Amazon Web Services disclosed on September 15 that drone strikes attributed to Iran destroyed data center infrastructure in the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain so severely that customer data and resources could not be recovered. AWS said the damage crossed multiple availability zones, exceeding the redundancy built into its regional and multi-zone systems, following earlier strikes in March and April that had already caused structural, power and fire-related damage.
futurism.com
· 2026-09-17
New York Governor Kathy Hochul's administration released a Community Investment Framework advising local governments on negotiating with data center developers. The guide recommends towns demand roughly $1 million per megawatt of power demand in community investment, alongside plans covering long-term maintenance, site abandonment, and phased funding timelines.
tomshardware.com
· 2026-09-17
Crusoe, the company behind construction of one of OpenAI's largest data center projects, has closed a $3.9 billion funding round valuing it at nearly $31 billion. The company is now expanding into factory-built, smaller-scale data centers alongside its large infrastructure work.
wsj.com
· 2026-09-17
Al Gore, speaking with TechCrunch alongside Generation Investment Management's Lila Preston, argued that AI data centers' emissions are far smaller than critics claim, comparing them to landfill emissions and global air conditioning use. He said what worries him more are warnings emerging from within the AI industry itself.
techcrunch.com
· 2026-09-16
Amazon received warrants to buy up to 1.69 million Generac shares at $200.93 each, potentially worth up to $8 billion, as part of a deal for Generac to supply backup power generators to Amazon's data centers. Generac shares jumped more than 40% in after-hours trading following the news, with initial generator deliveries expected to total $2.4 billion between 2027 and 2028.
cnbc.com
· 2026-09-16
A new report from the nonprofit Basel Action Network estimates that AI infrastructure will generate far more electronic waste than previously projected, potentially amounting to enough discarded material to fill 23 million shipping containers by 2050. Unlike earlier estimates that only counted servers and GPUs, this analysis includes power supplies, cooling systems, backup power, and networking equipment tied to data centers, plus a category BAN calls 'AI Waste Contagion.' The group attributes 15-20 percent of the world's projected 211 million metric tons of annual e-waste by 2050 to AI-related infrastructure.
theverge.com
· 2026-09-16
A new survey from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research and the University of Chicago's Energy Policy Institute finds that 53% of Americans are extremely or very concerned about AI's environmental impact, up from 41% a year ago. The rise is driven largely by Democrats, though the poll also shows widespread unease about the local effects of data centers that power AI and cloud computing.
fastcompany.com
· 2026-09-16
In an interview, a Syensqo executive described a 'performance pyramid' framework, where commodity materials sit at the bottom and high-performance specialty materials sit at the top. He explained that AI's rapid advancement is piling on technical requirements—heat tolerance, purity, electrical performance, chemical and plasma resistance, long-term stability—that push semiconductor and data center materials toward the top of that pyramid, an area where Syensqo focuses its work.
technologyreview.com
· 2026-09-16
Startup Rune has deployed a modular data center in southwest Texas that connects directly to a solar farm rather than the electric grid. It runs on solar output that would otherwise go unused, avoiding the need to construct any new power generation to support it.
fastcompany.com
· 2026-09-16
Amazon Web Services has told customers to relocate their data away from its Abu Dhabi and Bahrain facilities, more than six months after drone and missile strikes damaged both sites during regional conflict involving Iran, the US and Israel. AWS gave no timeline for repairs, and Bahraini state media reported that site was destroyed by cruise missiles.
tomshardware.com
· 2026-09-16
An investigation by The Guardian found that nearly all of the world's ten largest producers of PFAS, or 'forever chemicals,' intend to expand production to supply the booming data center industry. These chemicals are widely used in cooling systems, AI chips, circuit boards, fire suppression equipment, and cable coatings inside data centers.
futurism.com
· 2026-09-16
Activists in Philadelphia, led by Shawmar Pitts of Philly Thrive, are pushing for a moratorium on new AI data centers after city officials identified potential construction sites in Northeast Philadelphia and Grays Ferry, a neighborhood near a shuttered oil refinery. Pitts and his neighbors, many of whom suffered health problems linked to decades of industrial pollution, worry that data centers could bring similar environmental and energy burdens despite promises of jobs and growth.
techcrunch.com
· 2026-09-15
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