Hardware & Compute
Models & Releases21Funding & Deals13Benchmarks4Agents & Products65Hardware & Compute21Robotics18Policy & Drama42
An Amazon data center could have the worst polluting power plant in the country
To power its new West Texas data center, Amazon is investing in the construction of a new power plant that could be one of the largest single producers of greenhouse gases in the US, according to the New York Times. The new gas-burning plant in Pecos County, Texas has received significant investment from Amazon and, at least initially, would not be connected to the state's power grid. Instead, its 35 natural-gas turbines would primarily deliver its 7.65 gigawatts of electricity
Do Data Centers Really Drive Up Local Temperatures?
Do data centers raise local temperatures? Explore their impact, causes of heat islands, and solutions to minimize environmental effects.
Anthropic will design its own hardware to power Claude
Anthropic is hiring a "custom silicon team" to design chips on which to run its models, the company has revealed. Yesterday, Business Insider noticed a job listing for a senior engineer with experience shipping semiconductor designs. (You can see listings for a silicon engineer and a technical program manager, silicon on Anthropic's job board right now.) A spokesperson for Anthropic then confirmed the plans to both Business Insider and TechCrunch.Read full article Comments
CoreWeave Enters APAC Data Center Race With Indonesia Expansion
As AI adoption accelerates across Southeast Asia, CoreWeave’s entry into Indonesia signals a strategic shift toward regional AI infrastructure and sovereign compute.
SoftBank donated $50 million to Trump’s library months before federal data center deal
The Portsmouth, Ohio site where SoftBank will build its data center. | Image: US Department of Energy SoftBank contributed $50 million to the Trump Presidential Library in January, just months before announcing that it's leasing land from the federal government to build a sprawling data center in Ohio. The Japanese company revealed the timing in response to a June letter from Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), and Rep. Melanie Stansbury (D-NM), which r
Do We Really Need Mega Next-Gen Data Center Campuses?
AI and cloud demand, siting flexibility, and power economics are pushing developers toward multi-building campuses measured in gigawatts.
Power Bottlenecks Push Data Centers Beyond Traditional Hubs
As grid queues grow longer, regulatory hurdles and power constraints are reshaping the site selection playbook.
SpaceX spooks investors with debut earnings report
SpaceX shares dropped on Wednesday after Elon Musk’s plans for blockbuster spending to position his AI and rocket company as a data center developer spooked investors. SpaceX surpassed analysts’ expectations in Tuesday’s debut earnings report, posting quarterly revenues of $7.8 billion, well above analysts’ estimates of $6.82 billion and up 92 percent from a year earlier. It posted a net loss of about $541 million, better than estimates of $2.12 billion. But shares in SpaceX fell 10 percent in e
Anthropic is hiring an AI chip design team
Anthropic is building a team for designing its own custom AI chips. The Claude-maker said it would co-design hardware and models to help its technology run faster and more efficiently.
‘GPUs Suck’: Former Intel CEO Slams Data Center Hardware Limitations
At Ai4, Pat Gelsinger says AI’s future hinges on boosting power efficiency, infrastructure, and economics – not simply deploying more GPUs.
New Data Center Developments: August 2026
We look at some of the latest data center developments announced over the past month.
Texas halts data center connections to power grid amid overwhelming demand
Nowhere is the US data center boom bigger than in Texas. But less than a year after declaring Texas the “epicenter of AI development,” Governor Greg Abbott has declared a moratorium on all new power grid connections for data centers—at least until developers provide more information about their projects’ potential impacts on the grid and communities. The Republican governor directed regulators in an August 3 announcement at the Public Utility Commission of Texas and the grid operators at the Ele
SpaceX has more neocloud revenue
SpaceX's AI revenue grew more than three times to $2.6 billion from the year before, mostly because of deals that the company made to provide compute to other AI companies, according to SpaceX's quarterly earnings. The AI division, which the company said in its documents to go public was the source of most of its value, lost $1.5 billion this quarter, slightly less than in the same quarter last year. SpaceX made deals with Anthropic in May and Google in June to provide compute
AMD’s datacenter business is booming while gaming takes a backseat
Driven by demand for AI capacity, AMD's data center revenue more than doubled year-over-year in its latest earnings report, reaching $6.7 billion. That's up from $5.8 billion in Q1, and jumping 107 percent from the $3.2 billion it reported for the same period a year ago. At the same time, AMD's gaming revenue fell 31 percent compared to last year, to $779 million, as price hikes and component shortages slowed sales for the Xbox Series X / S, PS5, and Valve's Steam Deck. "Reven
Texas says data centers must pass an audit before connecting to the grid
Texas announced new a audit on data centers that could slow approval for new facilities seeking to connect to the state energy grid. Governor Greg Abbott (R) on Monday directed the Public Utility Commission of Texas (PUCT) and the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) to verify and audit new data center proposals, writing that the review is needed to "keep the grid stable and reliable." Data centers will need to provide information on state and local incentives they've
Texas halts new data centers as governor calls for audits
Tech companies and developers have been scouring the U.S. for places to build data centers, and they’ve been drawn to Texas’ loose regulations and seemingly abundant power supply. But even Texas can be pushed to the brink.
Is the future of data centers portable? Runware builds a pod to find out
On Tuesday, AI infrastructure company Runware announced the launch of its own modular data center called Sonic Inference Pod.
EON wants to move the data superhighway from ocean fiber to space lasers
Endeavour Optical Networks is planning to launch the fastest space laser communications system yet built.
Texas Orders Statewide Audit of AI Data Center Projects
The new directive signals tougher scrutiny of large-load interconnection as AI power demand accelerates.
Samsung Takes Floating Data Center Plans Into Engineering Phase
Samsung’s floating data centers mark a potential shift toward maritime solutions to meet the rising demands of AI infrastructure.
Building Data Center Infrastructure Requires Trust, Not Just Permits
Data center protests signal a trust gap. Developers must engage communities early to align AI infrastructure with local needs, writes Roshan Shah.
Relevant courses
Want to go deeper than the news? Explore live, cohort-based AI courses taught by practitioners.
Browse AI courses on MavenGet Agent5 in your inbox
The AI stories worth your attention, and a way to test your read. Free, no spam.