Capital
Can the AI labs pay for the boom?
The most revealing document about Anthropic this year was not one the company wrote.
Pulling the wire
Rackline
Archive
Original Rackline reporting remains readable after it leaves the daily edition.
The front page and desks keep a rolling 24-hour file. This book preserves Rackline articles on persistent storage.
Power & Sites
AEP Ohio's 180-day rule puts supplier-failure risk on data centers, and Duke's tariff case is next
In AEP Ohio's territory, a data center that buys power from a competitive supplier now carries the cost if that supplier fails.
Power & Sites
MISO asks FERC for a 120-day fast track for data centers that bring their own power
The Midcontinent Independent System Operator has asked federal regulators to approve a fast-track review that would study a large new power customer and the generation built to serve it side by side, in about 120 days.
Chips & Supply
Nvidia Prepays KYEC to Reserve Chip-Testing Capacity in the U.S.
Nvidia is paying King Yuan Electronics in advance to build chip-testing capacity in the U.S.
Capital
Applied Materials Sets a 54% Gross Margin Goal for 2030 on AI Equipment Demand
Applied Materials set 2030 targets of a 54% gross margin and a 40% operating margin on Tuesday, saying it expects AI to push spending on chipmaking tools faster through 2030 than over the past decade.
Policy
Senate Democrats Press Meta on Using Research Credits for AI Data Centers
Seven Democrats on the Senate Finance Committee asked Meta Platforms to justify claiming the federal research tax credit on its AI data center buildout, a credit Meta says cut its federal tax bill by $6.6 billion from…
Capital
CoreWeave's $8.5 Billion Loan Prices the Customer's Credit, Not Its Own
CoreWeave is borrowing up to $8.5 billion at investment-grade rates against graphics-processor servers and the customer contract that pays for them, a structure that prices the customer's credit rather than its own.
Chips & Supply · Europe
ASML Lifts Its 2026 Floor and Warns It Cannot Build Enough Machines for 2027 and 2028
ASML Holding raised the bottom of its 2026 sales forecast on Wednesday and said it cannot build enough machines to meet chipmakers' demand in 2027 or 2028.
Technology
Marvell, Microsoft and Oracle Form Open Compute Group to Put Key Vaults Inside Servers
Marvell Technology, Microsoft and Oracle have formed a working group within the Open Compute Project to standardize a hardware security module that sits inside the server itself, the companies said Oct.
Technology
The 250-Kilowatt Rack Becomes the Open Compute Blueprint
At this week's Open Compute Project Global Summit in San Jose, much of the news was about the server rack.
Policy
Xcel's bid to freeze Minnesota rates sets up a January decision and a fallback 2027 rate case
Xcel Energy has given Minnesota regulators a choice to make by January: approve a two-year freeze on base rates paid for with accelerated tax credits, or expect a full electric rate case early in 2027.
Capital
Where the AI money goes: a venture map from power plants to apps
TypeSafe AI, the developer of a model called Jev, has raised $870 million in a Series A at a $7.5 billion valuation.
Power & Sites · Europe
Digital Realty's European bond run pre-funds a build cycle that now reaches Osaka in 2028
Digital Realty is using European debt markets to fund a construction pipeline that stretches years ahead, and the pricing of its latest deals shows what that money costs.
Power & Sites
Georgia's nuclear uprate tariff sells Google clean credits, not power, and leaves most of the risk with the buyer
Georgia has given hyperscalers a way to put money behind new carbon-free output without buying any of the power.
Power & Sites
Texas makes data centers put up $50,000 a megawatt before ERCOT will study them
A new Texas rule requires data centers and other very large electricity users to put money down before the state's grid operator will consider their request to connect.
Policy · Europe
ISO-NE proposes that new data centers of 50 MW or more bring their own new capacity to get firm service
New England's grid operator and its transmission owners want new data centers and other customers drawing 50 MW or more to line up new capacity before they can get firm transmission service, under rules due at federal…
Policy
Texas's data center permit freeze has three possible end points and no date
Three weeks after Gov. Greg Abbott froze state environmental permits for data center projects, developers have no date to plan around.
Power & Sites · Americas
BWXT's microreactor gets a Canadian pilot site; a definitive deal and licensing come next
BWX Technologies has a site, partners and a power buyer for its first commercial microreactor project in Canada.
Power & Sites
Indiana's first data center order under its large-load law sets a template AES Indiana must now deliver on
Indiana now has a working example of how its 2025 large-load law is meant to function.
Power & Sites
TeraWulf's 1-gigawatt Muskie contract puts the next test in front of Kentucky regulators
TeraWulf now has a gigawatt of contracted power on paper in eastern Kentucky.
Technology
Microsoft Plans Multi-Gigawatt Maia Rollout, Led by N2P-Based Maia 300
Microsoft said on Monday that it will scale its in-house Maia chips to multi-gigawatt deployments beginning in 2027, making the company's own silicon the primary inference system for its products and services.
Technology
Why AI Data Centers Cost So Much, and Why Power Is the Next Bill
The cost of an AI data center is no longer mainly the building.
Capital · Asia-Pacific
Biren Raises HK$4 Billion in Share Placing to Fund Production of Its Next AI Chip
Shanghai Biren Technology, a Chinese maker of AI processors, is raising about HK$4 billion from a share placing to buy production capacity and components for its next-generation chip, betting that supply will be the…
Capital
IonQ Agrees to Buy Elisity in All-Stock Deal Valued at Up to $1.3 Billion
IonQ, the quantum-computing company, has agreed to acquire Elisity, a network-security software maker, in an all-stock transaction valued at up to $1.3 billion, extending its push into security products ahead of the…
Power & Sites · Asia-Pacific
Firmus Drops Its ASX Listing and Turns to Private Capital to Fund Its AI Factories
Firmus, the Australian builder of AI data centers backed by Nvidia, has withdrawn its application to list on the Australian Securities Exchange and will seek funding from private investors instead, putting a company…
Power & Sites
Big Tech's Next Wave of Data-Center Obligations Is Sitting in the Footnotes
The biggest buyers of AI infrastructure report their borrowing on the balance sheet.
