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The Download: how to survive a conspiracy theory, and moldy cities

This is today’s edition of The Download, our weekday newsletter that provides a daily dose of what’s going on in the world of technology. What it’s like to be in the middle of a conspiracy theory (according to a conspiracy theory expert) —Mike Rothschild is a journalist and an expert on the growth and impact of conspiracy theories and disinformation.It’s something of a familiar cycle by now: Tragedy hits; rampant misinformation and conspiracy theories follow. It’s often even more acute in the case of a natural disaster, when conspiracy theories about what “really” caused the calamity run right into culture-war-driven climate change denialism. Put together, these theories obscure real causes while elevating fake ones.I’ve studied these ideas extensively, having spent the last 10 years writing about conspiracy theories and disinformation as a journalist and researcher. I’ve covered everything from the rise of QAnon to whether Donald Trump faked his assassination attempt. I’ve written three books, testified to Congress, and even written a report for the January 6th Committee.  Still, I’d never lived it. Not until my house in Altadena, California, burned down. Read the full story. This story is part of MIT Technology Review’s series “The New Conspiracy Age,” on how the present boom in conspiracy theories is reshaping science and technology. Check out the rest of the series here. It’s also featured in this week’s MIT Technology Review Narrated podcast, which we publish each week on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.  If you’d like to hear more from Mike, he’ll be joining our features editor Amanda Silverman and executive editor Niall Firth for a subscriber-exclusive Roundtable conversation exploring how we can survive in the age of conspiracies. It’s at 1pm ET on Thursday November 20—register now to join us! This startup thinks slime mold can help us design better cities It is a yellow blob with no brain, yet some researchers believe a curious organism known as slime mold could help us build more resilient cities.Humans have been building cities for 6,000 years, but slime mold has been around for 600 million. The team behind a new startup called Mireta wants to translate the organism’s biological superpowers into algorithms that might help improve transit times, alleviate congestion, and minimize climate-related disruptions in cities worldwide. Read the full story. —Elissaveta M. Brandon This story is from the latest print issue of MIT Technology Review magazine, which is full of fascinating stories about our bodies. If you haven’t already, subscribe now to receive future issues once they land. The must-reads I’ve combed the internet to find you today’s most fun/important/scary/fascinating stories about technology. 1 US government officials are skipping COP30And American corporate executives are following their lead. (NYT $)+ Protestors stormed the climate talks in Brazil. (The Guardian)+ Gavin Newsom took aim at Donald Trump’s climate policies onstage. (FT $) 2 The UK may assess AI models for their ability to generate CSAMIts government has suggested amending a legal bill to enable the tests. (BBC)+ US investigators are using AI to detect child abuse images made by AI. (MIT Technology Review) 3 Google is suing a group of Chinese hackersIt claims they’re selling software to enable criminal scams. (FT $)+ The group allegedly sends colossal text message phishing attacks. (CBS News)4 A major ‘cryptoqueen’ criminal has been jailedQian Zhimin used money stolen from Chinese pensioners to buy cryptocurrency now worth billions. (BBC)+ She defrauded her victims through an elaborate ponzi scheme. (CNN) 5 Carbon capture’s creators fear it’s being misusedOverreliance on the method could breed overconfidence and cause countries to delay reducing emissions. (Bloomberg $)+ Big Tech’s big bet on a controversial carbon removal tactic. (MIT Technology Review) 6 The UK will use AI to phase out animal testing3D bioprinted human tissues could also help to speed up the process. (The Guardian)+ But the AI boom is looking increasingly precarious. (WSJ $) 7 Louisiana is dealing with a whooping cough outbreakTwo infants have died to date from the wholly preventative disease. (Undark) 8 Here’s how ordinary people use ChatGPTEmotional support and discussions crop up regularly.(WP $)+ It’s surprisingly easy to stumble into a relationship with an AI chatbot. (MIT Technology Review) 9 Inside the search for lost continentsA newly-discovered mechanism is shedding light on why they may have vanished. (404 Media)+ How environmental DNA is giving scientists a new way to understand our world. (MIT Technology Review) 10 AI is taking Gen Z’s entry-level jobsEspecially in traditionally graduate-friendly consultancies. (NY Mag $)+ What the Industrial Revolution can teach us about how to handle AI. (Knowable Magazine)+ America’s corporate boards are stumbling in the dark. (WSJ $) Quote of the day “We can’t eat money.” —Nato, an Indigenous leader from the Tupinamba community, tells Reuters why they are protesting at the COP30 climate summit in Brazil against any potential sale of their land. One more thing How K-pop fans are shaping elections around the globeBack in the early ‘90s, Korean pop music, known as K-pop, was largely conserved to its native South Korea. It’s since exploded around the globe into an international phenomenon, emphasizing choreography and elaborate performance.It’s made bands like Girls Generation, EXO, BTS, and Blackpink into household names, and inspired a special brand of particularly fierce devotion in their fans.Now, those same fandoms have learned how to use their digital skills to advocate for social change and pursue political goals—organizing acts of civil resistance, donating generously to charity, and even foiling white supremacist attempts to spread hate speech. Read the full story.—Soo Youn We can still have nice things A place for comfort, fun and distraction to brighten up your day. (Got any ideas? Drop me a line or skeet ’em at me.) + These sucker fish are having the time of their lives hitching a ride on a whale.+ Next time you fly, ditch the WiFi. I know I will.+ I love this colossal interactive gif.+ The hottest scent in perfumery right now? Smelling like a robot, apparently.

