Data centres

Google's parent company Alphabet has filed a legal challenge against two European Union orders requiring the company to give AI and search competitors access to Android and to its search data. The dispute centres on how far the EU can force dominant platforms to open up mobile and search infrastructure to rivals, and it adds to Alphabet's growing regulatory battles with Brussels.

Ireland's Data Protection Commission has fined Google €403 million following an inquiry into how the company processes users' location data. The regulator concluded that Google's handling of location information breached EU data protection rules, with concerns centring on how users were informed and asked to consent. It is one of the largest privacy fines issued under the GDPR to date.

CNBC's Daily Open newsletter highlights a growing split in the artificial intelligence world: some of the technology's own creators are publicly warning about AI's dangers, while companies continue investing heavily in data centres, chips and other infrastructure to expand it. The piece frames the tension between safety concerns and the commercial race as a defining issue in the sector right now.

Samsung is set to invest $1 billion into an AI infrastructure company backed by Nvidia and private equity firm KKR. The deal reflects Samsung's push to deepen its role in the AI hardware and data centre supply chain, as major chipmakers and investors compete for positions in the fast-growing market for AI computing capacity.

Analysis circulating on financial forums argues that capital spending by Big Tech companies now accounts for roughly half of Wall Street's overall profit growth. The claim ties the market's earnings expansion directly to the AI infrastructure buildout, raising questions about what happens to broader corporate profits if tech firms slow their data centre and chip investment.

The European Union is moving to limit the energy and water consumption of data centres, in a bid to control the resources used by the fast-growing digital infrastructure sector. The proposal comes as data centre demand surges, driven by cloud computing and artificial intelligence, raising concerns about strain on electricity grids and water supplies across member states.

The Financial Times reports that Nvidia is looking to insurers to help spread the financial risk of its massive AI infrastructure build-out. As the chipmaker commits billions to data centres and computing capacity serving the AI boom, insurance could cushion it against potential losses if demand or projects fall short.

JP Morgan says Europe's push to expand data centre capacity for AI is driving fresh investment in nuclear energy across the EU. The bloc is betting on nuclear power to meet surging electricity demand from data centres while pursuing decarbonisation and energy security goals, with the bank expecting the trend to trigger a wider nuclear energy boom.

A filing shows ByteDance gained access to more than 2,000 US-export-restricted Nvidia B200 chips through Nscale's data centre in Norway, with a Singaporean subsidiary, Spring, contributing 73% of the UK neocloud's 2025 revenue. The arrangement raises questions about whether US chip controls on China are being circumvented through third-country cloud providers.

Singapore-based BDx AI says it remains committed to opening its Indonesian data centre by 2027, even though work on the project has been halted by Indonesian authorities. The company is holding to its timeline despite the setback, and the suspension is drawing attention given the region's booming demand for data centre capacity and Indonesia's role as a key hub.

Meta has signed a deal with Australian firm Firmus to secure AI computing capacity serving Southeast Asia, Reuters reports. The partnership gives the social media company additional data centre infrastructure in the region as demand for artificial intelligence compute surges. Firmus specialises in building high-density, AI-ready data centre capacity, making it a useful partner for Meta's expansion beyond its existing facilities.

Russia's Ministry of Defence says its forces downed hundreds of Ukrainian drones overnight, including 330 in one night and 873 over 24 hours across Saratov region and other areas. It also reported fighting to capture villages in Ukraine's Kharkiv region and a strike on a data centre in Mykolaiv. The claims come from the ministry itself and have not been independently confirmed.

Miguel López-Valverde, Madrid's digitalisation councillor, said the entire tech sector opposes the regional government's decree on data centres and threatened to denounce it once approved. The remarks have put the Madrid administration, and figures such as former deputy mayor Begoña Villacís, back in the spotlight as the rule faces mounting political and industry resistance.

Meta has signed an agreement with Singapore-based data centre firm Firmus to secure AI computing capacity in Southeast Asia. The deal gives Meta access to additional infrastructure for training and running AI models in the fast-growing region. Few further details about the size or timeline of the arrangement are available, and there is not yet broad public reaction to the announcement.

