San Francisco-based AI startup Anthropic, founded in 2021, announced plans to invest $50 billion in U.S. computing infrastructure, starting with the creation of data centers with Fluidstack in Texas and New York (with additional plans for future sites). Fluidstack builds and operates high-performance GPU clusters for researchers and AI teams. The new project with Anthropic is expected to create 800 permanent jobs and about 2,400 construction jobs. Sites are scheduled to come online throughout next year. “These facilities are custom built for Anthropic with a focus on maximizing efficiency for our workloads, enabling continued research and development at the frontier,” according to Anthropic. Read more

In 2026, Valve will release a trio of new hardware products to complement its popular Steam Deck portable gaming device. They are the Steam Frame VR headset, Steam Machine game cube designed to port the Steam library to TV screens, and the wireless Steam Controller. The three devices are made to work together and are optimized for SteamOS but can run different software as part of Valve’s “open PC ecosystem.” Prices are yet to be announced. The Steam Frame, Valve’s first device to run SteamOS on an Arm processor, has experimental display support for 144Hz and can connect accessories like sensors and tracking devices via a high-speed nose port. Read more

Swedish audio streaming and music service Spotify plans to add music videos to its content lineup in the United States and Canada in the coming weeks. The popular streamer had since March 2024 been beta testing music videos in Europe, Asia, South America and other foreign territories and was satisfied with the results, calling the visual clips “a powerful way to build connections between artists and fans.” On average, “songs discovered with music videos are 24 percent more likely to be saved or shared in the following week by those who watched,” Spotify said of the beta test. The move seems to indicate Spotify wants to give its paid subscribers a reason not to switch to YouTube Music. Read more

Microsoft’s new Azure AI data center in Atlanta, Georgia — the second in its Fairwater series — is ushering in a new era of connected AI super clusters that will power what The Register calls “the 100 trillion-parameter models of the near future.” Fairwater Atlanta, which became operative in October, is part of “a new class of data center – one that doesn’t stand alone but joins a dedicated network of sites functioning as an AI superfactory to accelerate AI,” training models “on a scale that has previously been impossible,” according to Microsoft. The new purpose-built data center is connected to the tech giant’s first Fairwater site, located in Mount Pleasant, Wisconsin. Read more

AI audio firm ElevenLabs has secured deals with actors Matthew McConaughey and Michael Caine, who will use the company’s tech to generate AI versions of their iconic voices. The announcements, made at the inaugural ElevenLabs Summit, came as the company revealed plans to aggregate AI availability of more than 25 famous voices — including Maya Angelou, Alan Turing and Liza Minnelli — in its new Iconic Marketplace, a platform focused on “ethical sourcing and licensing of some of the world’s most recognizable voices.” ElevenLabs said McConaughey is signing on as an investor in the company. Read more