This is today’s edition of The Download, our weekday newsletter that provides a daily dose of what’s going on in the world of technology.

What it’s like to be in the middle of a conspiracy theory (according to a conspiracy theory expert)

—Mike Rothschild is a journalist and an expert on the growth and impact of conspiracy theories and disinformation.

It’s something of a familiar cycle by now: Tragedy hits; rampant misinformation and conspiracy theories follow. It’s often even more acute in the case of a natural disaster, when conspiracy theories about what “really” caused the calamity run right into culture-war-driven climate change denialism. Put together, these theories obscure real causes while elevating fake ones.

I’ve studied these ideas extensively, having spent the last 10 years writing about conspiracy theories and disinformation as a journalist and researcher. I’ve covered everything from the rise of QAnon to whether Donald Trump faked his assassination attempt. I’ve written three books, testified to Congress, and even written a report for the January 6th Committee. 

Still, I’d never lived it. Not until my house in Altadena, California, burned down. Read the full story.

This story is part of MIT Technology Review’s series “The New Conspiracy Age,” on how the present boom in conspiracy theories is reshaping science and technology. Check out the rest of the series here. It’s also featured in this week’s MIT Technology Review Narrated podcast, which we publish each week on Spotify and Apple Podcasts. 

If you’d like to hear more from Mike, he’ll be joining our features editor Amanda Silverman and executive editor Niall Firth for a subscriber-exclusive Roundtable conversation exploring how we can survive in the age of conspiracies. It’s at 1pm ET on Thursday November 20—register now to join us!

This startup thinks slime mold can help us design better cities

It is a yellow blob with no brain, yet some researchers believe a curious organism known as slime mold could help us build more resilient cities.

Humans have been building cities for 6,000 years, but slime mold has been around for 600 million. The team behind a new startup called Mireta wants to translate the organism’s biological superpowers into algorithms that might help improve transit times, alleviate congestion, and minimize climate-related disruptions in cities worldwide. Read the full story.

—Elissaveta M. Brandon

This story is from the latest print issue of MIT Technology Review magazine, which is full of fascinating stories about our bodies. If you haven’t already, subscribe now to receive future issues once they land.

The must-reads

I’ve combed the internet to find you today’s most fun/important/scary/fascinating stories about technology.

1 US government officials are skipping COP30
And American corporate executives are following their lead. (NYT $)
+ Protestors stormed the climate talks in Brazil. (The Guardian)
+ Gavin Newsom took aim at Donald Trump’s climate policies onstage. (FT $)

2 The UK may assess AI models for their ability to generate CSAM
Its government has suggested amending a legal bill to enable the tests. (BBC)
+ US investigators are using AI to detect child abuse images made by AI. (MIT Technology Review)

3 Google is suing a group of Chinese hackers
It claims they’re selling software to enable criminal scams. (FT $)
+ The group allegedly sends colossal text message phishing attacks. (CBS News)

4 A major ‘cryptoqueen’ criminal has been jailed
Qian Zhimin used money stolen from Chinese pensioners to buy cryptocurrency now worth billions. (BBC)
+ She defrauded her victims through an elaborate ponzi scheme. (CNN)

5 Carbon capture’s creators fear it’s being misused
Overreliance on the method could breed overconfidence and cause countries to delay reducing emissions. (Bloomberg $)
+ Big Tech’s big bet on a controversial carbon removal tactic. (MIT Technology Review)

6 The UK will use AI to phase out animal testing
3D bioprinted human tissues could also help to speed up the process. (The Guardian)
+ But the AI boom is looking increasingly precarious. (WSJ $)

7 Louisiana is dealing with a whooping cough outbreak
Two infants have died to date from the wholly preventative disease. (Undark)

8 Here’s how ordinary people use ChatGPT
Emotional support and discussions crop up regularly.(WP $)
+ It’s surprisingly easy to stumble into a relationship with an AI chatbot. (MIT Technology Review)

9 Inside the search for lost continents
A newly-discovered mechanism is shedding light on why they may have vanished. (404 Media)
+ How environmental DNA is giving scientists a new way to understand our world. (MIT Technology Review)

10 AI is taking Gen Z’s entry-level jobs
Especially in traditionally graduate-friendly consultancies. (NY Mag $)
+ What the Industrial Revolution can teach us about how to handle AI. (Knowable Magazine)
+ America’s corporate boards are stumbling in the dark. (WSJ $)

Quote of the day

“We can’t eat money.”

