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Tech News
Researchers identified more than 1,400 local policies across 157 cities addressing clean energy, building efficiency and extreme heat preparedness, according to a new study. The findings come as the Trump administration has restricted states from using Inflation Reduction Act rebates to help homeowners replace fossil fuel appliances with heat pumps.
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.
Breakthrough Energy Ventures has unveiled its sixth annual Fellows program, backing 21 early-stage companies working across agriculture, nuclear fusion, robotics and data center power efficiency. The lineup includes Borealis Fusion, which is developing fusion reactors fueled by proton-boron rather than conventional deuterium-tritium mixtures. Managing partner Eric Toone said the selections are made with an eye toward a looming tripling of global electricity demand as economies electrify, not just today's AI-driven power crunch.
British AI cloud provider Nscale, spun out of Arkon Energy two years ago, disclosed over $103 billion in contracts ahead of its NYSE listing, but roughly 85% of that value comes from just two customers: Microsoft and Anthropic. The Anthropic deal remains conditional on Nscale securing financing and hitting milestones the company itself calls stringent, with Anthropic free to cancel if targets are missed. Nscale is targeting a $35 billion valuation and hopes to raise $3 billion, despite posting a $1.02 billion net loss on $140.6 million in revenue for the first half of the year.
Levi's and Marks & Spencer have launched the Fashion Renewable Collaborative, a joint initiative designed to help apparel suppliers switch to renewable energy sources. The effort targets emissions generated deep in supply chains, such as fiber and fabric manufacturing, rather than focusing solely on the brands' own operations.
The European Commission has proposed requiring data centers with over 500 kW capacity to disclose their energy and water usage through a standardized rating system, similar to appliance energy labels. The rules would not cap power or water consumption but would require operators to report water use relative to local water stress and disclose whether they recycle waste heat back into local energy systems.
California Governor Gavin Newsom signed a package of seven bills that shield residential utility customers from bearing the costs of AI data center growth. The laws create a new rate category for data centers through the state's Public Utilities Commission, mandate disclosure of water and energy use to local governments, and require efficiency benchmarks before facilities can get streamlined approval.
Security researchers including Joshua Corman of the Institute for Security and Technology say the immediate danger to energy infrastructure comes from malicious humans using generative AI tools, not from AI systems acting autonomously. They note that much of the grid's equipment, including power plants often decades old, was never built with internet connectivity or cyber defense in mind, leaving it exposed as attackers gain more powerful tools.
GasPulse is a free iPhone app that uses Energy Information Administration data to display weekly gas price trends by state or region, along with up to five years of historical pricing. It also includes an Outlook feature predicting future price direction, state comparisons, price alerts for up to six areas, and home/lock screen widgets with Siri support.
The U.S. Navy has awarded a $3.8 million contract to America's largest shipbuilder, marking the company's first publicly known foray into naval laser weapon development. The deal comes as the Navy accelerates efforts to move directed-energy weapons from experimental prototypes into systems that can actually be fielded on ships.
Mazama Energy closed an oversubscribed $135 million Series B round led by Centaurus Capital and Doerr Capital, with Vinod Khosla among earlier backers. The funds will support horizontal drilling into super-hot rock formations in Oregon, where each well could generate up to 15 megawatts, and the company now estimates the site could ultimately yield 10 gigawatts of power, double last year's projection.
NVIDIA, Google, and startup Emerald AI have created the AI Energy Management Alliance (AEMA), a coalition aimed at making AI data centers more flexible in their power consumption. The group wants facilities to be able to shift workloads, tap batteries, and cut usage during peak demand, in exchange for utilities granting faster grid connections and potentially sharing infrastructure costs.