AI is reshaping both physical infrastructure and political debates — and the two of them often interconnect. On the physical infrastructure side: In Texas, we see Vantage going big with plans for a $25 billion hyperscale campus to fuel AI growth. North of the border, Canada is flexing its digital sovereignty with Nvidia-powered infrastructure that ensures secure, nationwide access to advanced computing. Meanwhile, in the United States, for once there’s some bipartisan agreement: Multiple recent surveys reveal that while no one wants to strangle innovation, voters on both sides of the aisle are uneasy about AI running wild without rules. And if you dig a little deeper into laypeople’s views on AI, they are pretty nuanced: Concern about falling behind China in AI development is balanced with not wanting the harms of AI to be discovered until it’s too late. Something to think about …
Kelly Hill
Executive Editor
RCRTech
AI Infrastructure Top 3
Everything’s bigger: Vantage Data Centers will build a $25B hyperscale campus in Texas with 1.4 GW of capacity across 10 facilities, supporting AI demand while creating 5,000 jobs and pursuing sustainable operations.
Canada gets sovereign AI boost: Buzz HPC and Bell Canada will deploy Nvidia-powered AI infrastructure across Canada starting in Manitoba, creating a sovereign ecosystem that enables nationwide access to secure, advanced computing.
United on AI: A number of surveys have found that support for regulation of AI cuts across party lines in the U.S. People don’t want to see AI innovation stifled, but they are more worried about unchecked development of AI systems.
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AI Today: What You Need to Know
Databricks at $100B: Databricks has inked a new funding series from existing investors which values the company at $100 billion. It plans to use the funds to lean into its AI strategy, while leaving room for acquisitions and AI research.
Power plants approved: Louisiana’s Public Service Commission approved the construction of three new combustion turbine power generation plants, plus transmission infrastructure, that will help power a Meta’s new data center.
Good day, sunshine: IBM and NASA unveiled Surya, the first foundational AI model for the sun, to predict solar flares threatening astronauts, satellites, and power grids. The open-sourced model leverages data from NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory.
Infrastructure sabotage: A report from the International Institute for Strategic Studies on the scale of Russia’s attacks on Europe’s critical infrastructure, from undersea cables and communications networks to energy grids.
Pumping up the pipeline: Investment firm GI Partners closed on investments in data center company Flexential that, when added to previously raised funding from Morgan Stanley, puts $1 billion behind Flexential’s DC development plans.
Compute in space: To infinity and beyond! Red Hat and Axiom Space are sending a compact “orbital data center” prototype to the International Space Station to test space-based edge computing capabilities.
AI Excels: A new Microsoft CoPilot functionality in Excel enables you to use natural language prompts within a spreadsheet. Microsoft says the data from the AI function is “never used to train or improve the AI models.”
Snapdragon’s midrange move: Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 7s Gen 4 brings modest speed gains but big upgrades in gaming, AI, and camera features — aiming to raise the bar for mid-range smartphones, starting with Redmi’s next flagship.
Optimism for telco AI: Telecom isn’t behind on AI, carriers argue — citing unique data, regulatory expertise, AI-driven efficiency, and the ability to industrialize data, which positions telecom providers to lead in AI-enabled services.
Telco AI challenges: AI may promise efficiency for telcos, but data overload, soaring costs, skills shortages, and shaky ROI mean operators face five big hurdles before automation truly scales.