Infrastructure briefing

Google thinks SpaceX’s Starship has to launch 1,800 times before space data centers get off the ground

Infrastructure

Turbopuffer plans a new primary index for its v3 storage engine

The redesign would make approximate nearest neighbor search a secondary index as the company broadens the database beyond vector search.

Introducing Olmo-core 3: Open, scalable training infrastructure for large MoEs

Expanding AI Storage Access with NVIDIA cuObject and the NVIDIA SCADA Server SDK

Tracking AI Chips: What Does It Cost?

Infrastructure

Nscale raises $3.36 billion in convertible notes ahead of planned IPO, with $1 billion from NVIDIA

The AI cloud provider's pre-IPO financing, led by Third Point, will fund expansion of its power, data center and GPU cluster operations.

Infrastructure

House passes Ratepayer Protection Act on data center grid costs, 417-3

The U.S. House voted 417-3 on Sept. 16 to pass the Ratepayer Protection Act, a bipartisan bill directing state utility regulators to consider rules that make data centers and other very large power users pay for the grid upgrades they require. The measure now heads to the Senate.

Infrastructure

Emerald AI, Google and Nvidia form alliance to promote grid-flexible AI data centers

Emerald AI, Google and Nvidia on Sept. 16 launched the AI Energy Management Alliance, a coalition promoting data centers that can adjust their electricity use in response to grid conditions. Eighteen launch partners, including Anthropic, National Grid, AES, RWE, Constellation and NRG, joined the three founders.

Infrastructure

Apple reportedly developing M8 Ultra servers for AI inference, targeting 2029

Apple is working on an enterprise server built around its own M8 Ultra chips for running trained AI models, The Information reported, citing people familiar with the project. A launch would come no earlier than 2029, and neither Apple nor Nvidia has confirmed the plan.