What's up: Amazon leans into generative AI; Nvidia’s $5 plan to invest $5 billion in Intel is a win-win-win; The AI CEO fighting Trump over the future of tech.

Good morning. Demand for computing power to run advanced AI models is so strong, that before Microsoft can complete one data center, it announces plans to build another one.

The company said Thursday that it is in the final stages of construction on the $3.3 billion project in Wisconsin it is calling the most advanced AI data center in the world. It also announced plans for a second, $4 billion data center in the area, of similar size and scope.

The effort is part of a broader global construction wave that will add much needed capacity to computing infrastructure, essential for running increasingly powerful AI models that demand enormous amounts of resources.

Microsoft Vice Chair and President Brad Smith tells WSJ Leadership Institute’s Isabelle Bousquette that the initial effort, which required hundreds of thousands of Nvidia GB200 GPUs, reflects the compute requirements for training the most advanced AI models. “The frontier where the most powerful models are being built, we continue to see this kind of scale being essential,” Smith said.

The data center’s cooling system is another aspect that makes it cutting edge, Smith said. More than 90% of the facility will be served by a closed-loop system.

“One of the big questions that actually is emerging in Wisconsin right now is whether companies are building data centers close to Lake Michigan in order to use massive amounts of water from the lake. The answer is no,” he tells the WSJLI.

Amazon's finance teams lean into generative AI

About a year after applying GenAI to core back-office functions, Amazon.com is pushing those AI capabilities deeper and deeper into its finance operations. Chief Financial Officer Brian Olsavsky tells the WSJLI’s Mark Mauer that the finance team is using generative AI in new ways to more efficiently comply with complex tax regulations, help evaluate the financial impact of new products and better analyze changes in revenue.

“It’s making our processes faster and more efficient, helping us identify trends and opportunities sooner, and enabling our teams to focus more on strategic thinking,” he said.

The moves come as the e-commerce giant has made a hard push into the technology and supporting organizational changes. Chief Executive Andy Jassy in June said that AI will result in a smaller workforce in the next few years.

Nvidia’s $5 plan to invest $5 billion in Intel is a win-win-win

The partnership, which centers around producing CPUs, benefits all sides, says the WSJ. For Intel, it’s a chance to get a bigger foothold in the data-center business. Nvidia has chiefly relied on CPUs designed using blueprints written by Arm Holding for its data-center servers. For Nvidia it’s an opportunity to use Intel’s X86 architecture, which some users prefer, and a chance to move deeper into the PC market

And the third win? That would be the Trump administration. The U.S. government last month said it was taking a 10% stake in Intel, converting nearly $9 billion in promised grants to equity and making  the Commerce Department the company’s largest shareholder. With Thursday’s Intel rally, the government is up some 50% on its investment.

Move draws questions. Because of the government’s involvement in both Intel and Nvidia, which earlier agreed to give the government 15% of the sales from an AI chip it wants to sell in China, many around the industry raised an eyebrow at Thursday’s deal.

The AI CEO fighting Trump over the future of technology

Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei is facing heat from the White House even as his company builds up its business with the federal government. Anthropic announced a $200 million deal with the Department of War to forecast security threats, and it recently began offering agencies access to its Claude AI for $1.

Amodei, an outspoken critic of Trump's AI agenda, has avoided trying to curry favor with the White House, arguing its laissez-faire approach could steer the technology down a dangerous path.

“Regardless of what the cost is, we are going to say the things that we agree with, and we’re going to say the things that we disagree with,” Amodei tells the Journal.

Lucrative government contracts have not watered down that philosophy. According to Anthropic’s terms and conditions for all users, its Claude AI can’t be used for any actions related to domestic surveillance. That effectively prevents many law-enforcement officials from using it. Administration officials expected agencies would receive waivers from Anthropic, but they haven’t been granted.

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Hard-drive makers Western Digital and Seagate Technology Holdings, the two largest players in the industry, both reported around 30% higher revenue in their latest quarters. Underpinning the boost is AI’s voracious consumption of digital storage and rising prices for higher-capacity drives, the WSJ’s Asa Fitch reports.

Softbank Group’s Vision Fund could cut as much as 20% of its staff, some 50 people, as the investment holding company pours more resources into the AI boom, Bloomberg reports.

Startup Beewise is bringing AI to beekeeping, selling wooden hives with cameras connected to AI software that monitor bee health, CNBC reports.

Weekend recommendation: Robot fight club!

President Trump’s team is weighing a plan to spur the construction of factories and other infrastructure in a bid to jump-start the American manufacturing sector, according to documents and people familiar with the discussions. (WSJ)

Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s handpicked slate of vaccine advisers voted to no longer recommend a combined shot for measles, mumps, rubella and varicella for children under age 4. (WSJ)

The Trump administration is putting the weight of the federal government behind a crackdown on political speech it deems objectionable in the aftermath of the fatal shooting of conservative activist Charlie Kirk. (WSJ)

The perceived privileges enjoyed by an entrenched political elite have sparked a wave of protests across several Asian countries, where a large generation of young people is feeling deprived of economic opportunities. (WSJ)

The WSJ CIO Journal Team is Steven Rosenbush, Isabelle Bousquette and Belle Lin.

The editor, Tom Loftus, can be reached at thomas.loftus@wsj.com.