Amazon Unlocks Its Vast Logistics Machine for Every Business, Rattling UPS and FedEx

Amazon.com Inc. just threw open the doors to its colossal supply chain. No longer reserved for its own retail empire or third-party sellers on its platform. Now, any company—from manufacturers to retailers—can tap the same freight, warehousing, fulfillment, and last-mile delivery systems that move billions of packages yearly. The move, announced Monday, launches Amazon Supply Chain Services, a unified console where businesses pick and choose from the e-commerce giant’s arsenal of logistics tools. Shares of UPS and FedEx tumbled more than 6% in response, signaling Wall Street’s quick read on the threat. Reuters called it a direct challenge to the logistics heavyweights.

Peter Larsen, vice president of Amazon Supply Chain Services, laid it out plainly in a company blog post. “Amazon is bringing the infrastructure, intelligence, and scale of its supply chain services—proven over decades—to businesses everywhere, much like Amazon Web Services did for cloud computing,” he wrote. TechCrunch highlighted the parallel first. That AWS analogy isn’t hype. AWS turned Amazon’s internal computing needs into a $100 billion annual business. This could do the same for physical goods movement.

Early sign-ups prove the appeal. Procter & Gamble, 3M, Lands’ End, and American Eagle Outfitters already use parts of the network. P&G, for instance, handles raw materials to finished products across industries like healthcare and automotive. AboutAmazon detailed how the service spans inbound freight from factories, bulk storage, order fulfillment, and parcel delivery to any sales channel. Businesses log in via a single dashboard—no Amazon seller account required. Pick ocean freight from China straight to U.S. warehouses. Or air cargo to Europe. Amazon’s AI-driven forecasting optimizes it all, predicting demand and placing inventory near customers.

Amazon didn’t build this overnight. Over 20 years, it poured billions into a network that now includes over 175 fulfillment centers worldwide, more than 100 cargo planes via Amazon Air, 80,000 trailers, and a fleet of delivery vans. Independent sellers already ship 5 billion items yearly through it, per earlier company data. AboutAmazon noted the scale back in 2025. The company handles over half its U.S. deliveries in-house, cutting reliance on outsiders. Now, that efficiency goes on sale. Wall Street Journal reported Larsen saying, “We first built this network over 20 years for ourselves. We then made it available to Amazon sellers. Now we’re making it available to any business of any shape or size.”

But why now? E-commerce growth slowed post-pandemic. Amazon seeks new revenue streams beyond retail ads and Prime fees. Third-party logistics already powers services like Fulfillment by Amazon and Multi-Channel Fulfillment, which expanded to Walmart, Shopify, and Shein sellers last year. PYMNTS covered that step. ASCS takes it further. No marketplace tie needed. Retailers. Wholesalers. Even B2B manufacturers. All qualify. The centralized platform integrates over 100 APIs, slashing setup time from weeks to days for partners.

Competition heats up fast. UPS and FedEx built empires on parcel dominance. Amazon’s edge? Scale plus data. Its algorithms track every package in real time, dodging disruptions better than rivals. Healthcare firms gain cold-chain options for drugs. Automotive suppliers speed parts to assembly lines. Logistics Management pointed to those wins. Shares reaction was swift. FedEx plunged as investors eyed margin squeezes. Amazon stock? It hit fresh highs, up nearly 1% amid the buzz. X posts lit up with traders calling it “AWS for logistics.” One from @Stocktwits summed it: Amazon turning its supply chain into a third-party platform.

Risks lurk, though. Amazon’s network strains during peaks—think holiday crushes. Opening wider could amplify that. Regulators watch antitrust closely; this expands Amazon’s grip on commerce infrastructure. Still, early momentum suggests uptake. Hundreds of thousands of sellers already trust it for millions of packages. BusinessWire echoed the official launch. And the partner program dangles funding incentives for integrators.

