In March 2024, three Romanian nationals attacked Iran International presenter Pouria Zeraati outside his London home, stabbing him in the leg before fleeing to Bucharest via Geneva. Investigators say the assault is part of a broader Iranian strategy of paying foreign criminals—including Russian mobsters, Hells Angels members, and Swedish teenagers—to target dissidents and journalists abroad, allowing Tehran to deny direct involvement.
Jim Cramer said on 'Mad Money' that rising political and community pushback over electricity and water use is slowing the unrestrained buildout of data centers, citing tighter demands from officials in Pennsylvania and Texas. He argued this won't kill the data center trade but will make smaller speculative developers and suppliers like GE Vernova, Micron, Sandisk, Western Digital and Seagate less attractive to investors at premium valuations.
Rising electricity demand from AI data centers is spurring investment in solid-state power transformers, which use semiconductor switching instead of the century-old copper-coil design of conventional transformers. Unlike traditional units, which are hand-built and face multi-year delivery backlogs, solid-state versions can be mass-produced using materials like silicon carbide, making them smaller, lighter, and modular. Tech companies building AI infrastructure are especially drawn to them because they suit the direct current power setups increasingly used to run dense racks of AI chips.
A Pew Research Center poll of 3,488 US adults found roughly a quarter have used AI chatbots to diagnose symptoms, mostly for convenience and cost savings, with nearly all reporting the information was at least somewhat helpful. The same survey found Americans express greater unease about AI being used by their doctors and providers than about using it themselves, and want to be told when it's involved in their care.
In an interview with Michael Cohen, President Trump argued that towns rejecting data centers are making a mistake, claiming the facilities bring jobs and 'tremendous tax revenue.' His remarks come as data centers face bipartisan public backlash over energy use, water consumption, and local disruption.
Reporting summarized by Futurism shows AI industry leaders responding to growing public frustration over AI products and data centers not by addressing underlying harms, but by launching messaging campaigns framing the backlash as a 'trust' problem. Mark Zuckerberg published a lengthy essay defending AI's promise and criticizing industry pessimists, even as Meta's own internal practices reportedly contradict his optimistic claims.
In an interview with Michael Cohen, President Trump dismissed community opposition to new data centers as a mistake, arguing they bring jobs and no longer strain power grids since companies now build their own power plants under the Ratepayer Protection Pledge. He framed the buildout as essential to keeping US AI leadership ahead of China.
A daily tech digest covers a wave of regulatory and political pushback: both US parties are souring on AI data centers ahead of midterms, Dutch regulators fined Uber nearly $1 billion for automatically deactivating drivers without human review, and TikTok agreed to pay $400 million to settle a US case over collecting children's data. Separately, New Zealand is moving to ban under-16s from social media and Chinese humanoid robots reportedly broke Usain Bolt's 100-meter record at a robotics competition.
Texas Governor Greg Abbott told ABC that AI companies have caused their own backlash by building data centers without coordinating with state or local governments. This marks a sharp reversal from just months ago, when Abbott championed Texas as the 'epicenter of AI development' and celebrated a $40 billion Google investment tied to tax breaks. Abbott recently imposed a moratorium on new data center projects, citing strain on the state's power grid.
Microsoft is rolling out a new Teams meeting protection policy letting admins automatically block all identified external bots from joining meetings, without requiring organizer approval. This expands on a June update that flagged bots in the lobby but still let organizers admit them manually. The feature is off by default, deploying via targeted release through August with general availability expected by late September.
Apple recently raised MacBook prices industry-wide due to a memory shortage, making its laptops less of a bargain than they were weeks ago. Still, retailers continue offering discounts on both 13-inch and 15-inch MacBook Air models, while the budget-friendly MacBook Neo remains at its $699 price with no retail discounts, though Apple's refurbished store offers $100-120 off with a full warranty.
Reports highlight mounting concern among investors about the sustainability of massive AI data-center buildouts, alongside scrutiny of OpenAI's financial position. Analysts point to roughly $3 trillion in AI-related debt that sits off company balance sheets, raising questions about how these commitments are being tracked and financed.
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