News/AI Infrastructure
Tata Communications builds India’s first national AI network with AWS
Tata Communications, one of India's largest telecommunications providers, has partnered with Amazon Web Services (AWS) to build a specialized national network designed specifically for artificial intelligence workloads. This infrastructure represents one of the most significant AI-focused network deployments in India to date, connecting AWS's major data centers across three key cities with high-speed, low-latency connections optimized for machine learning and AI applications. The collaboration addresses a critical infrastructure gap as Indian businesses increasingly adopt AI technologies. Unlike traditional networks designed primarily for web browsing and basic data transfer, AI workloads require massive bandwidth and minimal delays to handle the enormous...
read Jul 23, 2025NSF unveils 4 major AI initiatives to boost U.S. research leadership
The National Science Foundation has announced a series of major AI initiatives that align with the White House's AI Action Plan, signaling a coordinated federal push to maintain U.S. leadership in artificial intelligence. The initiatives span foundational AI research, infrastructure development, and real-world testing capabilities, positioning NSF as a key player in America's AI competitiveness strategy. What you should know: NSF Chief of Staff Brian Stone, performing the duties of the NSF Director, outlined four major initiatives the foundation will unveil in the coming weeks. New NSF AI Research Institutes will accelerate breakthroughs in foundational AI and applications across health,...
read Jul 23, 2025Google boosts AI spending to $85B as user adoption of Gemini app soars
Google's CEO Sundar Pichai declared that "AI is positively impacting every part of the business" as the company reported strong Q2 2025 earnings with $96.4 billion in revenue, up 14% year-over-year. The tech giant is doubling down on its AI strategy by increasing planned capital expenditures to $85 billion—a $10 billion jump that signals Google's determination to keep pace with competitors like OpenAI and Meta in the AI infrastructure race. What you should know: Google's AI features are gaining massive user adoption across its platform ecosystem. AI Overviews now reaches more than 2 billion monthly users across "more than 200...
read Jul 23, 2025Great expectations: IBM’s AI mainframe refresh drives $17B revenue beat
IBM exceeded Wall Street expectations for second-quarter revenue and profit, driven by strong demand for its AI-enhanced mainframe systems and a recovery in its consulting business. The results reflect growing enterprise investment in AI infrastructure as businesses prioritize technology spending amid ongoing economic uncertainty. Key financial highlights: IBM reported revenue of $16.98 billion for the June quarter, up nearly 8% year-over-year and beating analyst estimates of $16.59 billion. The infrastructure segment, which includes mainframes, generated $4.14 billion in revenue, significantly exceeding estimates of $3.81 billion. Second-quarter adjusted earnings of $2.80 per share also surpassed expectations. IBM's "AI book of business"...
read Jul 23, 2025Google Cloud surges 32% as Alphabet raises AI spending to $85B
Google's parent company Alphabet exceeded Wall Street expectations in its second quarter earnings, reporting $96.43 billion in total revenue against an expected $94 billion. The tech giant also raised its 2025 capital spending target to approximately $85 billion from $75 billion, driven by massive demand for cloud computing services and the ongoing AI arms race among Big Tech companies. What you should know: Alphabet's strong performance was powered by robust growth in Google Cloud and steady digital advertising revenue. Google Cloud revenue surged nearly 32%, well above the estimated 26.5% increase that analysts had projected. Google's advertising revenue, which represents...
read Jul 23, 2025Trump suspends environmental reviews to speed AI data center construction
Environmental advocates warned Wednesday that AI data centers are driving up electricity costs for consumers and increasing pollution, as the Trump administration unveiled executive orders to accelerate data center construction by suspending environmental reviews. The concerns highlight a growing tension between AI infrastructure demands and environmental protection, with communities in states like Virginia, Tennessee, and Indiana already experiencing higher utility rates and air quality issues from the power-hungry facilities. What you should know: Data centers require massive amounts of electricity, forcing utilities to build new power plants and transmission lines whose costs are shared by all customers. In Virginia, which...
