GLOSSARY: The Week That Felt Like a Decade in Tech

Last week felt like a decade compressed into days with AI, quantum computing, and robotics all taking giant leaps forward.‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌

The Week That Felt Like a Decade in Tech

THE BELAMY

WEEKLY NEWSLETTER OF AIM

Monday, Feb 24, 2025 | By Amit Raja Naik

Last week felt like a decade compressed into days with AI, quantum computing, and robotics all taking giant leaps forward. From xAI's Grok-3 debut and Microsoft's quantum breakthrough to Apple's AI-powered chip and the rise of humanoid robots, the tech race is in top gear right now.

Before we dive into the details, here's a snapshot of the key developments:

The Rise and Fall of Grok: Elon Musk's xAI launched Grok-3. With top benchmark scores, Grok-3 outperformed Google Gemini 2 Pro, DeepSeek V3, Claude 3.5 Sonnet, and GPT-4 in multiple reasoning tests. What makes Grok-3 even more disruptive is its free access to users "until servers melt", hinting at an aggressive push to challenge OpenAI's dominance.

Beyond chatbots, xAI is moving into gaming with the announcement of an AI gaming studio, reinforcing the broader trend of AI-powered entertainment. The company's expansion has been bolstered by a massive GPU cluster expansion to 200,000 H100s, making it the largest fully connected AI cluster globally. Musk's vision extends even further—suggesting a future where Grok collaborates with Optimus humanoid robots for interplanetary missions.

Check out our latest reaction video on Grok-3 below:

Before we delve into more breakthroughs, let's look at some of the
Top Stories of the Week:

Tired of hearing "Payment nahi aaya?" Razorpay is using AI to make that phrase a thing of the past. With UPI Switch ensuring near-perfect uptime, AI-driven refunds reducing losses, and Ray Concierge simplifying onboarding, the company is transforming digital payments. Plus, Yogi AI is making customer support smarter than ever. How are they pulling this off? Read more.
Can Belagavi outshine Bengaluru? Once overlooked, this tier-2 city is now a global manufacturing powerhouse, thanks to Aequs' bold vision. From aerospace components to consumer electronics, Belagavi proves that India's industrial future doesn't have to revolve around megacities. Read more.
Should India build its own AI or master using what's already there? CRED CEO Kunal Shah argues that India's AI strategy should mirror what we did with WhatsApp and LED bulbs—adopt, innovate, and dominate usage rather than reinvent the wheel. With AI poised to reshape industries, are we focusing on the wrong debate? Read more.

Speaking of innovation, mastering efficiency isn't just about AI—it's also about value engineering. Celonis is redefining how businesses maximise impact with process intelligence and inviting young consultants to explore this exciting field. So, if you want to kickstart your career in value engineering, learn from industry leaders and discover new career opportunities in this exclusive webinar. Register now!

The Hardware Revolution: Quantum, AI Chips, and Modems

Microsoft's Quantum Leap: The unveiling of Majorana 1, the world's first topological quantum processor, was nothing short of historic. With a potential pathway to one million qubits, Microsoft's breakthrough could bring industrial-scale quantum computing into reality far sooner than anticipated.
Apple's AI Hardware Play: Apple's new C1 modem chip marked a major shift in the company's strategy, moving away from Qualcomm and integrating AI-driven features for better connectivity and efficiency. This signals Apple's ambition to control more of its hardware ecosystem while introducing AI capabilities into fundamental chip architecture.
DeepSeek Open-Sources AGI Components: In a bid to democratise AI research, DeepSeek announced plans to open-source five key repositories. In line with this, the company unveiled FlashMLA, an optimised MLA decoding kernel for Hopper GPUs, featuring BF16 support, a paged KV cache, and achieving 3000 GB/s memory speeds and 580 TFLOPS compute performance, now available on GitHub.

[Must Watch] India just built its own space chip! IIT Madras and ISRO have developed Iris, India's first RISC-V-based microprocessor for space applications—fully designed, fabricated, and assembled within the country. This is beyond a tech breakthrough; it's India's entry into the global semiconductor race. With AI, IoT, and aerospace all set to benefit from it, is it the start of India's silicon revolution? Check out our latest 'Front Page' coverage below:

The Rise of Humanoids: Humanoid robots are stepping out of science fiction rapidly into reality. Last week saw two major humanoid robotics advancements:

Figure AI's Helix: The launch of Helix, a vision-language-action model, enables humanoid robots to understand speech, reason through tasks, and manipulate objects in real time—without needing prior training. This marks a significant leap in general-purpose robotics, making them more adaptable for real-world applications.
1X Technologies' NEO Gamma: Meanwhile, 1X Technologies introduced NEO Gamma, a consumer-friendly humanoid robot designed for home assistance. With natural movement, AI-driven interactions, and improved safety features, it signals that humanoid robots are moving closer to mainstream adoption.

These developments suggest that humanoid robots are set to integrate into everyday life sooner than expected, shifting automation beyond industrial use into domestic and commercial spaces.

In other news,

Infosys is pushing for an early renewal of its $3 billion Daimler contract. It aims to integrate AI as a seventh revenue stream, potentially boosting annual revenues beyond the current $400 million.
Together AI secured $305 million in Series B funding to expand its AI acceleration cloud, with backing from General Catalyst, NVIDIA, and Salesforce Ventures.
ChatGPT has surpassed 400 million weekly users as OpenAI gears up for the GPT-5 launch. With 2 million+ business users and a 5x increase in API usage, the company plans to merge GPT and o-series models into a single, more powerful system.
Thomas Cook & SOTC launched 'Dhruv', India's first AI travel assistant. Powered by GenAI and voice-enabled tech, Dhruv streamlines business travel planning, booking, and management with real-time, multilingual support.
Staqu launched Jarvis GPT, an AI-powered retail analytics model. Designed for real-time insights, store monitoring, and predictive analytics, it helps retailers track footfall, analyse shopping patterns, and enhance security.