NAACP threatens El Musk's xAI with a lawsuit over Memphis air pollution
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People sent a letter to Elon Musk’s xAI on Tuesday, indicating its intention to file a lawsuit against the company for air pollution coming from the data center of the AI startup in Memphis. Southern Environmental Law Center sent the letter on behalf of NAACP. It alleges that xAI violated federal laws by using methane turbines in its South Memphis data centre without obtaining permits or "best-available" pollution controls.
Amazon will invest $13 billion over 5 years in Australia's Data Center Infrastructure
Amazon announced in a Saturday blog post that it will invest A$20 Billion ($12.97 Billion) between 2025 and 2029 in Australia to expand, maintain, and operate its data center infrastructure. This investment is expected to boost the country's artificial-intelligence capabilities. Amazon has made its largest technology investment in Australia. The funding will be used to support new server capacity, as well as generative AI workloads. It added that the company will also invest in three new solar farm in Victoria and Queensland.
German utility RWE announces partnership with tech giant Amazon
The German utility RWE announced on Thursday a strategic framework deal with tech giant Amazon, in which the utility will deliver clean energy and receive cloud services in exchange. Cloud services include artificial intelligence and data analysis in exchange for electricity provided by RWE's solar and wind facilities. Some of these are already operational and others are in construction. RWE, a major utility company in Europe, has a portfolio of…
Wall Street stocks finish flat after choppy trading, as Treasury yields decrease
U.S. stock prices finished Thursday little changed, erasing an initial decline, as Treasury yields eased from recent highs following the House of Representatives' passage of President Donald Trump’s tax and spending plan. Stocks were under pressure on Thursday as longer-dated Treasury yields dropped, which allowed stocks to breathe. After reaching its highest level since February, the benchmark U.S. 10 year note yield dropped 5.4 basis points to 4,543%.
Evergy's pipeline for power users such as data centers has jumped to 11,2 GW
Evergy Inc.'s pipeline of very large electricity clients, such as data centers, has increased to 11,2 gigawatts, which is more than its current maximum total demand. Evergy, a Midwestern company that covers Missouri and Kansas in the United States, has announced an increase of 8% on its capital spending plan for 2025-2029, to $17.5 billion. The demand for cloud computing and artificial intelligence has pushed up U.S. electricity consumption after a two-decade hiatus. This year, the country is expected to hit record levels.
Utility Public Service Enterprise raises its spending plan and forecasts a higher profit in 2025
Public Service Enterprise Group, a U.S. electric utility and gas company, forecasted a higher profit in 2025 compared to the previous year and increased its five-year plan for capital expenditures. Utilities are experiencing a surge in power demand as Big Tech invests billions of dollars in developing artificial intelligence technology and infrastructure to support it. PSEG expects to spend between $22,5 billion and $26 billion in the five years from 2025 to 2029. This is an increase of $3 billion over its previous plan.
DeepSeek fears subside, US power companies spend more on data centers
U.S. Electric utilities are increasing their spending plans by tens and even hundreds of millions of dollars in order to upgrade the grid and build new power sources as artificial intelligence data centers and cloud computing drives up energy consumption. PPL Corp announced on its earnings call that it will increase capital investment by almost 40%, to $20 billion. Dominion which is the largest provider of data centers in Northern Virginia and Exelon, the utility giant, both revised their capital plans in the past week.
AEP considers a $10 billion increase in its five-year capital expenditure plan to meet data center demand
American Electric Power said on Thursday that it would consider adding $10 billion to the $54 billion capital plan, which is a record. The demand for data centres in the Midwest and Southern service areas of this U.S. utility has increased. The U.S. Power Companies have raised their capital investment and load forecasts as the technology industry invests billions in expanding energy-hungry cloud computing and artificial intelligence data centers. AEP has committed to 20 gigawatts in new power through 2029.
Chevron will build gas plants for data centers in the AI boom
The oil and gas company Chevron announced on Tuesday that it will build natural gas power plants near data centers in the U.S. as the energy demand for artificial intelligence growth is expected to grow. The second largest U.S. oil and gas producer has partnered with Engine No. The project is a partnership between Engine No. 1 and electric service company GE Vernova. Chevron announced the project a day after Chinese startup DeepSeek revealed an AI model it claims uses much less computing power than leading models in the United States.
Upwind, a cloud security company based in Israel and the United States, raises $100 Million
Upwind, a cloud security company based in the United States and Israel, announced on Monday that it had raised $100m from private investors to meet increasing demand as businesses move their data rapidly to cloud storage. Craft Ventures led the round, with new investors TCV, Alta Park Capital, and existing investors Greylock, Cyberstarts and Leaders Fund as well as Sheva founded by former NBA star Omri Casspi. The total funding for the company since its inception in 2022 is $180 million. These funds are mainly used to expand in the U.S.A. and Europe.
