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How could an OpenAI partnership with Broadcom shake up Silicon Valley’s chip hierarchy?

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Broadcom Inc. is helping OpenAI design and produce an artificial intelligence accelerator from 2026, getting into a lucrative sphere dominated by Nvidia Corp. Its shares jumped by the most since April.

The two firms plan to ship the first chips in that lineup starting next year, a person familiar with the matter said, asking to remain anonymous discussing a private deal. OpenAI will initially use the chip for its own internal purposes, the Financial Times reported earlier.

Broadcom’s shares surged as much as 16% in New York trading on Friday, adding more than $200 billion to the company’s market value. Nvidia’s stock was down as much as 4.3% at $164.22, its biggest intraday decline since May.

Chief Executive Officer Hock Tan made veiled references to that partnership on Thursday when he said Broadcom had secured a new client for its custom accelerator business. Tan said the company has secured more than $10 billion in orders from the new customer, which the person identified as OpenAI.

Accelerators are essential to the development of AI at big tech firms from Meta Platforms Inc. to Microsoft Corp. Bloomberg News has previously reported that OpenAI and Broadcom were working on an inference chip design, intended to run or operate artificial intelligence services after they had been trained.

“Last quarter, one of these prospects released production orders to Broadcom,” Tan said, without naming the customer.

Broadcom is among the chip designers benefiting from a post-ChatGPT boom in AI development, in which companies and startups from the US to China are spending billions to build data centers, train new models and research breakthroughs in a pivotal new technology. On Thursday, Tan told investors the chipmaker’s outlook will improve “significantly” in fiscal 2026, helping allay concerns about slowing growth.

Tan had previously said that AI revenue for 2026 would show growth similar to the current year — a rate of 50% to 60%. Now, with a new customer that he said has “immediate and pretty substantial demand,” the rate will accelerate in a way that will be “fairly material,” Tan said.

“We now expect the outlook for fiscal 2026 AI revenue to improve significantly from what we had indicated last quarter,” he said.

Broadcom’s quarterly results initially drew a tepid reaction from investors, a sign they were anticipating a bigger payoff from the AI boom. After fluctuating in the wake of the report, the stock gained more than 3% during the conference call.

Sales will be about $17.4 billion in the fiscal fourth quarter, which runs through October, the company said in an earlier statement. Analysts had projected $17.05 billion on average, though some estimates topped $18 billion, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Expectations were high heading into the earnings report. Broadcom shares more than doubled since hitting a low in April, adding about $730 billion to the company’s market value and making them the third-best performer in the Nasdaq 100 Index.

Investors have been looking for signs that tech spending remains strong. Last week, Nvidia gave an underwhelming revenue forecast, sparking fears of a bubble in the artificial intelligence industry.

Though Broadcom hasn’t experienced Nvidia’s runaway sales growth, it is seen as a key AI beneficiary. Customers developing and running artificial intelligence models rely on its custom-designed chips and networking equipment to handle the load. The shares had been up 32% for the year.

During the call, Tan said he and the board have agreed that he will stay as Broadcom CEO until 2030 “at least.”

In the third quarter ended Aug. 3, sales rose 22% to almost $16 billion. Profit, excluding some items, was $1.69 a share. Analysts had estimated revenue of about $15.8 billion and earnings of $1.67 a share.

Sales of AI semiconductors were $5.2 billion, compared with an estimate of $5.11 billion. The company expects revenue from that category to reach $6.2 billion in the fourth quarter. Analysts projected $5.82 billion.

Other AI-focused chipmakers have stumbled in recent days. Shares of Marvell Technology Inc., a close Broadcom competitor in the market for custom semiconductors, plunged 19% on Friday after the company’s data center revenue missed estimates.

Broadcom’s Tan has been upgrading the company’s networking equipment to better transfer information between the pricey graphics chips at the heart of AI data centers. As his latest comments suggest, Broadcom is also making progress finding customers who want custom-designed chips for AI tasks.

Tan has used years of acquisitions to turn Broadcom into a sprawling software and hardware giant. In addition to the AI work, the Palo Alto, California-based company makes connectivity components for Apple Inc.’s iPhone and sells virtualization software for running networks.

Bass writes for Bloomberg.



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Artificial intelligence, rising tuition discussed by educational leaders at UMD

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DULUTH, Minn. (Northern News Now) – A panel gathered at UMD’s Weber Music Hall Friday to discuss the future of higher education.

The conversation touched on heavy topics like artificial intelligence, rising tuition costs, and how to provide the best education possible for students.

Almost 100 people listened to conversations on the current climate of college campuses, including UMD Associate Dean of the Swenson College of Engineering and Science Erin Sheets.

“We’re in a unique and challenging time, with respect to the federal landscape and state landscape,” said Sheets.

The three panelists addressed current national changes, including rising tuition costs and budget cuts.