read Jul 23, 2025Trump unveils 28-page “try-first” AI plan to slash regulations and boost federal adoption
President Donald Trump has unveiled a comprehensive "AI Action Plan" that aims to accelerate American AI development while removing regulatory barriers and promoting "objective truth" in AI systems. The 28-page document, released Wednesday ahead of Trump's appearance at a Washington DC tech event, establishes three core pillars: accelerating AI innovation, building American AI infrastructure, and leading international AI diplomacy and security. What you should know: The plan seeks to fundamentally reshape how the US approaches AI regulation and development through aggressive deregulation and federal adoption. Trump is expected to sign related executive orders this week to implement the plan's key...
read Jul 22, 2025AI data centers drive optical transport market to $19B by 2029
After a challenging 2024 that saw the optical transport market contract by 9%, the telecommunications infrastructure sector is poised for a significant rebound. The catalyst driving this recovery isn't traditional telecom growth, but rather the explosive expansion of artificial intelligence computing infrastructure. The optical transport market—which encompasses the fiber-optic cables, switches, and networking equipment that carry data across long distances—is projected to grow at a steady 5% annually through 2029, reaching $19 billion by the end of the forecast period. This turnaround represents a dramatic shift from the broader telecom industry slowdown that characterized much of 2024. AI data centers...
read Jul 22, 2025Alibaba’s Qwen3 model outperforms rivals while cutting hardware costs by 70%
Alibaba has released Qwen3-235B-A22B-2507-Instruct, an open-source large language model that outperforms rival Chinese AI startup Moonshot's Kimi-2 and Claude Opus 4's non-thinking version on key benchmarks. The model comes with an FP8 version that dramatically reduces compute requirements, allowing enterprises to run powerful AI capabilities on smaller, less expensive hardware while maintaining performance quality. What you should know: The new Qwen3 model delivers substantial improvements across reasoning, coding, and multilingual tasks compared to its predecessor. MMLU-Pro scores jumped from 75.2 to 83.0, showing stronger general knowledge performance. GPQA and SuperGPQA benchmarks improved by 15-20 percentage points for better factual accuracy....
read Jul 22, 2025Concrete results: Meta uses AI to create 35% lower-carbon concrete for data centers
Meta and Amrize have developed an AI-optimized concrete mix specifically designed for Meta's data center construction in Rosemount, Minnesota. The collaboration, which includes the University of Illinois, produced a concrete formulation that reduces carbon emissions by 35% while meeting the structural requirements for data center infrastructure. What you should know: The partnership combines Amrize's materials science expertise with Meta's open-source AI models to create high-performance, low-carbon concrete. The AI-designed ECOPact mix delivers high strength, controlled set time, and a reduced carbon footprint compared to traditional concrete formulations. University of Illinois researchers contributed critical lab-generated data to train the AI models...
read Jul 22, 2025Leaked messages show Anthropic CEO acknowledges $100B+ Middle East funding helps “dictators”
Leaked Slack messages reveal Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei acknowledging that accepting funding from Middle Eastern governments would benefit "dictators," despite his company's commitment to ethical AI principles. The revelations expose how even AI companies that have built their reputations on ethical practices are abandoning those values to secure the massive capital needed for AI infrastructure expansion. What you should know: Anthropic has long positioned itself as the ethical alternative to OpenAI, with its chatbot Claude guided by principles based on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The company was founded by former OpenAI members with a stated commitment to advancing...
read Jul 22, 2025AI’s energy demand drives $29B in US utility rate hikes, elicits complaint from UN
UN Secretary-General António Guterres called on major tech companies to transition to 100% sustainable energy to power their AI operations, warning that current energy demands could strain global capacity. The appeal comes as US utilities requested a record $29 billion in rate increases during the first half of 2025—double last year's level—largely driven by surging data center energy needs that are being passed on to customers. The big picture: AI's explosive growth is creating an energy crisis that's forcing difficult choices between technological advancement and environmental sustainability. Data center energy consumption is expected to double by 2030 to 945 terawatt-hours,...
