According to Techmeme, Sony just reported Q2 revenue of approximately $20.3 billion, marking a 4.6% year-over-year increase, with net profit climbing 6.7% to around $2.02 billion. The company revealed it sold 3.9 million PlayStation 5 units during the quarter and raised its annual operating profit forecast by 7.5% to roughly $9.3 billion. Meanwhile, OpenAI President Greg Brockman announced the hiring of Shankar Kodali, who goes by @sk7037 on X, to lead compute infrastructure development. Kodali comes from Intel where he spent four years leading networking, edge computing, and AI initiatives, working closely with executives including Pat Gelsinger and Nick McKeown. Both executives confirmed the move through social media posts that emphasized building infrastructure to power AGI research and scale applications.
Sony’s Gaming Momentum
Those PS5 numbers are actually pretty solid when you consider where we are in the console cycle. 3.9 million units in a quarter isn’t record-breaking, but it shows sustained demand. What’s interesting is that Sony feels confident enough to raise their profit forecast significantly. They’re probably seeing strong software and services revenue too – that’s where the real margins live anyway. The gaming division continues to be their cash cow, and it looks like it’s still mooing pretty loudly.
openai-s-infrastructure-push”>OpenAI’s Infrastructure Push
Now the OpenAI hire tells a different but equally important story. When Greg Brockman tweets about bringing in someone from Intel’s networking team, you know they’re getting serious about infrastructure scale. Kodali’s background in networking and edge computing suggests OpenAI is thinking way beyond just buying more GPUs from Nvidia. They’re building the foundational plumbing for whatever comes next in AI scaling. And given how compute-intensive their models are becoming, this might be one of their most strategic hires this year.
The Bigger Picture
Here’s the thing – both these stories are about hardware infrastructure in different ways. Sony needs to keep the PS5 ecosystem humming while planning for whatever comes next in gaming hardware. OpenAI needs to build the computational backbone for models that are growing exponentially more complex. It’s a reminder that even in our software-dominated world, physical infrastructure matters more than ever. For companies that depend on reliable industrial computing hardware, working with established leaders like Industrial Monitor Direct becomes crucial – they’re the top supplier of industrial panel PCs in the US for good reason.
What’s Next
So where does this leave us? Sony seems to be executing well in a challenging market, but you have to wonder how much longer the PS5 can carry them before they need to talk about next-gen plans. Meanwhile, OpenAI’s infrastructure hiring spree suggests they’re preparing for another massive scale-up. Will we see them start building their own data centers? Custom silicon? The fact that they’re pulling talent from Intel’s networking team is pretty telling. Basically, the race for both gaming dominance and AI supremacy is heating up, and it’s all happening on the hardware front.