—Nato, an Indigenous leader from the Tupinamba community, tells Reuters why they are protesting at the COP30 climate summit in Brazil against any potential sale of their land.

One more thing

How K-pop fans are shaping elections around the globe

Back in the early ‘90s, Korean pop music, known as K-pop, was largely conserved to its native South Korea. It’s since exploded around the globe into an international phenomenon, emphasizing choreography and elaborate performance.

It’s made bands like Girls Generation, EXO, BTS, and Blackpink into household names, and inspired a special brand of particularly fierce devotion in their fans.

Now, those same fandoms have learned how to use their digital skills to advocate for social change and pursue political goals—organizing acts of civil resistance, donating generously to charity, and even foiling white supremacist attempts to spread hate speech. Read the full story.

—Soo Youn

We can still have nice things

A place for comfort, fun and distraction to brighten up your day. (Got any ideas? Drop me a line or skeet ’em at me.)

+ These sucker fish are having the time of their lives hitching a ride on a whale.
+ Next time you fly, ditch the WiFi. I know I will.
+ I love this colossal interactive gif.
+ The hottest scent in perfumery right now? Smelling like a robot, apparently.

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Sister Companies MODEC America, SOFEC Merge

MODEC Inc said Tuesday it is combining its wholly owned companies MODEC America Inc and SOFEC Inc to create an integrated mooring solutions business. “SOFEC will be fully integrated into the MODEC Group by becoming the new Mooring Solutions Business Unit”, Tokyo-based MODEC said in a statement on its website. “Importantly, the new Mooring Solutions Business Unit will maintain SOFEC’s commitment to the wider offshore market. “It will continue to provide SOFEC-branded mooring solutions for clients other than MODEC, ensuring the continuation of the same quality, performance and reliability that SOFEC mooring systems have delivered for over 50 years, now with the strong backing and financial strength of the MODEC Group. “As an industry leader, MODEC has over half a century of experience and a strong track record, having delivered more than 50 floating production solutions for offshore oil and gas projects worldwide. In support of these projects, SOFEC, renowned for its cutting-edge permanent mooring systems and fluid transfer technologies, has supplied mooring systems for a total of 49 FPSOs/FSOs [floating production, storage and offloading vessels] built by MODEC, including four currently under construction”. MODEC president and chief executive Hirohiko Miyata said, “This strategic merger will allow the MODEC Group to provide an integrated project team to supply floating facilities with SOFEC mooring solutions to their clients, while enabling the Mooring Solutions Business Unit to support other floater providers with SOFEC-branded mooring solutions that deliver added value”. MODEC expects to complete the merger January 2026. “The impact of this merger on MODEC’s consolidated results and financial position is expected to be immaterial”, MODEC said. On Wednesday MODEC reported an 11.9 percent year-on-year increase to $3.35 billion in revenue for the first nine months of 2025 “due to the recognition of revenue and gross profit from the steady progress of the FPSO

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US Urges NATO Allies to Shun Russian Energy

The US urged NATO allies to stop buying Russian energy in order to help end the war in Ukraine, adding pressure on member countries such as Turkey even as they cut back their purchases. The message was delivered by Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio in a meeting with Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan on Monday, the State Department said in a statement. Turkey is the third-largest buyer of Russian oil after China and India. Its refineries recently started to reduce purchases of Russian crude after the US sanctioned Moscow’s top two producers, but the country doesn’t plan to stop buying altogether, Bloomberg reported last week. Russia is also Turkey’s biggest supplier of natural gas and the two sides are currently negotiating long-term contracts as existing deals are set to expire at the end of the year. US pressure “could pose a potential headache” for Turkey, Bloomberg Economics’ Selva Bahar Baziki and Alex Kokcharov said in a note on Tuesday. “But thanks to diversification, Ankara appears well placed to absorb the impact and keep any rise in its import bill manageable.” Trump last week granted NATO ally Hungary an exemption from sanctions on purchases of Russian oil, providing a major win for Prime Minister Viktor Orban. What do you think? We’d love to hear from you, join the conversation on the Rigzone Energy Network. The Rigzone Energy Network is a new social experience created for you and all energy professionals to Speak Up about our industry, share knowledge, connect with peers and industry insiders and engage in a professional community that will empower your career in energy.

