Sequoia Capital, Nvidia and Oracle are all in on artificial intelligence this week. From VC investments in AI applications to skyrocketing demand for AI chips and cloud services, industry leaders are repositioning themselves for an AI-powered future that promises to reshape how we work and interact with technology.
Sequoia Capital is placing its chips on the app makers, not just the model builders, in a bold prediction for the AI gold rush. Speaking at a Goldman Sachs event, Sequoia Partner Pat Grady revealed the VC giant has poured an order of magnitude more cash into AI applications than the $150 million spent on foundation model companies like OpenAI and xAI, Bloomberg reported.
Why? Grady believes the real billion-dollar babies will be born in the app layer despite the current revenue lag. He points to portfolio company Day.ai’s AI-powered CRM as proof that packaging matters as much as raw tech prowess.
Sequoia isn’t falling for the “wowed-by-science effect” either. Its steering clear of investments based on cool factor alone, focusing instead on practical applications that solve real problems.
However, only partially count out the model makers. Grady teased OpenAI’s rumored upcoming “Strawberry” model as “pretty darn good,” hinting at more breakthroughs.
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang is feeling the heat as AI demand skyrockets. At a recent tech conference, Huang revealed the immense pressure on Nvidia to deliver cutting-edge AI tech. “Demand is so great that delivery of our components is really emotional for people,” Yahoo reported.
Huang envisions a future where AI isn’t just a tool but a skill augmenting human capabilities. He predicts that for every Nvidia employee, there could soon be 100 AI “digital engineers” working alongside them.
The AI gold rush is transforming data centers, with Huang claiming that for every dollar spent on Nvidia hardware, cloud providers see a $5 return. Despite recent market jitters, Nvidia remains at the heart of the AI revolution, powering giants like Microsoft, Meta, and Google.
But it’s not all smooth sailing. Nvidia faces antitrust scrutiny and market volatility. Yet Huang remains bullish, saying, “The days of every line of code being written by software engineers are completely over.”
According to its latest earnings report, Oracle beat estimates for quarterly results and forecast second-quarter revenue growth above estimates. The company’s cloud services have shown significant growth.
Oracle’s cloud services revenue rose 21% to $5.6 billion in the first quarter. The company reported that Oracle Cloud Infrastructure remains strong, and sustained demand for cloud computing, particularly in AI applications, is expected.
Oracle announced a partnership with AWS called Oracle Database@AWS. This allows customers to access Oracle Autonomous Database and Oracle Exadata Database Service within AWS. The company also announced the general availability of Oracle Database@Google Cloud.
For the quarter ended Aug. 31, Oracle’s revenue stood at $13.31 billion, compared with analysts’ estimates of $13.23 billion. The company earned $1.39 per share, excluding items, above estimates of $1.32.
Oracle’s remaining performance obligations (RPO) increased by 53% to $99 billion in the quarter. For the second quarter, Oracle expects revenue to grow between 8% and 10%.
The report indicates that Oracle’s push into the cloud computing market is showing results, and the company has started narrowing the gap with market leaders Microsoft and Amazon Web Services.
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