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May 22
Private Firms Now Dominate AI Supercomputing: ‘We’re at the mercy of Big Tech’
The global AI arms race is no longer driven by governments but by tech giants. New U.S. research shows that 85% of the world’s most powerful AI supercomputers are now privately owned—up from just 40% in 2019.
At the forefront: Elon Musk’s Colossus, built in just 122 days and powered by 200,000 Nvidia chips making it 50 times more powerful than the top government system from six years ago. The cost? $7 billion. Energy use? Equivalent to 250,000 households. “This paints a grim picture,” says Prof. Cees Snoek, computer science expert at the University of Amsterdam. “The public sector has virtually no computing power left. In the Netherlands, AI researchers share just 650 chips. We’re completely reliant on big tech.”
The outlook is stark: by 2030, the most advanced AI computer is expected to cost $200 billion and require the energy output of nine nuclear reactors.
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June 17
Strengthen Your Innovation with AiNed InnovationLab Round 2. Open Call!
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September 17
Rethinking AI Curricula: Ethics Must Play a Bigger Role, Says UvA Lecturer
Current AI education is too narrowly focused on technology and programming, warns Frank Wildenburg, a lecturer in artificial intelligence at the University of Amsterdam. In a recent opinion piece, he argues that the dominant curriculum instills a worldview of technological determinism—the belief that technological progress is inevitable and society must simply adapt.
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