Sustainable development

Αnthropic pledges $50 billion to expand the US AI infrastructure

The US AI safety and research company, Anthropic, has announced a $50 billion investment to expand AI computing infrastructure inside the country, partnering with Fluidstack to build data centres in Texas and New York, with additional sites planned.

These facilities are designed to optimise efficiency for Anthropic’s workloads, supporting frontier research and development in AI.

The project is expected to generate approximately 800 permanent jobs and 2,400 construction positions as sites come online throughout 2026.

An investment that aligns with the Trump administration’s AI Action Plan, aiming to maintain the US leadership in AI while strengthening domestic technology infrastructure and competitiveness.

Dario Amodei, CEO and co-founder of Anthropic, highlighted the importance of such an infrastructure in developing AI systems capable of accelerating scientific discovery and solving complex problems.

The company serves over 300,000 business customers, with a sevenfold growth in large accounts over the past year, demonstrating strong market demand for its Claude AI platform.

Fluidstack was selected as Anthropic’s partner for its agility in rapidly deploying high-capacity infrastructure. The collaboration aims to provide cost-effective and capital-efficient solutions to meet the growing demand, ensuring that research and development can continue to be at the forefront of AI innovation.

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Meta expands AI infrastructure with $1 billion sustainable facility

The US tech giant, Meta, has announced the construction of its 30th data centre in Beaver Dam, Wisconsin, a $1 billion investment that will power the company’s growing AI infrastructure while benefiting the local community and environment.

A facility, designed to support Meta’s most demanding AI workloads, that will run entirely on clean energy and create more than 100 permanent jobs alongside 1,000 construction roles.

The company will invest nearly $200 million in energy infrastructure and donate $15 million to Alliant Energy’s Hometown Care Energy Fund to assist families with home energy costs.

Meta will also launch community grants to fund schools and local organisations, strengthening technology education and digital skills while helping small businesses use AI tools more effectively.

Environmental responsibility remains central to the project. The data centre will use dry cooling, eliminating water demands during operation, and restore 100% of consumed water to local watersheds.

In partnership with Ducks Unlimited, Meta will revitalise 570 acres of wetlands and prairie, transforming degraded habitats into thriving ecosystems. The facility is expected to achieve LEED Gold Certification, reflecting Meta’s ongoing commitment to sustainability and community-focused innovation.

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AI system tracks tsunami through atmospheric ripples

Scientists have successfully tracked a tsunami in real time using ripples in Earth’s atmosphere for the first time.

The breakthrough came after a powerful 8.8 magnitude earthquake struck off Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula in July 2025, sending waves racing across the Pacific and triggering NASA’s newly upgraded Guardian monitoring system.

Guardian uses AI to detect disruptions in satellite navigation signals caused by atmospheric ripples above the ocean.

These signals revealed the formation and movement of tsunami waves, allowing alerts to be issued up to 40 minutes before they reached Hawaii, potentially giving communities vital time to respond.

Researchers say the innovation could transform global disaster monitoring by enabling earlier warnings for tsunamis, volcanic eruptions, and even nuclear tests.

Although the system is still in development, scientists in Europe are working on similar models that could expand coverage and provide life-saving alerts to remote coastal regions.

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EU and Switzerland deepen research ties through Horizon Europe agreement

Switzerland has formally joined Horizon Europe, the EU’s flagship research and innovation programme, together with Digital Europe and the Euratom Research and Training Programme.

An agreement, signed in Bern by Commissioner Ekaterina Zaharieva and Federal Councillor Guy Parmelin, that grants Swiss researchers the same status as their EU counterparts.

They can now lead projects, receive EU funding, and access every thematic pillar, reinforcing cross-border collaboration in fields such as climate technology, digital transformation, and energy security.

The accord, effective from 1 January 2025, also enables Switzerland to become a member of Fusion for Energy in 2026, thereby integrating its researchers into ITER, the world’s largest fusion energy initiative.

Plans include Swiss participation in Erasmus+ from 2027 and in the EU4Health programme once a separate health agreement takes effect.

A development that forms part of a broader package designed to deepen EU–Swiss relations and modernise cooperation frameworks across science, technology, and education.

The European Commission reaffirmed its commitment to finalising ratification of all related agreements, ensuring long-term collaboration and strengthening Europe’s position as a global leader in innovation and research.

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€5.5bn Google plan expands German data centres, carbon-free power and skills programmes

Google will invest €5.5bn in Germany from 2026 to 2029, adding a Dietzenbach data centre and expanding its Hanau facility. It will expand offices in Berlin, Frankfurt, and Munich, and launch skilling and a first German heat-recovery project. Estimated impact: ~€1.016bn GDP and ~9,000 jobs annually.

Dietzenbach will strengthen German cloud regions within Google’s 42-region network, used by firms such as Mercedes-Benz. Google Cloud highlights Vertex AI, Gemini, and sovereign options for local compliance. Continued Hanau investment supports low-latency AI workloads.

Google and Engie will extend 24/7 Carbon-Free Energy in Germany through 2030, adding new wind and solar. The portfolio will be optimised with storage and Ørsted’s Borkum Riffgrund 3. Operations are projected to be 85% carbon-free in 2026.

A partnership with Energieversorgung Offenbach will utilise excess data centre heat to feed into Dietzenbach’s district network, serving over 2,000 households. Water work includes wetland protection with NABU in Hesse’s Büttelborn Bruchwiesen. Google reiterates its 24/7 carbon-free goal.

Office expansion includes Munich’s Arnulfpost for up to 2,000 staff, Frankfurt’s Global Tower space, and additional floors in Berlin. Local partnerships will fund digital skills and STEM programmes. Officials and customers welcomed the move for its benefits to infrastructure, sovereignty, and innovation.

