Tag: nvidia

Weekend Notebook #38 – Building AI nations, not just AI models

amitabh apte

Published on LinkedIn, Substack and AmitabhApte.com on Sept 21, 2025

In spotlight this week: UK’s $200B AI Moonshot


President Trump’s UK visit culminated in a Tech Prosperity Deal with Prime Minister Keir Starmer, announcing over $200 billion in US–UK tech and AI investment. Microsoft pledged $30B over four years to expand AI and cloud infrastructure, Google committed $5B to boost AI and data centre capacity, and Nvidia invested £500M in Nscale as part of a broader £11B push into UK-based AI factories powering projects like OpenAI’s Stargate and Microsoft’s new supercomputer.


This deal signals a decisive shift: the UK is not just regulating AI, it is building itself into a sovereign AI hub. Tens of thousands of jobs will be created, supply chains for GPUs and compute will be strengthened, and Britain’s role in transatlantic AI collaboration will deepen. In an era where compute is the new oil, data centres and sovereign infrastructure are the new battlegrounds for economic and geopolitical advantage.


My PoV – This is the UK’s moonshot moment. Infrastructure at this scale could anchor Britain as a global AI leader, but steel and silicon alone aren’t enough. The real test is whether investment translates into skills, trust, and adoption that benefit society as well as industry. For business leaders, the takeaway is clear: the future of AI competitiveness isn’t about building smarter models, it’s about building the foundations that let those models thrive.

Noteworthy this week: what caught my eye in the AI and tech world

Talent, regulation & geopolitics

  • The U.S. has escalated its H-1B visa crackdown, imposing a $100,000 fee that is forcing Indian IT firms to curb onshore rotations and accelerate offshore models. Tech giants like Microsoft, Amazon, Meta, and JPMorgan are warning foreign employees not to travel, underscoring how policy shifts directly reshape global talent flows.
  • TikTok has won a reprieve in America under a new deal that reduces Chinese ownership below 20% and places Oracle in charge of U.S. data, a blueprint for how national security concerns could reshape tech governance going forward.

Consumer trust under pressure

  • The Amazon Prime trial will test whether subscription giants have been deliberately making cancellations too complex. If the FTC prevails, Amazon could be forced to simplify flows, setting new norms for consumer rights in digital services.
  • Across the Atlantic, a cyberattack on European air travel systems grounded flights at Heathrow, Berlin, and Brussels, shaking public trust in critical infrastructure and spotlighting how fragile digital-first services remain in the face of cyber risk.

The infrastructure arms race

Hardware sovereignty & intelligence on the edge

  • Apple is accelerating its in-house chip strategy, prioritising AI-optimised silicon that boosts on-device intelligence, efficiency, and privacy while reducing reliance on third parties. Taken with Nvidia and Oracle’s bets, the story is clear: hardware design and infrastructure control are becoming the new frontiers for competitive differentiation in AI.

Beyond Tech & AI: my “mind share” this week

Being back at Barilla’s Parma HQ in the heart of Italy’s Food Valley was both inspiring and grounding. While plenty of Data, Tech and AI conversations kept me busy, what made the week truly special was the chance to sit with colleagues across cyber, data, infrastructure, and sales. Listening, learning, and aligning on our shared priorities. Moments like these remind me that while AI, digital, and data drive transformation, the culture, humility, and human connection that give those technologies meaning and staying power.

In summary: my key takeaway this weekend

“From moonshots in London to conversations in Parma, the same truth echoed: AI’s future won’t be written only in code or capital. It will be written in the bridges we build between technology and trust, scale and society, steel and soul.”

Weekend Notebook #35 – Meta’s AI Avatars and the Fragile Ethics of Innovation

amitabh apte

Published on LinkedIn, Substack and AmitabhApte.com on August 31, 2025

In spotlight this week: Meta’s AI Personas: Innovation or Identity Overreach?

What happens when innovation runs ahead of consent? This week, Meta reportedly created dozens of AI chatbots using celebrity likenesses including Taylor Swift and Anne Hathaway without their consent. Some of these bots engaged in flirty or sexually suggestive conversations, breaching Meta’s own safety policies and raising profound questions about identity rights, digital personas, and the limits of generative AI.

Meta has scrambled to add safeguards: restricting teen access to certain avatars, retraining systems to avoid self-harm or sexualized responses. But the episode exposes the fragility of today’s AI guardrails and how easily they can crack at scale.

My takeaway: Generative AI isn’t just about what’s possible it’s about what’s permissible. The real test for platforms isn’t whether they can scale avatars, but whether they can respect identity and prevent harm at scale.

Noteworthy this week: what caught my eye in the AI and tech world

Leadership & Power

  • 2025 TIME100 AI – Recognizes leaders from Sam Altman to Pope Leo XIV to artist Refik Anadol, a reminder that AI’s future is being shaped at the intersection of capital, conscience, and culture. Can such diverse voices steer AI toward stability or will power remain concentrated?

Earnings & Investment

  • Nvidia’s blowout quarter – Sales jumped 56%, profits 59%, cementing Nvidia as the world’s most valuable company. AI infrastructure spending shows no sign of slowing.
  • Alibaba’s AI surge – Triple-digit revenue growth in AI products and 26% in cloud sales lifted shares 9%. Strategic AI bets are reshaping market confidence in China.

Geopolitics

  • China’s pragmatic AI – Focused on agriculture, healthcare, and public services with smaller, efficient data centers. Unlike the US’s AGI race, China is optimizing what works now — a strategy that may prove more scalable and globally influential.
  • India’s Reliance + Google + Meta alliance – A $100M joint venture to deliver sovereign, enterprise-ready AI. Backed by clean-energy-powered cloud and open-source deployment, it raises the question: how will India balance sovereignty with global interoperability?

Consumer Shifts

  • Rise of AI shopping agents – Bots that search, recommend, and purchase on behalf of users are reshaping e-commerce. What happens to brand identity — and consumer choice — when machines, not people, drive the cart?

In summary: my key takeaway this weekend

Meta’s avatar scandal shows the ethical fragility of innovation: consent and identity rights cannot be afterthoughts. Meanwhile, the global AI race from TIME100 leaders to China’s pragmatism and India’s sovereign ambitions underscores how deeply AI is becoming personal, cultural, and geopolitical.

“AI is scaling faster than trust. The question for leaders is whether ethics can catch up.”