Technology
As AI Racks Head Toward a Megawatt, Power Delivery Becomes a Chip Business
A single rack of AI servers used to draw tens of kilowatts.
Chips & Supply · Asia-Pacific
Rapidus Builds a Design Network to Find Customers for Its 2-Nanometer Fab
Rapidus, the state-backed Japanese chipmaker trying to produce 2-nanometer logic chips in Hokkaido by 2027, has spent years proving it can make the transistors.
Chips & Supply · Asia-Pacific
SK Hynix's Yongin Timetable Is Now the Memory Market's Timetable
SK Hynix has put dates on the next stage of its giant chip complex in Yongin, south of Seoul, and those dates now set the pace for how much high-bandwidth memory the world's AI build-out can count on later this decade.
Chips & Supply · Asia-Pacific
Tata's Dholera Fab Lines Up Partners. The Test Is Turning Them Into Wafers
India's first commercial chip fab is collecting partners well before it makes a wafer.
Capital · Europe
Mistral Previews a Trillion-Parameter Model and Promises Open Weights by Month's End
Mistral AI has given itself until the end of October to deliver on the most consequential promise in its latest launch: releasing the full weights of Mistral Large 4, a model the Paris company says has about 1 trillion…
Technology · Europe
Finland Tells Google to Pause Site Work at Two Data Centers Until Environmental Reviews Finish
Two dates this month will show how far Finland's environmental rules can slow Google's largest European build-out.
Technology
Lumentum Bets on Capacity as AI Optics Demand Outruns Its Factories
Lumentum Holdings has spent 2026 buying factory space, reserving raw materials years ahead and taking money from its largest customer, all to make more of the indium-phosphide lasers that carry data between AI servers.
Chips & Supply
GlobalFoundries Signs $2 Billion Deal to Make TSMC Interposers in New York
GlobalFoundries has agreed to manufacture silicon interposers for TSMC at its plant in Malta, N.Y., under a five-year agreement the company valued at $2 billion.
Chips & Supply
Applied Materials pulls Intel deeper into EPIC as AI process R&D shifts to shared labs
Applied Materials’ Oct. 6 announcement that it is expanding collaboration with Intel at the EPIC Center is less a one-off partnership headline than a statement about where AI process R&D will be co-located.
Technology
Astera Labs’ Aries 7 bet is that PCIe 7 will need one copper-to-optical toolkit
Astera Labs’ Oct. 8 launch of Aries 7 frames PCIe 7 not as a single retimer socket but as a full signal-conditioning kit across copper and optical links.
Power & Sites · Asia-Pacific
CoreWeave’s 240 MW India plan with AdaniConneX extends the neocloud into a new growth market
CoreWeave’s Oct. 6 announcement that it will enter India with AdaniConneX puts another large block of AI capacity on a multi-year clock outside North America and Europe.
Capital
Marvell’s Investor Day raises the fiscal 2028 bar and sketches a $70bn–$90bn 2031 path
Marvell Technology’s Oct. 6 Investor Day in New York did more than refresh a slide deck: it reset how the company wants infrastructure investors to underwrite the next several years of data-center silicon.
Models & Labs · Europe
The AI model business, explained: who builds, who gives away, who pays
Mistral AI put Mistral Large 4 into public preview on Oct.
Power & Sites
FERC rejects PJM's plan to curtail new data centers, days after delaying its 6,831 MW backstop
Federal regulators on Oct. 9 accepted PJM Interconnection's plan to define and track data centers and other customers using 50 MW or more, but threw out the rest of the grid operator's proposal for handling them,…
Power & Sites
SPP members vote this week on their answer to FERC: a cap on shared grid costs for big new loads and a $25 cutoff for flexible ones
Southwest Power Pool's members vote this week on the rules the grid operator plans to send federal regulators by Nov.
Power & Sites
Bloom Energy makes its case that AI data centers should run on direct current from the start
Electricity reaches big buildings as alternating current, but chips run on direct current.
Technology
Oxide raises $445m to keep taking orders as demand for its on-premises cloud outruns its factory
Oxide Computer Company, which builds rack-scale cloud computers that businesses run in their own data centers, has raised a $445m Series D led by Eclipse, the company said on Oct.
Technology
Nvidia moves to set the rules for the batteries and cooling around its chips
Nvidia does not sell battery systems or cooling plants.
Power & Sites
Google backs $4.3bn of Constellation nuclear uprates to add 890 MW to the PJM grid
Constellation Energy will spend more than $4.3bn upgrading 11 of its nuclear units in Illinois, Pennsylvania and New Jersey to add 890 MW of new generating capacity to the PJM grid, backed by a 20-year power purchase…
Power & Sites
VEIR raises $110m to start building superconducting power lines for AI data centers
VEIR, a Massachusetts company that makes superconducting cables to carry electricity inside data centers, has closed a $110m Series C round to move from demonstrations to its first commercial installations and to scale…
Capital
SiMa.ai raises $150m at $1.45bn valuation to fund 1,000-TOPS physical AI chip
SiMa.ai, a San Jose chip designer that builds artificial-intelligence processors for robots, factory equipment and vehicles, has raised $150m in a Series C round that values the company at $1.45bn.
