Google will buy up to half the electricity produced by one of Finland's nuclear power plants as part of a record €13bn (£11bn; $15bn) investment in the country's AI infrastructure, the company announced. The US tech giant said the package would fund three new data centres, expand an existing site and support energy projects to power growing demand for AI services. This is Google's largest single investment in Europe and a testament to Finland's leadership in responsibly building AI infrastructure, the company said on Wednesday. Google's decision is a clear testament to our strengths, Finland's Prime Minister Petteri Orpo said in a statement. As part of the deal, Google signed a 22-year contract with Finnish utility Fortum to buy up to 50% of the output from the Loviisa nuclear power plant.

South Korea's power demand set to soar on AI boom South Korean Minister of Climate, Energy and Environment Kim Sung-whan checks data of the Han River Flood Control Office's flood forecasting system in Seoul on Sept. 2. | REUTERS SEOUL - South Korea's demand for power in the coming years is set to surge on plans by chipmakers Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix to expand production and the building of new artificial intelligence data centers, according to the country's energy minister. Those AI-driven power needs alone will lift South Korea's demand for power by 25 to 30 gigawatts, the Minister of Climate, Energy and Environment Kim Sung-whan said in an interview this month. On top of that, the country will also need to contend with increased power demand due to the shift to electric vehicles from gasoline-engine cars and to heating via electricity rather than gas, he added. In a time of both misinformation and too much information, quality journalism is more crucial than ever. By subscribing, you can help us get the story right.

Follow this author to personalize your feed and get instant alerts. Follow Go to your personalized feed WHY FOLLOW? Smart Alerts: Get notified about major news as it happens. The AI race has increasingly become an electricity race, as companies sprint to build the power infrastructure necessary to power data centers. Joe Dominguez, president and CEO of Constellation Energy, is betting that nuclear energy will be one of the most important sources of that power.

Is the war entering a new phase? Two killed, refinery on fire in Russia's Krasnodar after drone attack Share Two killed, refinery on fire in Russia's Krasnodar after drone attack on social media A fire broke out at the Afipsky oil refinery in Russia's Krasnodar region following a drone attack, local authorities have said, while two employees at the Russian-controlled Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant were injured in another Ukrainian drone attack. At least two people were killed, and two others were injured, due to falling drone debris at the Afipsky railway station, Governor Veniamin Kondratyev said on Tuesday. Russian-installed management did not provide details on any damage caused by the attack. Ukraine has been targeting Russia's oil refineries and other infrastructure, attempting to undermine Moscow's war efforts and reduce financial revenue.

Is the war entering a new phase? President Vladimir Putin has signed a decree opening the way for the Russian state to take temporary control of critical infrastructure found to be inadequately protected from attack. The decree, published on Monday, would allow Moscow to strip owners of physical and financial control over facilities should it be determined that they are failing to secure them or repair damage quickly. The move comes as Ukraine maintains an intense drone campaign against Russian infrastructure. Fuel and energy facilities, including nuclear power, are included under the legislation as well as industry, communications, transport and logistics, public utilities and other facilities deemed essential to state security and economic stability.

Plus: A new Amazon data center could become the US's most polluting power plant. Plus: both parties are turning against AI data centers ahead of the midterms. Teaching a computer to use human language requires an inhuman amount of data. An LLM can easily churn through a hundred thousand times more words than a person will experience in the process of mastering their mother tongue. This yawning divide between children and machines is called the data efficiency gap. It raises a tantalizing question for cognitive scientists and a challenge for the architects of AI models: how can children still outperform the most linguistically sophisticated machines ever built?

Is the war entering a new phase? A drone strike close to the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant in occupied southeastern Ukraine has killed one nuclear specialist and wounded 17, according to Russian reports. Moscow asserted on Tuesday that the drone was launched by Ukraine. The security of Europe's biggest nuclear plant has provoked significant global concern amid the full-scale war on Ukraine that Russia launched in February 2022. Most of those injured by the strike were employees of the plant, according to a Telegram update by the Russian management of the nuclear facility.

Things to Do in L.A. California planned a nuclear exit. Diablo Canyon Power Plant in San Luis Obispo County, the only operating nuclear power plant in California, has federal approval to operate through 2045. This is read by an automated voice. Please report any issues or inconsistencies here . See more from the L.A. Times in Google Search.

Chevron and Williams are big winners in the race to power artificial intelligence as they build out gas-fired power plants and pipelines. It's been a banner year for oil and gas companies. Some of the world's biggest oil giants have announced billions of dollars in quarterly profits over the past two weeks, boosted largely by the soaring price of oil thanks to the conflict in the Middle East. But the artificial intelligence boom is also giving fossil fuel companies a new industry to sell their gas, pipelines, and power plants to: data centers . Two American oil and gas companies, Williams and Chevron, are presenting that demand to investors as a huge win.

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