A key part of the SpaceX-xAI deal's rationale is to move datacentres - the central nervous system of AI tools - into space. A key part of the SpaceX-xAI deal's rationale is to move datacentres - the central nervous system of AI tools - into space. Why has Elon Musk merged his rocket company with his AI startup? SpaceX's acquisition of xAI creates business worth $1.25tn but whether premise behind deal will work is questioned The acquisition of xAI by SpaceX is a typical Elon Musk deal: big numbers backed by big ambition. As well as extending "the light of consciousness to the stars", as Musk described it, the transaction creates a business worth $1.25tn (£920bn) by combining Musk's rocket company with his artificial intelligence startup.

Since 2021, China has reportedly poured $100bn into support for AI datacentres. Since 2021, China has reportedly poured $100bn into support for AI datacentres. Beijing's AI policy is focused on real-life applications but Chinese companies are beginning to articulate their own grand visions S tanding on stage in the eastern China tech hub of Hangzhou, Alibaba's normally media-shy CEO made an attention-grabbing announcement. "The world today is witnessing the dawn of an AI-driven intelligent revolution," Eddie Wu told a developer conference in September. " Artificial general intelligence (AGI) will not only amplify human intelligence but also unlock human potential, paving the way for the arrival of artificial superintelligence (ASI)."

Ed Zitron on big tech, backlash, boom and bust: 'AI has taught us that people are excited to replace human beings' His blunt, brash scepticism has made the podcaster and writer something of a cult figure. But as concern over large language models builds, he's no longer the outsider he once was I f some time in an entirely possible future they come to make a movie about "how the AI bubble burst", Ed Zitron will doubtless be a main character. He's the perfect outsider figure: the eccentric loner who saw all this coming and screamed from the sidelines that the sky was falling, but nobody would listen. Just as Christian Bale portrayed Michael Burry, the investor who predicted the 2008 financial crash, in The Big Short, you can well imagine Robert Pattinson fighting Paul Mescal, say, to portray Zitron, the animated, colourfully obnoxious but doggedly detail-oriented Brit, who's become one of big tech's noisiest critics. This is not to say the AI bubble burst, necessarily, but against a tidal wave of AI boosterism, Zitron's blunt, brash scepticism has made him something of a cult figure. His tech newsletter, Where's Your Ed At, now has more than 80,000 subscribers; his weekly podcast, Better Offline, is well within the Top 20 on the tech charts; he's a regular dissenting voice in the media; and his subreddit has become a safe space for AI sceptics, including those within the tech industry itself - one user describes him as "a lighthouse in a storm of insane hypercapitalist bullshit".

Nvidia's chief executive, Jensen Huang, has been on an energetic world tour as the company's share price has soared. Nvidia's chief executive, Jensen Huang, has been on an energetic world tour as the company's share price has soared. Nvidia insists it isn't Enron, but its AI deals are testing investor faith The chipmaker's sprawling partnerships are driving extraordinary growth but also bank its future on the AI boom paying off quickly N vidia is, in crucial ways, nothing like Enron - the Houston energy giant that imploded through multibillion-dollar accounting fraud in 2001. Nor is it similar to companies such as Lucent or Worldcom that folded during the dotcom bubble. But the fact that it needs to reiterate this to its investors is less than ideal. Now worth more than $4tn (£3tn), Nvidia makes the specialised technology that powers the world's AI surge: silicon chips and software packages that train and host systems such as ChatGPT.

The AI boom has caused as much carbon dioxide to be released into the atmosphere in 2025 as emitted by the whole of New York City, it has been claimed. The global environmental impact of the rapidly spreading technology has been estimated in research published on Wednesday, which also found that AI-related water use now exceeds the entirety of global bottled-water demand. The figures have been compiled by the Dutch academic Alex de Vries-Gao, the founder of Digiconomist, a company that researches the unintended consequences of digital trends. He claimed they were the first attempt to measure the specific effect of artificial intelligence rather than datacentres in general as the use of chatbots such as OpenAIâ s ChatGPT and Googleâ s Gemini soared in 2025. The figures show the estimated greenhouse gas emissions from AI use are also now equivalent to more than 8% of global aviation emissions.

