The AI investments just keep coming: Yesterday, it was Apollo buying Stream Data Centers. Today, Brookfield Asset Management stakes its claim in the AI-driven data center boom, outlining a dedicated AI infrastructure strategy with $33 billion already in play supporting European projects — and more to come. With those kind of numbers on the board, hitting Dell’Oro Group’s forecast of $1.2 trillion in global data center investment by 2029 doesn’t sound unrealistic. Don’t skip the subset of stories on subsea cables you’ll find below: The FCC is bringing a renewed, protective (and protectionist) view to subsea cable regs, and the second piece on the challenges of subsea cable repairs — with an aging fleet of ships — rounds out some important global and historical context. Let’s dive in. 🚢
Kelly Hill
Executive Editor
RCRTech
AI Infrastructure Top 3
Brookfield bets on AI infra: Brookfield Asset Management unveils a focused AI infrastructure strategy, with $33B in European projects already underway and a growing global pipeline aimed at meeting demand.
$1.2T data center boom: AI-fueled demand is driving a $1.2 trillion surge in global data center spending by 2029, with hyperscalers and GPU firms leading the charge, Dell’Oro Group’s latest report shows.
Fathoms below: The FCC is updating its rules on subsea communications cables, aiming to streamline regulations and add more protections to the increasingly important connectivity infrastructure.
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AI Today: What You Need to Know
Trump vs. Intel: President Trump has demanded the resignation of Intel’s new CEO, who has been accused of improper ties to China by Senator Tom Cotton. The company’s shares dropped as a result.
AI push offsets flat sales: China Mobile saw flat revenue but higher profits in H1 2025, driven by strong 5G growth and a major AI push with its MoMA architecture and upgraded Jiutian large model suite.
AI school dropouts: Students studying AI are leaving top schools to join the industry as it hurtles toward AGI — fearing that if they don’t, by the time they graduate it will be too late to shape AGI, or prevent catastrophe.
Fixing undersea cables: The global ship fleet that lays and repairs subsea cables is small and aging. But demand for marine cable connectivity is rapidly growing. Countries need repair capabilities to deal with accidents — or sabotage.
Fastest path to edge AI?: As AI models grow in size and complexity, moving data between memory and processing requires more time and energy than the computational work itself does. Can solving the “memory wall” bring AI to the edge?
Grok to get ads: X owner Elon Musk told advertisers in a live discussion this week that X plans to introduce ads in Grok’s responses. Marketers will be able to pay to appear in results and suggestions from X’s AI chatbot.
Energy investments: Energy Vault has lined up a $300 million equity investment in a new subsidiary that will focus on building, owning and operating energy storage and generation facilities for data centers.
Power plant to AI data center: A new, 180 MW AI data center is being proposed at the site of a former power generating station in Springdale, Pennsylvania, near the city of Pittsburgh.
Look out, Ashburn: Vermaland has proposed an enormous, $33 billion data center park in Pinal County, Arizona — just outside Phoenix — that is intended to put the area in direct competition with Data Center Alley.
Wooden data centers?: Meta began piloting the use of engineered wood in the construction of administrative buildings on its data center campuses this year, and expects to eventually test its use in warehouses and server halls.
