Meta and Google Cloud Forge $10 Billion AI Partnership
Meta Platforms has entered into a landmark six-year agreement with Google Cloud, valued at over $10 billion, to significantly enhance its artificial intelligence infrastructure. This strategic partnership will see Meta leverage Google Cloud’s comprehensive suite of services, including servers, storage, and networking, to power its ambitious AI expansion.
The deal is a critical component of Meta’s plan to scale its data center capacity to approximately 1 gigawatt of compute power, utilizing over 1.3 million GPUs in 2025. This collaboration underscores the intense investment and competition within the AI sector, as tech giants commit substantial capital to advance their capabilities. For Google Cloud, this agreement represents a major victory in its ongoing competition with other leading cloud providers.
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Waymo Secures First Permit for Self-Driving Car Tests in New York City
Waymo, Alphabet’s autonomous vehicle division, has officially received the first-ever permit to test its self-driving cars in the challenging environment of New York City. The company will initiate testing with a small fleet of eight vehicles, operating in specific areas of Manhattan and Downtown Brooklyn.
Adhering to state law and the city’s stringent safety protocols, a trained human safety specialist will remain in the driver’s seat at all times, ready to assume control if needed. This launch represents a cautious yet pivotal step for autonomous vehicle technology in one of the world’s most complex urban landscapes. The initial testing phase is scheduled to run through late September, with potential for extension. Waymo brings extensive experience to this new market, having already completed over 10 million rides in five other major U.S. cities.
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Robotics Breakthrough: Multiply Labs Slashes Cell Therapy Costs by 74%
The pioneering robotics firm Multiply Labs has achieved a major breakthrough with a robotic biomanufacturing system that reduces the production cost of life-saving cell therapies by an astounding 74%. This innovative system employs collaborative robot arms from Universal Robots to automate the intricate manufacturing process for personalized treatments, commonly used for blood cancers.
A core innovation is the company’s ‘imitation learning’ technology, which enables robots to learn and replicate the precise, delicate tasks performed by human scientists directly from video data. The modular robotic cluster, featuring multiple arms working in parallel, dramatically improves both efficiency and space utilization. A peer-reviewed study conducted with UCSF has validated the system’s effectiveness, highlighting superior quality and sterility, with zero contamination events observed in the robotic process compared to manual methods.
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Europe Unveils Ambitious Quantum Strategy for Industrial Leadership
The European Commission has detailed an ambitious strategy aimed at positioning Europe as a global leader in quantum technology by 2030. The plan focuses on three core pillars: research, infrastructure, and the development of a robust quantum ecosystem.
A central piece of this strategy is the forthcoming EU Quantum Computing and Simulation Roadmap, set for release in 2026, which will establish clear benchmarks for maturing various quantum platforms. The strategy places a strong emphasis on transitioning from laboratory research to the industrial-scale production of quantum chips, which are deemed essential for Europe’s future competitiveness and technological autonomy. The potential of silicon spin qubits for large-scale deployment is also highlighted as a key area of focus. Aligning the proposed Quantum Chips Industrialization Roadmap with the upcoming Chips Act 2.0 is seen as a critical step to secure Europe’s leadership in the global quantum race.