So Amazon flips a cost center into profit potential. UPS and FedEx scramble. Businesses everywhere get a shortcut to world-class logistics. The supply chain wars just got physical.

from WebProNews https://ift.tt/pbBPmdL

Streetlights as AI Powerhouses: Nigeria’s 50,000-Lamp Data Center Network Challenges Grid Giants

Warwickshire’s Conflow Power Group just struck a deal with Nigeria’s Katsina State. Fifty thousand solar-powered lampposts. Each one packing a Nvidia chip. Networked into Africa’s first distributed AI data center. No grid power needed. That’s the pitch. And it’s already moving forward.

Traditional data centers guzzle 300 megawatts from the grid. They demand millions of liters of cooling water daily. Construction drags on for years. Conflow’s iLamps flip that script. A cylindrical solar panel tops each post. It charges batteries. Those feed a 15-watt Nvidia chip inside. Link 50,000 together, and you get 13.75 petaOPS of compute power. Operational from day one. Sun-powered. Grid-free. As Digital Trends reports, this setup sidesteps the massive infrastructure headaches plaguing AI buildouts elsewhere.

But these aren’t just compute nodes. Cameras embedded in the iLamps spot speeding cars. They catch parking violations. Flag seatbelt lapses. Number plate recognition runs in real time. Facial recognition sits on the roadmap—for finding missing people or suspects. Public WiFi and Bluetooth beam out too. In Katsina, traffic fines will fill state coffers. Conflow takes 20% after three years. Rental fees from AI firms using the processing power fund a green bond. That covers installs and upkeep.

Edward Fitzpatrick, Conflow’s chairman, credits Nvidia directly. “NVIDIA is the company that’s created a small enough chip, powered with 15 watts of power, so it can be powered by solar, and we can put that inside a street light,” he told BBC News. Security? Tamper with the chip, and it fries. Posts already run in a UK hospital car park, handling CCTV and plates. Now Katsina gets an assembly factory. Units ship from Morocco, Taiwan, Latvia too.

Dr. Hafiz Ibrahim Ahmad, Katsina’s special adviser on power and energy, calls it groundbreaking. “Home to the only distributed AI data centre of its kind anywhere on the African continent… could mean safer streets, real-time crime and terrorism prevention, free public internet and a revenue stream that flows back into the state,” he said in the BBC piece. Negotiations span seven Nigerian states, universities, institutions. Scale to 300,000 units. Africa’s biggest distributed AI network.

So why Nigeria? Sunshine abounds. Rules bend easier. Fitzpatrick again: “Africa is our prime target because there’s plenty of sunshine which is great, they’ve got more relaxed rules and regulations, they want us to put the street lights on the street.” Florida talks bubble too—with schools eyeing surveillance and interactive features like gesture voting.

Experts temper the hype. Prof. Ian Bitterlin, a data center veteran, flags physical security risks on streets. Communication lags between distant posts kill heavy AI training—like for large language models. John Booth of Carbon3IT agrees. iLamps suit light tasks. Think edge computing access points. Like phone masts feeding bigger centers. They supplement. Don’t supplant.

This lands amid AI infrastructure chaos. Half of U.S. data centers planned for 2026 face delays or cancellation, per a Yahoo Tech report citing Bloomberg. Power shortages. Supply chains snag. Elsewhere, hyperscalers chase wild fixes: SpaceX eyes orbital data centers. Microsoft tested underwater ones. Meta beams space solar. iLamps? Grounded. Practical. Distributed.

Privacy shadows loom. Facial recognition invites bias, misuse. Conflow pledges legal compliance. But streets become eyes everywhere. E-waste warnings grow too—AI strains resources, as Digital Trends notes. Solar changes that math. No rare earths in chips alone. Batteries cycle. Posts endure.

