Finance

Alibaba-affiliate Ant uses Chinese, U.S. chips to cut AI costs

Published

5 days ago

March 24, 2025

Business Finance News

A view of the Ant Group buildings in Chongqing, China on March 23, 2025.

Cfoto | Future Publishing | Getty Images

BEIJING — Alibaba-affiliate Ant Group is using both Chinese and U.S.-made semiconductors for building more efficient artificial intelligence models, according to a source familiar with the matter.

The combination of chips not only reduces the time and cost of training AI models, but also limits reliance on a single supplier such as Nvidia, the source said, noting the industry trend of tapping multiple networks, known as mixture of experts — a technique that allows models to be trained with much less compute.

The company earlier this month said in a paper it was able to use lower-cost hardware to effectively train its own MoE models, reducing computing costs by 20%.

Ant operates Alipay, one of the two major apps for mobile payments in China. Jack Ma founded the company and its affiliate, Alibaba.

Bloomberg reported Monday, citing sources, that Ant has used chips from Alibaba and Huawei for training AI models. Ant also used Nvidia chips but now relies more on alternatives from Advanced Micro Devices and Chinese chips, according to the Bloomberg report.

Ant did declined CNBC’s request for comment.

The company on Monday announced “major upgrades” to its AI solutions for healthcare, which it said were being used by seven major hospitals and healthcare institutions in Beijing, Shanghai, Hangzhou and Ningbo.

The healthcare AI model is built on DeepSeek’s R1 and V3 models, Alibaba’s Qwen and Ant’s own BaiLing. Ant’s healthcare-specific model is able to answer questions about medical topics, and can also help improve patient services, according to the company statement.

The U.S. has sought to restrict China’s AI development by limiting Chinese businesses’ access to the most advanced semiconductors used for training models. Nvidia can still sell its lower-end chips to China.

Finance

Judge orders CFPB to reinstate fired employees, preserve records and get back to work

Published

3 hours ago

March 28, 2025

Business Finance News

FILE PHOTO: Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Acting Director Russell Vought testifies before House Budget Committee on 2020 Budget on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S., March 12, 2019.

Yuri Gripas | Reuters

A federal judge on Friday ordered the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s leadership, appointed by President Donald Trump, to halt its campaign to hobble the agency.

In a filing, Judge Amy Berman Jackson sided with the CFPB employee union which sued acting CFPB director Russell Vought last month to prevent him from laying off nearly all of the regulator’s staff. Operatives from Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency have also been involved in efforts to dismantle the bureau.

Berman ordered Vought to reinstate “all probationary and term employees terminated” after Vought took over at the CFPB, and said that he shouldn’t “delete, destroy, remove, or impair agency data.”

“This order shall bind the defendants, their officers, agents, servants, employees, and attorneys, and any other persons who are in active concert or participation with them, such as personnel from the Department of Government Efficiency (“DOGE”),” Berman wrote.

This story is developing. Please check back for updates.

Finance

Founder Charlie Javice found guilty of defrauding JPMorgan Chase

Published

5 hours ago

March 28, 2025

Business Finance News

Charlie Javice, who is charged with defrauding JPMorgan Chase & Co into buying her now-shuttered college financial aid startup Frank for $175 million in 2021, arrives at United States Court in Manhattan in New York City, June 6, 2023.

Mike Segar | Reuters

Charlie Javice, founder of a startup purchased by JPMorgan Chase in 2021, was convicted in federal court Friday of defrauding the bank by vastly overstating the company’s customer list.

The jury decision comes after weeks of testimony in New York over who was to blame for the flameout of a once-promising startup. JPMorgan accused Javice, 32, of duping the bank into paying $175 million for a company that had more than 4 million customers, when in reality it had fewer than 300,000.

A spokesperson for JPMorgan declined to comment.

This story is developing. Please check back for updates.