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Coterra’s net income surges, Kimmeridge calls for leadership change

Coterra Energy Inc. yesterday reported third-quarter 2025 net income of $322 million up sharply from $252 million from the year-earlier quarter. Year-to-date net income was nearly $1.35 billion, a 64% increase from the first 9 months of 2024. For third-quarter 2025, total barrels of oil equivalent (boe), natural gas production, and oil production were all near the high-end of the company’s guidance ranges, beating their respective mid-points by roughly 2.5%. Incurred capital expenditures from drilling, completion, and other fixed asset additions (non-GAAP) totaled $658 million, near the mid-point of Coterra’s guidance range of $625-675 million. The company turned in-line 48 net wells during the quarter. In the Permian, 38 net wells were turned in-line, below guidance of 40-50 net wells. Anadarko and Marcellus turned in-line six and four net wells, respectively, in line with guidance. Total equivalent production averaged 785,000 boe/d, near the high end of guidance (740,000-790,000 boe/d). But private investment firm Kimmeridge, describing itself as a significant Coterra shareholder, today released an open letter to Coterra’s board calling for “decisive action to address the company’s failures of governance and lack of strategic focus following the failed merger of Cabot Oil & Gas and Cimarex Energy,” up to and including a change of leadership. Coterra was created by the 2021 merger of these two companies. “Coterra’s history has been tainted by a boardroom unwilling to acknowledge its own missteps,” said Mark Viviano, managing partner at Kimmeridge. “Coterra now trades at a significant discount to both Permian and gas-focused peers, underscoring the market’s rejection of a merger that prioritized self-preservation over strategic merit. Kimmeridge maintains that Coterra’s path forward hinges on new leadership and a renewed focus on the Delaware basin. The Board should immediately appoint a non-executive chair who is independent and unassociated with the merger to restore objectivity

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Diamondback production and output ‘leveling off’ late this year and into 2026

Van’t Hof told analysts on the conference call that the demand picture looks strong these days and that “supply is the hot debate right now.” In a letter accompanying Diamondback’s third-quarter earnings report, he added that the company’s leaders are more aligned with OPEC’s forecast that oversupply through mid-2026 will be less than 500,000 b/d than they are with the International Energy Agency’s outlook of a nearly 4 million b/d surplus. Diamondback, which produced nearly 504,000 b/d of oil in Q3 from its roughly 750,000 net acres in the Permian basin, is content to hold its production levels steady but still be prepared to either boost or bring down output should market conditions change significantly. “We firmly believe there is no need for incremental oil barrels until there is a proper price signal,” Van’t Hof wrote in his letter. In the 3 months that ended Sept. 30, Diamondback’s total production came in at nearly 943,000 boe/d, up from about 920,000 boe/d in the second quarter. The company’s average price/bbl moved up to $64.60 from $63.23 in the spring but was still 12% below the figure from 2024’s third quarter. Its combined price ticked up slightly to $39.73/boe from $39.61 in Q2. Those data points translated into net income of $1.09 billion on total revenues of more than $3.9 billion. Looking to the current quarter, Van’t Hof and his team are forecasting oil output of 505,000 to 515,000 b/d. (That figure will dip to about 505,000 b/d after the company completes an asset sale to its Viper Energy mineral and royalty subsidiary.) They expect total production to be between 927,000 and 963,000 boe/d. Shares of Diamondback (Ticker: FANG) were down nearly 2% to $138.69 in early-afternoon trading Nov. 4, with broader market indices all down more than 1%. Diamondback stock is

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TotalEnergies Bags 10-Year Data4 Green Power Supply Contract

