MAM
Cricket’s first test after IPL amid ad slowdown
MUMBAI: Cricket‘s ability to hold on to advertising rates in the midst of a slowdown comes to its first test in the India-Sri Lanka series after the lucrative IPL failed to match its last year‘s revenues.
Handset manufacturer Micromax continues to be bullish on cricket, coming on board as title sponsor for the bi-lateral series featuring five One Day Internationals and two T20 internationals beginning 22 July.
Zee-owned Ten Sports revealed the main sponsor but was not willing to spell out the revenues it would be able to rake in from the live telecast of the event. The series that concludes on 7 August will air on Ten Cricket and Ten HD.
Sources said Ten Sports was looking at revenue of Rs 900 million from the Micromax Cup series, but media buyers said that that seemed too high a target. A media report pegged the figure at Rs 550-600 million but Indiantelevision.com found the market estimates too varied to come out with its own valuation at this stage.
Ten Sports, which also holds the on-ground sponsorship rights, has roped in Royal Stag as on-ground associate sponsor and is looking to add at least two more sponsors.
The series, which is the first major bi-lateral series post the IPL, will mark the return of Micromax to the cricket bandwagon. The brand has been investing heavily on cricket as it looks to deepen its association with its core target group, the youth.
Said Micromax Informatics marketing head Pratik Seal said, “The idea behind any sponsorship is to connect with our customer beyond our products offerings and drive our saliency amongst them. We hope to reinforce our brand charisma in both the countries. Being a youth brand, we have identified sports, movies and music as three main passion points for our target group.”
Coming first after the IPL that ended on 27 May, Micromax is hoping that the series will grab a lot of viewership. The sponsorship comes in the wake of Micromax‘s aggressive plans to make deep inroads into the Sri Lankan market.
“Micromax has already marked its presence and the customers have widely accepted our products not only in India but in Sri Lanka too and through this sponsorship we expect to further extend our customer engagement in the island country,” said Seal.
The India-Sri Lanka series will have to contest for viewership against the Olympics that kicks off on 27 July. ESPN Star Sports is targeting Rs 550 million from the Olympics.
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MAM
Three senior OpenAI infrastructure executives join Meta
Key members of Stargate project move to rival amid aggressive AI spending race.
MUMBAI: Three key architects of OpenAI’s ambitious data centre plans have switched sides and joined Meta Platforms, according to people familiar with the matter. Peter Hoeschele, who played a central role in OpenAI’s high-profile Stargate initiative, is among the new hires. He is joined by Shamez Hemani, who focused on computing strategy and business development, and Anuj Saharan, another leader in the computing organisation. The Information first reported their departure from OpenAI on Thursday.
The moves come as Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has pledged to spend aggressively on AI infrastructure. The company is projecting capital expenditure of up to $135 billion this year alone, with hundreds of billions more expected before the end of the decade to support its Meta Superintelligence Labs and new models such as Muse Spark.
OpenAI, which is pushing ahead with massive data centre expansion, had described its early lead in securing computing power as a competitive advantage. Stargate, originally announced last year as a $500 billion venture involving OpenAI, Oracle, and SoftBank, has since become an umbrella term for the company’s broader data centre ambitions. However, the project has seen recent adjustments, including a pause on its UK plans and the decision not to expand the Abilene, Texas site.
A spokesperson for Meta declined to comment, while Hoeschele, Hemani, and Saharan also declined to comment. OpenAI said it was grateful for the contributions of the three employees and remains focused on hiring talent for its infrastructure plans. The company recently brought in former Intel executive Sachin Katti to lead its industrial compute efforts.
In the high-stakes race to build the future of artificial intelligence, talent is proving to be as valuable as computing power itself. Meta’s latest hires suggest the competition for top infrastructure minds is intensifying, even as OpenAI continues to scale its own ambitious projects. The move highlights how quickly the AI talent war is heating up across Silicon Valley.
