But rivals like OpenAI & Google can't risk their development pipeline being visible to a competitor, so they are forced to walk away.

In the AI arms race, your supply chain is now a target.

With Oracle’s cloud backlog surging and reports of them taking any capacity they can get, this program locks in a new, high-value customer segment that requires immense security and compliance—Oracle's sweet spot. (3/3)

Its new 'Defense Ecosystem' program onboards small AI vendors, guides them through complex procurement, and—most importantly—gets them to build their solutions on Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI). (2/3)

Why this matters: Even the most advanced "AI factories" have a dirty secret—they're built on a mountain of these "boring" chips.

As NVIDIA's own CEO Jensen Huang said in the release, they're partnering with TI for their AI infrastructure.

Texas Instruments is making a different bet: dominating the U.S. supply chain for foundational analog & embedded chips—the workhorses inside every car, phone, and server.

The semiconductor market is now operating at two speeds. All eyes are on the race for 2nm AI chips from TSMC. But that's a brutal, capital-intensive fight with huge onshoring challenges (see TSMC in Arizona).

The AI chip market is projected to be a $500B+ opportunity by the late 2020s. Intel has to be a player to survive and thrive.

This is about more than just hiring smart people. Intel is acquiring specific DNA.

▶️ The new head of AI Chip Architecture comes from Google, a leader in custom silicon (TPUs).
▶️ The new head of AI SoC Engineering comes from Rain AI, a specialized startup.

Let's be clear: Intel is in a tough spot. They're losing PC/server market share to AMD & Arm, their foundry is years behind TSMC, and their AI accelerators like Gaudi haven't meaningfully challenged Nvidia's dominance in the data center.

AI's reliability is still in question. High failure rates for AI projects and instances like Klarna having to re-hire humans after AI-driven cuts highlight ongoing challenges.