Scale works here. Katsina’s deal proves viability. Revenue sustains it. Edge AI thrives on low latency—lampposts sit where data generates: roads, parks, crowds. Not remote warehouses. Global grids buckle under AI thirst. U.S. operators predict gigawatt shortfalls. Zoning fights erupt, from Wisconsin to Boston. Nigeria sidesteps. Builds on sunlight.

Conflow’s CEO Edward Fitzpatrick frames the shift. “This agreement is a defining moment for how the world thinks about AI infrastructure,” he said in statements covered by Punch Nigeria. Katsina’s 13.75 petaOPS arrives via posts. Sun-fueled. Instant. No 300-megawatt drain.

Critics doubt full replacement. Fair. But for inference? Local analytics? Surveillance feeds? Perfect fit. Multiply by thousands. You cluster compute where needed. Bandwidth bottlenecks ease—process nearby. Global south leads. Others watch. Or catch up.

from WebProNews https://ift.tt/vZIBLcQ

Rivian’s Hidden Trade-Off: Kill Connectivity for Privacy, Lose Navigation and Updates

Electric-vehicle makers promise adventure on four wheels. Rivian delivers rugged trucks and SUVs wired for the digital age. But that wiring sends data back home—relentlessly. Owners now face a stark choice: keep the features flowing, or cut the cord entirely. Rivian Support lays it out plainly: ‘Vehicle connectivity is a core feature of Rivian vehicles. If you choose to disable all vehicle connectivity, it will prevent data from leaving the vehicle, but it will also limit or disable certain functionality in the vehicle (e.g., navigation, active lane centering, and over-the-air updates, which provide new features, better performance, safety enhancements, and bug fixes).’

Canadian owners flip a toggle in the ‘Data and Privacy’ screen. Everyone else books a service appointment to kill the eSIM. Subscriptions like Connect+ keep running regardless; cancel those separately. Simple enough. Or is it?

Data streams from Rivian rigs include telemetry on speed, braking, battery charge, steering, even seat-belt use. Cameras capture cabin gazes for driver monitoring. Exterior lenses snap road scenes for ADAS tweaks. GPS pins precise spots—home, work, charging stops. The May 2024 Data Privacy Notice spells out the haul: vehicle state, dynamics, torque, odometer readings, crash details with video clips tied to your VIN.

Owners tweak settings via the infotainment screen. Turn off precise location sharing for navigation, Highway Assist, the app, analytics. Opt out of camera data uploads for product improvements. Disable interior camera processing—though it stays in standby. But. Safety nets persist. ‘Your precise location will be shared with Rivian for critical safety purposes regardless of your choices for location data sharing, such as SOS calls, crash investigation, and regulatory reporting,’ warns the owner’s manual, as noted on Rivian Forums. General location—a 7-mile radius—flows anyway.

And here’s the pivot: Full cutoff demands sacrifice.

No maps. No lane-keeping. No software patches. Updates deliver bug fixes, range boosts, safety upgrades. Disconnect, and your R1T or R1S freezes in time. Forums buzz with hacks—yank the TCM module or antenna for true silence. Users like Steve A. argue: ‘you should not HAVE TO sacrifice privacy when buying ANY product.’ Others dismiss fears; one exported 12 months of data—daily VIN, odometer, rough lat-long, speed stats—and called it ‘meaningless.’ Yet GM’s OnStar saga lingers: sold driving scores to insurers, jacking rates.

Rivian insists it doesn’t sell data or share with insurers without consent, per support pages like Do you share my driving data with insurance companies?. Affiliates get telemetry for underwriting. Service providers crunch analytics. Crashes trigger automatic video sends. Legal demands? Minimal disclosure. Tax credits? VIN and charge spots to Uncle Sam.

Industry peers vary. Consumer Reports (March 2025) maps opt-outs: Ford toggles in SYNC, Tesla in Software settings, GM demands a call to OnStar. None offer Rivian’s nuclear option—total eSIM disable—without strings. Tesla claims anonymized fleets; no VIN ties. But scrutiny mounts as robotaxis loom, hungry for miles.

