All eyes were on Nvidia’s earnings report this week as a proxy for the artificial intelligence economy, and even for the graphics chip giant, it was too much to live up to.

Nvidia earnings disappointed, but really, how could they not? Most of the news was actually quite good, as growth looks to continue for a while. After all, demanding new models and services keep coming out at a rapid clip.

Moreover, AI investment doesn’t seem to be slowing down: Leader OpenAI, which says ChatGPT is being used by 200 million people a week, is raising billions of dollars at a $100 billion valuation from Nvidia and Apple (and, with a reported corporate structure change, perhaps looking at going public eventually), ROI sure things such as coding assistants keep raising big bucks, and Meta’s open-source Llama models have been downloaded 350 million times.

Investor concern is understandable, though, as competitors also keep hammering away: Cerebras threw down the gauntlet to Nvidia with a new inference service. And IBM started offering Intel’s Gaudi chip in its cloud. Those are on top of Advanced Micro Devices buying ZT Systems last week.

For a read on what’s coming next in cloud, check out John Furrier’s exclusive with Amazon Web Services CEO Matt Garman: Can he pull a Tom Brady surprise with generative AI? AWS re:Invent will be here before we know and we’ll find out a lot more then, but think of this as a preview.

Most enterprise providers turned in upside earnings this week — including Dell, HP, Nutanix, NetApp, Pure Storage, MongoDB, Salesforce, Marvell, Box and even Okta and beleaguered CrowdStrike — though investors in some cases sold on muted outlooks and other uncertainties.

VMware intensified its focus on private cloud under Broadcom, as CEO Hock Tan throws shade at cloud providers. Customers are far from happy, and VMware is likely to lose more than a few, but as theCUBE Research analysts Dave Vellante and Rob Strechay recently pointed out, Tan’s plans make sense to get VMware more focused — even if success depends on execution, including on AI plans.

Meantime, data management remains hot, even independent of AI’s impact, as Cribl raised $319M at a $3.5B valuation.

Cyber consolidation may be picking up as Cisco, Check Point Software and BrowserStack all went fishing this week.

The California AI bill passed the Assembly, though there’s more wrangling to come amid widely divergent opinions on whether it’s good or bad.

Finally, Telegram CEO Pavel Durov apparently misread sentiment about his private-messaging company in a big way and now he’s facing major charges of harboring criminal activity. Although some free-speech advocates are crying foul, if there’s child sexual abuse material and other criminal activities happening under Telegram’s cover, that’s not going to stand, and shouldn’t.

Next week’s key earnings include HPE, Broadcom, UiPath, Zscaler and more.

Here are the top news and newsy topics of the week from SiliconANGLE and beyond:

AI and data: Inside the mind of AWS’ new chief

John Furrier’s exclusive conversation with cloud’s top dog: Exclusive: Inside the mind of AWS CEO Matt Garman and how he aims to shape the future of cloud and AI

Dave Vellante and George Gilbert wrote about the coming era of data apps, what they’ve called “Uber for all,” in the latest Breaking Analysis from theCUBE Research: From linear value chains to dynamic ecosystems: How digital twin platforms will revolutionize business operations

TheCUBE Research analyst David Linthicum weighs in: Hype around generative AI: Has it already ‘jumped the shark’?

Related: Researchers point out anew that large language models aren’t all they’re assumed to be.

Maybe there is finally an IPO in the offing: OpenAI could reportedly change its corporate structure

Small steps to transparency; will it make a difference? US AI Safety Institute will have access to OpenAI and Anthropic for a safer future

New models, services — and more?

Cerebras Systems throws down gauntlet to Nvidia with launch of ‘world’s fastest’ AI inference service

Report: Amazon will use Anthropic’s Claude LLM series to power upcoming Alexa upgrade

AI image generator Midjourney is venturing into hardware development

Google updates Gemini with new image generation model, custom Gem chatbots

Nvidia launches AI agent blueprints to allow enterprises to build their own AI apps

OpenAI reportedly preparing to launch new ‘Strawberry’ AI model

Anthropic reveals system prompts that guide its Claude AI models’ behavior

Meta reports rapid growth in popularity for its Llama AI models, with nearly 350M downloads

IBM to make Intel’s Gaudi 3 AI chip available in its public cloud

Alibaba announces Qwen2-VL AI model with advanced video analysis and reasoning capabilities

The big system integrators are clearly all-in on AI: AWS and Deloitte build on existing collaboration to provide industry-specific enterprise AI solutions and 

Accenture and Google Cloud strengthen alliance to boost AI adoption and cybersecurity

Dremio says it has dramatically improved query performance on Iceberg data lakes

Money matters

OpenAI could reportedly raise billions of dollars at $100B+ valuation And a bunch of other companies apparently could join in: Report: Nvidia, Apple could join OpenAI’s multibillion-dollar funding round

Nothing says “AI ROI” like coding assistants: AI coding assistant Magic raises $320M round as rival Codeium nabs $150M

Data management startup Cribl nabs $319M at $3.5B valuation

Atlassian acquires AI-powered video meeting assistant platform Rewatch

AI-powered code editor Cursor raises $60M in Series A round

Viggle AI raises $19M in funding for its AI video generator

Katara raises $2.2M in seed funding to accelerate developer experiences with generative AI

There’s more AI and big data news on SiliconANGLE

Around the enterprise: What’s next for VMware?

