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Volkswagen’s Surprising Success: Record Sausage Sales In 2024

In a twist that confounds traditional automotive expectations, Volkswagen, renowned for its cars, has taken a delicious detour. The company reported record-breaking sales of its beloved Currywurst sausages in 2024, even as its core car production faced a slight downturn.

Record-Breaking Numbers

  • Volkswagen sold an astounding 8,552,000 sausages in 2024 across self-service restaurants and supermarkets, fueled by the popularity of their Currywurst variety.
  • This figure nearly rivals their automobile sales, mirroring the 9.03 million cars sold, which included brands like Audi, Seat, and Skoda—a decrease of 2.3% from the previous year.

The Volkswagen Original Currywurst has become a cultural icon since its inception in 1973 at the Wolfsburg plant. Interestingly, recent diversification into hot dog sausages has also boosted their numbers significantly.

“With over 8 million Currywurst sausages sold, 2024 marked a new milestone for Volkswagen,” shared Gunnar Kilian, Chief Human Resources Officer, on LinkedIn.

While the car sales faced a dip, the new sausage varieties have transported Volkswagen to a culinary triumph.

The Bigger Picture

As industries evolve, Volkswagen’s foray into diverse product lines highlights its adaptive strategies. Surprisingly, the sausage has become their bestselling product, reflecting a broader trend of consumer engagement through innovative offerings.

Mirendil Signs $100 Million Google Cloud Deal To Advance Self-Improving AI

AI startup Mirendil has signed a multi-year agreement worth more than $100 million with Google Cloud to secure computing infrastructure for its self-improving AI research.

The partnership reflects growing competition among AI companies to lock in access to high-performance computing, while cloud providers race to attract promising startups developing next-generation AI models.

Backing The Next Stage Of AI Research

Mirendil plans to use Google’s Tensor Processing Units (TPUs), Nvidia GPUs and managed training infrastructure to develop AI systems capable of improving their own performance over time.

Known as recursive self-improvement, the concept focuses on building AI that can refine its knowledge and capabilities with minimal human intervention. The technology is attracting growing interest across the industry, with several startups and leading AI labs exploring similar approaches.

According to co-founder and Chief Executive Behnam Neyshabur, the long-term goal is to develop AI that can automate scientific research and accelerate discoveries in fields such as medicine, biology and materials science.

Compute Capacity Becomes A Strategic Asset

Training increasingly advanced AI models requires enormous computing resources, making long-term infrastructure agreements a critical competitive advantage.

Mirendil said Google’s combination of TPUs and GPUs allows workloads to be matched with the most suitable hardware, improving efficiency while reducing costs for customers.

For Google Cloud, the agreement strengthens its position in the race to provide infrastructure for frontier AI developers, while giving the company exposure to one of the industry’s emerging approaches to next-generation artificial intelligence.

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