Recent chatter amplifies. Hacker News threads, surfaced on X via @betterhn20 (April 30, 2026), hail Rivian’s toggle amid broader auto-data debates. One post: ‘Rivian allows you to disable all internet connectivity.’ No fresh scandals, but X users flag Ford F-150s snitching unwittingly.

Privacy hawks cheer controls. The interior camera ships off by default on 2025 models. Gear Guard videos stay local unless you say otherwise. Clear Settings wipes profiles before resale—though cloud telemetry lingers.

Trade-offs sting. Off-grid adventurers might embrace dumb mode: pure electric torque, no phoning home. Urban commuters? Stuck choosing between convenience and caution. Rivian bets connectivity sells—95% of owners stay linked, insiders guess. But as data brokers circle, that toggle gleams brighter.

Regulators watch. California rights demand access, deletion. Europe pushes GDPR opt-outs. Rivian complies, posting changes at rivian.com/privacy/notice (last May 2025). Yet forums reveal gaps: API leaks, vampire drain myths.

Bottom line. Rivian hands real power—disable and data dies. At a cost. Your call.

from WebProNews https://ift.tt/MnfJbuZ

America’s Natural Gas Glut Shields It from Global War Chaos as LNG Exports Surge

America sits on a mountain of natural gas. The Permian Basin pumps out more than pipelines or export terminals can handle. Producers there pay buyers to take it away. Negative prices, a record low. And yet, across oceans, war has triggered blackouts in Asia and Africa. Europe braces for winter shortages.

The contrast stems from conflict in Iran. That war chokes supplies through the Strait of Hormuz. Global LNG markets tighten. U.S. benchmark futures dipped 10% since the fighting started. European futures leaped 40%. Asian ones more than 50%. Yahoo Finance captured this divide in late April.

Chris Louney, director of global commodity strategy at RBC Capital Markets, put it bluntly: “US gas prices have not just remained lower than global benchmarks, but have remained insulated from the volatility” of major global gas and import markets in Europe and Asia. “This comparative energy security is beneficial for domestic industry that relies on natural gas as a feedstock or form of industrial grade heat, and increasingly power-hungry industries such as AI and data centers.”

New pipelines this year will ease the Permian pinch. Gas will flow better to coasts and LNG plants. But the surplus already fortifies U.S. factories. Manufacturers thrive on cheap fuel. Data centers expand without imported energy shocks.

War’s Global Ripple Hits Hard

Shut down the Strait of Hormuz. Qatar’s exports stall. Global supply drops 20%. LNG prices in Europe climb 35%, Asia 51% in late April, per the U.S. Energy Information Administration. Rationing spreads. Blackouts follow.

U.S. LNG breaks records anyway. March exports hit all-time highs as plants ran over capacity. Golden Pass and Cheniere expansions kicked in. Europe took 64% of the total, 7.49 million tons. Asia doubled its take to 1.99 million tons on higher prices. Reuters tracked the surge April 2.

Ukraine ramps up too. Naftogaz expects 35 Bcf of U.S. LNG in 2026. First cargoes arrived via Germany and Poland amid Russian strikes on its infrastructure. Natural Gas Intelligence reported this in February.

Europe’s shift accelerates. U.S. supplied 54% of EU LNG by mid-2025. Now it’s over 60% in spots like January 2026. Russia down to 13%. Long-term contracts lock in more. A July 2025 U.S.-EU deal eyes $750 billion in LNG, oil, nuclear through 2028. RealClearEnergy warned of regulatory hesitations, but approvals flow now.

And the Ukraine war lingers. Russian pipeline gas slashed. U.S. cargoes filled the gap since 2022, surging from 18.9 bcm to 55 bcm that year. Europe imports record LNG in 2026 to refill stocks and aid Ukraine. 10/12 Industry Report noted the pivot January 24.

