Nvidia is hyping up its new Vera Rubin chip system this week, revealing new performance benchmarks for the GPU and CPU combo ahead of rival AMD’s annual product event in San Francisco on Thursday. During a lengthy technical workshop last week at the company’s headquarters in Santa Clara, California, Nvidia executives boasted to a small … Read more
Brian Barrett:Vision Pro. Zoë Schiffer: The Vision Pro. Thank you so much. Brian Barrett: You don’t think about Vision Pro every day? Zoë Schiffer:No. I have to say that it lived and died very quickly, and I haven’t thought about it since. But I think the issue, and this has been true for other AI … Read more
Leah Feiger: Yes. Senator Bernie Sanders and Rep Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, AOC, they introduced the Data Center Moratorium Act, which would halt the construction of new AI data centers until there were actual national safeguards. This sounds, in so many ways, like a very baked for left wing issue, but shockingly, this is pretty bipartisan. There … Read more
Qualcomm will acquire the Silicon Valley chip startup Modular for nearly $4 billion. The companies announced the acquisition on Wednesday; Qualcomm said It expects to issue up to 19.2 million shares of common stock in the deal, which works out to just under $4 billion based on the company’s last closing share price. The deal, … Read more
As Big Tech Dumps billions of dollars into America’s data center buildout, a slew of opportunities have opened up to the electricians wiring these massive facilities. In some cases, the scale of the projects and the demanding construction timelines are fueling talent wars for the industry’s best and brightest. The US-based International Brotherhood of Electrical … Read more
Earlier this month, Five current Amazon employees publicly urged Seattle City Council to regulate data centers. It was an unprecedented act of advocacy by tech workers, and now three of the staffers say they are under internal investigation for what they understand to be allegedly representing themselves as spokespeople for the company without prior approval. … Read more
Right-wing officials and data center investors are increasingly claiming that data center protests are being funded and influenced by the Chinese government. OpenAI added to the discourse on Wednesday when it released a report describing a cluster of accounts originating in China that, the company said, had been spreading anti-data center messages on social media. … Read more
China has become the first country in the world to operate an underwater data center, or UDC, powered by wind. Located off the coast of Shanghai, the complex represents a significant advance in the country’s strategy to secure energy supplies in the face of the accelerated growth of artificial intelligence, reduce dependence on fossil fuels, … Read more
Building AI sustainably seems like a pipe dream as tech giants that previously made promises to cut emissions have been racing to build out massive data centers powered by fossil fuels. The rush to build out AI at all costs has been reinforced by the Trump administration, which is also rolling back environmental protections. Despite … Read more
Anthropic and Elon Musk’s SpaceX said on Wednesday that the two entities have signed an agreement for Anthropic to use computing resources from xAI’s data center in Memphis, Tennessee. It’s the latest tie up in an industry that is scrambling to find enough computers to run complex AI software. SpaceX and xAI were previously separate … Read more