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"Taxing AI directly ties the solution directly to the problem," wrote Rep. Greg Casar. "If AI use grows quickly, driving layoffs alongside it, the revenue from an AI tax would go up too." Two leading progressives in the US Congress are calling for a tax on artificial intelligence to fund programs that would help prevent an economic catastrophe for workers displaced by the rapidly advancing technology. In separate op-eds published Wednesday and Thursday, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Rep. Greg Casar (D-Texas) warned that AI risks turbocharging existing wealth and income inequality by driving up the fortunes of large companies and their executives, while hurling millions of workers into joblessness without an adequate safety net.
Elon Musk's SpaceX IPO could make him the world's first trillionaire. Learn how ordinary investors may unknowingly fund this risky venture. Billionaire Elon Musk has ambitions to become the world’s first trillionaire when his company SpaceX makes what is expected to be the biggest initial public offering in history—and money unwittingly invested by ordinary Americans may help him get there. Progressive media outlet More Perfect Union on Wednesday published a video detailing how the Nasdaq stock market exchange changed its own rules so that SpaceX can be immediately included in index funds without having to wait through the one-year “seasoning” period that used to be required for newly public companies. SpaceX is a particularly risky bet,
The launch of the Ojai minivan robotaxi comes after years of development and testing, but arrives amid a challenging time for Waymo. Waymo has started giving select riders in Los Angeles, Phoenix, and San Francisco access to its newest robotaxi: an all-electric, minivan-like vehicle that is designed to lower costs and handle the use and abuse of hundreds of thousands of riders. Waymo said Thursday it will eventually expand access to the vehicle, a modified Zeekr-made minivan called the Ojai (pronounced oh-hi), to more riders and cities. For now, the Alphabet-owned company is offering a limited number of customers free rides in the Ojai to gather feedback and further refine the robotaxi experience.
On Thursday, Anthropic released Opus 4.8, the newest version of its most advanced publicly available model. The model is available everywhere, with standard pricing at the same level as the previous Opus release. The new model comes just 41 days after Opus 4.7 was released, a much faster upgrade cycle than normal for Anthropic. The new Opus model comes with a tool called Dynamic Workflows, for coordinating swarms of subagents.
I’ve been in this industry long enough to know the most interesting question is rarely what happened. It’s why rational actors made a specific move at a specific moment. Last week gave us three important signals that, taken together, say a lot about where mobile is heading: - The AT&T/T-Mobile/Verizon joint venture announcement
- The FCC’s approval of the $40 billion EchoStar spectrum sale to SpaceX and AT&T
- And SpaceX’s S-1 filing, submitted to the SEC on May 20, timing that was very likely intentional
Individually, each story matters. Together, they tell a much bigger one. Let’s unpack it.
Massive data centers are gobbling up resources across the United States. The boom has just begun—and you may be paying for it. John Steinbach was shocked to receive a $281 electricity bill in January 2026—a huge spike from the roughly $100 he’d paid the previous month. “It’s just so far beyond any bill that I’ve ever had,” he says. Steinbach, who has lived in his Manassas, Va., home for nearly 40 years, worries his rates will keep climbing as the outsized electricity demand from AI data centers grows. “They’re building them like it’s ‘Field of Dreams’—build it and the electricity will come—but we don’t see how that’s going to happen.” The contribution of AI data centers to higher bills is just one of the ways the development boom is affecting consumers. The facilities also compete for critical resources like water and land, and they can lower air quality and increase traffic, often while benefiting from changes to zoning laws and huge tax breaks. Data centers are not new. Such buildings have been around for decades, housing the servers and other hardware needed to power the internet. But since the introduction of ChatGPT to the public in late 2022, generative artificial intelligence has exploded, requiring mountains of new, power-hungry equipment. To meet this ballooning demand, and in a race to drive AI’s growth, tech giants like Amazon, Google, Meta, and Microsoft have been investing billions to build immense new facilities packed with servers and other equipment. Known as hyperscale data centers, they are far bigger than earlier versions, and are often built in sprawling industrial parks.
I tend to avoid writing about topics that others are already discussing. So I usually avoid the “AI is going to kill us”/”The AI is stealing our jobs”/ “The AI is not as good as I thought” articles. However, when the topic of AI intersects with supply chain management and the Bullwhip effect, I have to write about it. I am not making up the rules here. One thing is clear: The artificial intelligence boom has sparked one of the most costly technology buildouts in history.
