British data center developer Nscale is renting a vessel called The Kalmar, a three-story barge once used to detain migrants, to house hundreds of contract laborers building its 30-megawatt Glomfjord facility in Norway. The project is at least six months behind schedule after cooling system leaks, an electrical fire, and labor problems, with only 6.4 megawatts currently operational. Bloomberg reported that workers described long shifts with inadequate training and safety protocols, and that a Norwegian labor authority investigation found Nscale's personnel records incomplete, sometimes listing only a worker's first name.
futurism.com
· 2026-10-20
Nscale is negotiating a new agreement with Anthropic worth roughly $45 billion to supply AI computing capacity, according to a source cited by Reuters. The deal would cover a second building at Nscale's Monarch data center campus in West Virginia, providing 460 megawatts of power using Nvidia's upcoming Vera Rubin chips. This follows an earlier $45 billion deal struck in August for the same campus's first facility.
slashdot.org
· 2026-10-20
Anthropic is negotiating a second multibillion-dollar agreement with UK-based cloud provider Nscale to lease computing capacity, according to a source who spoke to CNBC. The deal would cover a second 460-megawatt data center at the same West Virginia site as an earlier agreement reported in August, and could be worth roughly $45 billion. Anthropic declined to comment, and Nscale has not yet responded to requests for comment.
cnbc.com
· 2026-10-20
The Palisades Nuclear Plant in Michigan, the Crane Clean Energy Center at Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania, and the Duane Arnold Energy Center in Iowa are being brought back online after years of shutdown, together expected to add 2.25 GW to the grid. Palisades, which had begun decommissioning, is furthest along and is projected to generate 800 MW by March 2027, while Crane's Unit 1 is expected to add 835 MW in 2027 under a 20-year supply deal with Microsoft. Each project relied on Department of Energy loans, with Palisades funded under a 2024 Biden-era program and the others under a 2025 Trump administration initiative.
tomshardware.com
· 2026-10-20
Slate Auto has opened its first physical showroom, the Slate Customer Experience Center, in Chicago's Fulton Market District, located in a former Tesla store and staffed partly by ex-Tesla employees. Visitors can view a prototype of the company's stripped-down electric pickup, customize interior color panels, buy merchandise, and place a $300 deposit to reserve a Slate Truck priced at $24,950 with a projected 205-mile range.
arstechnica.com
· 2026-10-20
South Korean data-center startup Elice saw its stock fall as much as 36% in afternoon trading on its first day as a publicly listed company in Seoul. The sharp decline came despite the company's AI-infrastructure focus, an area that has generally drawn strong investor interest.
wsj.com
· 2026-10-20
Japan's space agency JAXA is launching the Martian Moons eXploration (MMX) spacecraft from Tanegashima Space Center, aiming to reach Mars and its moons Phobos and Deimos after about a year of travel. The mission will study both moons remotely and collect physical samples from Phobos to return to Earth, following three earlier Russian attempts that all failed.
wired.com
· 2026-10-19
Japan's space agency JAXA, with NASA support, launched the Martian Moons eXploration (MMX) mission from Tanegashima Space Center to study Mars' moons Deimos and Phobos. The spacecraft aims to collect a sample from Phobos' surface and return it to Earth, a first if successful. NASA officials, including Nicky Fox and Tom Statler, say the samples could offer new insight into the moons' origins and the early solar system.
cnet.com
· 2026-10-19
A roughly 11-foot-diameter metal object, believed to be debris from a Chinese Zhuque-2E rocket, was found in a cornfield in Scott Township, Minnesota, during fall harvest. The rocket had launched from Dongfeng in China on September 15, deployed 10 satellites, then reentered the atmosphere without completing a full orbit, with fiery debris seen streaking over Kansas and Minnesota that night. The Stevens County Sheriff's Office said it is working with state and federal agencies to identify the object's owner and arrange removal.
arstechnica.com
· 2026-10-19
Anthropic announced plans, pending shareholder approval, to commit 5% of its shares to a newly created public benefit fund structured as a wholly owned LLC. The board could add 2% more for every 50% rise in company valuation above an undisclosed baseline, with proceeds potentially funding large donations or new approaches to address AI-driven job displacement. The fund will not be used for lobbying or political giving, and comes as Anthropic reports $16.8 billion in third-quarter revenue ahead of a reported November IPO.
cnbc.com
· 2026-10-19
A Harvard Shorenstein Center survey of more than 5,400 people found 53% of men said they recognized two fabricated AI industry figures, Susan Milner and Craig Dalton, who do not exist. Women also claimed familiarity with the fake names, but at a lower rate of about 40%. The same survey found men reported knowing real figures like Elon Musk and Sam Altman at high rates, and were generally more optimistic about AI than women, who expressed more concern.
futurism.com
· 2026-10-19
A planned UK data center has been pushed back into the 2030s due to delays connecting to the power grid, and Microsoft has withdrawn from the project as a result. The delay reflects broader infrastructure bottlenecks facing large-scale computing buildouts in the UK.
news.slashdot.org
· 2026-10-18
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