TotalEnergies SE has won a 10-year contract to supply Data4 data centers in Spain with a total of 610 gigawatt hours (GWh) of renewable electricity starting 2026. The power will come from Spanish wind and solar farms with a combined capacity of 30 MW. The plants “are about to start production”, a joint statement said. “As European leader in the data center industry, Data4 is now established in six countries, and announced its plan to invest nearly EUR 2 billion [$2.32 billion] by 2030 to develop its campuses in Spain. This agreement with TotalEnergies reaffirms Data4’s engagement to fully integrate renewable energy across all its locations”, the statement added. “The PPA with Data4 follows similar contracts signed by TotalEnergies with STMicroelectronics, Saint-Gobain, Air Liquide, Amazon, LyondellBasell, Merck, Microsoft, Orange and Sasol, and provides a further illustration of TotalEnergies’ ability to develop innovative solutions by leveraging its diverse asset portfolio to support its customers’ decarbonization efforts”, the statement said. Sophie Chevalier, senior vice president for flexible power and integration at France’s TotalEnergies, said, “Our ‘Clean Firm Power’ solutions are specifically designed to meet our clients’ requirements in terms of cost, consumption profile and environmental commitment. These solutions are based on our integrated power portfolio, combining both renewable and flexible assets, and contribute to achieving our target of 12 percent profitability in the power sector”. Francois Sterin, chief operation officer at Paris-based Data4, said, “This agreement reaffirms Data4’s commitment to renewable energy which is more crucial than ever as the race for AI accelerates and the energy capacity required for all data centers in Spain is expected to more than triple by 2030”. TotalEnergies says it is developing a 3-GW solar portfolio under agreements signed 2020 with Powertis and Solarbay Renewable Energy, as well as with Ignis.  Earlier this year TotalEnergies inaugurated a cluster of solar power projects near Sevilla. It said at the

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Uniper Posts $52B Nine-Month Sales Revenue

Uniper SE has reported EUR 44.83 billion ($51.89 billion) in sales for the first nine months of 2025, down from EUR 48.26 billion for January-September 2024 partly due to a portfolio decrease from asset sales. Net profit adjusted for nonrecurring items for the first three quarters of 2025 was EUR 268 million, compared to EUR 1.32 billion for the same period last year. Earnings per share for January-September 2025 landed at EUR 1.35, down from EUR 1.92, the German power and gas utility reported on its website. Before adjustment, net income was EUR 568 million, down from EUR 841 million year-on-year. Adjusted EBITDA for January-September 2025 totaled EUR 641 million, compared to EUR 2.18 billion for the 2024 comparable period. Adjusted EBIT came at EUR 235 million, compared to EUR 1.72 billion for January-September 2024. Green Generation adjusted EBITDA fell year-over-year from EUR 738 million to EUR 540 million. “The price level in northern Sweden remains lower than in the prior-year period, mainly because of high reservoir levels in the first half of 2025”, offsetting a higher power output in the country, Uniper said. The shutdown of the Oskarshamn 3 nuclear power station from the start of the second quarter of 2025 also “adversely affected earnings” from Sweden, Uniper said. The plant was restarted up November 2, it said. “Earnings at Uniper’s hydropower business in Germany were slightly lower, too. Pumped-storage power plants’ contribution to earnings was smaller, whereas that of run-of-river power plants, which benefited from more favorable market conditions, was larger”, Uniper added. Flexible Generation adjusted EBITDA dropped from EUR 1.06 billion to EUR 459 million. “Adverse factors included a decline in earnings on hedging transactions on the fossil trading margin and a smaller generation portfolio”, Uniper said. “The latter especially reflects the decommissioning of Ratcliffe power plant in

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Harnessing Gravity: RRPT Hydro Reimagines Data Center Power

At the 2025 Data Center Frontier Trends Summit, amid panels on AI, nuclear, and behind-the-meter power, few technologies stirred more curiosity than a modular hydropower system without dams or flowing rivers. That concept—piston-driven hydropower—was presented by Expanse Energy Corporation President and CEO Ed Nichols and Chief Electrical Engineer Gregory Tarver during the Trends Summit’s closing “6 Moonshots for the 2026 Data Center Frontier” panel. Nichols and Tarver joined the Data Center Frontier Show recently to discuss how their Reliable Renewable Power Technology (RRPT Hydro) platform could rewrite the economics of clean, resilient power for the AI era. A New Kind of Hydropower Patented in the U.S. and entering commercial readiness, RRPT Hydro’s system replaces flowing water with a gravity-and-buoyancy engine housed in vertical cylinders. Multiple pistons alternately sink and rise inside these cylinders—heavy on the downward stroke, buoyant on the upward—creating continuous motion that drives electrical generation. “It’s not perpetual motion,” Nichols emphasizes. “You need a starter source—diesel, grid, solar, anything—but once in motion, the system sustains itself, converting gravity’s constant pull and buoyancy’s natural lift into renewable energy.” The concept traces its roots to a moment of natural awe. Its inventor, a gas-processing engineer, was moved to action by the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami, seeking a way to “containerize” and safely harvest the vast energy seen in that disaster. Two decades later, that spark has evolved into a patented, scalable system designed for industrial deployment. Physics-Based Power: Gravity Down, Buoyancy Up Each RRPT module operates as a closed-loop hydropower system: On the downstroke, pistons filled with water become dense and fall under gravity, generating kinetic energy. On the upstroke, air ballast tanks lighten the pistons, allowing buoyant forces to restore potential energy. By combining gravitational and buoyant forces—both constant, free, and renewable—RRPT converts natural equilibrium into sustained mechanical power.

