While one party seems to never end, with OpenAI raising an eye-watering $40 billion at an even more eye-watering $300 billion valuation, other parties are being called off…
Microsoft is calling off some of its data center deals:
The software company has recently halted talks for, or delayed development of, sites in Indonesia, the UK, Australia, Illinois, North Dakota and Wisconsin, according to people familiar with the situation.
Microsoft is widely seen as a leader in commercializing AI services, largely thanks to its close partnership with OpenAI. Investors closely track Microsoft’s spending plans to get a sense of long-term customer demand for cloud and AI services.
One possible reason being discussed by analysts is the increasing efficiency that some AI models exhibit:
Analysts have stepped up their scrutiny of data center spending since Chinese upstart DeepSeek announced in January that it had created a competitive AI service using fewer resources than leading US companies.
