Elon Musk may be right about funding Stargate. If you haven’t heard of Stargate (probably because you pay attention to the big stuff), it’s a company that “intends to invest $500 billion over the next four years to build a new AI infrastructure”. [data centers] for OpenAI in the United States.
It was launched at a White House press event on Tuesday, leading the press to dub it “Trump’s ambitious AI infrastructure project.” Although the president gave his blessing to the project, he did not provide it with any government funding.
The event also featured Larry Ellison, CTO/President/co-founder of Oracle, Masayoshi Son, CEO of Softbank, and Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, all partners of the company. Of the three, Ellison is the only one running a company that is currently making money. However, Oracle is only present as a technology partner. Son, who lost $14 billion in financing WeWork, is in charge of the financial side.
Shortly after the project was announced, Musk tweeted (eXed?): “Actually, they don’t have the money. SoftBank got well less than $10 billion. I have it on good authority. OpenAI countered that it planned to “deploy $100 million immediately.” Softbank and OpenAI are both “committing” $19 billion to Stargate, so there’s no reason to think the funds won’t be “deployed.”
To raise the rest of the money, Softbank will have to use “a combination of massive fundraising efforts, new debt or selling chunks of funds.” [the] company holdings,” according to the Wall Street Journal. A big question for investors: How will Stargate make money?
Now let’s move on to this week’s roundup of AI-powered martech news and publications.
Act Software has finalized an agreement to be acquired by Banzai International. Act-On is an AI-powered marketing automation platform with open data architecture designed to improve businesses’ marketing efforts. The platform offers intuitive tools for campaign management and customer engagement.
PureCars added RylieAI to its AutoMiner CDP. RylieAI aims to help car dealerships improve their customer approach and operational efficiency.
Equitiv has evolved its curation platform, now renamed Maestro by Equativ. It centralizes programmatic campaign management and provides ad buyers with enhanced access to quality advertising inventory. Key features include seamless integration with first-party data, cookie-free targeting solutions, advanced transaction management tools for better campaign results.
SundaySky has launched the next generation of its AI-powered video platform. It now has AI avatars and advanced in-app screen recording media generation capabilities.
PharosIQ has enhanced its B2B marketing intelligence platform with new AI capabilities for intent data and lead prioritization. Updates include improved global account targeting, deeper persona insights, and more precise content classification to help marketers understand buyer intent and refine their strategies.
Chatmeter The Pulse Ai platform can now analyze photos in customer reviews and surface relevant images based on comment trends. The platform also offers enhanced review generation tools for multi-location businesses.
Bird’s eye has launched a new marketing solution specifically aimed at the restaurant and franchise industry, integrating AI capabilities to help businesses improve their online presence, reputation, social media management and customer insights.
OptimoveOptimove Ignite+ is designed to help emerging iGaming and sports betting operators scale efficiently. The program provides access to CRM marketing tools, expert advice and exclusive industry insights.
CertainAI Session Advisor provides personalized recommendations for event management. The tool helps businesses drive engagement and measurable results at scale.
Conversica‘s AI Agent, powered by AnswersIQ for Auto, provides automotive inventory capabilities to improve sales teams’ ability to engage with potential automotive customers.
UneeQUneeQ 2.0 is a platform for deploying digital humans that deliver emotionally intelligent and engaging customer interactions. The platform supports high-quality avatars with sub-second response times and can be customized for various industries and use cases, providing rich analytics in real-time.
NegotiateAsk AI is a generative AI feature that helps businesses gain insights from customer and employee feedback. The tool aims to provide clear, actionable answers that organizations can use to improve their experiences and operations.