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ChatGPT-5 outperformed by a Chinese startup model

A Chinese company has stunned the AI world after its new open-source model outperformed OpenAI’s ChatGPT-5 and Anthropic’s Claude Sonnet 4.5 in key benchmarks.

Moonshot AI’s Kimi K2 Thinking model achieved the best reasoning and coding scores yet, shaking confidence in American dominance over advanced AI systems.

The Beijing-based startup, backed by Alibaba and Tencent, released Kimi K2 Thinking on 6 November. It scored 44.9 percent in Humanity’s Last Exam and 60.2 percent in BrowseComp, both surpassing leading US models.

Analysts dubbed it another ‘DeepSeek moment ‘, echoing the earlier success of China in breaking AI cost barriers.

Moonshot AI trained the trillion-parameter system for just US$4.6 million (nearly ten times cheaper than GPT-5’s reported costs) using a Mixture-of-Experts structure and advanced quantisation for faster generation.

The fully open-weight model, released under a Modified MIT License, adds commercial flexibility and intensifies competition with US labs.

Industry observers called it a turning point. Hugging Face’s Thomas Wolf said the achievement shows how open-source models can now rival closed systems.

Researchers from the Allen Institute for AI noted that Chinese innovation is narrowing the gap faster than expected, driven by efficiency and high-quality training data rather than raw computing power.

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Global AI adoption rises quickly but benefits remain unequal

Microsoft’s AI Economy Institute has released its 2025 AI Diffusion Report, detailing global AI adoption, innovation hubs, and the impact of digital infrastructure. AI has reached over 1.2 billion users in under three years, yet its benefits remain unevenly distributed.

Adoption rates in the Global North are roughly double those in the Global South, highlighting the risk of long-term inequalities.

AI adoption depends on strong foundational infrastructure, including electricity, data centres, internet connectivity, digital and AI skills, and language accessibility.

Countries with robust foundations- such as the UAE, Singapore, Norway, and Ireland- have seen rapid adoption, even without frontier-level model development. In contrast, regions with limited infrastructure and low-resource languages lag significantly, with adoption in some areas below 10%.

Ukraine exemplifies the potential for rapid AI growth, despite current disruptions from the war, with an adoption rate of 9.1%. Strategic investments in connectivity, AI skills, and language-inclusive solutions could accelerate recovery, strengthen resilience, and drive innovation.

AI is already supporting cybersecurity and helping businesses and organisations maintain operations amid ongoing challenges.

The concentration of AI infrastructure remains high, with the US and China hosting 86% of the global data centre capacity. A few countries dominate frontier AI development, yet the performance gap between leading models is narrowing.

Coordinated efforts across infrastructure, skills, and policy are crucial to ensure equitable access and maximise AI’s potential worldwide.

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MK1 joins AMD to accelerate enterprise AI and reasoning technologies

AMD has completed the acquisition of MK1, a California-based company specialising in high-speed inference and reasoning-based AI technologies.

The move marks a significant step in AMD’s strategy to strengthen AI performance and efficiency across hardware and software layers. MK1’s Flywheel and comprehension engines are designed to optimise AMD’s Instinct GPUs, offering scalable, accurate, and cost-efficient AI reasoning.

The MK1 team will join the AMD Artificial Intelligence Group, where their expertise will advance AMD’s enterprise AI software stack and inference capabilities.

Handling over one trillion tokens daily, MK1’s systems are already deployed at scale, providing traceable and efficient AI solutions for complex business processes.

By combining MK1’s advanced AI software innovation with AMD’s compute power, the acquisition enhances AMD’s position in the enterprise and generative AI markets, supporting its goal of delivering accessible, high-performance AI solutions globally.

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Vision AI Companion turns Samsung TVs into conversational AI platforms

Samsung has unveiled the Vision AI Companion, an advanced conversational AI platform designed to transform the television into a connected household hub.

Unlike voice assistants meant for personal devices, the Vision AI Companion operates on the communal screen, enabling families to ask questions, plan activities, and receive visualised, contextual answers through natural dialogue.

Built into Samsung’s 2025 TV lineup, the system integrates an upgraded Bixby and supports multiple large language models, including Microsoft Copilot and Perplexity.

With its multi-AI agent platform, Vision AI Companion allows users to access personalised recommendations, real-time information, and multimedia responses without leaving their current programme.

It supports 10 languages and includes features such as Live Translate, AI Gaming Mode, Generative Wallpaper, and AI Upscaling Pro. The platform runs on One UI Tizen, offering seven years of software upgrades to ensure longevity and security.

By embedding generative AI into televisions, Samsung aims to redefine how households interact with technology, turning the TV into an intelligent companion that informs, entertains, and connects families across languages and experiences.

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OpenAI loses German copyright lawsuit over song lyrics reproduction

A Munich regional court has ruled that OpenAI infringed copyright in a landmark case brought by the German rights society GEMA. The court held OpenAI liable for reproducing and memorising copyrighted lyrics without authorisation, rejecting its claim to operate as a non-profit research institute.

The judgement found that OpenAI had violated copyright even in a 15-word passage, setting a low threshold for infringement. Additionally, the court dismissed arguments about accidental reproduction and technical errors, emphasising that both reproduction and memorisation require a licence.

It also denied OpenAI’s request for a grace period to make compliance changes, citing negligence.

Judges concluded that the company could not rely on proportionality defences, noting that licences were available and alternative AI models exist.

OpenAI’s claim that EU copyright law failed to foresee large language models was rejected, as the court reaffirmed that European law ensures a high level of protection for intellectual property.

The ruling marks a significant step for copyright enforcement in the age of generative AI and could shape future litigation across Europe. It also challenges technology companies to adapt their training and licensing practices to comply with existing legal frameworks.

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