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Oracle in talks for $20B AI cloud deal with Meta

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Oracle is negotiating a multi-year cloud computing contract with Meta worth about $20 billion, a source told Reuters on Friday, highlighting the social media giant’s urgent push to secure computing capacity for AI development.

Under the potential deal, Oracle would provide infrastructure for training and deploying AI models, supplementing Meta’s existing cloud partnerships. Neither company commented on the report.

The talks come just days after news that OpenAI signed a landmark agreement to buy $300 billion worth of computing power from Oracle over five years—one of the largest cloud deals ever recorded.

Oracle, once known primarily for enterprise software, has rapidly repositioned itself as a heavyweight in cloud infrastructure through Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI). It has partnered with Amazon, Google, and Microsoft to allow their customers to run Oracle workloads alongside native services. Revenue from these tie-ups surged more than 16x in Q1.

In recent weeks, Oracle has announced four additional multi-billion-dollar contracts as AI firms such as OpenAI, Musk’s xAI, and now Meta aggressively lock in long-term capacity. Oracle said it expects to sign more mega-customers in the coming months, projecting over half a trillion dollars in booked OCI revenue.

If finalized, the Meta deal would further cement Oracle as a critical player in the AI infrastructure race, rivaling traditional hyperscalers and underscoring just how central cloud power has become in the battle for AI dominance.

Musk denies $10B fundraising at xAI after CNBC report

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Elon Musk pushed back on Friday against a CNBC report that his AI startup xAI was raising $10 billion at a post-money valuation of $200 billion. “Fake news. xAI is not raising any capital right now,” Musk wrote on X, dismissing claims the firm was in talks with investors.

CNBC had reported that the funds would be used to build massive data centers with Nvidia and AMD GPUs and recruit top AI talent as xAI ramps up to compete with OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Anthropic’s Claude. The company operates the Colossus supercomputer cluster in Memphis, Tennessee, which Musk has described as the world’s largest.

Investor interest in AI firms remains strong despite questions over the sustainability of big tech spending. If true, the $200B valuation would have more than doubled xAI’s reported $75B valuation in July and placed it among the world’s most valuable private companies—behind OpenAI, ByteDance, and SpaceX, but ahead of Anthropic, which recently raised funds at a $183B valuation.

Musk’s denial comes amid conflicting signals. In June, Morgan Stanley reported that xAI had already raised $5B in debt financing alongside a $5B strategic equity investment to expand its infrastructure. While Musk insists no new round is underway, xAI continues to scale aggressively, seeking to establish itself as a rival to OpenAI, which may soon be valued at $500B in a planned stock sale.

OpenAI to spend $100B on backup servers in five-year cloud push

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OpenAI plans to spend $100 billion over the next five years renting backup servers from cloud providers, according to The Information. The investment comes on top of the $350 billion the company has already projected for server rentals between now and 2030, underscoring the massive infrastructure costs of training and deploying advanced AI systems.

The spending spree reflects the global race for scarce computing capacity, benefiting cloud giants and chipmakers as AI developers scramble to secure the hardware needed to train and run ever-larger models. With backup capacity included, OpenAI expects to average $85 billion annually on server rentals over the next five years.

Executives told shareholders the servers are “monetizable,” meaning they could generate additional revenue not yet included in forecasts—either by enabling new research breakthroughs or handling spikes in product demand. Even so, OpenAI is projected to burn about $115 billion in cash through 2029, as it scales infrastructure to match the ambitions of ChatGPT and future AI models.

The enormous outlays highlight both the intensity of the AI arms race and the risks: investors are betting that today’s infrastructure bets will translate into tomorrow’s breakthroughs and revenue streams.