Dependency grows. UK takes 90% U.S. gas. Projections hit 80% EU LNG from America by 2030, 40% of total gas. Contracts shift to U.S. frameworks, away from old Russian models. Brussels Signal flagged risks February 6.

LNG Boom Reshapes Power Balance

U.S. dominates. World’s top LNG exporter at 15 Bcf/d, passing Qatar and Australia. Exports grew from zero a decade ago. Supply created demand—power plants built, networks expanded. Forbes marked the shift February 24.

Trump’s team pushes harder. Energy Secretary Chris Wright announced over 19 Bcf/d new export approvals—more than total capacity at inauguration. DOE greenlit Kinder Morgan’s Elba Island boost by 22%, to 433 MMcf/d. Natural Gas Intelligence eyed 17 Bcf/d exports in 2026, up from 2025’s record.

Europe benefits, sort of. Prices may halve by 2030 on new U.S., Qatar supply. Industries save $46 billion yearly. But U.S. domestic prices climb to $4.90/MMBtu by 2030-2035, narrowing the edge. OilPrice.com analyzed February 8.

Geopolitics twists. FOB contracts let buyers steer cargoes to highest bids. Asia pulls more at $21.65/mmBtu vs. Europe’s $16.17. Southeast Europe eyes growth via new deals, infrastructure. Natural Gas Intelligence, April 30.

Challenges loom. Terminals near max. Summer heat could spike domestic demand. Iran war lingers—costs hit $25 billion for U.S., per Pentagon. Gas prices touched $4.18/gallon. Sherwood News, late April.

America exports energy security. Europe trades Russian pipelines for U.S. tankers. Ukraine gets winter heat. Asia chases spot deals. The Permian glut? It powers AI servers and factories back home. War rages. Supplies strain. U.S. gas flows on.

from WebProNews https://ift.tt/tj5BsHG

Crypto’s Graveyard: Why Savvy Investors Are Parking in Bitcoin ETFs as Altcoins Implode

Scars run deep for crypto speculators. Chase the next big token. Watch it vanish. Repeat. More than 53% of all crypto tokens launched since 2021 sit defunct today, per Yahoo Finance/The Motley Fool citing CoinGecko research. Of nearly 20 million tokens from mid-2021 to late 2025, over half failed. The median newcomer in 2025? Down over 70% from debut.

Brutal odds. Platforms like pump.fun flood markets with junk—anyone launches a memecoin in seconds. Most die quietly. Survivors? Rare. And fleeting.

But Bitcoin endures. Fixed supply: 21 million coins max. Institutions pile in. ETFs fight for scraps. Demand squeezes price upward.

And here’s the shift. Investors flee the wreckage. Mark Wong, head of trading at Independent Reserve, notes a “sharp decrease in awareness of ‘meme coins,'” with capital flowing to “higher-quality assets,” per CNBC. Quality means Bitcoin.

ETFs Turn Bitcoin into Wall Street’s Favorite Bet

Spot Bitcoin ETFs changed everything. Launched in 2024, they sucked in billions. By April 2026, U.S. funds hit $2.44 billion in monthly inflows—the highest since October 2025. Eight straight days positive through April 23. Cumulative: $58.55 billion lifetime.

BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) dominates. Over 810,000 BTC held as of late April, per BlackRock data. Recently topped by MicroStrategy’s 815,061 BTC stack. But IBIT leads ETF flows—$3 billion YTD, top 1% of all U.S. ETFs.

Banks join the party. Bank of America lets 15,000 advisors pitch spot Bitcoin ETFs, suggesting 1-4% portfolio allocations. Morgan Stanley, Fidelity, JPMorgan, Wells Fargo follow suit, per CME Group OpenMarkets.

Why? Simplicity. No wallets. No keys. Regulated access. Volatility tamed for suits. BlackRock even filed for yield-bearing Bitcoin ETFs, harvesting options premiums for 27-41% annual returns—up, down, sideways.

