Discover the latest high-stakes developments in AI—from Stargate’s multibillion-dollar ambition to Mark Benioff’s agent-first strategy and Microsoft’s evolving partnership with OpenAI. Dive into insights from top tech CEOs at Davos on how AI is reshaping healthcare, enterprise, and the global race for cutting-edge computing power.
1. The “Stargate” Initiative
- Partnership & Scope: A new joint venture called “Stargate” involves Oracle, SoftBank, and OpenAI (with Microsoft also mentioned as a participant) aiming for a massive AI infrastructure build-out in the U.S., starting at $100 billion and potentially scaling to $500 billion over four years.
- Funding Skepticism: Elon Musk subtweeted that there might not be enough cash to meet such a high funding target. Satya Nadella (Microsoft CEO) responded that Microsoft alone plans to spend $80 billion on Azure infrastructure—implying at least some major funding is secured.
2. Marc Benioff (Salesforce) Highlights
- Larry Ellison’s AI-Driven Healthcare Vision
- Ellison (Oracle co-founder, Benioff’s mentor) has unveiled a plan at the White House to fight cancer with AI.
- Ellison’s moves—acquiring Cerner, funding Ellison Institutes, and focusing on personalized therapies—show his commitment to leveraging AI in medical diagnostics and treatment.
- Microsoft, OpenAI, and Emerging Fissures
- Benioff believes Microsoft will ultimately rely on its own “frontier models,” hiring Mustafa Suleiman—who is not on the best terms with OpenAI’s Sam Altman—to lead that effort.
- Sees a “fissure” forming between OpenAI and Microsoft, even though on paper they remain partners.
- Rise of “Agent-First” AI
- Benioff says Salesforce and other organizations are shifting to “agentic” technologies—digital agents that automate tasks alongside human workers.
- Salesforce’s help portal now routes fewer queries to human agents, showcasing how AI agents can reduce support workloads.
- Stopping Net-New Engineering Hires
- Benioff reveals that, for the first time in Salesforce’s 25-year history, they will hire no net-new software engineers—AI is handling much of the coding and development.
3. Dario Amodei (Anthropic) Highlights
- Near-Term Powerful AI
- Amodei (Anthropic CEO) believes that within two or three years we could reach AI systems “better than almost all humans at almost all tasks,” citing Anthropic’s own fast progress.
- He sees no immediate “wall” to scaling laws: historically, each time a technical bottleneck seemed near, new techniques and compute have circumvented it.
- The “Virtual Collaborator” Vision
- Anthropic plans to release an AI “virtual collaborator” that can operate on a computer like a human employee: writing code, conversing in Slack, checking tasks in real time.
- China’s GPU Access
- Despite U.S. export controls, many Chinese AI labs reportedly obtained substantial NVIDIA GPU clusters before restrictions—helping them remain close to Western AI capabilities.
4. Satya Nadella (Microsoft) Highlights
- OpenAI Relationship & Exclusivity
- Microsoft remains a major partner and shareholder in OpenAI, with guaranteed exclusivity on OpenAI’s API for Azure.
- Nadella rejects talk of a major rift, emphasizing that Microsoft’s arrangement with OpenAI is still healthy and benefits both sides.
- Competing or Complementary “Frontier Models”?
- Microsoft has smaller internal models, but Nadella stresses that leveraging OpenAI’s technology is the top priority, not duplicating it.
- He does acknowledge that customers want a variety of models (open-source, proprietary, internal) on Azure.