Alphabet Inc.

Numbers That Make You Think: 10X Performance per Megawatt

Whenever Nvidia announces a new platform, the world holds its breath. But when the company claims a tenfold increase in performance per megawatt, even the most seasoned analysts take off their glasses and clean them twice. On Tuesday, Nvidia did exactly that, officially unveiling the Vera Rubin platform, which is entering production with the support of more than 300 global partners operating across 350 manufacturing facilities in 30 countries. The scale is impressive, but the numbers are what truly make investors and engineers’ hearts beat faster.

Nvidia’s central claim sounds almost like science fiction: Vera Rubin NVL72 delivers ten times greater performance per megawatt than Grace Blackwell NVL72 when running one of the most demanding artificial intelligence models, DeepSeek-R1. These are not theoretical calculations or marketing slides, but real-world benchmark results published by CoreWeave, one of Nvidia’s key partners. When a company of this caliber confirms the figures, they deserve serious attention.

What does this mean in practice? It means that data centers, which now cost as much as small cities and consume as much electricity as mid-sized countries, could reduce their energy consumption by 90% while maintaining the same level of computing output. More importantly, they could increase computing capacity tenfold without upgrading their power supply or cooling infrastructure. In an era when every watt counts and electricity is becoming an increasingly scarce resource, this is not merely an improvement—it is a revolution.

Nvidia shares responded by rising 2%, closing Tuesday in positive territory amid a broader recovery in the semiconductor sector. That may appear modest, but after the recent sell-off, during which chipmakers’ shares fell sharply across the board, even a 2% gain looks like a confident step forward. The market is beginning to understand that Nvidia is not...

The Divergence: Magnificent Seven vs. Semiconductors

A fascinating shift has occurred in the market over the past month. We are seeing a widening performance gap between the "Magnificent Seven" and semiconductor stocks. While chipmakers have been the primary beneficiaries of the AI gold rush, the companies actually paying for those chips — the hyperscalers like Alphabet — have seen their forward free cash flow projections come under intense scrutiny.

Analysts at institutions such as Deutsche Bank are closely watching this divergence. The market is currently undecided whether the circular relationship between semiconductor demand and Big Tech spending is sustainable. If Alphabet reports a strong beat today and raises its Capex guidance, it could act as a catalyst to lift both the Mag 7 and the struggling semi-sector together. However, if the news is lackluster, the "buy the dip" mentality for chips could quickly evaporate.

Cloud Computing: The True Proof of AI Returns

According to Bloomberg AI analysis, the "make or break" metric for Alphabet this afternoon will be Google Cloud. Investors are demanding evidence that the billions of dollars poured into AI infrastructure are yielding a clear return on investment. The projections are ambitious: Google Cloud sales are expected to jump nearly 65 percent from a year ago, reaching approximately $22.4 billion.

This growth is essential because Alphabet’s search business, while still dominant, faces a new era of competition. The focus has shifted to how effectively Google can monetize its AI tools for enterprise clients. In this landscape, the integration of AI into global business processes — often managed through platforms like SAP ... — becomes a key indicator of long-term utility. If Alphabet can beat the 63 percent growth rate seen in the previous quarter, it will give the market confidence that its spending is prudent.

The Capex Arms Race...

• AMD AND ANTHROPIC SIGN MAJOR CHIPS-AND-INVESTMENT DEAL
  

• THE 2-GIGAWATT DEAL COVERS TENS OF BILLIONS OF DOLLARS’ WORTH OF CHIPS, AS AMD PLANS TO INVEST UP TO $5 BILLION IN ANTHROPIC
  

• AMD IS ALSO IN TALKS TO PROVIDE A FINANCIAL BACKSTOP FOR ANTHROPIC’S FUTURE DATA CENTER LEASES AS WELL
  

• ANTHROPIC WILL PURCHASE UP TO 2 GIGAWATTS OF AMD’S LATEST-GENERATION CHIPS, CALLED THE INSTINCT MI450, STARTING IN THE FIRST HALF OF 2027
  

• Industry executives have said 1 gigawatt of computing power, enough to power roughly 750,000 U.S. homes, can cost around $50 billion.
  
  Advanced Micro Devices and Anthropic have signed a deal for tens of billions of dollars' worth of artificial-intelligence servers, strengthening AMD's competitive position against industry leader Nvidia and supplying Anthropic with much-needed computing power.
  

Under the terms of the agreement, Anthropic will purchase up to 2 gigawatts of AMD's latest-generation chips, called the Instinct MI450, starting in the first half of 2027. AMD will also invest up to $5 billion in Anthropic—its first check into the AI firm—as certain deployment milestones are met.

"We have very much wanted to be a major part of their infrastructure," AMD Chief Executive Lisa Su said, adding that the companies' engineering teams have been working together for some time.

Anthropic runs computing workloads across chips including GOOGL ... Google's tensor-processing units, AMZN ... Amazon.com's Trainium chips, and Nvidia graphics processing units, or GPUs. As part of the deal, Anthropic will buy some AMD chips for its own data centers as well as lease some of the capacity via other large cloud providers or neoclouds. Anthropic and AMD are working together to identify data centers for the chips, Su said.

"You can't just wake up one morning and say, 'Oh, I want a gigawatt of compute tomorrow,'" Su said. "You actually have to plan, you...

Monday’s Surge: Shares of the Chinese Giant Move Higher

The first day of the week proved triumphant for BABA ... Alibaba. The company’s shares on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange surged 5.2% to HKDUSD ... HK$118.40. The rally was not simply the result of favorable market conditions—it was driven by a specific technological breakthrough that investors immediately recognized.

On Saturday, Alibaba released a preview version of its new artificial intelligence model, Qwen3.8 Max. This is not just another routine update—it is a bold bid for leadership in the global AI race. The model contains 2.4 trillion parameters, placing it among the most powerful AI systems in the world. Alibaba claims that it is surpassed only by Anthropic’s latest flagship product, which would represent a major technological achievement.

However, what truly ignited the market was Alibaba’s promise to release the model’s weights in the near future. This is far more than a technical detail. It is a strategic move that could fundamentally strengthen Alibaba’s position in the AI industry.

Open models attract developer communities, accelerate innovation, and help create entire ecosystems around a product. The more developers who adopt Qwen, the stronger Alibaba’s competitive position is likely to become.

Qwen3.8 Max: What Kind of Beast Is It?

A model with 2.4 trillion parameters is not impressive merely because of the size of the number. It suggests that the model can process enormous volumes of data, understand complex contexts, and generate more accurate responses. Generally, the more parameters a model has, the more powerful it can be—although it also becomes more difficult and expensive to train.

Alibaba appears to have found a balance between power and efficiency. The company has not disclosed all the technical details, but it describes Qwen3.8 Max as one of the world’s most powerful AI models, reportedly ranking behind only...