On a Monday night in late April, nearly 100 people gathered in a public library conference room in Bloomington, Illinois. Sipping on seltzer water and snacking on granola bars, the crowd’s focus was on a projector screen, where a title slide read, “Let’s Talk Data Centers!” A few of the event-goers had brought notebooks, their pens poised to take notes during the presentation. Others held up their phones to snap photos of slides showing Illinois’ power grid and maps of its water resources. The event, first conceptualized by Bloomington librarian Kerrie Parker over the winter, was a joint effort between the library and several area nonprofits to educate people about data centers in central Illinois. Parker, who’s been with the library for 14 years, said she was surprised by the turnout. But on the heels of a controversial decision to approve a $500 million data center in Sangamon County, Illinois, just southwest of Bloomington, awareness around data centers in the region appears to be growing. At a time when seven in ten Americans nationwide oppose the construction of AI data centers in their area, according to a May 2026 Gallup poll, the turnout at April’s informational session is a testament to the interest in increasing community protections around data centers in central Illinois.
I recently read an article that touted residential 25-gigabit fiber in Switzerland. The article made it sound like the product was available everywhere, and the reality is different, but it is still a great story. The fiber network being discussed is funded and owned by Swisscom. The company is owned 51% by the Swiss government and 49% by investors. During nationwide discussions in 2008 about the best future path for building fiber in the country, Swisscom pushed for the idea of building multiple fibers whenever new fiber is built. The decision was made to adopt what was called a four-fiber point-to-point model, which means four separate fiber paths built between the network core and each home and business. This would allow for an open-access network with four separate ISPs getting direct layer 1 fiber access to each customer.
In the marathon to bring universal high-speed Internet service to the most rural state in the nation, Vermont is heading into the last-mile stretch of the race with the finish line in sight. In February, the Vermont Community Broadband Board (VCBB) announced that the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) overseeing the federal Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) program, had approved Vermont’s Final Proposal, unlocking $93 million of the state's nearly $229 million federal allocation. Getting people connected – and keeping them connected – requires tackling affordability head-on, as Vermont broadband leaders are doing with the state’s CUDs, demonstrating that community ownership and affordability can go hand in hand. After years of painstaking planning, public input, and navigating bureaucratic hurdles, it marked a pivotal moment – with the state's selected grant recipients cleared to begin deploying mostly fiber to the communities that have long been waiting for high-speed connectivity after decades of neglect from the Big Cable and Telecom providers.
The most valuable AI asset in your community may already be buried beneath your streets. Or is it? Because if it's coaxial your not ready for AI. That distinction could become one of the most important factors determining which communities, properties, and regions participate in the next wave of digital infrastructure growth. Many property owners assume they are prepared for the future because telecommunications infrastructure already exists within their communities. They see cable networks, utility corridors, and broadband services and assume the foundation is already in place. But the infrastructure requirements of the AI era are fundamentally different from those of the cable television era.
What happened when I sat down to think clearly about my county’s industrial future — and the AI conversation pattern that produced an answer. The county I live in is the fiber optic capital of America. It’s also fifth in the nation for percentage of workforce in manufacturing — 30.4%, more than three times the national average. It hosts Apple, Google, Meta, and soon Microsoft data centers. And it’s currently in a severe drought, with a growing local movement to stop more data centers from being built here. All of that is true at the same time. And the conversation about what to do next isn’t being helped by either the panic version (“data centers are killing us”) or the dismissal version (“technology marches on, get out of the way”). The real questions are sharper than either side is asking. This is an attempt to ask better ones, and to show you a way of using AI that produced answers I couldn’t have gotten any other way.
The carrier continues to count the cost of running its copper network in the state. AT&T has announced it will invest $19 billion in California to bolster its fiber and wireless networks in the state by the end of 2030. The investment will support the carrier's ambitions to help phase out legacy copper services in California. According to AT&T, the telco is investing $3bn more each year in the next five years (2026-2030) than the previous five (2021-2025) – reaching $35bn invested over 10 years (2021-2030) in California’s network. It comes on the same day that AT&T has asked the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) for permission to discontinue traditional phone service in parts of the state where it has faster, more reliable services, reports Reuters.
