Hyperscalers are gobbling up land for AI data centers and now Google is mapping out property in space. Known as Project Suncatcher, the plan is to launch solar-powered networks of orbiting Tensor Processing Units (TPUs) — Google’s custom-developed machine learning accelerator chips — connected by free-space optical links. Apparently, Google feels that deploying high-performance TPUs in space would not be that different from the satellites that relay Internet communications from orbit. A big advantage over Earth-based AI factories is proximity to the sun, which emits “more power than 100 trillion times humanity’s total electricity production,” per Google. Read more

Disney+ will start streaming content in HDR10+ on Samsung TVs, the world’s top-selling brand. Initially, the HDR10+ support will include about 1,000 titles from Hulu, the streaming platform The Walt Disney Company acquired in full in June. The announcement, via Samsung, indicates additional Disney+ programming will stream in HDR10+ “in the future.” Disney+ had previously only supported Dolby Vision HDR and HDR10. HDR10+ improves on its predecessor by adding dynamic metadata, which allows brightness and color to be optimized on a scene-by-scene or even frame-by-frame basis, approximating more closely the creator’s intent. Read more

OpenAI has entered into a $38 billion cloud computing deal with AWS in a deal set to extend at least seven years, the hyperscaler says. The Monday news propelled Amazon stock to an all-time high of $254 per share, up 4 percent at close. After initially working exclusively with investor Microsoft for cloud services, OpenAI has negotiated expansively to meet increased demand. This year, the startup has signed with Oracle, Nvidia, AMD and Broadcom for storage and processing power as well as funding for data center construction plans of its own, here and abroad. The strategic alliance with AWS marks OpenAI’s first such arrangement with Amazon. Read more

Canva has retooled the pricing of its Affinity image-editing and publishing apps to better compete with Adobe. The company announced a new offering that bundles Affinity’s Photo, Publisher and Designer apps into a software package called “Affinity by Canva” that is free for users with a Canva account but requires a paid subscription to access generative AI features. Canva’s paid subscription plans start at $120 a year for individuals. Previously, Affinity software was available by perpetual license, a pricing option that Canva — which purchased Affinity late last year — is retiring. Canva also had to reconcile its acquisition’s anti-AI stance, something it seems to have accomplished. Read more

At TechCrunch Disrupt, Netflix CTO Elizabeth Stone discussed changes including a kids’ profile redesign, more vertical videos, and integrating interactive and immersive features. The latter category includes a more immersive homepage, real-time polls and live party games, while the updated children’s profiles aim to simplify navigation. Viewing histories and watchlists for kids are now under a single My Netflix heading and recommendations will now refresh in real time. Stone emphasized that when it comes to vertical video the streamer will not directly compete with TikTok, but acknowledged there are times its viewers want “something more snackable.” Read more