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Take that, Sundar Pichai! Three months after we scooped news that Meta Platforms was in talks to spend billions on Google AI chips—known as tensor processing units—for its data centers, Meta and Nvidia unveiled an expanded “multiyear, multigenerational strategic partnership.” Meta is a longtime Nvidia customer, of course, but it is recommitting to using “millions” of Nvidia’s AI chips as well as other Nvidia processors and gear.
It’s not clear whether this deal precludes Meta also buying Google TPUs. Given Meta’s aggressive AI data center ambitions, it could buy chips from both companies. But you have to think that news of Meta’s interest in Google chips might have prompted Nvidia to double down on sales efforts with the Facebook owner, perhaps offering a discount. To be sure, we don’t know the terms of the agreement. We also don’t know whether the announcement constituted a purchase commitment by Meta beyond what it might already have been planning. Whatever the case, the news made investors feel better about Nvidia: sales of the AI chip giant closed up 1.2% and were trading up another 1% or so after-hours.
Elsewhere, you know we’re in an upside-down world when a toilet maker is proclaimed an “undervalued and overlooked AI play.” But that's how one activist investor is describing the company, The Financial Times reported today. In addition to making bathroom fixtures, Toto makes “high-precision ceramic products” for the semiconductor manufacturing equipment industry. That includes something called an electrostatic chuck, which is increasingly important in chips—including memory chips, according to the FT report. Memory chips are now in very high demand, thanks to AI. (To be honest, anyone with a Toto toilet in their house would say it’s definitely not undervalued or overlooked, but that’s a whole other story).
ServiceNow’s Confidence-Booster
Maybe it’s time for a software firm to buy Toto! That might reassure investors their business has a future. Certainly, what software firms are doing right now to calm down nervous investors doesn’t seem to be working. ServiceNow, for instance, alerted the Securities and Exchange Commission on Tuesday that its CEO, Bill McDermott, and several other executives had canceled future planned sales of its stock. Now, that sounds meaningful, but seeing as ServiceNow’s stock has fallen in value by nearly half in the past year, it’s hardly surprising executives don’t want to sell their shares right now.
More meaningfully, perhaps, the company also said McDermott had committed to buying $3 million worth of stock at the end of the month. It is noteworthy that McDermott is putting his money where his mouth is! Still, the news didn’t do much to sway investors: ServiceNow stock fell 1% on Tuesday.
TV’s Longest-Running Drama
We’re not talking about “The Simpsons.” The takeover battle for Warner Bros. Discovery, which had quieted down in the past few weeks, erupted back into the headlines again on Tuesday when WBD said it was going to give Paramount Skydance a week to make “its best and final offer.” You may recall that WBD and Netflix have an agreed-upon deal—for the streaming giant to buy WBD’s studio and streaming operations—but Paramount is offering to buy the whole company.
Paramount has told WBD it is willing to raise its offer by $1 a share to $31, WBD said. Meanwhile, WBD is keeping the pressure on Paramount, scheduling a meeting on March 20 for shareholders to vote on the Netflix proposal. In other words, this drama is far from over.
Netflix shareholders doubtless wish it would end: The stock has fallen 37% since October, when the company appeared to dismiss suggestions it might buy WBD. At $77, Netflix stock is trading at its lowest point since 2024.
In Other News
• Thrive Capital said it has raised $10 billion in new funds, including $1 billion for early-stage investments and $9 billion for growth-stage ones.
• Palo Alto Networks on Tuesday announced its plans to acquire Israeli cybersecurity startup Koi.
• Activist investor Starboard Value said it would nominate a new slate of directors to the board of Tripadvisor, arguing that the travel booking and review site hasn’t moved quickly enough to address the threat posed by AI chatbots and incorporate more generative AI into its site and app.
• Gemini Space Station, the crypto exchange co-founded by Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, said Tuesday that three of its senior executives were leaving the company. The departures follow a steep decline in its stock from its September IPO.
• Benchmark on Tuesday said it had hired Jack Altman, founder of early-stage firm Alt Capital and human resources software company Lattice, as its fifth general partner.
Today on The Information’s TITV
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