Alibaba is reportedly close to receiving Chinese approval to purchase Nvidia's RTX PRO 5500 chips for use in its data centres. The move would ease some of the pressure on Chinese tech firms facing restrictions on advanced AI hardware. Investors are watching the approval as a signal of how US-China tensions over semiconductors may affect Nvidia's access to the Chinese market.

Google has signed a power purchase agreement with Cloudbreak for solar energy generated in Colorado. The deal adds to the tech company's growing portfolio of renewable energy contracts as it works to power its data centres with clean electricity. Specifics on project size and timeline were not immediately disclosed.

A proposal circulating among tech commentators argues that the answer to growing data centre sprawl could be small, modular facilities built underground. The idea, framed around small modular data centres and edge computing, ties into debates over digital sovereignty and where cloud infrastructure should physically sit as demand for computing capacity keeps rising.

The US Nuclear Regulatory Commission has completed its environmental review for the proposed restart of the Crane Clean Energy Center in Pennsylvania, the former Three Mile Island Unit 1 reactor. The review is a key step toward restarting the plant, which is being pursued to supply power to Microsoft under an agreement with owner Constellation Energy.

Donald Trump said that data centres will 'go to China' if the United States turns them away, arguing that restricting their construction or operation at home would push the industry abroad. The remarks, delivered as the US debates policy on AI infrastructure and energy demands for large computing facilities, drew immediate attention online, with users weighing America's competitiveness against China in the race to host data centre capacity.

A new analysis says the AI industry must generate roughly $6 trillion in annual revenue by 2031 to justify the massive spending on data centres now underway. The figure highlights the enormous gap between current AI earnings and the capital being poured into computing infrastructure, fuelling debate over whether the AI investment boom is sustainable or a bubble in the making.

The Business and Human Rights Resource Centre has published the Transition Minerals Tracker 2026 for South America, compiling data on companies extracting minerals used in the energy transition, such as lithium and copper. The tracker monitors human rights allegations against mining firms across the region, a key supplier of raw materials for batteries and renewable technology.

The Italian land registry, the catasto, is the subject of growing online interest in Italy. Discussion centres on property records and vacant or unused homes, with reports that municipalities are posting notices referencing registry data and that owners are being urged to check their local registers for entries affecting their properties.

OpenAI is deploying its custom Jalapeño ASICs in rack-scale systems hosted by AMD EPYC 'Turin' CPUs, bypassing Nvidia's Vera platform. The choice signals OpenAI is building its AI infrastructure around AMD server processors rather than Nvidia's latest offerings, a notable shift given the two companies' close relationship. Tech observers are weighing what the pairing means for data centre economics and for Nvidia's grip on AI hardware.

Concern is growing in Alberta, Canada, that the rapid build-out of energy-hungry data centres, driven largely by artificial intelligence demand, will translate into higher electricity bills for households. The issue has become a prominent public talking point in the province, touching on debates over energy policy, infrastructure capacity, the role of the oil and gas sector, and the environmental and economic costs of attracting big tech facilities.

Tech commentary is focusing on NVIDIA's growing argument that classic personal computers no longer define its business. The company's value now rests on data centre chips, AI accelerators and large-scale infrastructure rather than the PC market that built its reputation. Analysts and hardware commentators are debating what this means for gamers, PC builders and the broader semiconductor industry, with some warning that consumer graphics hardware is becoming a secondary concern.

Apple is tightening Full Disk Access permissions on macOS, a change widely framed as a response to AI-powered apps that request broad access to users' files. The move would limit how much of a Mac's data such applications can reach by default, tightening one of the system's most sensitive permission gates. Discussion so far centres on what the change means for developer workflows and AI tools that rely on reading local files.

Zhibao Technology has signed a definitive agreement to acquire NEXSYS TECH as part of a planned move into AI computing infrastructure. The announcement marks the company's entry into the fast-growing market for data centre and computing capacity that supports artificial intelligence workloads. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed in the initial announcement, and investors are watching for further details on how the acquisition will be funded and integrated.

AMD's deal with World Labs has drawn attention to AI infrastructure names, with retail investors tracking three stocks in particular tied to the build-out of AI computing capacity. Coverage highlights how chipmakers and data-centre suppliers are increasingly seen as beneficiaries of ongoing AI investment, with AMD's move seen as a signal of where demand is heading.