Concerns are being raised that neither the Commerce Department nor Nvidia are doing their due diligence when it comes to vetting Chinese firms cleared to handle the company's H200 AI chips. According to The New York Times, New Matrix is on the list of approved firms, yet its offices are empty, "a hollow gray shell with wires dangling from the ceiling where lights should be." In fact, the paper could find little evidence that the company exists in any meaningful way:

Only scant information can be found online about New Matrix, which was created 17 months ago. At the building that New Matrix lists as its address, a company directory does not …

Read the full story at The Verge.

OpenAI is now valued at $1.25 trillion in a new round of funding that has raised another $11 billion, according to Bloomberg. That would make it one of the world's most valuable companies, not long after raising $122 billion from investors in March at a valuation of $852 billion.

Echoing FT and Wall Street Journal reports from last week, Bloomberg says OpenAI is still pursuing additional investments that could increase the amount to $20 billion, and that it had initially hoped to raise as much as $30 billion at a higher valuation of $1.4 trillion. That was before tech stocks dropped, and the results of the midterms showed how much public o …

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China's intelligence agency recruited Megaspeed executive Alice Huang to spy on Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, according to The New York Times. The Ministry of State Security (MSS) enlisted her to glean information about American AI chips and "potentially influence the company to push for its most advanced chips to be made available to China." Megaspeed is a customer of Nvidia's, and Alice Huang also has "relationships with executives at the highest levels of the A.I. chip industry," including leaders at Gigabyte, the NYT says.

Last week, the NYT reported that Jensen Huang was seen as the target of a "Chinese spy plot" and shared details about Al …

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Massive new data centers are the physical foundation for tech companies’ hopes and dreams for AI. But the rush to expand warehouses full of energy-hungry servers has also kicked up fights across the world over their impact on power grids, utility bills, nearby communities, and the environment.

Data centers were a major bipartisan issue ahead of the 2026 midterms, and voters largely opposed data center expansion at the polls. Tech giants like OpenAI and Amazon are promising to work more closely with local communities and cover their data center energy costs. But following the election, Democratic leaders are calling for further data center restrictions and slowdowns that the AI companies will have to grapple with.

From audacious plans about data centers into space, heated local battles over buildouts, and potential environmental impacts, here’s The Verge’s news, coverage, and reporting surrounding data centers and the companies that are building them.

