ConnectingAI #111: Broadcom launches Tomahawk Ultra networking chip for AI workloads and more

Top ConnectingAI articles of the week 

1- Broadcom launches Tomahawk Ultra networking chip for AI workloads Broadcom unveiled its new 5 nm Tomahawk Ultra Ethernet switch silicon, designed to link hundreds of chips with sub‑microsecond latency—offering a standardized alternative to Nvidia’s NVLink for AI and HPC clusters.

2- Meta builds AI “tented” data centers for rapid deployment To keep up with AI compute demand, Meta is constructing large-scale tented facilities (e.g., Hyperion, Prometheus) capable of multi-gigawatt performance. These prefabricated data centers can be deployed faster and more cost-effectively than traditional builds

3- UK’s Isambard-AI debuts as 21 exaflop green supercomputer Located near Bristol, the Isambard-AI system uses 5 MW of renewable power and 5,448 Nvidia GH200 chips to deliver 21 exaflops of AI compute. It ranks among the most eco-friendly supercomputers worldwide

4- TechRadar: The critical need for resilient AI infrastructure A TechRadar analysis highlights that modern AI workloads stress compute, storage, and networking across cloud, edge, and on‑prem environments. Resilient infrastructure and deep observability are now essential to prevent outages and scaling issues

5- OpenAI’s GPU Buildout CEO Sam Altman revealed that OpenAI will exceed 1 million GPUs by end of 2025, with plans to scale toward 100 million in the long term—an audacious vision with potential $3 trillion investment in silicon

AI piqued my interest

1- Similipal Tiger Reserve’s Anti-Poaching AI Odisha’s reserve uses 140+ AI trail cameras; 80% of recent poacher arrests were based on AI-analyzed footage

2- San Jose Adopts AI in City Government Mayor Matt Mahan encourages city departments to use ChatGPT for tasks like speechwriting and grant proposals; training ~1,000 employees with 89 licenses so far

3- Felt’s $15M Raise for Climate Mapping Startup Felt raised $15 M to develop an AI-powered GIS platform that maps flood, wildfire, deforestation, air quality risks using natural-language prompts

4- WHO AI-for-Health Innovation Summit WHO and partners hosted AI-for-Good workshops in early July 2025 in Geneva, aiming to standardize AI-for-health guidelines and preview new briefs on AI in Traditional Medicine

More on ConnectingAI, Connecting Everything next week

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