Cinco Dias, a newspaper, said on Wednesday that Facebook’s owner Meta Platforms had rented data centers owned by Spanish real estate company Merlin Properties. The allegation cited unnamed individuals inside the technology industry.
In addition to owning and leasing offices, retail establishments, and logistics hubs, Merlin launched a new data center venture last year in response to the significant push toward artificial intelligence in data storage.
A request for a response from Merlin was not immediately answered by Meta, and Merlin declined to comment on any transaction involving Meta.
In November of last year, Merlin said that it had spent 246 million euros ($266.42 million) on data centers and that it planned to spend an additional 146 million euros on capital projects between the fourth quarter of the previous year and 2024.
Because of the undersea connection that connects Europe to the other continents, Spain is a great place for data centers. Furthermore, customers want green energy sources to run the centers, and Spain is now developing a dozen energy projects to meet this need.
In the field of artificial intelligence (AI), Meta is a major player. CEO Mark Zuckerberg revealed that Meta intends to develop its super-intelligent artificial intelligence (AI) system that can equal or even exceed human intellect. Artificial general intelligence is the name given to this kind of AI (AGI).
CNN reports that Zuckerberg thinks more advancements in AI technology are necessary to provide the finest AI for applications such as chatbots and enterprises. “Building full general intelligence is required for the next generation of services,” he declared. The long-term objective of the firm is to develop this AGI, distribute it ethically and publicly, and make it accessible to everybody.
According to the article, Meta intends to employ around 350,000 Nvidia AI processors before the year is over. To expedite their efforts, they also intend to merge FAIR and GenAI, their two main AI research units.
Zuckerberg believes there is a link between artificial intelligence and the metaverse. By the end of the decade, he believes, a lot of people will be utilizing smart glasses—like the ones Meta and Ray Ban are developing—to have daily conversations with artificial intelligence (AI). With the help of these AI-powered glasses, users can send messages, make calls, and capture videos without using their hands.
One of Meta’s largest pledges to AI to date is this announcement. New AI tools and concepts are also being shared by other major tech companies such as Google, Amazon, Microsoft, and Google. However, experts are concerned that these potent new drugs could lead to unanticipated issues.
Zuckerberg said earlier this year that Meta was forming a new team to advance the company’s AI tool development efforts. To assist people in comprehending how AI influences what they see in its applications, Meta has since made tools and information available.
Forrester Research analyst Dipanjan Chatterjee stated that it is not unexpected that Meta is concentrating more on AI, particularly given the company’s recent rebranding to emphasize the metaverse. “Every company is now an AI company,” he declared. Additionally, he pointed out that since Facebook transformed into Meta, interest in the metaverse has declined, thus it seems to sense that the corporation is using AI to market itself more favorably.