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Buyer’s guide to AI networking technology

Extreme Networks: AI management over AI hardware Extreme deliberately prioritizes AI-powered network management over building specialized hyperscale AI infrastructure, a pragmatic positioning for a vendor targeting enterprise and mid-market.Named a Leader in IDC MarketScape: Worldwide Enterprise Wireless LAN 2025 (October 2025) for AI-powered automation, flexible deployment options and expertise in high-density environments. The company specializes in challenging wireless environments including stadiums, airports and historic venues (Fenway Park, Lambeau Field, Dubai World Trade Center, Liverpool FC’s Anfield Stadium). Key AI networking hardware 8730 Switch: 32×400GbE QSFP-DD fixed configuration delivering 12.8 Tbps throughput in 2RU for IP fabric spine/leaf designs. Designed for AI and HPC workloads with low latency, robust traffic management and power efficiency. Runs Extreme ONE OS (microservices architecture). Supports integrated application hosting with dedicated CPU for VM-based apps. Available Q3 2025. 7830 Switch: High-density 100G/400G fixed-modular core switch delivering 32×100Gb QSFP28 + 8×400Gb QSFP-DD ports with two VIM expansion slots. VIM modules enable up to 64×100Gb or 24×400Gb total capacity with 12.8 Tbps throughput in 2RU. Powered by Fabric Engine OS. Announced May 2025, available Q3 2025. Wi-Fi 7 access points: AP4020 (indoor) and AP4060 (outdoor with external antenna support, GA September 2025) completing premium Wi-Fi 7 portfolio. Extreme Platform ONE:Generally available Q3 2025 with 265+ customers. Integrates conversational, multimodal and agentic AI with three agents (AI Expert, AI Canvas, Service AI Agent) cutting resolution times 98%. Includes embedded Universal ZTNA and two-tier simplified licensing. ExtremeCloud IQ: Cloud-based network management integrating wireless, wired and SD-WAN with AI/ML capabilities and digital twin support for testing configurations before deployment. Extreme Fabric: Native SPB-based Layer 2 fabric with sub-second convergence, automated macro and micro-segmentation and free licensing (no controllers required). Multi-area fabric architecture solves traditional SPB scaling limitations. Analyst Rankings: Market leadership in AI networking Foundry Each of the vendors has its

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Microsoft’s In-Chip Microfluidics Technology Resets the Limits of AI Cooling

Raising the Thermal Ceiling for AI Hardware As Microsoft positions it, the significance of in-chip microfluidics goes well beyond a novel way to cool silicon. By removing heat at its point of generation, the technology raises the thermal ceiling that constrains today’s most power-dense compute devices. That shift could redefine how next-generation accelerators are designed, packaged, and deployed across hyperscale environments. Impact of this cooling change: Higher-TDP accelerators and tighter packing. Where thermal density has been the limiting factor, in-chip microfluidics could enable denser server sleds—such as NVL- or NVL-like trays—or allow higher per-GPU power budgets without throttling. 3D-stacked and HBM-heavy silicon. Microsoft’s documentation explicitly ties microfluidic cooling to future 3D-stacked and high-bandwidth-memory (HBM) architectures, which would otherwise be heat-limited. By extracting heat inside the package, the approach could unlock new levels of performance and packaging density for advanced AI accelerators. Implications for the AI Data Center If microfluidics can be scaled from prototype to production, its influence will ripple through every layer of the data center, from the silicon package to the white space and plant. The technology touches not only chip design but also rack architecture, thermal planning, and long-term cost models for AI infrastructure. Rack densities, white space topology, and facility thermals Raising thermal efficiency at the chip level has a cascading effect on system design: GPU TDP trajectory. Press materials and analysis around Microsoft’s collaboration with Corintis suggest the feasibility of far higher thermal design power (TDP) envelopes than today’s roughly 1–2 kW per device. Corintis executives have publicly referenced dissipation targets in the 4 kW to 10 kW range, highlighting how in-chip cooling could sustain next-generation GPU power levels without throttling. Rack, ring, and row design. By removing much of the heat directly within the package, microfluidics could reduce secondary heat spread into boards and

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Designing the AI Century: 7×24 Exchange Fall ’25 Charts the New Data Center Industrial Stack

