Category: Infrastructure

AI, InfrastructureLeave a comment

Most Power Sought for US Data Centers Will Never Materialize

Colin Henderson

 Summarize ​ By Gabriel Levin and Emily Forgash August 12, 2026 at 5:30 AM EDT More than two-thirds of the electricity sought for the artificial intelligence boom in the US isn’t likely to materialize due to “phantom” projects and long-shot pitches. That’s based on new projections from Wood Mackenzie, which sees US grid operators and utilities likely committing to about 28% of the 1,066 gigawatts requested for data center projects. A gigawatt is the equivalent generating capacity of a traditional nuclear reactor. While no one expects every proposed project to be built, the data reveals how inflated projections of future power demand complicate planning … Continue reading Most Power Sought for US Data Centers Will Never Materialize

Frontier_AI, Infrastructure

Anthropic Strikes $9 Billion Cloud Deal With Riot Platforms

Colin Henderson

 Summarize ​ Shirin GhaffaryAugust 10, 2026 at 8:17 PM EDT Anthropic PBC has struck a $9.1 billion deal with Riot Platforms Inc., a Bitcoin mining company that recently began selling AI data center capacity, people familiar with the matter said, underscoring the Claude maker’s efforts to secure enough computing to meet its customers’ demand. Riot disclosed earlier on Monday that it had secured a 20-year deal to supply 191 megawatts of computing — enough to power roughly 143,000 homes at any given moment — from its Rockdale, Texas, campus to a “leading frontier AI” company. That company is Anthropic, the people said, asking not to … Continue reading Anthropic Strikes $9 Billion Cloud Deal With Riot Platforms

AI_factories, Infrastructure, Innovation

Nebius publishes 2025 Sustainability Report, outlining blueprint for scaling responsibly

Colin Henderson

Share AMSTERDAM–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Nebius (Nasdaq: NBIS), the AI cloud company, today published its 2025 Sustainability Report, setting out a year of environmental performance data across its expanding global footprint and detailing its investment in the communities where it operates. As Nebius scales its AI cloud toward multiple gigawatts of compute capacity, its total energy and water requirements continue to grow. The company’s response starts with engineering: designing servers, racks, cooling systems and cloud software as one system so that each unit of energy delivers more useful compute. Across its portfolio in 2025, Nebius achieved an average PUE of 1.25, compared with … Continue reading Nebius publishes 2025 Sustainability Report, outlining blueprint for scaling responsibly

AI, Cybersecurity, Frontier_AI, Infrastructure

Bloomberg opinion piece looks ahead to AI writing its own code

Colin Henderson

There are legitimate concerns which to me are less about self creation efficiency but more related to the speed and compute depth in frontier AI. Already humans fail at keeping up and that divergence will rapidly expand. Witness recent OpenAI/ Hugging Face incident. As the code developed a route out of the supposedly secure wall it attempted 17,000 times, all faster than a human could have coffee. This provided an access to a zero day exploit in the wall as it attempted to connect to the open internet, which it did. Humans are now the choke point. ————————————- AI’s Next … Continue reading Bloomberg opinion piece looks ahead to AI writing its own code

AI, AI_factories, Cybersecurity, Infrastructure, Risk

$2 trillion in new revenue needed to fund AI’s scaling trend – Bain & Company’s 6th annual Global Technology Report

Colin Henderson

 Summarize ​ David Crawford SAN FRANCISCO—September 23, 2025—Two trillion dollars in annual revenue is what’s needed to fund computing power needed to meetanticipated AI demand by 2030. However, even with AI-related savings, the world is still $800billion short to keep pace with demand, new research by Bain & Company finds.  Bain’s sixth annual Global Technology Reportreleased today shows, by 2030, global incremental AI compute requirements could reach 200 gigawatts, with the US accounting for half of the power. Even if companies in the US shifted all of their on-premise IT budgets to cloud and reinvested the savings from applying AI in sales, marketing, customer support, and R&D into capital spending on new data centers, the amount would still fall short of the revenue needed to fund the full investment, as AI’s compute demand … Continue reading $2 trillion in new revenue needed to fund AI’s scaling trend – Bain & Company’s 6th annual Global Technology Report

AI, AI_factories, Cybersecurity, Data-Framework, Infrastructure

Powering AI: Why Data Centers Are a Board-Level Risk

Colin Henderson

 Summarize ​ July 13, 2026 Artificial intelligence is driving one of the fastest infrastructure expansions in modern history. As companies race to scale computing power, a more complex challenge is emerging: Data centers are no longer just an IT backbone. They are becoming a critical source of enterprise risk. Once seen as back-office infrastructure, data centers sit at the heart of AI, which will become important to revenue, operations and customer experience. If a data center fails, the impact is immediate, from lost income and disrupted operations to reputational damage. For boards and senior executives, the issue is no longer … Continue reading Powering AI: Why Data Centers Are a Board-Level Risk

AI, AI_factories, Infrastructure

TSMC posts record quarter, raises capex sharply

Colin Henderson

Q2 net profit jumped 77% to a record NT$706.6bn (~US$22bn) on revenue of $40.2bn, with gross margin at 67.7%; HPC/AI now 66% of revenue.New today: Results released this morning; Q3 revenue guided to $44.6–45.8bn and 2026 capex raised to $60–64bn from $52–56bn, with CEO C.C. Wei citing “strong demand signals” from customers and a steep 2nm ramp.Why it matters: The clearest single data point that AI infrastructure demand is still accelerating into H2 — and the base rate against which every rival fab ambition (Terafab included) should be measured.Sources: Reuters via Yahoo Finance · CNBC markets Continue reading TSMC posts record quarter, raises capex sharply

AI, AI_factories, Cybersecurity, Infrastructure

There’s Been a Subtle Shift in the AI Zeitgeist

Colin Henderson

Summarize Investor enthusiasm is rebalancing. By Joe Weisenthal and Tracy Alloway June 26, 2026 at 12:05 PM EDT Hello and welcome to the newsletter, a grab bag of daily content from the Odd Lots universe. Sometimes it’s us, Joe Weisenthal and Tracy Alloway, bringing you our thoughts on the most recent developments in markets, finance and the economy. And sometimes it’s contributions from our network of expert guests and sources. Whatever it is, we promise it will always be interesting. If you like chatting with us, check out the Odd Lots Discord, where you can hang out and talk with … Continue reading There’s Been a Subtle Shift in the AI Zeitgeist