• Lame-duck Congress might actually do something: speed up energy projects
• “We are a data center first company,” AMD CEO Lisa Su says.
• OpenAI is stepping back from NDAs for data center projects
• This week in the big AI data center buildout.
• Data centers lost the midterms
• Maine Republican Susan Collins concedes Senate seat in a tech-fueled race.
• Democrat projected to win Ohio seat that Republicans warned could spell trouble for data centers.
• Data center-dense Texas turns blue.
• OpenAI is quietly renaming data centers ‘compute campuses’
• OpenAI pitches data center power plants as a way to protect nearby areas
• Could data center backlash flip Florida?
• Prop 45 in California could be hiding a loophole for data centers
• Maine’s data center revolt will decide who controls the Senate
• Data centers could send US climate pollution skyrocketing
• AI has come for Arizona’s water
• This week in the big AI data center buildout.
• Voters in Texas agree: They hate data centers
• Highway robbers are targeting trucks carrying data center components.
• Data center backlash is uniting America
• Anthropic is burning gas to feed the AI boom
• It’s a good time to sell gray paint.
• Data centers could erase decades of air quality gains
• This week in the big AI data center buildout.
• Trump says paying communities a “dividend” could make data centers more popular.
• Texas is still permitting data centers despite a supposed statewide moratorium.
• The fossil fuel comeback is here
• Microsoft abandons the UK’s largest data center project.
• Amazon is funding a new nuclear plant in Indiana
• You’ve got to hear both sides?
• Neocloud CoreWeave’s bonds are distressed, and so am I.
• This week in the big AI data center buildout.
• A bipartisan bill aims to hold data centers accountable for their energy use.
• This week in the big AI data center buildout.
• Google’s power-hungry data centers crave nuclear energy
• A Japanese real estate company is building a data center in an underground tunnel.
• If a data center is camouflaged in the woods, will anyone hate it?
• Amazon writes scary blog warning communities not to block data centers
• The People of Utah vs. Kevin O’Leary
• South Park has a data center infestation.
• This week in the big AI data center buildout.
• Trump: “You’re going to see — data centers are going to be very popular.”
• Google is sending an AI satellite into space next week
• Data centers are black boxes, but California wants to change that 
• Americans sour even more on data centers.
• California tightens rules on AI data center energy and water use
• Virginia governor creates an AI task force and moves to restrain data centers
• The AI data center e-waste problem is huge — and getting bigger
• This week in the big AI data center buildout.
• AI and data centers are incredibly unpopular in every poll
• This week in the big AI data center buildout.
• Is this the future of America?
• A Microsoft-backed data center has reportedly been running on unpermitted generators.
• Trump’s EPA wants to let data centers hide their air pollution
• This week in the big AI data center buildout.
• Now OpenAI’s former head of data centers is out.
• There’s a surge of new gas projects being built to power data centers in the US.
• The latest turn in the data center debate.
• This week in the big AI data center buildout.
• Nvidia guarantees up to $105 billion to support an OpenAI data center.
• This week in the big AI data center buildout.
• An Amazon data center could have the worst polluting power plant in the country
• The left and right agree on one thing: no data centers
• This week in the big AI data center buildout.
• AMD’s data center business is booming while gaming takes a backseat
• At least 37 people have reportedly been arrested for protesting data centers.
• Texas says data centers must pass an audit before connecting to the grid
• This week in the big AI data center buildout.
• Willie Nelson is pushing back against data centers in his hometown.
• Meta and BlackRock are building a data center campus together.
• The right-wing boomers protesting data centers have a lot in common with the left
• Utility companies promise to spare us from AI’s energy bill
• Meta reportedly considers leasing computing power to Anthropic.
• This week in the big AI data center buildout.
• AI’s power bill is here.
• New York becomes the first state to enact a data center moratorium
• The fight against AI data centers is just beginning
• Would you host part of an AI data center in your home?
• This week in the big AI data center buildout.
• Anthropic signs 20-year lease agreement for an AI data center in Kentucky.
• This week in the big AI data center buildout.
• Meta might launch its own cloud computing business.
• This week in the big AI data center buildout.
• Nvidia says its AI data center design runs hotter to use a lot less water
• Amazon employees say they’re facing termination for backing data center limits
• This week in the big AI data center buildout.
• xAI’s gas-powered data center is necessary for national security, DOJ argues.
• SpaceX reportedly rented out Colossus 1 AI data center after it ran into latency issues.
• Amazon’s data centers used 2.5 billion gallons of water last year
• This week in the big AI data center buildout.
• GM thinks EVs can help offset AI’s energy suck with vehicle-to-grid tech
• Amazon employees ask Seattle to put the brakes on new data centers
• The mayor of Shelbyville, Indiana, says only people who live in ‘shitty houses’ oppose data center
• New York lawmakers pass one-year ban on new data centers
• Kevin O’Leary agrees to downsize massive Utah data center
• This week in the big AI data center buildout.
• AI has a water problem — Google thinks it has a fix
• This week in the big AI data center buildout.
• Erin Brockovich created a map of data centers in the US.
