Data centres

A drone attack struck the Yandex data centre in Ryazan, Russia, triggering a fire and a power outage that knocked out parts of the Russian cloud provider's services. The incident disrupted one of Russia's most important internet companies, and reports of the strike circulated widely as attention focused on Ukrainian drone attacks reaching deep into Russian territory.

A developer has released Minigraf, an embedded, bi-temporal graph database written in Rust, as open source on GitHub. The database lets applications store graph data with full knowledge of when facts became true and when they stopped being true, running embedded rather than as a separate server. Discussion is centred on the technical trade-offs of the bi-temporal approach and on Rust as a choice for systems software.

Yandex says one of its data centres in Russia was destroyed in a Ukrainian drone strike, and the company says it is unclear whether the facility can be restored. The strike marks one of the most prominent hits on Russian civilian tech infrastructure since the invasion began, raising questions about the vulnerability of data infrastructure on both sides.

Nvidia is promoting an open source approach to building 'AI factories' — large-scale data centre infrastructure for AI computing — in what is being framed as part of the competition between the United States and China over AI leadership. The discussion weighs whether open sourcing key technology strengthens Nvidia's global position or risks benefiting Chinese rivals.

An AI trading system trained on roughly 12 billion price candles is being put to the test on gold markets. The project draws attention among retail traders and quants for the sheer scale of its training data, with debate centring on whether such models can genuinely predict gold price movements or are simply overfitting to historical patterns.

A new data visualisation project called "People Holding Up the Internet" has been published by sheets.works, examining the individuals who keep the internet's infrastructure and content running. The project is drawing early attention among tech readers, with discussion centring on who the internet actually depends on and how that work is distributed.

Russian technology company Yandex says it is unclear whether one of its data centres can be restored after it was hit in a drone strike. The company confirmed the damage but gave no timeline for recovery, highlighting how the war in Ukraine continues to disrupt Russian infrastructure, including critical digital and internet services.

Newborn screening programs routinely collect and store babies' genetic material, raising unresolved legal questions about parental consent and the privacy of that data. Debate centres on whether state-run screening systems adequately protect families' genetic information, and who controls the long-term storage and secondary use of blood spot samples taken at birth.

New market analysis projects the FinFET (Fin Field-Effect Transistor) technology market to exceed $92 billion by 2030, growing at a compound annual rate of 19%. TSMC is expected to hold a leading 25% share of the market. The outlook reflects continued demand for advanced semiconductor manufacturing that powers smartphones, data centres and other high-performance chips.

SpaceX is reported to be pursuing roughly $40 billion to fund large-scale purchases of Nvidia chips, likely to power data-centre and AI-related ambitions alongside its launch business. If confirmed, the sum would rank among the largest capital raises ever attempted by a private company. Details on investors, structure and timing have not yet been laid out publicly, and neither SpaceX nor Nvidia has offered comment.

A surprise decision by Finnish authorities has brought Google's data centre project in Kajaani to a halt. Finnish public broadcaster Yle investigated what happened, reporting on the environmental impact assessment issues in Northern Ostrobothnia that led to the decision. The move raises questions about the future of large server investments in the region and their energy and environmental footprint.

Ukrainian drones struck a Yandex data centre overnight, reportedly the first major Ukrainian attack on a Russian data hub since the war began. The strike comes as Russia battles a domestic fuel shortage reportedly eased by diesel supplied via South Korea, while Ukraine continues expanding its list of targets inside Russian territory.

Marvell Technology (MRVL) is appearing among the most-followed finance topics, with investors tracking its stock price, quotes and latest news. Marvell is a semiconductor company whose shares are widely watched for exposure to data centre and AI-related chip demand. No specific company announcement or price move was included in the reports.

Spain's government says it will push forward with stricter regulations for data centres ahead of the upcoming election. The move comes amid growing scrutiny of the energy and water demands of large computing facilities across Europe. Political opponents and industry groups are expected to weigh in as the proposal moves forward during the campaign period.

The World Economic Forum outlines three key factors it says will define how the next generation of data centres is built and run. With demand for AI and cloud computing surging, the piece highlights choices around energy use, sustainability and infrastructure capacity as decisive for the sector. Data centres have become a central economic and environmental issue as governments and companies weigh their growing power consumption against digital expansion.

The Romanian leu and Polish zloty are drawing attention from currency traders as markets await signals from the region's central banks. Investors are watching for guidance on interest rate policy that could shape the direction of the two currencies. No concrete decisions have been announced; attention centres on upcoming statements and data releases.

Google has launched its AI chips into orbit, a step toward running artificial intelligence workloads on satellites in space. The move could reduce dependence on terrestrial data centres, but observers note the real challenges are still ahead: keeping chips reliable in harsh radiation and temperature conditions, managing heat, and proving the economics of space-based computing. Coverage across financial and market outlets highlights both the technical ambition and the scale of hurdles remaining.

Rimac Technology, the Croatian firm known for electric hypercars, is partnering with Ecoblox to develop power solutions for high-density AI data centres. The move aims to address the growing energy demands of AI infrastructure, which increasingly strains existing grid and power distribution systems. Coverage in the engineering press highlights the pairing of Rimac's battery and electrification expertise with Ecoblox's data centre technology.

Yandex's largest data centre has reportedly been fully shut down, leaving some of the company's services unavailable to users. Russian media are covering the disruption, while Ukrainian outlets are highlighting the outage with some satisfaction given Yandex's ties to the Russian state and its role in Russia's information ecosystem.