According to the New York Times, Meta has been classifying its massive data center construction projects as experimental 'pilot models' under a decades-old R&D tax credit, allowing it to claim billions in federal tax savings. The company reportedly saved $2 billion in 2024 and nearly $4 billion in its 2025 fiscal year, making it the largest known beneficiary of the credit among public companies, per securities filings cited by the Times.
Google is testing a prototype data center positioned in space to explore running AI workloads beyond Earth's surface. The initiative examines whether solar power and the vacuum of space can support computing infrastructure typically housed in terrestrial facilities.
Public opposition to data center construction, initially concentrated in the US, is now affecting projects across Europe and parts of Asia. STL Partners research cited by CNBC estimates roughly $42 billion in European data center investment has already faced delays or cancellations, compared with about $77 billion in the US. The European Data Center Monitor counted more than 70 rejected or restricted projects between January and April 2025, exceeding all of 2024.
Amazon announced it will donate more than $1 billion over five years to communities near its data centers, letting residents direct funds toward education, job training, energy affordability and water initiatives. AWS CEO Matt Garman also pledged the company won't raise local power bills or deplete water supplies, claiming 75 percent of projects already meet a 2030 'water positive' goal. Garman argued that opposition to data centers risks letting China overtake the US in AI development.
Home Widget, a third-party iOS app for building custom HomeKit control panels, released version 1.10 with a new camera mosaic feature that shows every HomeKit camera in one scrollable view from a single widget tap. The update also adds direct thermostat control and whole-room lighting adjustments from widget tiles, plus a Control Center option to jump straight to the camera mosaic or a specific camera.
Finnish newspaper Kaleva reports Google cleared more than 300 hectares of forest across four sites in northern Finland for two new data centers while required environmental assessments were still underway. The Finnish Nature Conservation Association says Google's local project company, Tuike Finland Oy, began felling trees months before the reviews concluded, and has asked regulators to halt activity until the assessments finish. Google says the clearing complied with Finland's Forestry Act and that it had already conducted extensive environmental evaluations.
The Southern Environmental Law Center sued Jefferson County's health officer on behalf of GASP, arguing officials had illegally ignored ABC Coke's 2023 air permit renewal application, leaving the foundry coke plant operating under an expired permit. A day after the filing, the Jefferson County Department of Health told SELC it would move forward with the permitting process.
IEEE Computer Society published guidance on designing product interfaces that remain usable when AI features fail, such as when a model is unavailable, returns incomplete output, or misreads user intent. The piece frames this as an engineering challenge distinct from improving model accuracy, focusing instead on how interfaces should respond to failure.
Amazon CEO Matt Garman announced in a blog post that the company no longer requires nondisclosure agreements with county officials negotiating data center projects. He also pledged $1 billion over five years for community college programs, workforce training, and energy efficiency upgrades in areas hosting Amazon data centers.
Micron reported fiscal Q4 2026 revenue of $54.23 billion, nearly five times higher than a year earlier, with a record 87% gross margin company-wide. Its Mobile and Client consumer unit posted the highest operating margin among its four segments at 88%, even though it was the only unit to ship less memory than the prior quarter. Micron attributed the unit's 14% quarter-over-quarter revenue growth to higher pricing offsetting lower bit shipments.
A customer buying an RTX 5090-equipped PowerSpec workstation at a Micro Center in Tustin, California, was required to sign an 'Advanced Computing Product Purchaser Declaration' before the purchase was approved. The form demands full legal name, address, government ID, phone, email, end-user details, installation location, and intended use, and states Micro Center will not sell to anyone intending to export the product outside the US. Other Reddit users noted this requirement is new, though one buyer said a similar, longer form was required at Central Computers last summer.
Amazon announced a new initiative to add $1 billion in community support as it seeks local buy-in for its ongoing data center build-out. The company is also promising greater transparency about its facilities, aiming to address concerns from residents and officials near proposed and existing sites.
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