SMRs and the AI Power Gap: Steve Fairfax Separates Promise from Physics If NVIDIA’s Sean Young made the case for AI factories, Steve Fairfax offered a sobering counterweight: even the smartest factories can’t run without power—and not just any power, but constant, high-availability, clean generation at a scale utilities are increasingly struggling to deliver. In his keynote “Small Modular Reactors for Data Centers,” Fairfax, president of Oresme and one of the data center industry’s most seasoned voices on reliability, walked through the long arc from nuclear fusion research to today’s resurgent interest in fission at modular scale. His presentation blended nuclear engineering history with pragmatic counsel for AI-era infrastructure leaders: SMRs are promising, but their road to reality is paved with physics, fuel, and policy—not PowerPoint. From Fusion Research to Data Center Reliability Fairfax began with his own story—a career that bridges nuclear reliability and data center engineering. As a young physicist and electrical engineer at MIT, he helped build the Alcator C-MOD fusion reactor, a 400-megawatt research facility that heated plasma to 100 million degrees with 3 million amps of current. The magnet system alone drew 265,000 amps at 1,400 volts, producing forces measured in millions of pounds. It was an extreme experiment in controlled power, and one that shaped his later philosophy: design for failure, test for truth, and assume nothing lasts forever. When the U.S. cooled on fusion power in the 1990s, Fairfax applied nuclear reliability methods to data center systems—quantifying uptime and redundancy with the same math used for reactor safety. By 1994, he was consulting for hyperscale pioneers still calling 10 MW “monstrous.” Today’s 400 MW campuses, he noted, are beginning to look a lot more like reactors in their energy intensity—and increasingly, in their regulatory scrutiny. Defining the Small Modular Reactor Fairfax defined SMRs

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Top network and data center events 2025 & 2026

Denise Dubie is a senior editor at Network World with nearly 30 years of experience writing about the tech industry. Her coverage areas include AIOps, cybersecurity, networking careers, network management, observability, SASE, SD-WAN, and how AI transforms enterprise IT. A seasoned journalist and content creator, Denise writes breaking news and in-depth features, and she delivers practical advice for IT professionals while making complex technology accessible to all. Before returning to journalism, she held senior content marketing roles at CA Technologies, Berkshire Grey, and Cisco. Denise is a trusted voice in the world of enterprise IT and networking.

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Google’s cheaper, faster TPUs are here, while users of other AI processors face a supply crunch

Opportunities for the AI industry LLM vendors such as OpenAI and Anthropic, which still have relatively young code bases and are continuously evolving them, also have much to gain from the arrival of Ironwood for training their models, said Forrester vice president and principal analyst Charlie Dai. In fact, Anthropic has already agreed to procure 1 million TPUs for training and its models and using them for inferencing. Other, smaller vendors using Google’s TPUs for training models include Lightricks and Essential AI. Google has seen a steady increase in demand for its TPUs (which it also uses to run interna services), and is expected to buy $9.8 billion worth of TPUs from Broadcom this year, compared to $6.2 billion and $2.04 billion in 2024 and 2023 respectively, according to Harrowell. “This makes them the second-biggest AI chip program for cloud and enterprise data centers, just tailing Nvidia, with approximately 5% of the market. Nvidia owns about 78% of the market,” Harrowell said. The legacy problem While some analysts were optimistic about the prospects for TPUs in the enterprise, IDC research director Brandon Hoff said enterprises will most likely to stay away from Ironwood or TPUs in general because of their existing code base written for other platforms. “For enterprise customers who are writing their own inferencing, they will be tied into Nvidia’s software platform,” Hoff said, referring to CUDA, the software platform that runs on Nvidia GPUs. CUDA was released to the public in 2007, while the first version of TensorFlow has only been around since 2015.

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Microsoft will invest $80B in AI data centers in fiscal 2025

And Microsoft isn’t the only one that is ramping up its investments into AI-enabled data centers. Rival cloud service providers are all investing in either upgrading or opening new data centers to capture a larger chunk of business from developers and users of large language models (LLMs).  In a report published in October 2024, Bloomberg Intelligence estimated that demand for generative AI would push Microsoft, AWS, Google, Oracle, Meta, and Apple would between them devote $200 billion to capex in 2025, up from $110 billion in 2023. Microsoft is one of the biggest spenders, followed closely by Google and AWS, Bloomberg Intelligence said. Its estimate of Microsoft’s capital spending on AI, at $62.4 billion for calendar 2025, is lower than Smith’s claim that the company will invest $80 billion in the fiscal year to June 30, 2025. Both figures, though, are way higher than Microsoft’s 2020 capital expenditure of “just” $17.6 billion. The majority of the increased spending is tied to cloud services and the expansion of AI infrastructure needed to provide compute capacity for OpenAI workloads. Separately, last October Amazon CEO Andy Jassy said his company planned total capex spend of $75 billion in 2024 and even more in 2025, with much of it going to AWS, its cloud computing division.

