This week’s stories are about tech, AI and sustainability, coming from Korea and the USA

AI dominates the headlines, ads are still the real growth engine for Big Tech

Fresh quarterly results from Meta, Amazon, Alphabet and Microsoft highlighted the ongoing strength in their digital advertising operations. Investors rewarded Amazon and Google, but reacted more coolly to Microsoft — and especially Meta.

I saw this story at Cnbc and Meta continues to push into new products such as its Meta AI app, which includes the Vibes short-form video feature powered by AI.

Despite ramping up their already massive AI budgets, the big platforms also delivered sizeable gains in online ad revenue this quarter, the story noted. Digital ad sales eased fears earlier in the year that economic volatility — intensified by President Donald Trump’s trade moves — would hit marketing budgets.

Meta led its peers with the fastest ad-driven growth. Third-quarter revenue jumped 26% year-over-year to $51.24 billion — almost all of it from advertising. Amazon’s advertising business rose 24% to $17.7 billion, outpacing the expansion of AWS, according to the story.(By the way I have a story here about EV sales in Turkey)

Alphabet reported $74.18 billion in advertising revenue for the quarter, up 13%, while YouTube’s ad sales grew 15% to $10.26 billion. Microsoft’s search and news ads climbed 14% to $3.7 billion.

Let me note that the growth wasn’t just limited to the mega-caps. Reddit posted a 68% jump in quarterly revenue and daily active unique users grew 19% to 116 million. Snap and Pinterest report next week.

The largest tech companies say they see no macro reason to slow AI investments and raised capex guidance further — even amid bubble chatter. Combined, Alphabet, Meta, Amazon and Microsoft expect to spend more than $380 billion this year, still a fraction of the $1 trillion in data-center and cloud commitments tied to OpenAI’s partners Nvidia, Oracle and Broadcom, per the story.

AI dominates the headlines, ads are still the real growth engine for Big Tech

Nvidia strikes major AI factory deals in Korea, to ship 260,000 chips

Nvidia announced sweeping partnerships with Korea’s largest business groups — Samsung, SK and Hyundai Motor — to build AI factories, committing to deliver 260,000 Blackwell GPUs across the companies, Naver and the Korean government.

“AI needs manufacturing, factories and deep engineering — and Korea has the best industrial capability in the world,” Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said Friday at a meeting with Lee and top executives from Samsung, SK, Hyundai and Naver on the sidelines of APEC.

I read this story at Korea Times and under the plan, Samsung will receive 50,000 GPUs to construct an AI megafactory aimed at integrating chip design and production. Samsung will use Nvidia’s cuLitho, CUDA-X and Omniverse platforms to deploy “digital twins” to boost yield and speed in semiconductor fabrication, and will also develop home robotics using Nvidia Cosmos and Isaac GR00T.

SK Group will get 50,000 GPUs to build an AI-based cloud manufacturing stack. SK Telecom will offer domestic infrastructure with RTX Pro 6000 Blackwell servers, giving Korean chipmakers access to Omniverse, according to the story.

Nvidia will send another 50,000 GPUs to Hyundai Motor Group to power a new AI factory focused on mobility R&D, smart factories and on-device semiconductor work. Nvidia, Hyundai and the Ministry of Science and ICT will jointly invest about $3 billion to build what they call “physical AI” capability in Korea, including new research centers and data-center infrastructure, the story noted.

Separately, Naver Cloud will receive 60,000 GPUs, while the government itself will get 50,000 units. Naver signed an MOU with Nvidia to co-develop a next-generation physical AI platform spanning sectors such as chips, shipbuilding and energy. Nvidia’s Nemotron models will support the government’s national foundation model effort.

Nvidia strikes major AI factory deals in Korea, to ship 260,000 chips (Photo: Korea Times)

Study: EVs surpass gasoline cars on emissions within first two years

Despite the heavy energy use required to manufacture electric vehicles (EV) and the lithium-ion batteries that power them, EVs still generate far lower lifetime emissions than gasoline models — and recoup their initial carbon disadvantage within about two years on the road, according to new research.

The peer-reviewed study, published in PLOS Climate by Northern Arizona University and Duke University scientists, found that conventional gas vehicles produce at least twice as much environmental damage over their lifetimes as battery electrics. Researchers said the emissions gap will widen as more solar and wind power feed into the U.S. grid.

“Yes, there’s a bigger carbon footprint up front,” Duke professor Drew Shindell said. “But by year three, EVs are well ahead — and cumulative emissions are substantially lower for the rest of the vehicle’s life.”

I saw this story at ABC News and the team analyzed EPA-monitored air pollutants, emissions data and projected four EV-adoption scenarios through 2050 — ranging from 31% to 75% of U.S. new-vehicle sales. EVs currently make up roughly 8% of U.S. new-car purchases.

Results show EVs emit roughly 30% more CO₂ than gasoline vehicles over the first two years — a function of mining and battery production — but long-run cuts are steep. On average, each additional kilowatt-hour of lithium-ion battery capacity equates to a 220-kilogram CO₂ reduction by 2030, the study announced.

The authors said a cleaner grid is central to the math. More solar and wind generation would lower EV operating emissions further. That trend is contingent on policy — a point several experts emphasized — as the U.S. policy environment has pivoted sharply under President Donald Trump, who scrapped federal EV purchase credits, rolled back pollution rules and slowed national charging buildout, according to the story.

Study: EVs surpass gasoline cars on emissions within first two years