, according to CBRE India’s 2024 Data Center Market Update. Multiple market research firms have projected the India data center market to grow from about $5.7 billion in 2024 to $12 billion by 2030. Bhavaraju cited aggressive projections for the sector’s expansion, with AI workloads expected to account for 30% of total workloads by 2030. “All of them need liquid cooling,” he said, noting that “today’s latest GPU servers – GB200 from Nvidia

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Platform approach gains steam among network teams

Revisting the platform vs. point solutions debate The dilemma of whether to deploy an assortment of best-of-breed products from multiple vendors or go with a unified platform of “good enough” tools from a single vendor has vexed IT execs forever. Today, the pendulum is swinging toward the platform approach for three key reasons. First, complexity, driven by the increasingly distributed nature of enterprise networks, has emerged as a top challenge facing IT execs. Second, the lines between networking and security are blurring, particularly as organizations deploy zero trust network access (ZTNA). And third, to reap the benefits of AIOps, generative AI and agentic AI, organizations need a unified data store. “The era of enterprise connectivity platforms is upon us,” says IDC analyst Brandon Butler. “Organizations are increasingly adopting platform-based approaches to their enterprise connectivity infrastructure to overcome complexity and unlock new business value. When enhanced by AI, enterprise platforms can increase productivity, enrich end-user experiences, enhance security, and ultimately drive new opportunities for innovation.” In IDC’s Worldwide AI in Networking Special Report, 78% of survey respondents agreed or strongly agreed with the statement: “I am moving to an AI-powered platform approach for networking.” Gartner predicts that 70% of enterprises will select a broad platform for new multi-cloud networking software deployments by 2027, an increase from 10% in early 2024. The breakdown of silos between network and security operations will be driven by organizations implementing zero-trust principles as well as the adoption of AI and AIOps. “In the future, enterprise networks will be increasingly automated, AI-assisted and more tightly integrated with security across LAN, data center and WAN domains,” according to Gartner’s 2025 Strategic Roadmap for Enterprise Networking. While all of the major networking vendors have announced cloud-based platforms, it’s still relatively early days. For example, Cisco announced a general framework for Cisco

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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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