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Larry Ellison Bet It All on the A.I. Boom. Will He Be the Face of the A.I. Bubble?

Inside the 81-year-old billionaire’s risky, debt-fueled scramble to transform his data empire into an A.I. juggernaut. The president announced “the largest A.I. infrastructure project by far in history” and told the world that his friend Larry Ellison was just the man to get it done. “He’s sort of C.E.O. of everything,” Trump said. Ellison began by thanking Trump. “We certainly couldn’t do this without you,” he said. “It would simply be impossible.” He then proceeded to sketch out the ambitious plan. Ellison’s database software and cloud computing company, Oracle, and its partners — most prominently OpenAI — were going to invest as much as $500 billion over the next four years into a group of sprawling data centers, 500,000 square feet each, that would produce 10 gigawatts of computing power, using enough energy to power as many as 10 million homes. It was called Project Stargate, after the 1994 sci-fi movie. The effort began in late 2022 when the launch of ChatGPT stunned the world and set in motion a race to master and control the most transformative new technology since the birth of the internet. Analysts began bidding up how much generative A.I. would add to the global economy: $7 trillion over 10 years, $200 trillion by 2030and so on. Larry Ellison Bet It All on the A.I. Boom. Will He Be the Face of the A.I. Bubble? – The New York Times

TikTok Goes American by Matty Merritt

TikTok is an American company now. Ownership of TikTok’s US operations has officially changed hands, but your experience on the app likely won’t change much…immediately. A group of American investors closed a $14 billion deal Thursday night to acquire the US version of the short-form video app and avoid a shutdown mandated by the 2024 divest-or-ban law due to national security concerns. Under the deal, TikTok’s original parent, ByteDance, will retain 19.9% of the company while Larry Ellison’s Oracle, private equity firm Silver Lake, and Abu Dhabi-based investment company MGX will split 45% of the company as managing investors. Most of the remaining shares of the new US TikTok entity will be owned by existing ByteDance investors. The three managing investors will own US user data and be tasked with moderating US content. ByteDance will still own its wildly valuable algorithm, but, according to a White House official, it will lease a copy to the owners of the US entity. For starters, you won’t need to download a new app.   A group of US investors bought TikTok

Interesting: The Three Pillars of Independence of an Organization

The 3 Pillars of Independence most commonly refers to a framework from the UK voluntary sector (specifically promoted by organizations like Bond and the Directory of Social Change). It is a toolkit for assessing and maintaining the independence of charities, NGOs, or civil society organizations.

The Three Pillars are:

  1. Independent of Party Politics – The organization (or regulator) must remain free from bias or influence by any political party or the government of the day. Decisions should be impartial, not favoring one political side.
  2. Independent of Populism – It should not be swayed by popular public opinion, media-driven campaigns, or transient public pressure, especially on controversial or unpopular causes.
  3. Independent of the Press – Freedom from media influence or pressure, ensuring decisions are based on evidence and law rather than headlines or public narratives.

This toolkit was created to monitor potential political encroachment on charitable regulation and to ensure charities can operate without undue external interference.

 

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