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Global ad spend marginally up by 3.2 per cent last year: Nielsen
MUMBAI: For the advertising industry, 2012 closed on a positive note with ad spends increasing 3.2 per cent globally year-over-year to $557 billion, according to Nielsen’s quarterly Global AdView Pulse report.
A strong third quarter, which saw growth of 4.3 per cent, helped drive the annual increase. Ad spend growth receded to a more modest 2.5 per cent in the fourth quarter.
All regions except Europe increased their ad spending in 2012. The Middle East/African market showed impressive growth of 14.6 per cent for the year as the region’s economy stabilized. Egypt was part of that turnaround, registering a 20.4 per cent increase in spending. Meanwhile, deep cuts to ad budgets continued in Europe, fueling a 5.3 per cent decrease for the final quarter, yielding an annual decrease of 4.2 per cent. Even economic powerhouse Germany reported a one per cent dip in the fourth quarter, the second consecutive quarter during which the country reported a decline in advertising spend.
The Asian-Pacific market underperformed as well, as its annual increase in ad spend fell from 11.5 per cent in 2011 to a mere 2.8 per cent in 2012, propelled in part by China’s very slight gain of 1.9 per cent for the year.
Ad spending in North America remained on an upward trajectory at the end of the year, climbing 3.1 per cent in the fourth quarter. This helped the region report 4.6 per cent growth for the full year.
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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.