Numbers don’t lie. Bitcoin’s 10-year compound annual growth rate clocks around 84%, smashing index funds and gold, as noted in the Yahoo Finance piece. Recent dips? ETFs bought the fear. $2.42 billion week ending April 22, even as BTC plunged 38% briefly.

Retail chases memes. Institutions stack sats—the smallest Bitcoin unit. PTSD grips speculators. Smart money ignores noise.

Altcoin Carnage Meets Institutional Resolve

Altcoins bleed. Non-Bitcoin market down 44% since late 2024 peak, per Pantera Capital. Ether ETFs lag, down 28% YTD vs. Bitcoin’s 20%. Meme coins? Gambling, not investing, warns Yahoo Finance/The Motley Fool. Dogecoin spiked 27,000% in 2021. Then halved in weeks. Shiba Inu? 70 million percent run. Followed by craters.

2025’s token apocalypse: 11.6 million dead, 86% of failures since 2021, via CoinGecko’s analysis. Q4 alone wiped 7.7 million after a $19 billion liquidation cascade.

Yet Bitcoin ETFs thrive. Four-week inflow streak: $2 billion. Bitwise predicts ETFs gobble over 100% of new Bitcoin, Ether, Solana supply in 2026, per Bitwise. JPMorgan eyes $150,000-$170,000 BTC by year-end, fueled by ETF growth and corporate treasuries.

On X, insiders echo. “Institutions aren’t capitulating. They’re just not adding. Risk-off,” posts @davidputra2112. But flows say otherwise—$824 million week ending April 24. “Retail chases shiny toys. Institutions quietly buy Bitcoin through ETFs,” notes @LumidaWealth.

Bitcoin maximalism? No. Pragmatism. Tired of burns? ETFs offer the core hold. Stack sats. Hold tight. Wall Street’s in. The graveyard grows.

from WebProNews https://ift.tt/LvOFI49

Colorado’s Flock Cameras: Catching Kidnappers, Harassing Innocents, Sparking Privacy Uprising

Kyle Dausman can’t drive his truck without lights flashing behind him. Cherry Hills Village police pull him over, again and again. No warrant exists against him. Yet Flock Safety’s automated license plate readers keep flagging his plate, linking it erroneously to a wanted man in Gilpin County. A court clerk’s data entry mistake—confusing a zero for an O—put him on the hotlist. “I continually get pulled over,” Dausman told 9NEWS. “I can’t really use my truck in any fashion. I believe my safety is at risk.” Officers confirm he’s clear each time, then send him on his way. The cycle repeats.

Flock Safety cameras dot Colorado streets, over 1,000 statewide. They scan plates, make, model, color. Infrared lenses capture vehicles day or night. Alerts ping police apps instantly. The Atlanta company boasts billions of scans monthly across 5,000 U.S. communities. In Colorado Springs, Boulder, Aurora—networks grow. But so do errors. And fears.

Take the successes first. From September 2025 to February 2026, Flock helped recover six abducted children. Boulder police tracked a teenage victim to Thornton after an AMBER Alert, using LPR hits. Thornton officers chased a suspect vehicle carrying a 14-year-old boy across counties. Aurora found a 14-month-old in a stolen car within 10 minutes—no alert needed. “Without this technology, this outcome could have looked very different,” the Aurora Police Department said. Flock CEO Garrett Langley calls it simple: “When a child is taken, every minute matters.” Five cases involved AMBER Alerts. Agencies from Ogden, Utah, to Commerce City coordinated via the shared network.

Law enforcement praises the tool. Durango Police Chief Brice Current describes it as a “rearview mirror narrowly focusing on one vehicle.” An Aurora detective cracked an assault on an elderly woman with dementia after 30 days. Traditional leads stalled; ALPR data pointed to the suspect. Durango hit-and-run? Cameras traced the driver 50 miles away overnight.