'It's going much too fast': the inside story of the race to create the ultimate AI On the 8.49am train through Silicon Valley, the tables are packed with young people glued to laptops, earbuds in, rattling out code. As the northern California hills scroll past, instructions flash up on screens from bosses: fix this bug; add new script. There is no time to enjoy the view. These commuters are foot soldiers in the global race towards artificial general intelligence - when AI systems become as or more capable than highly qualified humans. Here in the Bay Area of San Francisco, some of the world's biggest companies are fighting it out to gain some kind of an advantage. And, in turn, they are competing with China. This race to seize control of a technology that could reshape the world is being fuelled by bets in the trillions of dollars by the US's most powerful capitalists. Passengers get off a train at Palo Alto station.

Has Britain become an economic colony? The UK could've been a true tech leader - but it has cheerfully submitted to US dominance in a way that may cost it dear T wo and a half centuries ago, the American colonies launched a violent protest against British rule, triggered by parliament's imposition of a monopoly on the sale of tea and the antics of a vainglorious king. Today, the tables have turned: it is Great Britain that finds itself at the mercy of major US tech firms - so huge and dominant that they constitute monopolies in their fields - as well as the whims of an erratic president. Yet, to the outside observer, Britain seems curiously at ease with this arrangement - at times even eager to subsidise its own economic dependence. Britain is hardly alone in submitting to the power of American firms, but it offers a clear case study in why nations need to develop a coordinated response to the rise of these hegemonic companies.

Altman believes the revenue will come from paid-for versions of ChatGPT, other companies using its data centres and people buying the hardware devices it is building. Altman believes the revenue will come from paid-for versions of ChatGPT, other companies using its data centres and people buying the hardware devices it is building. Sam Altman's bet: Can OpenAI's ambitions keep pace with industry's soaring costs? As investor jitters grow, the loss-making ChatGPT firm's vast spending commitments test the limits of Silicon Valley optimism Mon 10 Nov 2025 09.21 ESTFirst published on Mon 10 Nov 2025 09.00 EST It is the $1.4tn (£1.1tn) question. How can a loss-making startup such as OpenAI afford such a staggering spending commitment?

The US company says putting AI processors in space would ease pressure on the Earth's resources. The US company says putting AI processors in space would ease pressure on the Earth's resources. US technology company's engineers want to exploit solar power and the falling cost of rocket launches Google is hatching plans to put artificial intelligence datacentres into space, with its first trial equipment sent into orbit in early 2027. Its scientists and engineers believe tightly packed constellations of about 80 solar-powered satellites could be arranged in orbit about 400 miles above the Earth's surface equipped with the powerful processors required to meet rising demand for AI. Prices of space launches are falling so quickly that by the middle of the 2030s the running costs of a space-based datacentre could be comparable to one on Earth, according to Google research released on Tuesday.

OpenAI said the deal would give it access to hundreds of thousands of Nvidia graphics processors to train and run its AI models. OpenAI said the deal would give it access to hundreds of thousands of Nvidia graphics processors to train and run its AI models. Agreement to use AWS datacentres, and Nvidia chips inside them, part of $1.4tn spending spree on AI infrastructure Mon 3 Nov 2025 13.09 ESTLast modified on Mon 3 Nov 2025 15.16 EST OpenAI has signed a $38bn (£29bn) deal to use Amazon infrastructure to operate its artificial intelligence products, as part of a more than $1tn spending spree on computing power. The agreement with Amazon Web Services means OpenAI will be able to use AWS datacentres, and the Nvidia chips inside them, immediately. Last week, OpenAIâ s chief executive, Sam Altman, said his company had committed to spending $1.4tn on AI infrastructure, amid concerns over the sustainability of the boom in using and building datacentres.