It is only June, and yet it’s already possible to declare 2025 the year of sovereign AI and digital supply chains. At least, this is certainly true of our little patch of reporting on tech and innovation.
Stories related to these issues are a staple of international headlines. They are as perennial as the grass.
So here are a few. NVIDIA has been pitching the idea of ‘sovereign AI’ since 2023, but it is only in this troubled year that it has started to take hold.
As this story highlights, the leadership class across Europe have come to realise that its over-reliance on a tiny handful of AI infrastructure providers from the US is not helpful – and NVIDIA wants to help them create their own.
NVIDIA of course wants to sell more GPUs. But it also sees an urgent need to diversify its customer base, putting less reliance on a few gargantuan tech behemoths. The EU is fully onboard.
Elsewhere on sovereign supply chains, Denmark is taking its first steps toward a break up with Microsoft. Denmark’s Ministry for Digitalisation announced it has started a process to remove Microsoft software and tools from its systems.
Germany is also looking closely at its own digital supply chains – and there is a small but active discussion that has started in Australia, as this Lowy Institute article pointed out in April.
Elsewhere in the news, Amazon Web Services said during the week that it would spend an astonishing $20 billion on its data centre operations between now and 2029.
As is often the case with AWS announcements, details were thin. The scale of the investment tells you all you need to know about the opportunity AWS sees. The Prime Minister was on hand for the announcement.
The Treasurer Jim Chalmers was at the National Press Club on Tuesday talking up his productivity agenda for the second term of the Albo government.
We now know that the Productivity Roundtable that the Treasurer will convene in August will be conducted in the Cabinet room. There are 25 seats, making this roundtable the hottest ticket in town.
The Business Council of Australia made public its submission to the Strategic Examination of R&D. There is no prize for guessing that the BCA would like to see more incentives introduced to encourage business to invest more in R&D.
Coming on the heels of the launch of the BCA’s national AI strategy, and the Business Council of Australia is starting to look a lot like the Technology Council of Australia.
Other notable stories include a thoughtful submission from the Member for Wentworth Allegra Spender to the Productivity Commission’s 5 Pillars reviews.
Among a bunch of recommendations, Ms Spender proposes that a flat, modest tax of 3 per cent to 5 per cent Digital Services Tax be applied to Big Tech revenues (not profit).
There were a couple of noteworthy interviews this week on the Commercial Disco podcast. CSIRO chief executive Doug Hilton is coming up to two years in the role.
During that time he has been focused on a “right-sizing” of the organisation and has not done a lot of media. In this interview, he says Australia is at a ‘fork in the road’ on science – and that there are a lot of stark choices that need to be made.
Also interviewed was Thiel Fellow Koki Mashita, a 20-year-old from Japan who started started his first company at 10 and moved to the US to attend boarding school at 13 (and apart from a stint during Covid, has not lived with his parents ever since.
The Thiel Fellowship was founded by venture capitalist Peter Thiel and was established to encourage young over-achievers to pursue outlandish ambition.
Mr Mashita pitched a plan to commercialise a technology that would reduce the impact of hurricanes and tropical cyclones to save lives and limit the damage they cause.
As you would expect, he is an extraordinary young man, who was in Australia for talks across government. His company Aeolus Labs hopes to do live trials on the tech off the coast of Australia during cyclone season.
And in sad news, the long-serving chief executive of deep tech incubator Cicada Innovations Sally-Ann Williams says she will leave the organisation at the end of July.
Well, it’s sad news for us, but happy news for Sally, who will take a WEB (well-earned break) before settling on her NBT (next big thing). Coincidentally, I interviewed Sally-Ann for the Commercial Disco podcast, which will be published on Friday.
Stories we have been watching:
Thiel Fellow Koki Mashita wants to reduce the chaos of cyclones – InnovationAus.com
Spender calls for revenue-based tax on Big Tech – InnovationAus.com [SUBSCRIBER]
The public goods case for Australia’s digital sovereignty – The Interpreter
BCA calls for new investment breaks to anchor R&D in Australia – InnovationAus.com [SUBSCRIBER]
Australia is at a ‘fork in the road’ on science: CSIRO chief – InnovationAus.com
Danish department determined to dump Microsoft – The Register
Sally-Ann Williams set to leave incubator Cicada Innovations – InnovationAus.com
Labor’s $15b NRF under investigation following whistleblower allegations – Capital Brief [$]
Do you know more? Contact James Riley via Email.