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“This administration is rushing toward another disastrous war, putting countless American and foreign lives at risk," said Rep. Nydia Velázquez. "Congress must reassert its constitutional authority." With US military forces prepared to launch an unprovoked attack on Cuba, a group of congressional Democrats on Wednesday introduced a new war powers resolution in a bid to block President Donald Trump from launching yet another illegal war of choice. Reps. Nydia Velázquez and Gregory Meeks, both of New York, introduced the resolution, which would bar US forces from hostilities within or against Cuba without congressional authorization, as required under the 1973 War Powers Act. The measure is cosponsored by Reps. Jim McGovern of Massachusetts and Joaquin Castro of Texas.
Europe’s startup ecosystem has matured significantly; its founders are increasingly willing to scale companies domestically instead of immediately looking to relocate to the U.S. For decades, the geography of the tech industry has felt largely fixed, with Silicon Valley dominating the global startup economy. While cities like London, Beijing, and Tel Aviv have competed for secondary influence, one of the most important conversations in artificial intelligence is happening somewhere else entirely: Paris. France has aggressively invested in artificial intelligence research and infrastructure, with startups like Mistral AI helping Europe become a legitimate force in the global AI race. At the same time, Europe’s startup ecosystem has matured significantly; its founders are increasingly willing to scale companies domestically instead of immediately looking to relocate to the U.S.
This document is also a Sledgehammer of Facts to Halt All FCC Chairman Carr’s Proceedings The chart above is an excerpt from the 2025 Verizon NY Annual Report, published May 21, 2026. We will first present an analysis of this financial and business information. Then we will detail why Congress needs to step in and investigate the FCC Chairman Brendan Carr’ plans, which is a collection of inter locking proceedings, known as Delete 3. Partial Background We have tracked Verizon NY financial reports for over 16 years with detailed analysis of the annual reports in just Verizon NY, and since 2010, the IRREGULATORS have filed at the FCC, NTIA and state utility regulatory agencies. And this current analysis is important as it directly relates to all of the FCC Chairman Brendan Carr proceedings, where, since 2025 there has been a barrage of now over 30+ interlocking proceedings — and this also contradicts every FCC statement and analysis, as we will discuss. Our adverse comments, application for full review, and decades of filings at the FCC, NY PSC and CA PUC are now all tied to the findings in New York — — all directly contradict the AT&T case against the CA PUC and the FCC’s Delete 3 proceedings..
In fact, AT&T is taking the California Commission to court to allow the company to remove carrier of last resort (COLR) and shut off the copper wires. At the same time, the FCC has started a new proceeding to help force the state to comply with AT&T’s request. Light reading reports: “AT&T filed a suit with a California court and an application with the FCC that aims to spark the operator’s shutdown of copper networks and services in the Golden State and expand on similar initiatives underway in 20 other states, where AT&T has service areas.
SpaceX recently filed comments in the FCC’s open docket looking at the Universal Service Fund (USF) with a recommendation that the FCC should sunset the High-Cost Fund and eventually eliminate it. This is one of the four major components of USF, with an annual budget of $4.5 billion. SpaceX argues that Starlink has now solved rural broadband connectivity issues with ubiquitous broadband available throughout the country. SpaceX argues that ongoing subsidy payments to support rural voice and broadband networks are no longer needed. To put the SpaceX comments into perspective, let me start by reviewing the stated goals of the High Cost Fund:
Today I’m going to speak from the heart, and tell you that we’re ruled by fucking imbeciles. AI is a perfect storm of failed concepts and organizations, and the apex of the Era of the Business Idiot, an epoch where we’re ruled by people so thoroughly disconnected from the actual workforce that it was inevitable that a technology would be created specifically to grift them. Just ask Aaron Levie, CEO of Box:
Growing AI infrastructure demands extensive land preparation and massive industrial campuses to support advanced computing equipment. These facilities also require expanded power grids, underground utility networks, advanced cooling systems, and reinforced security infrastructure before operations can begin. Supporting facilities and continuous expansion projects are further increasing construction activity as companies rush to expand AI capacity. Goldman Sachs Research predicts the demand for data centers to rise by roughly 50% to 92 gigawatts by 2027, with rapid expansion expected to continue into 2028. The growing demand is creating more work for construction firms as companies race to build more computing infrastructure. How Much Does One AI Data Center Cost to Build? Large AI data centers often cost between $500 million and more than $1 billion, depending on size, power capacity, and the amount of computing hardware planned for the site. A huge share of that spending goes into:
WASHINGTON, May 27, 2026 – The Trump administration urged federal judges Tuesday to grant its request to dismiss a lawsuit over the cancellation of $2.75 billion in broadband adoption funding. In May 2025, the Commerce Department told recipients of grant funding under the Digital Equity Act that the law unconstitutionally directed funding to racial minorities and that the grants were canceled. The National Digital Inclusion Alliance urged judges not to dismiss its case over canceled grant funding.
