Nebius Group signed a $3 billion deal with Meta to provide AI infrastructure, including GPU power and high-performance cloud systems, to support Meta's AI model training and operations.
Nvidia unveiled its new Vera Rubin AI superchip platform, which is already in full production and offers 3.5x the training performance and 5x the AI performance rating compared to its predecessor, Blackwell, with improved power efficiency. The company also announced Alpamayo, an open-source AI model and simulation toolkit for autonomous vehicles, with code available on Hugging Face.
Perplexity AI CEO Aravind Srinivas highlighted the growing trend of local compute, emphasizing its advantages in speed, security, and cost-effectiveness compared to cloud-based AI. The company is focusing on making AI more accessible and efficient by shifting more processing to local devices.
Intel announced the launch of its Core Ultra Series 3 (Panther Lake) processors, which are built on Intel's 2nm 18A process and promise significant improvements in power efficiency and AI performance for laptops. The chips support up to 15% better performance per watt and up to 30% better chip density.
AMD introduced a new line of Ryzen AI processors, including the Ryzen 7 9850X3D, aimed at enhancing AI capabilities in personal computers and gaming. The company is expanding its footprint in the AI-powered PC market.
Samsung outlined its AI vision under the theme 'Your Companion to AI Living' at The First Look 2026 press conference on January 4, 2026, emphasizing integration of AI across its product lineup and services to bring joy, convenience, and care to daily lives.
Researchers have proposed a unifying mathematical framework, described as a 'Periodic Table' for AI, that explains why many successful multimodal AI models work effectively.
OpenAI has partnered with Jony Ive, the former iPhone designer, to develop a new lineup of AI hardware expected to be revealed sometime in 2026.
Mark Manson, author of The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck, discussed on Rich On Tech why many people turn to AI for personal advice and introduced his new app Purpose, designed to provide such advice more safely and responsibly.
Ramesh Srinivasan, UCLA professor and director of the UC Digital Cultures Lab, explored the intersection of technology and privacy on Rich On Tech Episode 155, aired January 3, 2026.
Google plans to fully phase out the old Assistant on most Android devices in favor of Gemini by early 2026.