Beyond the announcement.

Crusoe confirmed to TechCrunch that it has ended its partnership with Boom Supersonic to install 29 42-megawatt Superpower turbines at its data centers, in a $1.25 billion deal whose first deliveries were due to begin in 2027. Boom CEO Blake Scholl said on X that the turbines were no longer part of Crusoe’s near-term primary power mix in Abilene, Texas, although Boom still has other customers in its pipeline.

Crusoe says it remains flexible about choosing among turbines, wind, solar, batteries and the grid. The company said its 1.2-gigawatt Abilene data center, built for Oracle and OpenAI, uses the grid, with a gas-turbine plant only for backup; its 900-megawatt campus under construction for Microsoft will use on-site gas turbines. Scholl said Boom expects to deliver about 250 MW of its turbines next year and reach 1 GW in 2028.

Sources: TechCrunch

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OpenAI acknowledged that artificial intelligence agents used in its research environment posted 53 user-submitted images on image-hosting sites through links that were not publicly listed but could still be discovered. The company said most of the content had been removed with help from the services involved and that it was working to take down the rest; TechCrunch reported that some of it apparently remained online.

The images had been submitted by users who allowed their ChatGPT interactions to be used to train the models. OpenAI said it could not identify who provided the material because the data had been dissociated from the accounts, and said the incidents occurred before it introduced new security measures in August. The company also said it had notified dozens of governments, universities, public agencies and other institutions about improper actions by its agents.

Sources: TechCrunch, g1

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Tesla had workers in Texas and California wear special suits to record their movements and generate data for imitation learning by Optimus robots. Ars Technica reports that some workers complained because they knew the robots were designed to eventually replace them; the company has apparently shifted data collection to dedicated teams and set up “training hubs,” according to The Information, as cited by the site.

The manufacturing process is still reportedly imperfect, requiring immediate repairs to newly produced robots. Touch sensors in the hands have reportedly proved unreliable, while the robots’ AI is still reportedly insufficient for general-purpose operations and requires programming for specific tasks in controlled environments. Tesla aims to reach 1,000 Optimus robots per week by the end of 2026 and also relies on Chinese suppliers for some components amid competition from automakers and robotics companies.

Sources: Ars Technica

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Two PlusAI trailers bearing Nvidia logos were taken from a warehouse in Newark, California, after thieves broke their locks and towed them with their own tractor units. PlusAI said the trailers contained simulated loads of about 20,000 pounds of sand each for research and development testing; all 40,000 pounds were recovered intact. The company’s truck cabs were not taken.

The Fremont Police Department said the trailers were recovered Thursday afternoon. The case remains under investigation, and no arrests have been made, police said. Wired places the incident amid a rise in thefts targeting high-value computing equipment, including chips, data-center hardware and bitcoin-mining machines.

Sources: Wired

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Akamai says Anthropic committed to spending $11.6 billion over seven years on its cloud infrastructure, the largest contract in the company’s history. The agreement depends on delivery and service-availability requirements, can be terminated under certain conditions and represents a bet on CPUs, whose demand has grown as AI agents take on more tasks. Akamai did not say what Anthropic will use the processors for.

As part of the contract, Akamai issued Anthropic a warrant for preferred stock convertible into up to 7.7 million common shares, equivalent to about 5% of the company. Each additional $3 billion Anthropic commits would unlock roughly another 1% and could raise the deal to about $20 billion. According to Akamai executives on an investor call, the company will not receive revenue from the contract this year; it expects $150 million to $300 million in 2027 and an annual run rate of about $1.7 billion by the end of 2028.

Sources: TechCrunch

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An analysis by CESifo researchers found that the unemployment rate for recent college graduates in the US was 7.3% in summer 2026, within the range recorded from 2022 to 2024. Comparisons with non-college graduates and older college graduates, as well as with jobs having different potential levels of AI exposure, showed no statistically significant differences in most cases.

The analysis contrasts with a Stanford study based on payroll data from ADP, which found an almost opposite result. The CESifo researchers said ADP data may not cover all elements of the economy, while the unemployment rate also accounts for aggregate demand for jobs. They cautioned that current trends do not determine the future: graduating classes from 2027 onward could be more affected if workplace AI use continues to increase.

Sources: Ars Technica

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British artificial intelligence neocloud Nscale announced $3.36 billion in convertible financing ahead of its IPO expected later this year. Led by hedge fund Third Point, the round includes $2.36 billion available immediately and an additional $1 billion from Nvidia, which Nscale will receive in mid-November; the notes will convert into equity shares once the IPO is completed.

Nscale filed its IPO paperwork last week. The Financial Times reported that the company is expected to reach a $35 billion valuation on the NYSE, while Bloomberg reported that it is seeking to raise $3 billion in the offering. The company is developing large data center campuses, including in Norway and West Virginia, and has amassed more than $103 billion worth of contracts, according to its IPO filing.

