Google is investing $40 billion to build new data centers in Texas through 2027. Google describes the project as focused on “new cloud and AI infrastructure, including new data center campuses in Armstrong and Haskell Counties,” emphasizing their energy efficiency. The investment includes the creation of a $30 million Google-backed Energy Impact Fund, and one of the Haskell County facilities will be built housed adjacent to a new solar and battery storage plant. At a Dallas-area launch event announcing the project, Alphabet and Google CEO Sundar Pichai said the initiative will create thousands of new jobs. Read more

OpenAI is piloting a new group chat experience designed for socialization and work collaboration with ChatGPT, taking aim at Slack and Microsoft Teams. “Whether you’re organizing a group dinner or drafting an outline with coworkers,” OpenAI wants to make ChatGPT the place you do it. Group chats are beginning to roll out on mobile and web for logged-in users on ChatGPT Free, Go, Plus and Pro plans in Japan, New Zealand, South Korea and Taiwan. OpenAI says the pilot is “a small first step toward shared experiences in ChatGPT.” The company plans to collect early user feedback to inform further development. Read more

Tech entrepreneur Jack Dorsey, co-founder and former CEO of Twitter, is reviving Vine in an AI-free iteration that welcomes back 100,000 archived clips while barring generative AI content. The new app, diVine, maintains the concept of six-second continually looped videos, letting past users reclaim their old accounts while inviting new members — though there’s already a waitlist. In order to manage “AI slop,” diVine will identify suspected generative AI videos and prevent them from being uploaded. The refreshed app will draw on the decentralized elements Dorsey deployed in his other social media platform, Bluesky, including customizable content moderation controls and choice of feed algorithms. Read more

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