Thu. Oct 22nd, 2026
Thu. Oct 22nd, 2026
Japan Signs Up for Nvidia’s Rubin Chips in Push to Build National AI Capacity
  • July 17, 2026
  • 46 views
Japan Signs Up for Nvidia’s Rubin Chips in Push to Build National AI Capacity

Japan’s government has signed contracts to buy Nvidia Corp.’s next-generation Rubin chips to build national artificial-intelligence computing capacity, according to The Wall Street Journal. The procurement is the latest sign…

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OpenAI’s First Gadget Is a $230 Keyboard Built for AI Agents
  • July 16, 2026
  • 58 views
OpenAI’s First Gadget Is a $230 Keyboard Built for AI Agents

The device looks like a prop from a science fiction film set. Codex Micro, OpenAI’s first consumer hardware product, is a compact desktop keyboard with a row of programmable keys,…

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SpaceX Notches 600th Booster Reuse as Its Stock Faces Three Headwinds
  • July 14, 2026
  • 53 views
SpaceX Notches 600th Booster Reuse as Its Stock Faces Three Headwinds

A Falcon 9 booster came back to Earth, was refitted, and flew again this week, the 600th time SpaceX has reused a booster, according to Spaceflight Now. The number is…

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General Fusion’s Nasdaq Debut Makes It the First Listed Fusion Company
  • July 14, 2026
  • 46 views
General Fusion’s Nasdaq Debut Makes It the First Listed Fusion Company

A Vancouver company that has never delivered a watt of electricity to a grid began trading on the Nasdaq this week, and investors bid its shares up sharply on the…

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ASML’s Earnings Will Test the Chip Industry’s Faith in Its Order Book
  • July 14, 2026
  • 51 views
ASML’s Earnings Will Test the Chip Industry’s Faith in Its Order Book

When ASML reports quarterly results, investors will be looking for answers to two questions: how quickly the Dutch company can clear its backlog of advanced lithography machines, and how much…

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Google Signs Record Solar-and-Storage Deal to Power an Arkansas Data Center
  • July 14, 2026
  • 45 views
Google Signs Record Solar-and-Storage Deal to Power an Arkansas Data Center

In West Memphis, Arkansas, a solar and battery-storage project under construction will send every watt it produces to a single customer. Google has signed a power purchase agreement covering 100…

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Meta’s Louisiana Data-Center Bet Grows Past $250 Billion
  • July 14, 2026
  • 48 views
Meta’s Louisiana Data-Center Bet Grows Past $250 Billion

Meta has raised its planned investment in a Louisiana data-center complex to more than $250 billion, up from an initial commitment of a few billion dollars, making it the largest…

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Meta Doubles Louisiana Data Center Plans to $50 Billion
  • July 13, 2026
  • 47 views
Meta Doubles Louisiana Data Center Plans to $50 Billion

Meta Platforms Inc. said it will double its planned investment in a Louisiana data center campus to $50 billion, adding capacity at a pace that would make the project one…

