OpenAI's $1B Nordic Stargate

PLUS: China confronts Nvidia over chip security and Google's new virtual satellite AI

Good morning, AI enthusiast.

Today we're covering OpenAI's massive Nordic data center play, Beijing's latest tech interrogation tactics, and why your Python environment just got a $150M upgrade. Plus, AI that can map the entire planet without waiting for satellites to show up.

In today's AI recap:

  • OpenAI's $1B Nordic data center gambit

  • China grills Nvidia over chip backdoors

  • Anaconda's $150M Python power play

  • Google's virtual satellite maps the planet

  • 8 trending AI Tools

OpenAI's $1B Nordic Bet

The Recap: OpenAI is launching Stargate Norway, its first major AI data center in Europe, as part of its OpenAI for Countries initiative. The $1 billion project, in partnership with Aker and Nscale, will be located in northern Norway and aims to bolster Europe's AI capabilities.

Unpacked:

  • The facility is set to deliver 100,000 NVIDIA GPUs by the end of 2026, supported by an initial power capacity of 230 megawatts.

  • It leverages Norway's abundant hydropower and cool climate to create sustainable AI capacity, running entirely on renewable energy and using direct-to-chip liquid cooling for maximum efficiency.

  • The project is part of a global expansion that follows a similar project in the UAE, addressing the push for sovereign compute and giving priority access to local startups and researchers.

Bottom line: This investment is a major move toward building Europe's independent AI infrastructure. It also highlights a growing trend of placing massive compute facilities in locations that offer sustainable energy solutions.

AI Tools of the Day

  1. ๐ŸŽถ Suno - Instantly turn your simple text ideas into complete, original songs with surprisingly sophisticated vocals and instrumentation.

  2. ๐Ÿ•ธ๏ธ Firecrawl - Effortlessly scrape and crawl any website, transforming messy web content into clean, structured data perfect for training your AI models.

  3. ๐Ÿ“ธ Shotup AI - Give your screenshot library a searchable memory by asking it natural language questions to find the exact information you forgot you saved.

  4. โš™๏ธ Kypso - Deploy smart AI agents that automate complex engineering tasks like writing release notes and managing incidents across your development tools.

  5. ๐ŸŽง Audioread - Convert any article, PDF, or email into a personal, high-quality audio podcast that you can listen to on the go.

  6. โš–๏ธ LegalCheckPro - Automatically scan your legal contracts to find risky clauses and ambiguous language, giving you an AI-powered second opinion in minutes.

  7. ๐Ÿค– Newo.ai - Build and deploy autonomous AI digital employees that can handle complex customer service and sales tasks across multiple channels.

  8. ๐Ÿ›ก๏ธ SuperAlign - Centralize your company's AI governance to manage compliance, mitigate risks, and maintain a complete inventory of all your AI systems.

Explore the Best AI Tools Directory to find tools that will 10x your output ๐Ÿ“ˆ

Beijing Questions Nvidia's Chips

The Recap: China's top cyberspace regulator summoned Nvidia to address security concerns over its H20 AI chips. The move adds a new layer of complexity just weeks after the U.S. reversed its ban on the chip's export to China.

Unpacked:

  • Beijing's scrutiny focuses on potential "backdoors" and tracking features, echoing a proposed U.S. Chip Security Act that would mandate such location verification on advanced chips.

  • The inquiry complicates Nvidia's reentry into the lucrative Chinese market, which followed a $4.5 billion writedown on unsold H20 inventory due to the initial U.S. restrictions.

  • Despite the investigation, Nvidia recently placed an order for 300,000 H20 chipsets, signaling strong Chinese demand and highlighting the critical balancing act the company faces between Beijing and Washington.

Bottom line: This confrontation shows how national security is increasingly dictating the flow of critical AI hardware. Companies and developers must now factor geopolitical tensions directly into their technology roadmaps and supply chain strategies.

AI Training

The Recap: I put Manus AI and ChatGPT Agent head-to-head with the exact same prompts โ€” and the results surprised me. In this video, I break down where each AI shines (and fails) across real-world use cases like design, sales, and web development. Watch to the end to see which one you should be using โ€” and why the winner wasnโ€™t who I expected.

(Read the Manus AI vs. ChatGPT Agent Text Version)

P.S We also launched a free community for AI Builders looking to master the art and science of building AI Automations โ€” Come join us!

Anaconda Nabs $150M+

The Recap: Anaconda, the company behind the go-to Python distribution for data science, has raised over $150 million in a Series C round led by Insight Partners. The funding is aimed at scaling its tools to meet the rising demand for enterprise-grade AI development.

Unpacked:

  • Anaconda is already a cornerstone of the AI world, with over 50 million users and adoption by 95% of Fortune 500 companies.

  • The company is expanding beyond package management with its new Anaconda AI Platform, positioning itself to become a comprehensive model hub where organizations can manage all their AI building blocks.

  • This capital will fuel the development of new AI features, fund strategic acquisitions, and accelerate Anaconda's global expansion.

Bottom line: This investment highlights the growing importance of the foundational tools that power the AI ecosystem. For professionals, it solidifies Anaconda's position as a standardized, secure platform for building and deploying mission-critical AI applications.

Where AI Experts Share Their Best Work

Join our Free AI Automation Community

Join our FREE community AI Automation Mastery โ€” where entrepreneurs, AI builders, and AI agency owners share templates, solve problems together, and learn from each other's wins (and mistakes).

What makes our community different:

  • Real peer support from people building actual AI businesses

  • Complete access to download our automation library of battle-tested n8n templates

  • Collaborate and problem-solve with AI experts when you get stuck

Dive into our course materials, collaborate with experienced builders, and turn automation challenges into shared wins. Join here (completely free).

Google's New 'Virtual Satellite'

The Recap: Google DeepMind has unveiled AlphaEarth Foundations, a new AI model that acts as a 'virtual satellite' by processing huge amounts of Earth observation data to create high-resolution maps on demand.

Unpacked:

  • The model uses a process called "embedding" to analyze data from satellites and climate simulations, dividing the Earth's surface into 10x10 meter squares to track changes over time.

  • It creates highly compact summaries that require 16 times less storage compared to similar systems, significantly cutting down the costs and time needed for Earth observation analysis.

  • Google has now released the model's Satellite Embedding dataset in Earth Engine, allowing scientists and researchers to directly use it for their own projects.

Bottom line: This tool helps scientists move past the limitations of waiting for satellite passes, enabling them to generate detailed environmental maps whenever needed. It marks a significant step toward creating a near real-time, dynamic understanding of our planet's health.

The Shortlist

Researchers found millions of images containing passports, credit cards, and other personal data in a major open-source training set, estimating the total number of compromised documents in the full dataset could be in the hundreds of millions.

Google agreed to sign the EU's AI Code of Practice, a set of voluntary guidelines for AI Act compliance, creating a strategic split with Meta, which has refused to sign.

MIT researchers developed a provably efficient algorithm for machine learning on symmetric data, a breakthrough that could lead to more powerful and accurate models for drug and materials discovery.

Google DeepMind unveiled AlphaEarth Foundations, a "virtual satellite" AI model that integrates vast Earth observation data to create a unified digital representation of the planet for scientists.

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David, Lucas, Mitchell โ€” The Recap editorial team