AI

Nvidia’s $500 Billion Plan Envelops Wall Street in Its AI Frenzy

Colin Henderson

 Summarize ​ By Todd Gillespie, Ian King, Laura Benitez, and Hannah Levitt August 14, 2026 at 12:42 PM EDTJensen HuangPhotographer: An Rong Xu/Bloomberg Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Blackstone Inc. and Apollo Global Management Inc.had been working tirelessly for months to draw up debt deals that would help developers of artificial intelligence systems pay for chips from Nvidia Corp. With slow progress on the complex deals, Nvidia’s chief executive officer, Jensen Huang, decided to change tack: He went public this week with the effort, saying the group is aiming to collectively finance AI computing deals totaling $500 billion — a round figure with no obvious provenance.  In doing so, he … Continue reading Nvidia’s $500 Billion Plan Envelops Wall Street in Its AI Frenzy

AI, Infrastructure

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

briefing, Culture, India

How One of the World’s Biggest Reading Nations Feeds Its Habit

Colin Henderson

Voracious readers in India are turning to a centuries-old private lending system as public libraries fall short. Akanksha SinghAugust 13, 2026 at 10:00 PM EDT The shelves at Victoria Circulating Library and Music House leave little room for snobbery. Mills & Boon romances are wedged beside literary classics. Political biographies sit atop Tintincomics. Towering stacks of dog-eared thrillers line narrow aisles, alongside DVDs, CDs and Hindi bestsellers piled Tetris-style in triple and quadruple layers. Despite the apparent chaos, owner Arif Merchant knows where everything is. He’s spent four decades serving customers in the Mumbai neighborhood of Mahim, building a vast inventory … Continue reading How One of the World’s Biggest Reading Nations Feeds Its Habit

Writing

Spy stories

Colin Henderson

# CATEGORY: SPY STORIES A COMPELLING THRILLER FULL OF SURPRISESby Mal Warwick | Mysteries & Thrillers, Spy StoriesAriel Pryce awakens to a sunny day in Lisbon only to find her new husband, John Wright, missing. After hours waiting for him to turn up, it’s clear something’s amiss. There’s no message, and no sign of him whatsoever. Fearing he’s fallen victim to an accident or been…READ MOREUS SPECIAL FORCES AND THE CIA COLLIDE IN COLD WAR BERLINby Mal Warwick | Mysteries & Thrillers, Spy StoriesVeterans of intelligence agencies and the special forces crowd the ranks of spy novelists. Some have rightfully … Continue reading Spy stories

briefing, Culture, Social_evolution

How polarised is European politics? Here’s how your generation, gender and where you live affect what you believe

Colin Henderson

 Summarize ​  Rory FitzgeraldPublished: August 11, 2026 6.32am EDT Across Europe, the political debate has rarely looked more polarised. Media narratives frequently describe societies as becoming sharply divided between younger progressive and older conservative generations. A growing body of research also suggests that political attitudes are becoming more divided by gender, particularly among younger cohorts. Young women seem to be adopting more liberal positions than young men on issues such as climate change and immigration. Using data from the European Social Survey, which I have led since 2013, my team has examined the truth of these claims. We’ve done this by looking at long-term trends … Continue reading How polarised is European politics? Here’s how your generation, gender and where you live affect what you believe

Canada, Payments

Why Canadian payments platform Moneris is being sold to U.S. private equity

Colin Henderson

 Summary ​ Uday Rana2:07 Canadian commercial solutions and payment processing platform Moneris will soon have a new owner in an American private equity firm. Moneris, one of Canada’s largest commerce solutions providers, is jointly owned by the Bank of Montreal and the Royal Bank of Canada. American private equity firm Francisco Partners, which specializes in dealing with technology companies, will buy the platform for $2 billion, Moneris said in a statement. RBC and BMO will each get a 50 per cent share from the Moneris sale. Both banks saw their shares jump on Monday. Partnering with the U.S. private equity firm will … Continue reading Why Canadian payments platform Moneris is being sold to U.S. private equity

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, Innovation, Military, Ukraine

Like the movies’: How Ukraine’s ground robots are changing rules of war

Colin Henderson

 Summary ​ They carry ammunition, can conduct kamikaze missions and have shown they can capture enemy positions. Mansur Mirovalev Ternopil, Ukraine – A ground robot carrying ammunition and resembling a real-life cousin of Wall-E, the 2008 Pixar cartoon’s rusty protagonist, got stuck late one night in a trench in northeastern Ukraine. Named Murakha (ant in Ukrainian), the robot was a bit more than a metre high, but had a large clearance to trudge across rugged terrain, bombed-out streets, mud, sleet or snow on tank-like tracks at up to 12km (7.5 miles) per hour. Its pilots were hidden in a bunker tens … Continue reading Like the movies’: How Ukraine’s ground robots are changing rules of war

AI, AI_factories, AI_research, China, Chips

China Unleashes $28 Trillion Capital Markets to Challenge US in AI

Colin Henderson

 Summarize ​ The strategy marks a break from Beijing’s reliance on subsidies and state funding. August 9, 2026 at 5:00 PM EDT Even by the frothy standards of the AI era, CXMT Corp.’s trading debut in Shanghai last month was extraordinary. Within a few hours, the memory chip maker — seen as Beijing’s best hope of reducing reliance on foreign suppliers and challenging the US in AI — surged more than 500% to become the most valuable stock in mainland China, eclipsing Industrial and Commercial Bank of China Ltd., which held the top spot for years. The frenzy was the culmination of one … Continue reading China Unleashes $28 Trillion Capital Markets to Challenge US in AI

briefing

Morning Briefing — Sunday, August 9, 2026 · 9:00 AM EST · ~1,150 words

Colin Henderson

Introduction The weekend is dominated by convergence: the Hormuz deal is reportedly days away yet Iran published a fresh demands list, the US layered on new sanctions, and Iranian proxies opened a Yemen–Saudi front — all simultaneously. The second cluster is domestic-economic: a negative July payrolls print has scrambled Fed expectations days before CPI. The distinct feature of today’s environment is that de-escalation signals and escalation actions are arriving in the same 48-hour window, on the same file. 1. What changed Hormuz deal “close” — but Iran attaches conditions and ships keep getting hitIran and Oman are reportedly near a … Continue reading Morning Briefing — Sunday, August 9, 2026 · 9:00 AM EST · ~1,150 words