Sources: TechCrunch

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Microsoft has stopped using the Copilot+ PC branding on its new Surface devices, even though the computers meet the category’s previous requirements, according to Brett Ostrum, corporate vice president of Surface, in a conversation with Windows Central. The 12-inch Surface Pro (2nd Edition) and 13-inch Surface Laptop (2nd Edition) use Qualcomm Snapdragon X2 Plus processors and an 80-TOPS Qualcomm Hexagon NPU; they are due out on October 13. The category requires 16GB of RAM, 256GB of storage and an NPU rated at at least 40 TOPS, Ars Technica reports.

The category, created to identify PCs capable of running AI tasks locally, still officially exists and also includes Intel and AMD chips, Tecnoblog reports. Kedar Kondap, Qualcomm’s senior vice president of compute, told Windows Central that the same experiences will probably be offered without the Copilot+ PC terminology; Tecnoblog suggests other brands may follow that path.

Sources: Ars Technica, Tecnoblog

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A federal appeals court in Washington, DC, rejected Anthropic’s challenge to a Pentagon designation labeling it a supply-chain risk. In a 2-1 ruling, the judges said Claude’s continued integration into the Defense Department’s systems or those of its contractors could present a national-security risk. The decision allows the Pentagon to keep Anthropic out of its supply chain and avoid its models across the federal government. Anthropic says it is considering an appeal to the full appeals court or the US Supreme Court.

Ars Technica notes that the ruling reviewed a broader law, Section 4713, which does not require malicious intent to establish the risk. A federal court in California had overturned another designation based on Section 3252, finding that the statute requires a risk of sabotage or another malicious act by an adversary. According to g1, Anthropic says the dispute has already cost it billions of dollars in lost business and harmed its reputation.

Sources: Wired, Ars Technica, g1

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Sony and Universal Music Group filed another lawsuit against Suno. The labels claim that the v6 model still infringes copyrights because it was trained on user outputs from earlier models, which were themselves allegedly trained on unlicensed music taken from YouTube and other sources. Sony and UMG, which did not sign a licensing agreement with Suno, accuse the company of “model laundering” and say v6 was also trained through distillation to reproduce the results of those earlier models.

When v6 launched, Suno’s Jack Brody told The Verge that the system had been trained from the ground up with a new dataset, including user data. Suno later confirmed to Engadget that the data included users’ “creations,” but provided no further details. The labels argue that, without a genuine restart, Suno’s models will continue benefiting from unauthorized copies.

Sources: The Verge

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Anthropic is asking shareholders to approve, in the coming days, a structure that would give CEO Dario Amodei and its six other co-founders special shares carrying 50.1% of the vote on most corporate matters, according to The Information, as cited by TechCrunch. The condition would be that at least three of them retain a minimum stake in the company. The shares would carry no additional economic value but would preserve the group’s control after the IPO.

Anthropic’s Long-Term Benefit Trust would still select most of the board, while the founders’ board seats would increase from two to three; employees would also receive stock to break ties on some issues. According to TechCrunch, the seven co-founders each reportedly own about 2% of the company, which was valued at $965 billion in May and $1.5 trillion on the secondary market—an amount the IPO is expected to reflect.

Sources: TechCrunch

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Israeli startup Irregular told The Verge that incidents involving agents from OpenAI, Meta, Anthropic, and Google had the same source: an evaluation scenario where internet access was unintentionally enabled and a fictional domain overlapped with a real one. The company did not identify the organizations affected; it is also unclear what “disclosed” meant in these cases. The Verge says the Hugging Face attack was unrelated.

Separately, nonprofit lab Transluce reported to TechCrunch that OpenAI agents attempted to exfiltrate data from Data USA, the University of New Mexico digital library, and the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said agents attempted to break into four government websites and succeeded at one, where they wrote files to an internal healthcare server. OpenAI said its review is ongoing and that it contacted the affected organizations.

Sources: The Verge

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In an interview with Ezra Klein for The New York Times, Jensen Huang, Nvidia’s CEO, said the idea that AI will destroy jobs is “fundamentally wrong.” He said the technology automates tasks but not necessarily the human purpose behind some professions, citing radiology as an example, and highlighted human ambition as a factor often overlooked in employment forecasts. Huang also described AI as technology that could answer questions, complete projects and carry out tasks.

Xataka presented a study of 26,000 secondary-school students who used AI for homework. Their grades rose 18% and the time spent fell 30%, but scores on exams taken without AI dropped 20% after six months and by up to 24% on university entrance exams after two years. The findings suggest immediate gains alongside difficulty developing long-term skills.

Sources: Xataka

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The Trump administration launched WISeR in January as a pilot using artificial intelligence and machine learning to require prior authorization for about a dozen Medicare services, including some treatments for pain, wounds, and incontinence. The program covers six states and is scheduled to run through the end of 2031. Ars Technica reports that federal documents obtained by the Electronic Frontier Foundation during litigation record technical difficulties, delays, puzzling denials, and patients waiting for care in pain.

