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Bloomberg reported that Oracle sent a 'force majeure' notice tied to its Project Jupiter data center campus in New Mexico, citing people familiar with the matter. The notice reportedly aims to let Oracle delay payments if the facility, being developed with Blue Owl Capital, isn't operational by 2028 as planned. Oracle shares dropped about 4% following the report.
Elon Musk's companies, including Tesla, SpaceX and X, have concentrated major new capital projects—such as chip foundries, rocket launch facilities and data centers—across Sunbelt states. State governments are reportedly competing to attract these investments, which represent billions of dollars in planned spending.
Investment in AI data centers has surpassed the combined historical spending on canals, railroads and the electrical grid, according to reporting on the current buildout. The surge is generating jobs and lifting stock valuations tied to AI infrastructure, even as it strains construction resources and materials markets.
The Justice Department issued guidance stating that citizens and noncitizens engaging in public activity, including demonstrations, that furthers a foreign power's goals must register with the government or face criminal liability. Days earlier, President Trump posted on social media calling AI and data-center critics 'Conspiracy Theorists, Treasonists, Traitors, and Leakers' and linked opposition to AI development to China.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed seven bills requiring data center operators to disclose electricity and water consumption details starting next year. The legislation also directs the California Public Utilities Commission to create separate electricity rates for data centers so their grid connection costs aren't passed on to other ratepayers, and pushes facilities toward greater renewable energy use.
UK neocloud firm Nscale disclosed in documents tied to its US IPO that a ByteDance subsidiary called Spring accounted for $24 million of its $33 million 2025 revenue, giving Spring access to 2,304 Nvidia B200 chips at Nscale's Glomfjord, Norway facility. The ByteDance link surfaced not in Nscale's S-1 but in a supporting $105 million loan document with Macquarie, and the Financial Times reports the arrangement was legal under current US export rules.
American Supercritical, a startup founded by Simon Shuham and others, emerged from stealth with $8 million in funding for technology that uses supercritical carbon dioxide to boost the efficiency of gas turbines powering data centers. The company plans to retrofit simple-cycle turbines—common at data centers but far less efficient than combined-cycle plants—so they generate more electricity without increasing fuel use, though the turbines will still emit carbon pollution from burning gas.
China's CAS Space launched the Kinetica 1 Y18 rocket on September 20, carrying nine satellites including the Supercomputing-1 (S-AIDC-1), built by S-AIDC. The satellite combines a high-resolution optical payload with an onboard AI computer to process Earth-observation data in orbit rather than transmitting raw data to ground-based data centers, reportedly cutting processing times from hours to minutes.
Residents in rural Texas towns like Bells are organizing against proposed AI data center developments, citing concerns over water use, noise, light pollution, rising utility bills and falling property values. The opposition, sparked by incidents like survey markers appearing near homes, has grown into public pushback at local meetings, with some communities moving to block or restrict such projects.
Digital Realty's chief technology officer Chris Sharp says the data centre industry is moving away from copper for internal networking, though not electrical power or cooling systems. A typical 100MW facility uses around 400 tonnes of copper overall, with up to 20 tonnes used specifically in the wiring that connects servers together. Sharp argues this copper wiring between GPUs and CPUs is now a bottleneck limiting performance.
Warren Buffett, who stepped down as Berkshire Hathaway's chairman last week, built his fortune avoiding flashy AI stocks in favor of utilities and industrial firms. Two of those older deals — the 2000 purchase of MidAmerican Energy and the 2016 acquisition of Precision Castparts — are now benefiting from AI's surging demand for electricity and turbines, according to analysts cited by CNN.
A Data & Society report, based on 18 months of ethnographic interviews with 44 Pennsylvanians, examines why communities are resisting new data center construction despite state officials touting billions in AI infrastructure investment. The researchers found residents grappling with contradictions between promises of economic growth and concerns over energy, land use, and broader AI risks, rather than being swayed by disinformation campaigns.