Intel reportedly weighing sale of its foundry division

From VMware Explore

VMware goes all-in on the private cloud, as Broadcom unit showcases AI and counters price concerns

VMware Cloud Foundation 9 and Tanzu 10 simplify development and deployment in private clouds

TheCUBE analysts assess enterprise challenges and opportunities at VMware Explore

The CUBE Pod analysis: Navigating VMware ecosystem challenges and strategic shifts at VMware Explore

VMware private cloud strategy: theCUBE’s analysis on simplifying digital transformation

TheCUBE assesses VMware’s shifting cloud strategy and its future under Broadcom’s leadership

There’s lots more analysis and interviews free to watch on demand.

Big earnings week — mostly good

Nvidia beats expectations but disappoints investors’ sky-high expectations

Salesforce beats earnings estimates as it talks up its new AI agents

Dell’s stock rises on crushing earnings beat driven by AI server sales

Strong beat and raise helps MongoDB’s stock surge more than 13% after-hours

Data storage leaders Pure Storage, NetApp and Nutanix all beat Wall Street’s targets

PC sales rebound helps HP return to revenue growth, but its stock falls on earnings miss

Cybersecurity firms CrowdStrike and Okta beat earnings forecasts but face challenges

SentinelOne achieves second-quarter profitability thanks to strong customer growth

Shares of Box surge in extended trading as generative AI bets start paying off

Strong AI chip demand and improved guidance boost Marvell’s stock after-hours

Autodesk outperforms projections with strong earnings and revenue growth

Elastic shares plunge 25% on lower revenue projections amid slower customer commitments

HashiCorp cuts losses on 15% rise in revenue as IBM acquisition looms.

Mo’ money matters

Intel working with bankers to present board with strategic options, sending shares up 8% (per CNBC; our story coming soon)

Supermicro shares drop on short seller claim of ‘accounting red flags’

Defense technology firm Parry Labs raises $80M to develop next-generation open architecture

Cloud cost management startup nOps secures $30M

Planera raises $13.5M for its construction management platform

New products and services

IBM unveils new Telum II AI processor set to power its next-generation mainframe systems

Startup FuriosaAI debuts RNGD chip for LLM and multimodal AI inference

Slack adds new capabilities to make workflow automation easier and more accessible

There’s plenty more news on cloud, infrastructure and apps

Cyber beat: Consolidation picks up

Cisco snaps up AI model and data security startup Robust Intelligence

Check Point Software acquires cybersecurity startup Cyberint

BrowserStack acquires Bird Eats Bug to enhance bug reporting capabilities

Attack & response

Researchers discover China-linked hacking campaign targeting US internet providers

Seattle-Tacoma Airport suffers through third day of disruptions following possible ransomware attack

Google reports watering-hole attacks on Mongolian sites leveraged iOS and Android exploits

New services

Fortinet expands unified SASE solution with sovereign options and AI integration

DigitalOcean enhances role-based access control with new predefined roles

Secureworks launches Taegis IDR to tackle identity-based threats in 90 seconds

Bonus: a worthwhile interview with Signal President Meredith Whittaker: Signal Is More Than Encrypted Messaging. Under Meredith Whittaker, It’s Out to Prove Surveillance Capitalism Wrong

More cybersecurity news here

Elsewhere in tech: slapdowns for Telegram and Uber

Telegram CEO Pavel Durov arrested in France over alleged failure to moderate criminal content

Netherlands fines Uber €290M for breaching EU’s GDPR privacy regulation

Plaud introduces an AI-powered, ultra-light wearable NotePin device

TikTok told it must face lawsuit over deadly viral challenge, despite Section 230 protections

Bezos-led funding round values Swiss robot maker at $100M (per Bloomberg)

Quai raises $5M to build a proof-of-work stablecoin that uses energy to generate value

And check out more news on emerging tech, blockchain and crypto and policy

Comings and goings

Luca Maestri to step down as Apple CFO next year

IBM reportedly shuttering its R&D hub in China

Brave lays off 27 employees (per TechCrunch)

Two years after selling his company Lockstep to The Sage Group, Peter Horadan has joined Seattle identity verification startup Vouched as CEO.

Former Lacework and Twitter Chief Information Security Officer Lea Kissner is now CISO at LinkedIn, replacing Geoff Belknap.

Shopify hired Mikhail Parakhin, who led Microsoft’s AI advancement with products such as Copilot, as its new chief technology officer.

What’s next

Events: Looking ahead

Sept. 17-18: CrowdStrike Fal.con, Las Vegas: TheCUBE will be there with interviews and analysis.

Sept. 17-19: Dreamforce, San Francisco: SiliconANGLE will be there with all the news.

Sept. 18-19: mWISE, the Mandiant Worldwide Information Security Exchange, Denver: TheCUBE will be there with interviews and analysis.

Earnings

Tuesday, Sept. 3: Zscaler, PagerDuty, GitLab and Asana

Wednesday, Sept. 4: HPE, C3 AI and Couchbase

Thursday, Sept. 5: Broadcom, UiPath, SecureWorks, DocuSign, Smartsheet and Samsara

Photo: Robert Hof/SiliconANGLE