Tungsten is a metal that’s incredibly important to all kinds of industries — especially manufacturers that need to cut other kinds of metal. Most of the tungsten used in the U.S. comes from China, which controls roughly 80% of the world’s supply. Trade tensions between the U.S. and China have hit the tungsten market hard. The price of the metal has shot up 300% over the past year or so, according to the CRU Group. That inflation has less to do with tariffs than it does with another weapon in the global trade war: export controls. A big reason tungsten is unique is that it has a very high resistance to heat. “And so that makes it ideal for handling the temperatures required to melt other metals without it melting itself,” said Chris Blench, CEO of Mavericks Manufacturing Partners, a company near San Diego that makes components for the energy and defense sectors.
State officials did not identify the ISPs that walked away as the Nebraska Broadband Office now attempts to find new service providers to connect nearly 1,700 locations. Nebraska has reopened part of its BEAD bidding process after a few ISPs walked away from the state’s $45 million broadband deployment program. The Nebraska Broadband Office confirmed on May 22 that three ISPs declined to sign their subgrant contracts, citing changes to their business plans. State officials did not identify the providers, according to a report in the Nebraska Examiner. After weeks of questions, the office on Friday released the names of the seven companies that did sign, saying they will cover 88% of the roughly 14,000 BEAD‑eligible locations in the state. That still leaves about 1,700 locations still unserved.
I’m a Washington, D.C. communications policy wonk. I spend my days arguing in the abstract about the Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment Program. Earlier this month, in the far northeastern corner of Louisiana, I saw what those abstractions look like in reality. It isn’t pretty. In Louisiana's poorest parish, a $6 million BEAD fiber award became a $150,000 Starlink contract under the Trump administration's rewritten program, leaving Lake Providence behind. The town is Lake Providence, the parish seat of East Carroll Parish. Time Magazine called it “The Poorest Place in America” in the 1990s. Today, East Carroll holds the unhappy distinction of being the parish with the highest poverty rate in the state — an eye-popping 47.3% of residents live below the poverty line, against 18.8% statewide. Two of three working-age adults in the parish are jobless and the population is down 11% since 2010. It is also deeply segregated. White families live in the larger colonial homes along the lake, and their children go to private school. Black families live in modest, sometimes decrepit houses that are literally on the wrong side of the tracks. Their children attend schools that look like they were built in the 1960s and only got air conditioning in the last 25 years.
In a state where 60% of Fortune 500 companies are incorporated, Connor Perry (Executive Director of Delaware’s broadband office) is in the business of connecting every home with internet service.
“The internet is much more important today than it was two decades ago when I would get frustrated with the performance of playing ‘Halo’ online,” says Perry. “Today the internet is everything… your education and employment opportunities, healthcare, and resources to start a business. So much more than it was from when I was just disgruntled that my Xbox didn't work.” Perry tells me that his team of five is hyper-focused on not leaving ANY holes (unserved/underserved) as he and his team strive to reach universal connectivity. “If we say we want to deliver universal broadband service, let's do it, right.”
WASHINGTON — Higher electric rates? Massive data centers looming over neighborhoods? Ugly political fights over what to do about them? The future of data centers and their huge appetite for electricity is quickly escalating as a political flashpoint from coast to coast, moving from cities and states now to the nation’s capital. Bills are under debate in Congress. The Trump administration has weighed in. Lobbying is intensifying. The Environmental Protection Agency is proposing changes. But finding consensus on how to proceed in D.C. is tough, with the industry spreading around millions to make its case, some lawmakers pushing a moratorium, and others looking for ways to ease the burden on Americans without halting development.
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