• Anthropic is paying $15 billion a year for access to Elon Musk’s data centers
• What’s your score on the WSJ’s data center quiz?
• This week in the big AI data center buildout.
• The biggest data center ever is becoming a huge problem in Utah
• Use this map to find the data centers in your backyard
• Americans do not want AI data centers in their backyards
• This week in the big AI data center buildout.
• Data centers are coming for rural America
• Google may work with SpaceX to launch data centers into space.
• 43 percent of Americans blame data centers as a major reason for rising power bills.
• A 40,000-acre data center project was just approved in Utah, despite outcry from the community.
• A political battleground is forming around data centers.
• Are AI data centers coming to your area?
• Data centers will soon have to complete “mandatory” energy usage surveys.
• “A data center should not be a potential death sentence for a community’s health.”
• Iran threatens OpenAI’s Stargate data center in Abu Dhabi
• Senators are pushing to find out how much electricity data centers actually use
• Arm’s first CPU ever will plug into Meta’s AI data centers later this year
• Lake Tahoe has to look for a new power source as data center demand soars.
• How the spiraling Iran conflict could affect data centers and electricity costs
• Seven tech giants signed Trump’s pledge to keep electricity costs from spiking around data centers 
• Trump claims tech companies will sign deals next week to pay for their own power supply
• Anthropic says it’ll try to keep its data centers from raising electricity costs
• How an ‘icepocalypse’ raises more questions about Meta’s biggest data center project
• Microsoft wants to rewire data centers to save space
• New York is considering two bills to rein in the AI industry
• Elon Musk is merging SpaceX and xAI to build data centers in space — or so he says
• It’s a new heyday for gas thanks to data centers
• Microsoft gets approval to build 15 data centers in Mount Pleasant, Wisconsin.
• Meta is spending millions to convince people that data centers are cool and you like them
• The winter storm tested power grids straining to accommodate AI data centers
• Microsoft wants to build 15 data centers in Mount Pleasant, Wisconsin.
• OpenAI says its data centers will pay for their own energy and limit water usage
• ICE hits Meta data center project.
• Amazon is buying copper harvested by bacteria for its data centers
• Microsoft scrambles to quell fury around its new AI data centers
• Data center projects are dropping like flies.
• That’s a lot of money for just one data center job.
• Alphabet is acquiring a data center company.
• Communities are rising up against data centers — and winning
• Democratic lawmakers are investigating data centers’ impact on electricity costs 
• Billionaires want data centers everywhere, including space
• AI’s water and electricity use soars in 2025
• Racks of AI chips are too damn heavy
• The scramble to launch data centers into space is heating up
• Data center construction moratorium is gaining steam
• Satya Nadella acknowledged that data centers are “putting a lot of pressure” on power grids.
• The largest power grid system in the US is considering rolling blackouts because of energy-hungry data centers.
• Data centers in Oregon might be helping to drive an increase in cancer and miscarriages
• Nvidia says some AI GPUs are ‘sold out,’ grows data center business by $10B in just three months
• Data centers are already influencing the global forecast for clean energy.
• Anthropic will invest $50 billion in building AI data centers in the US
• Google has a ‘moonshot’ plan for AI data centers in space
• Google is turning on the gas for its data centers
• Why data centers are building their own power plants
• Electricity costs are up to 267 percent higher than they used to be in communities near data centers.
• Microsoft says this new cooling method could enable more powerful chips and efficient data centers
• OpenAI, Oracle, and SoftBank announced five new AI data centers as part of Stargate.
• Microsoft is turning Foxconn’s empty buildings into the ‘world’s most powerful’ AI data center
• Nvidia invests $5 billion into Intel to jointly develop PC and data center chips
• Tech companies ‘be on alert,’ NAACP says with new guiding principles for data centers
• Meta faces Democratic probe into plans to power a giant data center with gas
• Amazon is investing billions more into its Mississippi data centers.
• Mark Zuckerberg wants you to know he has a big AI data center, too
• Bill Gates’ nuclear energy startup inks new data center deal
• OpenAI and SoftBank are starting a $500 billion AI data center company
• CBS News reports OpenAI, Oracle, and Softbank will announce a “Stargate” AI data center project.
• Joe Biden signs executive order to speed AI data center construction
• Go read this report on Arizona data centers and those without power in the state.
• Google’s future data centers will be built next to solar and wind farms
• Meta is putting a $10 billion AI data center in Louisiana.
• xAI competitors are flying spy planes over the ‘Colossus’ data center.
• New AI data centers could raise Americans’ electricity bills.
• Some Memphis residents are pissed about xAI’s new data center.
• Can Meta clean up its data centers with geothermal energy?
• xAI faces accusations its data center is polluting the air.
• This climate tech startup wants to capture carbon and help data centers cool down
• Google plans to reuse heat after expanding a data center for AI
• AI and crypto mining are driving up data centers’ energy use
• Google’s new geothermal energy project is up and running
• The environmental impact of the AI revolution is starting to come into focus
• How data centers at public pools can keep swimmers warm
• Can hydrogen fuel cells power Microsoft data centers?

