Microsoft Corp. announced a four-year, $10 billion investment package in Japan, part of the US company’s Asia-wide push to expand in a region hungry for artificial intelligence services. The world’s largest software maker will develop AI infrastructure alongside Sakura Internet Inc. and telecom operator SoftBank Corp. , with the two Japanese entities supplying graphics processing units and other c...
Microsoft Corp. announced a four-year, $10 billion investment package in Japan, part of the US company’s Asia-wide push to expand in a region hungry for artificial intelligence services. The world’s largest software maker will develop AI infrastructure alongside Sakura Internet Inc. and telecom operator SoftBank Corp. , with the two Japanese entities supplying graphics processing units and other computing resources, according to a statement. As part of the package, Microsoft, whose Copilot has struggled to keep pace with OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google’s Gemini, will invest in cybersecurity partnerships and train a million AI engineers through 2029. The plan will keep data processing within Japan’s borders, it said in a release that coincided with its President Brad Smith ’s meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi on Friday. The Redmond, Washington-based company is battling Amazon.com Inc. and Alphabet Inc. for dominance in Japan, which is spending billions to develop a robust AI ecosystem and catch up to the US and China. Microsoft’s commitment in Japan follows similar announcements earlier this week in Singapore and Thailand , as well as a pledge in 2024 to spend about $2.9 billion in Japan over two years. But US hyperscalers’ planned outlays of about $650 billion this year alone to build out power-guzzling data centers are coming up against global power constraints, as the war in the Middle East enters its second month. Resource-poor Japan relies on the Middle East for more then 90% of its oil and is already turning to less-efficient coal-fired power plants to make sure it can meet existing energy needs. Read more: AI Wants More Data. More Chips. More Power. More Everything Still, Japan’s government is earmarking about ¥1.23 trillion ($7.7 billion) to support cutting-edge chips and AI development this fiscal year. It seeks to use the country’s leadership in industrial robotics to win a more than 30% global market share in so-called physical AI by 2040. Mi...
The Orion spacecraft successfully fired its main engine for 5 minutes and 50 seconds on Thursday, sending four astronauts on a free-return trajectory around the Moon. For NASA and the Artemis II crew members, this marked a point of no return for more than week. Most Americans, indeed about three-quarters of the population around the world, have not witnessed humans leaving low-Earth orbit in their...
The Orion spacecraft successfully fired its main engine for 5 minutes and 50 seconds on Thursday, sending four astronauts on a free-return trajectory around the Moon. For NASA and the Artemis II crew members, this marked a point of no return for more than week. Most Americans, indeed about three-quarters of the population around the world, have not witnessed humans leaving low-Earth orbit in their lifetimes. The last time this occurred was 1972, with the final Apollo Moon mission. The “translunar injection” burn of Orion’s main engine occurred about one day after the successful launch of the mission on NASA’s Space Launch System rocket from Kennedy Space Center on Wednesday. This burn was the last major firing of Orion’s main engine, and sets the crew on a course to fly around the Moon on Monday, slingshot back toward Earth under lunar gravity, and splash down in the Pacific Ocean on Friday, April 10. Read full article Comments