Short Reads Page 6

Today, Amazon revealed plans to build a massive $10 billion high-tech campus near Raleigh, North Carolina, designed to serve as a hub for cloud computing and artificial intelligence innovation. The new facility will feature state-of-the-art data centers, research labs, and collaborative spaces where engineers and researchers can develop next-generation AWS services and AI applications. (more…)

On June 3, 2025, Ubisoft officially shut down all servers for its free-to-play shooter, XDefiant, marking the end of a brief but lively experiment in arena-based combat. Launched last year with high hopes, XDefiant struggled to maintain player numbers despite strong initial buzz and frequent content updates. Today, players logged in one last time to find the matchmaking queue closed and a final farewell message from the development team. (more…)

On June 2, 2025, Apple submitted a formal challenge against the European Union’s recent mandate requiring the company to open its closed ecosystem to competitors, calling the order “unreasonable” and “innovation-stifling”. The EU’s directive aims to give third-party services access to Apple’s App Store and related APIs, but Apple argues that such a move would compromise user security and privacy. (more…)

On June 1, 2025, financial markets buzzed as tech giants once again took center stage. Since early April, Nvidia shares surged roughly 40%, while Microsoft climbed about 30%, collectively fueling the S&P 500’s impressive comeback. Investors cheered the AI chipmaker’s bullish guidance and strong earnings, which overshadowed lingering concerns about global uncertainties. Meanwhile, Microsoft’s robust cloud and AI revenue continued to reassure shareholders. (more…)

In a letter sent to Memphis city officials today, the NAACP asked for a temporary stop to operations at xAI’s newly established data center, expressing deep concern over potential environmental and health impacts. Residents living near the facility fear that emissions from backup generators and cooling equipment could degrade air quality in neighborhoods that have long faced pollution challenges. (more…)

At a federal hearing today, U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta pressed both the Justice Department and Google’s legal team on how generative AI tools could fundamentally alter the way people find information online. He questioned whether answers delivered directly by AI assistants might render standard search engines obsolete—and what measures a court could impose to preserve competition. (more…)

Today, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory announced plans to bring online a groundbreaking supercomputing system called “Doudna,” named in tribute to Nobel Prize–winning biochemist Jennifer Doudna. Slated for a 2026 launch at the NERSC facility, Doudna will harness Dell-built hardware paired with NVIDIA’s new Vera Rubin GPUs, all cooled by a state-of-the-art liquid system to maximize performance and energy efficiency. (more…)

Speaking at a major European tech conference today, OpenAI’s CFO Sarah Friar highlighted how the company’s switch to a public-benefit corporation lays the groundwork for a potential stock market debut—pending favorable market conditions and internal readiness. (more…)

Today, Microsoft officially launched its first Azure cloud region in Indonesia—strategically located in greater Jakarta. This new “Indonesia Central” hub delivers in-country data storage, enterprise-grade security, and three separate availability zones engineered for low latency and exceptional uptime. (more…)

Today, Alphabet’s autonomous driving unit, Waymo, received the green light from California regulators to extend its robotaxi operations into additional parts of the San Francisco Bay Area. (more…)