Following the Melania documentary movie that premiered earlier this year, Amazon is now planning to release a two-part Prime Video series focusing on the first lady. The show, Melania: The Series, is set to debut on November 20th.

"MELANIA, The Series reveals never-before-told stories, offering unprecedented insight into Melania Trump's life, including the extraordinary days immediately following the 47th Presidential Inauguration," according to a description in a press release.

Here's what Amazon says the two episodes will be about:

I. Family & Trust:

Melania Trump sets priorities as she prepares to become America's First Lady. B …

Read the full story at The Verge.

Someone at the White House appears to be running software that could enable outsiders to rent access on the presidential network for just "a few dollars," as reported by Krebs on Security and The Register. That's according to findings from the security firms Layer3 Intel and Synthient, which discovered residential proxy activity on the White House network.

A residential proxy opens up a way for people to rent access to a home IP address and route their internet traffic through it, allowing them to conceal where their activity is actually coming from. Some apps and browser extensions include third-party software development kits (SDKs) that …

Read the full story at The Verge.

Kobo is launching a new monthly subscription service called Stack that lets you upload your own ebooks and documents to the company's servers where they'll be synced across multiple devices and apps, including your reading progress, highlights, and annotations. Kobo Stack is similar to Amazon's Send to Kindle feature that allows users to upload a wide variety of files to their Kindle libraries for free, but Kobo's version will cost a few dollars each month.

Kobo Stack is being introduced as part of a major 6.0 update to the company's e-reader software, which is available in beta now as an optional upgrade ahead of a wider official release. …

Read the full story at The Verge.

Apple's iPhone Duo has been officially on sale for two weeks, and the company said today that the App Store now has over 100,000 apps that are built for the foldable.

"It's been wonderful to see how quickly developers have embraced iPhone Duo, and we're grateful for their creativity and innovation," Susan Prescott, Apple's VP of Worldwide Developer Relations, says in a statement. "Today there are well over 100,000 apps built for iPhone Duo already live on the App Store, and thousands of optimized apps are being added to the store each day." Prescott adds that "the enthusiasm has been incredible, and we're excited to see the pace of updates …

Read the full story at The Verge.

Lutra, a South Korean startup, has debuted a new brand called Humans of Authenticity (HOA) that's launching another screen-free digital camera that incorporates a large open viewfinder into its design, as spotted by PetaPixel. The camera is reminiscent of the Godox C100 but the HOA A1 positions its lens and sensor close to the center of its large viewfinder window so that a photographer can maintain eye contact with their subject, or feel more in the moment while framing a shot without staring at a screen.

The HOA A1 First Edition is expected to launch on December 1st in a very limited run of just 100 units. Preorders haven't started yet, b …

Read the full story at The Verge.

A researcher found over 100,000 words and phrases in "every major language" that are blocked from autocomplete and swipe-type in iOS, Reuters reports. The researcher, Derik Kauffman, says you can still type the words on the blocklist one letter at a time. But they won't pop up as predictive text suggestions and iOS's keyboard may automatically alter them when swipe-typing, like changing "left wing conspiracy" to "left wrong conspiracy."

Kauffman posted the full list online, including the individual lists for different languages.

Most of the words and phrases on the list are offensive, slurs, or related to topics like sex and drugs. But it …

Read the full story at The Verge.

Fox has officially closed its $22 billion acquisition of Roku, the companies announced on Friday. With Roku under its umbrella, Fox now controls a major streaming platform that reaches more than 100 million households in the US.

First announced in June, the deal will allow Fox to bring Fox Sports, news content, and local stations to Roku. "I would expect that we can grow our viewership in the US with a combination of Roku technology, Roku's platform, the tremendous content that's on The Roku Channel, and the content that Fox brings to it as well," Fox CEO Lachlan Murdoch said at the time. Along with Roku, Fox also operates its own Fox One s …

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Netflix isn't done with Hawkins, Indiana just yet. The streamer just announced a live-action spinoff of Stranger Things which is expected to debut in 2028. It's called Other Worlds: A Stranger Things Adventure.

There aren't a lot of details, but the show will be going back in time quite a bit. According to Netflix, Other Worlds is "a prequel set in the 1950s, before Stranger Things and before the stage play Stranger Things: The First Shadow." Franchise creators the Duffer brothers are back on board, and Stranger Things veteran Kate Trefry will serve as showrunner. British director Joe Wright is set to helm the first three episodes.

