Google Cloud Next announcements: partnerships, AI tools, chips and more
Alexander Koerner
Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) (NASDAQ:GOOGL) kicked off its annual three-day Cloud Next event on Tuesday, showcasing several key partnerships and several artificial intelligence-related updates.
Amongst the many partnerships announced, Google teamed up with GM (GM) to power GM's OnStar Interactive Virtual Assistant via Google Cloud's conversational AI tech. This update can help drivers with common inquiries, such as routing or navigation assistance. 
The U.S. tech giant also unveiled partnerships with financial services company MSCI (MSCI) to use generative AI in investing and a five-year partnership with cell platform company Ginkgo Bioworks (DNA).
Other partnerships announced include an expanded deal with SAP (SAP) to help enterprises use generative AI, combining the integrated open data cloud using SAP Dataspehere with Vertex AI.
Business automation software company UiPath (PATH) said it teamed up with Google (GOOG) (GOOGL) to bring a new connector for Google Cloud, allowing developers, and engineers to integrate generative text into automations.
Electric vehicle company Canoo (GOEV) also said it had partnered with Google (GOOG) (GOOGL) to be its primary cloud service provider, bring its Cloud AI, data management and security products and services to its wares.
In addition, Google (GOOG) (GOOGL) announced that its cloud clients are now able to access Meta Platforms (META) and large language model LLaMa 2, and Anthropicâs Claude 2. More than half of the generative AI startups are using Google's Cloud, the tech giant added.
The company also showed off its new fifth-generation tensor processing unit chip, known as TPU v5e.
Google said the TPU v5e is built to train large language models, or LLMs, and bring cost efficiency as well, delivering up to twice the higher training performance per dollar and up to two-and-a-half times the performance per dollar for LLMs and generative AI models compared to the previous model. 
"At less than half the cost of TPU v4, TPU v5e makes it possible for more organizations to train and deploy larger, more complex AI models," Google added in a blog post.
The Mountain View, California-based Google also said that its A3 supercomputer virtual machines, which are powered by Nvidia's (NVDA) H100 Tensor Core GPUs, will be "generally available next month."
Separately on Tuesday, Google (GOOG) (GOOGL) introduced its AI tools to corporate Gmail accounts at a cost of $30 per month per person at the event.
The company said the tools will aid customers across its apps. The tools have been tested by over 1M users, Google added, pointing out that more AI-focused offerings are coming to different customer segments over the next several months.
In July, Microsoft (MSFT) announced that its AI tool for Office software, known as 365 Copilot, would cost $30 per user per month.
Other announcements include a new version of its text AI model, PaLM and other AI-related tools, including a technology that can add a watermark to AI-generated images.
Chip computing company Ampere also said that its AmpereOne chips, its flagship product, would be offered by Google Cloud, Reuters reported.
Google (GOOG) (GOOGL) shares rose more than 4% in mid-day trading on Tuesday.

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