At CES 2025, NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang introduced Cosmos, a new AI model trained on 20 million hours of video to help machines better understand and interact with the physical world, available via Hugging Face and NVIDIA’s GPU Cloud. He also urged businesses to adopt a three-computer AI system, featuring tools like Project DIGITS for AI development and the Llama Nemotron models for autonomous agents. Meanwhile, Dell announced a full rebrand, replacing familiar names like XPS and Latitude with Dell, Dell Pro, and Dell Pro Max, along with Plus and Premium tiers, aiming to attract customers seeking AI-powered PCs. Critics noted the naming is familiar, but it could help Dell appeal to new users. This and more on the Gestalt IT Rundown.
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1:38 – Anthropic Raising More Money
European AI powerhouse Anthropic is seeking $2 billion in funding, valuing it at $60 billion. This valuation reflects the growing excitement and investment in AI, particularly generative AI, despite significant losses for many startups. Anthropic, founded by former OpenAI employees, focuses on safety testing and has seen substantial revenue growth, primarily from business sales.
Read More: AI Startup Anthropic Raising Funds Valuing It at $60 Billion
6:15 – Net Neutrality Neutralized
The US Sixth Circuit of Appeals ruled that the FCC rules around net neutrality are unconstitutional. Per the ruling, the judges believe that the FCC did not have the legal authority to reinstitute the rules, which were first put in place in 2015 but repealed in 2017. The judicial reasoning is that only Congress can pass laws that regulate businesses, which is in line with Supreme Court guidance in overturning the Chevron deference in Loper vs Raimondo in 2024.
Read More: Net Neutrality Rules Struck Down by Appeals Court
10:01 – GlobalFoundries and IBM Find Their New Years Resolution
IBM and GlobalFoundries rang in the new year with an agreement to drop the suits each had filed against the other. The suits came about from the sale of IBM’s foundry technology to GlobalFoundries back in 2015. In 2021, IBM filed the first suit alleging breach of contract in chip manufacturing, Global Foundries fired back with a countersuit alleging IBM stole intellectual property and trade secrets from the company and shared them with Intel and Japanese firm Rapidus. The announcement did not disclose the settlement details.
Read More: GlobalFoundries and IBM Announce Settlement and Resolution of All Litigation Matters
14:56 – FCC Opens Lower 6GHz Band for Low Power Devices
On December 12, the US FCC announced that they will be opening the remaining 350 MHz of frequency in the lower part of the 6 GHz band for use by low power devices. The ruling means that these low power devices may now operate across the whole spectrum without a license. The primary use case is for devices that need high connection speeds but at close range, such as medical monitors or in-car devices. These devices may only operate indoors as per the current specifications of the 6 GHz band and must listen on the channel before broadcasting to ensure that the channel is clear.
Read More: FCC Opens Entire 6 GHz Band to Very Low Power Device Operations
19:54 – HashiCorp Acquisition by IBM Reviewed by UK
The UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) announced on December 30 that they will be taking a closer look at IBM HashiCorp acquisition. The companies have been invited to comment on the investigation until January 16 and the deadline for clearance is February 25. The announcement comes after the US FTC announced a simliar investigation.
Read More: UK antitrust watchdog launches review of IBM’s HashiCorp takeover
24:41 – Ingram Micro To End Relationship with Broadcom/VMware
Tech distributor Ingram Micro announced on December 16 that they will will dissolve their partnership with VMware by Broadcom. The decision comes as the companies failed to negotiate a new agreement on Ingram Micro reselling VMware by Broadcom software. Ingram Micro serves over 1,500 vendors and 161,000 customers. Those customers have reported that Ingram was slow to respond to changes in the program since the acquisition. Some of the business that Ingram Micro had will go to other distribution partners or be taken in-house by VMware.
Read More: Ingram Micro to ‘stop doing business’ with Broadcom, downgrade to ‘limited engagement’ on VMware
28:59 – Big News from CES
29:33 – NVIDIA Cosmos Brings AI Into the Real World
NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang’s CES 2025 keynote was all about bringing AI into the real world. In debuting the new Cosmos “world foundation model”, NVIDIA aims to enable AI systems to understand and interact with the physical world. This model, trained on 20 million hours of video data, will be freely distributed through Hugging Face and the Nvidia GPU Cloud. Huang also recommends that organizations adopt a three-computer AI system, all powered by NVIDIA, suggesting a future where AI and robotics will disrupt traditional economics and labor. This includes Project DIGITS, a desktop system for AI application development, and the Llama Nemotron family of open models for building agentic AI applications.
Read More: NVIDIA CEO Huang Gets Physical AI at CES
Read More: The Future is the One We Generate
43:48 – Dell to Rebrand PC Line
Dude, you’re not getting an XPS. Or an Inspiron, Or a Latitude. You’re getting a Dell. At CES, Dell announced a complete rebranding of their workstation lineup. Gone are the famliar brands we’ve bought over the years and in their place is something eerily familiar. The lineup will now be called Dell, Dell Pro, and Dell Pro Max. There will also be additional branding such as Plus and Premium. While Dell has taken some flack in the press for copying a competitor’s naming conventions there is also discussion of how this will benefit them as new customers look to add AI features to their PCs.
Read More: The end of an era: Dell will no longer make XPS computers
The Weeks Ahead:
AI Field Day 6 – January 29 – 30
Cisco Live EMEA 2025 – February 9 – 14
Cloud Field Day 22 – February 19 – 20
Networking Field Day 37 – March 19 – 20
Gestalt IT and Tech Field Day are now part of The Futurum Group.
The Gestalt IT Rundown is your look at the IT news of the week. Be sure to subscribe to Gestalt IT on YouTube for even more weekly video content.
