We have updated our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use for Eurasia Group and its affiliates, including GZERO Media, to clarify the types of data we collect, how we collect it, how we use data and with whom we share data. By using our website you consent to our Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy, including the transfer of your personal data to the United States from your country of residence, and our use of cookies described in our Cookie Policy.
{{ subpage.title }}
Sam Bankman-Fried seen leaving a Manhattan Federal Court earlier this year.
Hard Numbers: FTX’s 'altruistic' donations, Government-funded AI, Microsoft’s payoff, Chip wars, Anthropic cash infusion
$6.5 million: The disgraced cryptocurrency firm FTX, whose founder is on trial for a litany of fraud charges, is trying to claw back as much money as it can to pay off investors, lenders, and customers. Founder Sam Bankman-Fried, a devotee of effective altruism — a kind of philosophical commitment to philanthropy — gave $6.5 million last year to the Center for AI Safety, a US-based nonprofit. Now, FTX’s bankruptcy-era leadership is looking at whether they can get the money back.
$32 billion: At an AI forum last week, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said the US government needs at least $32 billion to fund AI development in the coming years. The number is derived from a 2021 report by the now-defunct US National Security Commission on Artificial Intelligence, a Trump-era commission led by former Google CEO Eric Schmidt. It’s unclear how close Schumer is to getting his desired funding through Congress — the government notably spent $3.3 billion on AI-related contracts in 2022 alone — but he noted that almost all of the forum’s attendees were in agreement that “robust, sustained federal investment” is needed.
18,000: A whopping 18,000 organizations are using Microsoft’s new artificial intelligence tools — dubbed Azure OpenAI. Microsoft has invested $13 billion into OpenAI since 2019, and the PC giant’s most recent earnings report indicates that the big bet may already be paying off.
30: One year after the Biden administration issued stringent rules limiting sales of high-powered semiconductors to China, it revised them this month to close big loopholes. (Chinese firms were still buying lower-grade chips necessary to power their artificial intelligence models, and using third-party countries to acquire them.) Nvidia, among the most powerful names in graphics chips, must halt shipments of its products to China under recently revised US regulations.
$2 billion: Google agreed to invest $2 billion in Anthropic, the AI startup behind the chatbot Claude. The company was founded in 2021 by ex-employees of OpenAI and has quickly grown into a $4 billion business, after its most recent funding round this summer. Google’s cash infusion comes mere weeks after Amazon pledged $4 billion to Anthropic in late September.