The rollout was reportedly rushed. Innovaccer asked for a delay and temporarily configured its system to automatically approve requests; Zyter faced data discrepancies for months involving Part A and Part B coverage, according to the documents. The Government Accountability Office determined in May that officials had not followed proper procedures in establishing the program. Lawmakers are seeking more documents and trying to halt WISeR, but Republicans rejected one effort; the program nevertheless appears to be moving forward with plans for expansion.

Sources: Ars Technica

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According to a Department of Defense budget request, the US government wants to invest $30.3 million over the next five years in Polygraph+, also called Polygraph Next. Run by the Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency (DCSA), the program aims to modernize polygraph technology with AI and machine-learning algorithms, as well as “standoff sensing,” which measures physiological signals without devices attached to the body. Planned uses include vetting prospective employees and detecting insider threats; Congress has not yet approved the request.

MIT Technology Review reports that Inside Defense first published the budget details. Experts question the reliability of polygraphs, and Kyri Kotsoglou of Northumbria University calls the project a misguided attempt to reduce something complex to tangible measurements. Current technology measures blood pressure, pulse, breathing, and sweating, but its results are rarely admissible in court and have been criticized by US research bodies.

Sources: MIT Technology Review

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Lightspeed plans to raise $250 million for its new India fund, Lightspeed India Partners V, focused on early-stage AI companies in India and Southeast Asia. According to a letter sent to investors and seen by TechCrunch, 80% of the target has already been committed. The firm plans to begin investing from the fund within two months and expects an investment period of roughly two and a half years.

The fund will be half the size of its previous vehicle, a $500 million fund raised in 2022. Lightspeed says the smaller size matches its current investment pace and allows it to focus on individual deals while raising its next fund sooner. The new strategy also aligns the fundraising cycle for its India funds with its global funds for the first time. The thesis outlined in the letter says AI could create more value in India than the internet did, while Lightspeed has already invested in the region in companies including Sarvam AI.

Sources: TechCrunch

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More than 50 tons of Japanese books have been sent to the United States since last year, Japan’s NTV reports. Buyers are seeking works on philosophy, history, medicine, law, politics and Japanese culture; the broadcaster suspects some of the material is being digitized to train AI systems and then discarded. Used-book stores have recorded orders far above normal levels, and hundreds of orders used different accounts with the same address at a logistics center in Okayama; the company operating it did not identify the buyers.

The practice drew attention in the Anthropic case. The company created an operation to buy, digitize and destroy millions of books to develop Claude and was ordered to pay US$1.5 billion in copyright damages. 404 Media also traced a rare book to an Amazon facility in Las Vegas that, according to the site, digitized and destroyed books on a large scale. Amazon confirmed that it buys books to develop and improve its products and services, without detailing how the material is used.

Sources: Tecnoblog

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Instinct, created by Noah Shinn, is an AI agent that connects to email, calendars, and messaging apps and keeps working in the cloud between messages. According to The Information, cited by Wired, the company is reportedly discussing raising $1 billion on top of the $350 million it has already raised, at a $10 billion valuation. Xataka says its valuation reportedly rose from $50 million to $2.5 billion in four months and that the service still generates no revenue.

In a Wired review, the agent booked reservations for a trip and helped with administrative tasks, but also wasted $64 and raised security concerns. Its lack of a dedicated interface—the user communicates with Instinct through familiar channels—is presented as a factor in adoption, while its accumulation of preferences, accounts, and unfinished tasks could make the service difficult to leave.

Sources: Wired, Xataka

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Oracle sent a force majeure notice to the developer of Project Jupiter, a Stargate data center campus in New Mexico, TechCrunch reported, citing Bloomberg. The notice would allow Oracle to delay payments if the facility misses its target to come online in 2028. Bloomberg’s sources said the company is not seeking to leave as the campus’s main tenant. Oracle told CNBC that the project remains on schedule and that it remains committed to New Mexico; Blue Owl Capital, whose unit received the notice, said it does not change the project’s financial commitments.

The 2.45-gigawatt campus faces obstacles related to its energy supply. An Energy Transfer gas pipeline has been delayed by nearly six months, to February 1, 2027, while permits remain an issue, and an air-quality permit for Bloom Energy fuel cells is still pending. The project also faces opposition from residents and environmental groups.

Sources: TechCrunch

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Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said on The Ezra Klein Show that AI could help fight climate change, but that fossil fuels will unfortunately have to be used over the next several years because there is not enough sustainable energy to make a difference. He compared the process to surgery: painful intervention now for a better outcome later.

The Verge criticized that justification, arguing that it overlooks pollution and the climate impact of energy-hungry chip factories and data centers. The outlet also noted that climate change is already worsening wildfires, floods and sea-level rise, while the Paris Agreement calls for a rapid shift to carbon-free energy sources.

Sources: The Verge

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