There are more than 3,000 new data centers being built or planned nationwide. There are $57 billion worth of proposed data center projects across Wisconsin. The state passed a sales and use tax exemption for qualified data centers in 2023. The AI boom was accelerating with the release of generative AI tools like ChatGPT and Claude. Data centers can drain municipal resources, drive up electric bills, rob cities of tax revenues and cause air pollution.
Amazon beat Wall Street’s first-quarter earnings expectations. Amazon Web Services saw its net sales increase 28% year-over-year, climbing to $37.6 billion. It was the fastest growth rate for AWS in 15 quarters. Amazon's free cash flow decreased to $1.2 billion for the trailing twelve months, driven by a year- over-year increase in purchases of property and equipment related to AI.
SoftBank is planning to create a new company called Roze AI to make data center construction in the U.S. more efficient. It would use autonomous robots to help build server farms. Some executives want Roze's IPO to happen by the second half of 2026. The desired valuation might be $100 billion.
Amazon shocked the stock market three months ago with an investment forecast of around $200 billion in AI, chips, robotics and satellites. Amazon boss Any Jassy said on Wednesday that the plan is largely unchanged and that AI is an opportunity that only comes once in a lifetime.
Rogers promised to create a national centre of technology and engineering excellence in Calgary when it bought Shaw in March 2021. It promised to hire 500 early-career technical experts for a Calgary "centre of excellence" once it closed the Shaw acquisition in April 2023. The advisory council announced in 2022 has mostly fallen away. Rogers has offered buyouts to about 10,000 staff across the country.
Samsung and SK Hynix are warning of a prolonged and severe global supply crunch. The two companies disclosed increased investments in their China wafer fabs to meet surging artificial intelligence demand. Samsung’s quarterly revenue jumped 69 per cent year on year to 133.9 trillion won (US$90.25 billion), while operating profit surged nearly eightfold to 57.2 trillion won.
Twin Metals Minnesota paid $380,000 to the Bernhardt Group in the year leading up to the resolution lifting the 20-year mining moratorium in Superior National Forest. The bill paves the way for a copper-nickel mine near the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness. Lawmakers in the Minnesota House look likely to support new legislation that bans the use of electric motorcycles on sidewalks.