Revenge of the benchmarks

With CPUs back in the spotlight, so too is the PR fight over performance. ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌

Here’s your wrap of the latest must-read tech news. For more expansive and analytical coverage from around the globe, get the Tech In Depth newsletter. Market Snapshot Amazon.com Inc $244.39 +2.9% S&P 500 INDEX 7,500.58 +1.1% Intel Corp $133.99 +11% Market data as of 08:16 PM ET. Data is subject to provider delays. Your watchlist Top Stories Amazon’s chips: The e-commerce and cloud giant is in talks to sell its custom-made AI chips to outside companies. It’s a crowded field. Europe’s AI future: The continent is banking on “industrial AI” — integrating artificial intelligence tools into production and manufacturing — to keep from falling behind in the technology. It’s a huge challenge. Microsoft’s China sales: The software company’s cloud service has built a big business selling AI models to Chinese companies. ByteDance is one of the biggest customers. Top Reads The Cyberbullies of 764 Torment Teen Girls as Blood Sport A global group of online sadists is pushing kids to harm themselves, their pets and their families. The FBI calls it a new wave of terrorism. Intel Rallies to Record After Trump Touts Apple Chip Deal Intel Corp.’s stock surged Thursday after US President Donald Trump said the chipmaker will work with Apple Inc. to design and produce semiconductors domestically. Big Tech Stock Buybacks Vanish as AI Spending Spree Eats Up Cash The artificial-intelligence race is becoming so expensive that it’s snuffing out one of the key forces that has helped keep Big Tech stocks soaring for years: steady share buybacks. Beyond The Brief Chip companies used to promote their products using esoteric benchmarks that were hard to prove — or dispute, Ian King writes in today’s Tech In Depth. Those pronouncements disappeared for a while as Nvidia became the clear king of the most important chips for artificial intelligence work. But now that CPUs are taking on more importance in AI work, the benchmarks are back, he writes. Get the Tech In Depth newsletter for analysis and scoops about the business of technology from Bloomberg’s journalists around the world. This Week In Game On Square Enix wasn’t thinking of Philadelphia when it set The Adventures of Elliot: The Millennium Tales in a fantasy land whose name seems like a takeoff on the Pennsylvania city, Jason Schreier reports in this week’s Game On. Instead, the developers were looking for a name that would “sound cool in Japanese” and came from the word for “Firebird” in that language, he writes. Sign up for the Game On newsletter to go deep inside the video game business with reporting and analysis from Jason Schreier. Before You Go... AI Is Learning to Spot Toxic Bosses Is sacrificing your own privacy worth it to stem your manager’s worst tendencies? Read more We’re improving your newsletter experience and we’d love your feedback. If something looks off, help us fine-tune your experience by reporting it here. Follow Us You received this message because you are subscribed to Bloomberg’s Tech In Brief newsletter. If a friend forwarded you this message, sign up here to get it in your inbox. Unsubscribe Bloomberg.com Contact Us Bloomberg L.P. 731 Lexington Avenue New York, NY 10022 |