But critics see a digital dragnet. Denver decommissioned all 110 Flock cameras this spring. Public backlash boiled over revelations of data sharing with U.S. Customs and Border Protection, including Border Patrol. Mayor Mike Johnston’s administration shifted to Axon Enterprise instead, promising tighter controls. Durango residents demand their council end the contract. Flagstaff, Eugene, Santa Cruz—over 30 U.S. cities ditched Flock since early 2025, per NPR tracking. Activist Will Freeman maps 76,000 readers on DeFlock.me.

Misuse cases pile up. Columbine Valley police wrongly accused a Denver woman of stealing a $25 package, basing it on Flock data. Financial advisor Chrisanna Elser called it a “professional death sentence” in testimony. In 2020 Aurora, officers drew guns on Brittney Gilliam and four Black girls after a plate mix-up flagged their SUV as stolen. A Thornton officer ran 19,194 database searches, drawing complaints.

State lawmakers respond. Bipartisan Senate Bill 26-070, the PEEPS Act, bars data sharing beyond jurisdictions except in narrow cases. Warrants required for queries after 72 hours. Storage capped at a month, with exceptions. Sponsors include Democrats Judy Amabile and Yara Zokaie, Republican Lynda Zamora Wilson. “They currently have the ability to map where you sleep, where you worship, the doctor you visit, or what protest you attend,” Zokaie said at a February news conference, per Colorado Sun. “And that is deeply personal information.” The bill passed Senate Judiciary after 70 speakers testified. It heads to Appropriations.

Companion Senate Bill 26-071 sets rules for data storage, access, purging across surveillance tech—pole cameras, drones, body cams, facial recognition. Wilson emphasizes balance: “This is called the peeps act. It’s protecting everyone from excessive police surveillance,” she told Western Slope Now on April 28. “And this isn’t a ban on the technology… I support our law enforcement.” Grand Junction police monitor closely; chiefs oppose SB26-070.

Flock pushes back gently. Spokesperson Paris Lewbel says the company backs regulation for trust, while keeping safety tools effective. Districts attorneys—all 23—resist limits, claiming they hobble probes. El Paso DA Michael Allen testified against SB26-070.

Grassroots fight on. Commerce City grabbed $4.5 million to expand Flock as Denver pulled out. X users decry Denver’s old network recording cars, dogs, movements. One post warns of facial recognition risks, data sales to criminals, governments. Unconstitutional, per Carpenter v. United States, they argue—Supreme Court ruled cell tracking needs warrants.

Colorado sits at the fault line. Flock operates in 75 communities, from Castle Rock to Longmont. Six kids home safe. One man trapped in stops. Bills inch forward, effective August if signed by Gov. Jared Polis. Agencies must log uses, report annually, face attorney general enforcement. Violators lose data in court.

Privacy advocates like Elser warn of abortion probes, immigrant hunts, protest tracking. Flock insists customers control sharing. Cities didn’t always know, NPR found. Momentum builds against unchecked spread. Dausman waits for a fix. Lawmakers debate. Cameras watch.

from WebProNews https://ift.tt/lCNx4Z5

Stargate’s Rocky Path: How OpenAI’s $500 Billion AI Bet Stumbled, Then Surged

President Donald Trump stood at the White House podium on January 21, 2025, flanked by OpenAI’s Sam Altman, Oracle’s Larry Ellison, and SoftBank’s Masayoshi Son. He called it the largest AI infrastructure project in history. Stargate LLC would pour $500 billion into U.S. data centers over four years, starting with $100 billion right away. The crowd cheered promises of 100,000 jobs and American AI dominance.

Big talk. Reality hit differently.

Six months later, The Wall Street Journal reported no deals signed. SoftBank and OpenAI aimed small: one modest Ohio data center by year-end. Tariffs loomed. Investors balked. Masayoshi Son, Stargate’s chairman, faced questions on SoftBank earnings calls. CFO Yoshimitsu Goto admitted delays—no shovels in the ground despite the $100 billion pledge.