In a st …

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Amazon is adding a new feature to Alexa for Shopping that allows customers to purchase items by texting the AI shopping assistant. Users can describe the products they're looking to buy and/or provide a photograph of the item, and Alexa for Shopping will search for matching results in Amazon listings, text back with recommendations, and order the item on the users' behalf.

This launch builds on the existing Alexa for Shopping experience that launched in May, allowing users to place orders during moments where texting is more convenient than using Amazon's app or website. The contact will appear in your phone as "Amazon Alexa," and can be us …

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Protesters have broken into a construction site of a new Microsoft data center in Amsterdam this morning. Members of the Geef Tegengas group helped organize the protest against the construction of three 85-meter data center towers in the outskirts of Amsterdam.

Reuters reports that around 100 people made it into the construction site, with some scaling a crane to place a "fuck AI" banner. Protesters also unfurled a "Microsoft powers genocide" banner on the construction site, and chanted "Microsoft has got to go" and "free Palestine."

Opposition to the new data center in Amsterdam comes more than a year after the city banned new data center …

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Tesla is getting the Cybertruck ready for retirement in an effort to ramp up its robotaxi output. In an X post on Friday, Tesla CEO Elon Musk said that the company will be "winding down" Cybertruck production at its Texas Gigafactory sometime around the middle of next year, "to make room for increased Cybercab production."

The production plant in Austin, Texas, is the only Tesla facility that's known to assemble the Cybertruck, and that's equipped to make the specialized components required to build the vehicles. Musk hasn't mentioned if Cybertruck production will be moved elsewhere, but doing so would be arduous, especially for a car that' …

Read the full story at The Verge.

Following this week's midterms where voters resoundingly voiced their opposition to data center expansion, OpenAI today announced new commitments to communities where it is working on data center projects, including that it won't use non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) with public officials.

Many data center projects have come under scrutiny for relying on NDAs to hide discussions between developers and local officials. However, OpenAI says it is now allowing "only narrow protections covering legitimate security information, trade secrets, or proprietary or competitively sensitive information." In October, Amazon announced it would no longer u …

Read the full story at The Verge.

Airbnb plans to roll out an AI agent in the first half of 2027 that will help users plan and book travel, the company said in its Q3 2026 earnings shareholder letter released today.

"Today's AI agents are good at simple, routine tasks, like making a restaurant reservation or scheduling an appointment," Airbnb said. "But planning a trip on Airbnb is different." The company argued that its experience matching hosts and guests, its current role in being part of reservations already, and a "new interface" built "specifically for travel" gives it an edge.

Here's how Airbnb says that new interface will work:

We don't think a traditional chatbo …

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The New York Times Company is in talks"exclusive negotations" to acquire Letterboxd, the social network for film lovers, for around $330 million, The New York Times reports. The Times Company, Sony Pictures Entertainment, and A24 were all recently rumored to be among those interested in buying Letterboxd.

The negotiations with the Times Company have included the potential for Letterboxd's co-founders to stay in charge but report to a Times Company executive. Letterboxd would likely remain standalone for the "foreseeable future," according to the NYT. The company would also integrate the Times Company's ad tech.

NYT spokesperson Charlie Sta …

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The head of T-Mobile's parent company is casting doubt on SpaceX's plans to make Starlink Mobile a "major" carrier in the US. During an earnings call on Thursday, Deutsche Telekom CEO Tim Höttges says he takes the Elon Musk-owned company "super serious," but that it will cost at least $200 billion to pull off:

He [Musk] has now bought 76 megahertz of spectrum. By the way, we have 400. So if you now say he can buy the spectrum prospectively, do your math. These are kind of triple-digit billions which are needed to gain the spectrum position. If he has the money, go for it. Then he has to build a network. I can tell you, we have 85,000 tower …

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Perplexity is taking on OpenAI and Anthropic with its own work-focused AI agents. The startup's new always-on "Teammates" can take on multiple roles within a workspace, while pulling existing projects, skills, and memory from the Perplexity tools you already use.

Teammates integrate with Perplexity Computer, an AI system that can deploy agents on your device to complete tasks. But Perplexity says Teammates "build on top" of Computer by offering the ability to collaborate and complete "ongoing, large-scale work." You can assign each Teammate different jobs that they can perform simultaneously - much like OpenAI's Dots and Claude Duet. Perple …

Read the full story at The Verge.