Billions of dollars, Grok goes flirty & more (July 15, 2025)

Good morning,

It’s a day of giant bets. Google is pouring $25B into U.S. AI infrastructure, Trump’s teeing up $70B for AI and nuclear energy, and Meta’s superclusters now come with a price tag in the hundreds of billions. Meanwhile, Grok just added a flirty red panda you can talk to. Welcome to Tuesday in tech.

🏗️ Big Tech’s Billion-Dollar Bets

💰 Google Commits $25B to U.S. AI Buildout

Google just announced a $25 billion investment into AI infrastructure and data centers in the PJM Interconnection region, which covers parts of the Midwest and East Coast. The plan includes massive buildouts across Ohio, Virginia, and Pennsylvania, focusing on clean energy-powered data centers and advanced AI research facilities. The commitment marks Google's largest U.S. infrastructure investment to date.

🇺🇸 Trump’s $70B AI & Energy Investment Plan

Trump is preparing a sweeping $70 billion proposal to boost American AI infrastructure and nuclear energy development. The plan is expected to fund new AI compute hubs, accelerate public-private R&D, and position the U.S. for leadership in energy independence. It’s being framed as a counterweight to both China and Silicon Valley.

🧠 Meta’s AI Superclusters Will Cost Hundreds of Billions

Mark Zuckerberg unveiled Meta’s ambitious AI infrastructure roadmap, including two superclusters: Prometheus (1GW) and Hyperion (scaling from 2 to 5GW). The Hyperion site in Louisiana will rival the size of Manhattan. Meta says it will spend “hundreds of billions” to achieve the highest compute-per-researcher ratio in the industry. Internally, Meta is also exploring a pivot from open-source to closed AI models.

🤖 Companions, Acquisitions, and Comebacks

🙈 Grok Adds Voice-Activated AI Companions

xAI just launched Grok Companions, animated 3D avatars with real-time voice interaction, exclusive to SuperGrok subscribers. Characters like Ani (a flirty anime girl) and Bad Rudi (a red panda) evolve through relationship levels, unlocking new features including NSFW options.

💼 Cognition Acquires Windsurf

Cognition AI, creator of the Devin coding assistant, has acquired Windsurf, a fast-moving deal following Google’s talent and tech grab. The acquisition includes Windsurf’s IP, brand, $82M in revenue, and over $100M in capital. Windsurf's IDE will be integrated into Cognition’s stack.

🇨🇳 Nvidia Eyes Return to China

Nvidia expects to regain a license to sell its H20 AI chip to Chinese customers. The H20 is the only model Nvidia can currently export under U.S. trade controls. A potential license would allow Nvidia to recover some of its lost market presence in China, where it once led the AI chip race.

🛠️ Tools of the Day

• Phi-4-mini-flash – Microsoft’s lightweight open-source LLM
• Kiro – AWS' agentic IDE for spec-first coding
• Gemini Embedding – Multilingual SOTA embeddings now GA

💬 Prompt of the Day

“Design a Grok Companion that adapts its voice and tone to mirror the user's daily mood journal.”

⚡ Quick Hits

• DoD awarded $200M in AI contracts to OpenAI, Anthropic, xAI, and Google
• SpaceX to invest $2B into xAI as part of a $5B round
• Apple investors push for acquisitions like Mistral and Perplexity
• Google’s NotebookLM adds curated “featured notebooks” from major publishers
• AWS Imagine AI Conference coming to Chicago, July 29–30

🧾 TLDR

Google announced $25B in AI infrastructure across the East Coast, Trump’s lining up a $70B AI-energy push, and Meta will spend hundreds of billions on superclusters. Meanwhile, Grok’s new AI avatars are talking, flirting, and unlocking NSFW modes. Nvidia might be back in China, and Cognition just picked up Windsurf.

See you tomorrow,
David