GoKawiil
Tech News
OpenAI CFO Sarah Friar told CNBC the company will continue investing in AI infrastructure and raising capital to meet customer demand, even after voters in Tuesday's midterms largely rejected or restricted local data center projects. She said OpenAI will keep working to build trust with communities and pointed to a policy blueprint the company released this week outlining commitments for its own data centers.
Democrats regained control of both chambers of Congress in this week's midterm elections, with AI and data centers emerging as prominent campaign issues. Across the country, voters rejected more than 40 local ballot measures that would have supported new data center construction, reflecting concerns over the facilities' water and electricity use. Privacy advocacy groups, including the Electronic Privacy Information Center, framed the results as a rebuke of Big Tech's influence despite heavy campaign spending by tech figures like Elon Musk.
Sam Altman changed his display name on X to "Ram Altman" after facing online criticism, including from Elon Musk, over remarks he made on the Cheeky Pint podcast about consumer RAM versus data-center memory. Altman said his comments were taken out of context and claimed he has long advocated for increased memory production.
About 100 protesters entered a Microsoft data center construction site in Amsterdam operated by Pure Data Centers, carrying signs opposing the facility. The demonstration is part of a 'Stop Dirty Data Centers' coalition campaign planning actions at 85 locations across 16 countries, including Dublin, Warsaw, and a Microsoft site in Denmark, on November 6-7, 2026.
Investors are reportedly weighing bids that would value Anthropic as low as $1.1 trillion, down sharply from the roughly $2 trillion figure floated when the company filed to go public before the midterm elections. The shift follows a broad market selloff that erased $2.3 trillion in value, amid voter backlash against tech companies and data center expansion, and Anthropic's reported $80 billion-plus loss in the first half of 2026.
Four senators — Shelley Moore Capito, Sheldon Whitehouse, Mike Lee and Martin Heinrich — introduced the Bipartisan American Affordability and Jobs Act on September 30th to accelerate permitting for energy projects. The bill would shorten environmental reviews and curb communities' ability to challenge projects in court, and has drawn support from both clean energy advocates and fossil fuel interests.
Nvidia has pitched Apollo Global Management, Brightspeed's parent company, on converting roughly 130 existing telecom buildings into small data centers, according to The Information. Apollo asked for written plans, which Nvidia has since provided along with requests for site data and visits. The sites could reportedly deliver about 1 gigawatt of combined compute capacity, enough for over 2,200 Supermicro Vera Rubin NVL72 racks.
Tech and AI-linked stocks dropped sharply this week after Democrats' strong midterm showing, with Nvidia, AMD, Microsoft, Micron, Broadcom, Tesla and SpaceX all posting steep losses on Thursday. Neocloud providers Nebius, Iren and CoreWeave were hit even harder, falling between 10% and 17%, before U.S. tech shares showed partial recovery Friday morning. Analyst Kyle Rodda of Capital.com linked the slide to investor concern over potential tech regulation under a Democrat-controlled Congress, plus dozens of local ballot measures across 10 states targeting data center construction.
On the latest Vergecast episode, hosts Nilay Patel and David Pierce discuss how Democratic gains in the 2026 midterms could reignite congressional attention on tech CEOs, AI regulation, and data center buildouts. They also examine whether AI companies, including OpenAI and Google, have found sustainable business models despite AI search growth and reported pullbacks in enterprise spending.
Several US states have seen candidates win elections on promises to impose moratoriums on new data center construction, prompting AI and cloud companies to reconsider their build-out plans. Developers are reportedly exploring alternatives including overseas sites and remote desert locations to avoid local resistance.
CNBC's Jim Cramer said Thursday's slide in AI-related stocks, which saw Micron fall 17%, GE Vernova drop 7% and Sandisk plunge 22%, likely isn't finished. He attributed the declines to rising local opposition to new data centers after the midterm elections, which has raised doubts about continued AI infrastructure spending, but said he does not view this as a repeat of the dot-com crash since most affected companies are profitable.
OpenAI announced it will stop using non-disclosure agreements with public officials on its data center projects, limiting confidentiality to narrow cases like security or trade secrets. The company also committed to paying the full cost of electricity and infrastructure it uses, publishing job creation estimates, and attaching a 'local compact' of commitments to every future data center, which it calls a 'compute campus.'