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Four States Sue Meta for $1.4 Trillion Over Teen Users Four U.S. states have filed suit against Meta Platforms Inc., accusing the company of using addictive algorithms to hook minors and of concealing the mental-health effects of its products. The damages sought run as high as $1.4 trillion, one of the largest figures ever attached to a state consumer-protection action. Combined with earlier cases, lawsuits by 29 states are now pending against the company over the same set of allegations. The new complaints, filed in state courts, describe a company that tuned its recommendation systems to maximize the time young users spend in its apps, then withheld internal research that linked heavy use to anxiety, depression and disrupted sleep. The states argue that Meta knew about the harms and chose engagement metrics over the welfare of its youngest users. Attorneys general leading the cases said the evidence includes internal documents and former-employee testimony gathered over years of investigation. Meta denied the allegations and said it would fight the cases. The company points to parental controls, age-verification tools and content safeguards it has added in recent years, and argues that the platforms now have protections that did not exist when the conduct alleged in the complaints occurred. A spokesman called the lawsuits a repetition of claims that courts have already rejected in part. The $1.4 trillion figure is calculated, the states say, on the basis of the profits Meta earned from minors and the cost of the harm to families, including treatment for conditions that research has linked to social media use. Legal experts said the number is designed to make a point rather than to survive scrutiny. Damage awards in such cases are rarely set at the ceiling, but the size of the claim gives the states negotiating power in settlement talks and keeps the issue in the headlines. Whatever the eventual award, the litigation forces Meta to spend on defense and distracts management from its product agenda, which lawyers for the states said is part of the design. The cases arrive as regulators on both sides of the Atlantic tighten the rules around children’s online safety. In the U.S., state attorneys general have spent years building the evidence base, sharing documents and coordinating legal theories. The push has bipartisan support, and several states have already enacted their own age-verification laws, creating a patchwork that Meta says is impractical to administer. In Europe, the pressure is coming from Brussels. The European Commission has issued a preliminary report under the Digital Services Act calling on Meta to change design features it considers addictive, including autoplay and infinite scroll. If the company fails to address the concerns, it could face a fine of up to 6 percent of its global annual revenue, a penalty that would run into the billions of dollars on Meta’s current sales. Meta has said it is reviewing the commission’s findings and intends to cooperate, but the company’s public posture toward the DSA has hardened in recent years. It has challenged other commission decisions and argued that European rules are being applied to American platforms in ways that disadvantage them against domestic rivals. The autoplay and infinite-scroll features at issue are core to how its apps hold attention, which makes the commission’s demands harder to accommodate than a fine. The two fronts are moving on different timetables. The European process could conclude in a matter of months, with a final decision and a potential fine. The state lawsuits will take years to wind through discovery, motions and trials, and the first of them may not reach a jury until late in the decade. Meta’s defense will lean on the First Amendment, on Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, and on the argument that the platforms are not the sole cause of the harms young people experience online. Investors have so far taken the legal risk in stride. Meta shares have held their ground through the wave of filings, because the market has priced in years of litigation rather than an imminent judgment. The bigger financial exposure, analysts said, may come from the European track, where the commission can move faster and the penalty is tied to revenue rather than to damages a jury must be convinced to award. The cases also raise questions about how platforms measure success. Internal documents cited by the states describe engagement metrics that were optimized without a full accounting of the effects on young users, a pattern regulators in several countries have begun to investigate. Meta has responded by publishing transparency reports and commissioning its own research, but the company’s critics say the disclosures have not matched the scale of the concerns. The coming discovery phase will determine how much of that internal record becomes public, and both sides expect the fight over documents to be intense. Meta has already won some procedural battles, but the states have prevailed on others, and the volume of material moving between the two sides is growing by the quarter. For Meta, the immediate question is whether the new filings change the politics of the issue. Four more states joining the litigation broadens the coalition, and every added plaintiff makes it harder for the company to argue that the problem is isolated or exaggerated. The company’s answer, so far, is the same in every forum: the claims are wrong, the protections are real, and it will defend the cases on the merits. The courts will decide who is right, and the bills, if any, will come due years from now.
  • July 13, 2026
  • 50 views
Four States Sue Meta for $1.4 Trillion Over Teen Users Four U.S. states have filed suit against Meta Platforms Inc., accusing the company of using addictive algorithms to hook minors and of concealing the mental-health effects of its products. The damages sought run as high as $1.4 trillion, one of the largest figures ever attached to a state consumer-protection action. Combined with earlier cases, lawsuits by 29 states are now pending against the company over the same set of allegations. The new complaints, filed in state courts, describe a company that tuned its recommendation systems to maximize the time young users spend in its apps, then withheld internal research that linked heavy use to anxiety, depression and disrupted sleep. The states argue that Meta knew about the harms and chose engagement metrics over the welfare of its youngest users. Attorneys general leading the cases said the evidence includes internal documents and former-employee testimony gathered over years of investigation. Meta denied the allegations and said it would fight the cases. The company points to parental controls, age-verification tools and content safeguards it has added in recent years, and argues that the platforms now have protections that did not exist when the conduct alleged in the complaints occurred. A spokesman called the lawsuits a repetition of claims that courts have already rejected in part. The $1.4 trillion figure is calculated, the states say, on the basis of the profits Meta earned from minors and the cost of the harm to families, including treatment for conditions that research has linked to social media use. Legal experts said the number is designed to make a point rather than to survive scrutiny. Damage awards in such cases are rarely set at the ceiling, but the size of the claim gives the states negotiating power in settlement talks and keeps the issue in the headlines. Whatever the eventual award, the litigation forces Meta to spend on defense and distracts management from its product agenda, which lawyers for the states said is part of the design. The cases arrive as regulators on both sides of the Atlantic tighten the rules around children’s online safety. In the U.S., state attorneys general have spent years building the evidence base, sharing documents and coordinating legal theories. The push has bipartisan support, and several states have already enacted their own age-verification laws, creating a patchwork that Meta says is impractical to administer. In Europe, the pressure is coming from Brussels. The European Commission has issued a preliminary report under the Digital Services Act calling on Meta to change design features it considers addictive, including autoplay and infinite scroll. If the company fails to address the concerns, it could face a fine of up to 6 percent of its global annual revenue, a penalty that would run into the billions of dollars on Meta’s current sales. Meta has said it is reviewing the commission’s findings and intends to cooperate, but the company’s public posture toward the DSA has hardened in recent years. It has challenged other commission decisions and argued that European rules are being applied to American platforms in ways that disadvantage them against domestic rivals. The autoplay and infinite-scroll features at issue are core to how its apps hold attention, which makes the commission’s demands harder to accommodate than a fine. The two fronts are moving on different timetables. The European process could conclude in a matter of months, with a final decision and a potential fine. The state lawsuits will take years to wind through discovery, motions and trials, and the first of them may not reach a jury until late in the decade. Meta’s defense will lean on the First Amendment, on Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, and on the argument that the platforms are not the sole cause of the harms young people experience online. Investors have so far taken the legal risk in stride. Meta shares have held their ground through the wave of filings, because the market has priced in years of litigation rather than an imminent judgment. The bigger financial exposure, analysts said, may come from the European track, where the commission can move faster and the penalty is tied to revenue rather than to damages a jury must be convinced to award. The cases also raise questions about how platforms measure success. Internal documents cited by the states describe engagement metrics that were optimized without a full accounting of the effects on young users, a pattern regulators in several countries have begun to investigate. Meta has responded by publishing transparency reports and commissioning its own research, but the company’s critics say the disclosures have not matched the scale of the concerns. The coming discovery phase will determine how much of that internal record becomes public, and both sides expect the fight over documents to be intense. Meta has already won some procedural battles, but the states have prevailed on others, and the volume of material moving between the two sides is growing by the quarter. For Meta, the immediate question is whether the new filings change the politics of the issue. Four more states joining the litigation broadens the coalition, and every added plaintiff makes it harder for the company to argue that the problem is isolated or exaggerated. The company’s answer, so far, is the same in every forum: the claims are wrong, the protections are real, and it will defend the cases on the merits. The courts will decide who is right, and the bills, if any, will come due years from now.

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Gas-Turbine Prices Triple as AI Data Centers Strain the Grid
  • July 13, 2026
  • 63 views
Gas-Turbine Prices Triple as AI Data Centers Strain the Grid

A few weeks ago, Microsoft Corp. ordered seven large gas turbines from GE Vernova to power data centers in Texas. Each unit carries a price tag above $250 million, and…

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