read Jul 22, 20257 AI infrastructure stocks positioned for the boom beyond NVIDIA
The artificial intelligence boom has created a complex investment landscape where traditional tech giants compete alongside specialized infrastructure providers and emerging players across the entire AI value chain. Understanding where to allocate capital requires recognizing that AI's exponential growth demands massive investments in computing power, energy infrastructure, and specialized components that extend far beyond software companies. Smart investors are positioning themselves across multiple layers of the AI ecosystem, from the semiconductors that power machine learning to the data centers that house them. This approach recognizes that AI's infrastructure requirements create opportunities across industries that might not immediately appear connected to...
read Jul 22, 2025OpenAI and Oracle expand Stargate AI project to 5+ gigawatts
OpenAI and Oracle announced they will develop an additional 4.5 gigawatts of data center capacity, expanding their Stargate initiative that aims to maintain U.S. leadership in artificial intelligence infrastructure. The expansion brings the total Stargate project to over 5 gigawatts of capacity, running on more than 2 million chips, though OpenAI has not disclosed specific locations or funding details for the new facilities. What you should know: The Stargate initiative represents one of the largest AI infrastructure investments in U.S. history, originally announced as an up to $500 billion, 10-gigawatt project. The partnership includes SoftBank Group, a Japanese technology investor,...
read Jul 21, 2025Near-miss between commercial flight and B-52 bomber sparks AI air traffic control debate
A SkyWest commercial flight narrowly avoided colliding with a B-52 bomber while approaching Minot International Airport in North Dakota on July 20, with the pilot making an "aggressive maneuver" to prevent disaster. The incident highlights critical gaps in air traffic control systems and raises questions about whether AI could prevent similar near-misses, particularly at smaller airports that lack radar technology and rely on visual monitoring by controllers. What happened: SkyWest Flight 3788's pilot aborted his approach after spotting a military aircraft on a converging course, despite air traffic control instructions to turn right. The pilot told passengers he saw the...
read Jul 21, 2025Emerald AI raises $24.5M to cut data center power use by 25%
Emerald AI has raised $24.5 million in funding from high-profile investors including Nvidia, former climate envoy John Kerry, and Kleiner Perkins chair John Doerr to develop technology that makes data centers more flexible power consumers. The startup's platform allows grid managers to remotely reduce AI data center power consumption by up to 25% during peak demand periods without affecting AI performance, potentially transforming data centers from grid burdens into "grid allies." The big picture: Energy demand has emerged as the primary constraint limiting AI growth, with the Department of Energy predicting that U.S. data center electricity consumption could nearly triple...
read Jul 18, 2025AI datacenter spending reaches 2% of US GDP, making other parts of the economy jealous
Artificial intelligence datacenter spending has reached such extraordinary levels that it's fundamentally reshaping the American economy. The numbers are staggering: AI-related capital expenditures may represent roughly 2% of US GDP in 2025, contributing an estimated 0.7% to overall economic growth. To put this in perspective, this spending surge rivals the great infrastructure booms of the past—approaching the scale of 19th-century railroad construction while already surpassing the telecom frenzy of the dot-com era. This isn't just another tech trend. The sheer magnitude of AI datacenter investments is creating ripple effects across multiple sectors, redirecting capital away from traditional industries and potentially...
read Jul 18, 2025Trump to unveil AI executive orders targeting China competition
President Donald Trump is set to unveil several executive orders next week aimed at securing America's artificial intelligence advantage over China. The anticipated measures include streamlining data center permitting, promoting US tech exports, and other initiatives designed to accelerate the nation's AI capabilities, with Trump expected to deliver a major speech outlining his administration's AI vision. What you should know: The executive orders represent Trump's most comprehensive AI policy framework since taking office, targeting key infrastructure and trade barriers that could slow US AI development. The orders will focus on expediting permitting processes for data center construction, addressing a critical...