MARA, a cryptominer, taps the power generated by U.S. Shale Patch in a new pilot program
MARA Holdings Inc. has announced that it is now producing electricity in the U.S. Shale Patch as part of a program pilot to power 25 megawatts for its mining operations using excess natural gas. The company said that the move was made in response to the intensifying competition between Big Tech AI data centers for electricity, which has caused the crypto industry to change its business strategy and either market AI or find a way around the power battle.
Digitalization: Trust - The Keystone for Digital Transformation
The slowdown of the world economy and plummeting energy consumption have eclipsed most other industry news. Oil exporting countries are coming to terms with limiting production to sustain reasonable prices, and operators are looking for ways to improve efficiency. At the same time, the marketplace created by the pandemic is forcing companies to work differently. Telepresence and remote work have become the norm, and this directly impacts how work is organized and relationships are maintained.
Partners Bring AI to Energy
Baker Hughes, C3.ai, and Microsoft Corp. announced an alliance to bring enterprise artificial intelligence (AI) solutions to the energy industry on the Microsoft Azure cloud computing platform.This alliance will enable customers to streamline the adoption of scalable AI solutions for the energy industry that help promote safety, reliability, and sustainability. It leverages the energy technology expertise of Baker Hughes, C3.ai’s AI platform and applications, and the Microsoft Azure cloud computing platform.
G42, ADNOC JV for AI in Oil and Gas
With a goal of creating more artificial intelligence (AI) led solutions for the oil and gas sector, Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) has signed a deal with compatriot technology company Group 42 (G42) to create a new joint venture.The JV will be tasked with developing and commercializing market-leading AI products for the energy sector.The agreement was signed at the Abu Dhabi International Petroleum Exhibition and Conference (ADIPEC) by Omar Suwaina Al Suwaidi, Director, Executive Office Directorate, ADNOC, and Peng Xiao, CEO of G42.
Woodside to Implement Schlumberger's DELFI
Australia's largest oil and gas operator Woodside Energy will leverage Schlumberger's DELFI cognitive cloud-based software environment in an effort to increase consistency, reduce study cycle time and foster innovation in its subsurface characterization and development activities, Schlumberger announced on Tuesday.According to Schlumberger, the DELFI environment delivers extensive integration and connectivity across E&P domains from planning to operations, built around openness and extensibility.
Total Launches New Supercomputer
Energy major Total said its new supercomputer - which has propelled it to a world ranking as the most powerful computer in the sector - will enable its geologists to find oil faster, cheaper and with a better success rate.The Pangea III computer build by IBM will help process complex seismic data in the search for hydrocarbons 10 times faster that before, Total said on Tuesday.The computing power of the company has been increased to 31.7 so-called 'petaflops' from 6.7 petaflops in 2016…
Schlumberger Taps Google as Preferred Cloud Provider
Services company Schlumberger said on Monday it has renewed and expanded its agreement with Google Cloud to develop cloud-native exploration and production (E&P) applications to help its customers derive actionable insights from data and harness the power of Google’s cloud infrastructure and artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities.Schlumberger has deployed its oil and gas petrotechnical software suite, including WesternGeco Omega geophysical data…
Repsol, Emerson Pact for Geoscience R&D
Emerson and Repsol announced they have established a strategic alliance to deliver advanced subsurface geophysical technologies to reduce the time to prospect and produce first oil.Emerson, a global engineering and technology company, will work collaboratively with Spanish energy company Repsol to implement and deploy advanced subsurface imaging technologies, with core technologies developed by Repsol as part of Kaleidoscope, its 10-year innovation…
Exxon, Microsoft Ink Cloud Computing Deal for U.S. Shale
Exxon Mobil Corp and Microsoft Corp have agreed to use cloud technology in the U.S. oil producer's shale operations, they said on Friday, helping to boost profitability in the nation's largest shale field.The companies will collect data from Exxon's wells and other production assets in the Permian Basin of West Texas and New Mexico, where the world's largest publicly traded oil and gas company holds 1.6 million acres, and make it immediately accessible to Exxon workers.The value of the agreement was not disclosed.
BP Invests in New AI Technology
BP has invested further in artificial intelligence (AI) technology as part of an effort to accelerate project lifecycles, from exploration through to reservoir modeling.The super major announced Monday that its technology investment arm BP Ventures has infused $5 million into a Series A financing for Houston technology start-up Belmont Technology, which has developed a cloud-based geoscience platform that uses AI.Belmont’s platform, nicknamed Sandy…