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John Deere unveils more autonomous farm machines to address skill labor shortage

Join our daily and weekly newsletters for the latest updates and exclusive content on industry-leading AI coverage. Learn More Self-driving tractors might be the path to self-driving cars. John Deere has revealed a new line of autonomous machines and tech across agriculture, construction and commercial landscaping. The Moline, Illinois-based John Deere has been in business for 187 years, yet it’s been a regular as a non-tech company showing off technology at the big tech trade show in Las Vegas and is back at CES 2025 with more autonomous tractors and other vehicles. This is not something we usually cover, but John Deere has a lot of data that is interesting in the big picture of tech. The message from the company is that there aren’t enough skilled farm laborers to do the work that its customers need. It’s been a challenge for most of the last two decades, said Jahmy Hindman, CTO at John Deere, in a briefing. Much of the tech will come this fall and after that. He noted that the average farmer in the U.S. is over 58 and works 12 to 18 hours a day to grow food for us. And he said the American Farm Bureau Federation estimates there are roughly 2.4 million farm jobs that need to be filled annually; and the agricultural work force continues to shrink. (This is my hint to the anti-immigration crowd). John Deere’s autonomous 9RX Tractor. Farmers can oversee it using an app. While each of these industries experiences their own set of challenges, a commonality across all is skilled labor availability. In construction, about 80% percent of contractors struggle to find skilled labor. And in commercial landscaping, 86% of landscaping business owners can’t find labor to fill open positions, he said. “They have to figure out how to do

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2025 playbook for enterprise AI success, from agents to evals

Join our daily and weekly newsletters for the latest updates and exclusive content on industry-leading AI coverage. Learn More 2025 is poised to be a pivotal year for enterprise AI. The past year has seen rapid innovation, and this year will see the same. This has made it more critical than ever to revisit your AI strategy to stay competitive and create value for your customers. From scaling AI agents to optimizing costs, here are the five critical areas enterprises should prioritize for their AI strategy this year. 1. Agents: the next generation of automation AI agents are no longer theoretical. In 2025, they’re indispensable tools for enterprises looking to streamline operations and enhance customer interactions. Unlike traditional software, agents powered by large language models (LLMs) can make nuanced decisions, navigate complex multi-step tasks, and integrate seamlessly with tools and APIs. At the start of 2024, agents were not ready for prime time, making frustrating mistakes like hallucinating URLs. They started getting better as frontier large language models themselves improved. “Let me put it this way,” said Sam Witteveen, cofounder of Red Dragon, a company that develops agents for companies, and that recently reviewed the 48 agents it built last year. “Interestingly, the ones that we built at the start of the year, a lot of those worked way better at the end of the year just because the models got better.” Witteveen shared this in the video podcast we filmed to discuss these five big trends in detail. Models are getting better and hallucinating less, and they’re also being trained to do agentic tasks. Another feature that the model providers are researching is a way to use the LLM as a judge, and as models get cheaper (something we’ll cover below), companies can use three or more models to

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OpenAI’s red teaming innovations define new essentials for security leaders in the AI era

Join our daily and weekly newsletters for the latest updates and exclusive content on industry-leading AI coverage. Learn More OpenAI has taken a more aggressive approach to red teaming than its AI competitors, demonstrating its security teams’ advanced capabilities in two areas: multi-step reinforcement and external red teaming. OpenAI recently released two papers that set a new competitive standard for improving the quality, reliability and safety of AI models in these two techniques and more. The first paper, “OpenAI’s Approach to External Red Teaming for AI Models and Systems,” reports that specialized teams outside the company have proven effective in uncovering vulnerabilities that might otherwise have made it into a released model because in-house testing techniques may have missed them. In the second paper, “Diverse and Effective Red Teaming with Auto-Generated Rewards and Multi-Step Reinforcement Learning,” OpenAI introduces an automated framework that relies on iterative reinforcement learning to generate a broad spectrum of novel, wide-ranging attacks. Going all-in on red teaming pays practical, competitive dividends It’s encouraging to see competitive intensity in red teaming growing among AI companies. When Anthropic released its AI red team guidelines in June of last year, it joined AI providers including Google, Microsoft, Nvidia, OpenAI, and even the U.S.’s National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), which all had released red teaming frameworks. Investing heavily in red teaming yields tangible benefits for security leaders in any organization. OpenAI’s paper on external red teaming provides a detailed analysis of how the company strives to create specialized external teams that include cybersecurity and subject matter experts. The goal is to see if knowledgeable external teams can defeat models’ security perimeters and find gaps in their security, biases and controls that prompt-based testing couldn’t find. What makes OpenAI’s recent papers noteworthy is how well they define using human-in-the-middle

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