read Jul 18, 2025xAI explores Gulf data center partnerships for cheaper AI infrastructure
Elon Musk's xAI is in talks with data center companies in Saudi Arabia and the UAE to lease computing capacity, as the billionaire seeks to expand his AI startup in regions with cheaper energy and more favorable regulations. The move reflects the growing global competition for AI infrastructure, with Gulf nations positioning themselves as key players in the artificial intelligence race through strategic investments and partnerships. What you should know: xAI is exploring multiple partnerships across the Gulf region to support its AI operations and Grok chatbot development. In Saudi Arabia, xAI is considering two potential partners: Public Investment Fund-backed...
read Jul 17, 2025UK launches Isambard-AI, Britain’s most powerful supercomputer
The UK's most powerful supercomputer, Isambard-AI, has been made fully operational in Bristol, with Technology Secretary Peter Kyle officially launching the machine as part of the government's expanded AI strategy. The supercomputer will join Cambridge's Dawn machine to form the UK's "AI Research Resource," designed to tackle public challenges like reducing NHS waiting lists and developing climate change solutions while positioning Britain as an "AI maker rather than an AI taker." What you should know: Isambard-AI represents a significant leap in the UK's public AI computing capacity, built with cutting-edge hardware and substantial government investment. The supercomputer uses more than...
read Jul 17, 2025Google teams with Westinghouse on nuclear power plants for AI data centers
Westinghouse has partnered with Google AI Cloud to design a series of new nuclear reactors specifically engineered to power AI data centers and digital infrastructure. The collaboration leverages Westinghouse's proprietary AI models—Hive and Bertha—to create "repeatable" nuclear plant designs that can be scaled efficiently across the United States, addressing the massive energy demands of modern neural networks while supporting climate goals. What you should know: This partnership represents a strategic move to address the growing energy crisis facing AI infrastructure development. Westinghouse currently powers 56 reactors across the U.S., representing about 60% of the 94 operating reactors nationwide. The company's...
read Jul 16, 2025Uneven AI terrain as development clusters in Bay Area while emerging cities see talent gaps
The artificial intelligence boom isn't distributed equally across America's economic landscape. While tech giants concentrate their AI investments in familiar Silicon Valley strongholds, a new analysis reveals how this geographic clustering could reshape regional economies—and which cities might emerge as unexpected winners in the AI transformation. The Brookings Institution, a Washington-based think tank, released comprehensive research mapping AI development across U.S. metropolitan areas, revealing stark disparities in how different regions are positioned for the AI economy. The findings matter because AI adoption isn't just about technology—it's about jobs, economic growth, and which communities will thrive as artificial intelligence reshapes entire...
read Jul 16, 2025China takes the plunge with $223M wind-powered underwater data center off Shanghai
China has launched construction of a wind-powered underwater data center six miles off the coast of Shanghai, marking a significant expansion of its pioneering approach to ocean-based computing infrastructure. The project represents China's bid to address the massive water consumption challenges facing AI and cloud computing while positioning itself as a global leader in sustainable digital infrastructure. The big picture: China is pulling ahead of other nations in deploying underwater data centers as an alternative cooling solution for AI computing, moving from pilot projects to commercial-scale deployments in less than 30 months. Why this matters: Traditional data centers consume hundreds...
read Jul 16, 2025Voltage Park donates 1M GPU hours to boost US AI research
The U.S. National Science Foundation has announced a new partnership with Voltage Park to expand the National Artificial Intelligence Research Resource (NAIRR) pilot, a public-private initiative designed to boost American AI innovation and competitiveness. Voltage Park, a company focused on broadening access to AI infrastructure, will contribute one million NVIDIA H100 GPU hours to help researchers nationwide pursue breakthrough AI innovations across science, engineering, health, climate, and other fields. What you should know: The NAIRR pilot is a two-year proof-of-concept launched in 2024 to inform the development of a full-scale national AI research infrastructure. The pilot connects researchers to computational,...
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