“That is going to be a structural shift we really are going to have to pay attention to, if we want to continue to commit for all students to have the opportunity to attend college,” said panelist and Managing Director of Waverly Foundation Lande Ajose.

Last year alone, the University of Minnesota system was hit with a 3% budget cut on top of a loss of $22 million in federal grants. This resulted in a 6.5% tuition increase for students.

Even with changing resources, the panel emphasized helping students prepare for the future, which they said includes the integration of AI.

“As students graduate, if they are not AI fluent, they are not competitive for jobs,” said panelist and University of Minnesota President Rebecca Cunningham.

Research shows that the use of AI in the workplace has doubled in the last two years to 40%.

While AI continues to grow every day, both students and faculty are learning to use it and integrate it into their curriculum.

“These are tools, they are not a substitute for a human being. You still need the critical thinking, you need the ethical guidelines, even more so,” said Sheets.

Following the panel, UMD hosted a campus-wide celebration to mark the inauguration of Chancellor Charles Nies.

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AI startup CEO who has hired several Meta engineers says: Reason AI researchers are leaving Meta is, as founder Mark Zuckerberg said, “Biggest risk is not taking …”

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Shawn Shen, co-founder and CEO of the AI startup Memories.ai, has stated that some researchers are leaving Facebook-parent Meta due to frequent company reorganisations and a desire to take on bigger risks. Shen, who left Meta himself last year, notes that constant changes in managers and goals can be frustrating for researchers, leading them to seek opportunities at other companies and startups. Shen’s startup, which builds AI to understand visual data, recently announced a plan to offer up to $2 million compensation packages to researchers from top tech companies. Memories.ai has already hired Chi-Hao Wu, a former Meta research scientist, as its chief AI officer. Shen also referenced a statement from Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg who earlier said that the “the biggest risk is not taking any risks.”

What startup CEO Shen said about AI researchers leaving Meta

In an interview with Business Insider, Shen said: “Meta is constantly doing reorganizations. Your manager and your goals can change every few months. For some researchers, it can be really frustrating and feel like a waste of time. So yes, I think that’s a driver for people to leave Meta and join other companies, especially startups.There’s other reasons people might leave. I think the biggest one is what Mark (Zuckerberg) has said: ‘In an age that’s evolving so fast, the biggest risk is not taking any risks. So why not do that and potentially change the world as part of a trillion-dollar company?’We have already hired Eddy Wu, our Chief AI Officer who was my manager’s manager at Meta. He’s making a similar amount to what we’re offering the new people. He was on their generative AI team, which is now Meta Superintelligence Labs. And we are already talking to a few other people from MSL and some others from Google DeepMind.”

What Shen said about hiring Meta AI researchers for his startup

Shen noted that he’s offering AI researchers who are leaving Meta pay packages of $2 million to work with his startup. He said: “It’s because of the talent war that was started by Mark Zuckerberg. I used to work at Meta, and I speak with my former colleagues often about this. When I heard about their compensation packages, I was shocked — it’s really in the tens of millions range. But it shows that in this age, AI researchers who make the best models and stand at the frontier of technology are really worth this amount of money. We’re building an AI model that can see and remember just like humans. The things that we are working on are very niche. So we are looking for people who are really, really good at the whole field of understanding video data.”He even explained that his company is prioritising hires who are willing to take more equity than cash, allowing it to preserve its financial runway. These recruits will be treated as founding members rather than employees, with compensation split between cash and equity depending on the individual, Shen added.Over the next six months, the AI startup is planning to add three to five people, followed by another five to ten within a year, alongside efforts to raise additional funding. Shen believes that investing heavily in talent will strengthen, not hinder, future fundraising.

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AARP warns of “Grandparent Scams”

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MONTGOMERY, Ala. (WSFA) – While artificial intelligence is rapidly transforming our world, a troubling trend shows scammers using it to steal from seniors, specifically grandparents.

You’ve probably heard the phrase ‘seeing is believing’ your whole life. But in an age of artificial intelligence, the turn of phrase doesn’t exactly stand the test of time. When it’s in the wrong hands, this new technology can make our senior citizens, who didn’t grow up in the digital age, a vulnerable population.

“One of the ways we see that being done is with what’s known as the grandparent scam,” Jamie Harding, AARP of Alabama Communications director, said. “The grandparent scam is basically, it usually happens late at night, they’re asleep, and someone calls them purporting to be their grandchild, they’re in trouble, they need money immediately.”

However, it isn’t actually their grandchild on the other end of the phone. Scammers have used AI technology to replicate the sound of their grandchild’s voice to try to take money.

“These are very sophisticated international crime rings, and they have access to a lot of very sophisticated technology,” Harding said.

To protect your family from these scams, Harding suggests having a code word that every member of your family knows so you can be sure it’s actually your loved one calling.

She also advises you not to answer phone calls from unknown numbers and to keep your personal information off the internet.

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