And then. Partners clashed.

By summer 2025, The Information detailed a three-way fight. OpenAI wanted control. Oracle pushed cloud dominance. SoftBank demanded financial say. The joint venture hired no one. Built nothing. OpenAI scrambled elsewhere—CoreWeave deals, Microsoft expansions. Stargate shelved.

But OpenAI didn’t quit. Altman pivoted.

From Standoff to Sprawl: Data Centers Rise

July 2025. OpenAI and Oracle announced 4.5 gigawatts more capacity. Abilene, Texas—Stargate’s flagship—saw parts operational. Construction hummed on a 1-gigawatt campus, set for 450,000 NVIDIA GB200 GPUs by mid-2026, per Data Center Dynamics.

September 23, 2025. Game on. OpenAI, Oracle, SoftBank unveiled five new sites: Shackelford County, Texas; Doña Ana County, New Mexico; Lordstown, Ohio; Milam County, Texas; undisclosed Midwest spot. Total: nearly 7 gigawatts. Over $400 billion committed. Ahead of the full $500 billion, 10-gigawatt target by end-2025, OpenAI said. Reuters confirmed the push, noting SoftBank’s role in Ohio and Texas builds.

WIRED called it a boost equivalent to seven nuclear reactors’ power. Bloomberg pegged investments at $400 billion. Ground broke in Milam County by October.

Compromises fueled progress. OpenAI leased and designed facilities. SoftBank’s SB Energy owned and powered them. Oracle handled three sites. Tensions eased into bilateral deals.

January 2026. OpenAI and SoftBank dropped $1 billion into SB Energy. For what? A 1.2-gigawatt Milam County center. SB Energy co-CEO Rich Hossfeld said it accelerates “advanced AI data center campuses and associated energy infrastructure at the scale required to advance Stargate.” OpenAI’s announcement tied it to the White House pledge. CNBC noted SoftBank’s growing OpenAI stake—$41 billion by December 2025.

February 2026 hiccup. The Information resurfaced: Stargate stalled again over control. But reports clarified progress. Ground broken. Compromises struck. OpenAI’s compute chief Sachin Katti tweeted Stargate as an “umbrella brand”—diversified across NVIDIA, AMD, Broadcom, clouds like AWS. Exited 2025 with 2 gigawatts available.

Power. The real choke point.

Stargate sites demand gigawatts—like powering millions of homes. Texas leads: Abilene, Shackelford, Milam. Ohio’s Lordstown eyes 1.5 gigawatts in 18 months. New Mexico and Midwest follow. SB Energy’s solar, batteries integrate. Wikipedia logs Stargate Argentina too—500 megawatts, $25 billion.

Oracle finances aggressively. $16.3 billion debt for one Michigan building—a record. Banks wary; yields rose on construction risks, per recent X buzz. Oracle backstops via SPVs, spending $48 million per megawatt for OpenAI.

Stargate reshapes AI. OpenAI diversifies from Microsoft Azure. Partners like Cerebras join. But risks linger. Delays. Debt loads. Power grids strained. Partner squabbles.

Yahoo Finance noted February 2026 reports of renewed stalls. Yet sites advance. Abilene runs partial ops. Milam builds. OpenAI claims $400 billion locked, 7 gigawatts planned.

Jobs flow. Texas, Ohio, New Mexico boom. Trump touted 100,000. Reality: thousands now, scaling.

Geopolitics weaves in. UAE’s G42 eyes Stargate-like 5-gigawatt Abu Dhabi campus with OpenAI, NVIDIA. Saudi’s Humain courts xAI. Middle East races for AI sovereignty.

Stargate endures. Not flawless. Not fast. But real. From White House hype to dirt-turning deals, it powers OpenAI’s frontier models. Compute scarcity ends here—or so they bet. Watch Texas. Watch the watts rack up.

from WebProNews https://ift.tt/2RUrpYQ