Axios

Stripe has promoted chief revenue officer Eileen O'Mara to vice chair — effectively making her the payment giant's top exec besides the founding Collison brothers.

Why it matters: O'Mara will becme the company's envoy to government leaders, regulators and top clients — a new role that's akin to what Dina Powell McCormick now does with Meta.

AppsFlyer has raised more than $1 billion in Series E funding at a $2.7 billion post-money valuation, Axios has learned from sources familiar with the financing.

Why it matters: The investment is from four of the world's top advertising platforms, which are betting on the need for independent measurement as AI reshapes digital advertising.

Nvidia's vision for humanoid robots is becoming increasingly clear as the AI giant rolls out what it calls a "comprehensive safety system" designed to ensure that the technology can be deployed alongside humans.

Why it matters: Humanoid developers say the technology could revolutionize the world — but for now it's not ready to handle significant tasks at scale.

• Humanoids are expected to generate $200 billion in revenue by 2035, according to Barclays' estimates.

Penske Media Corp. has acquired Vox Media's digital brands, including The Verge, Eater, SB Nation, Popsugar, The Dodo, Punch, and Thrillist.

Why it matters: This is the end of Vox, which once was at the vanguard of new media and valued by venture capitalists at $1.2 billion.

Reflection — an Nvidia-backed open-source AI startup — signed a major compute agreement with SpaceXAI, securing immediate access to chips and hardware from the SpaceX Colossus 2 data center.

Why it matters: If open-source AI companies are going to compete with the frontier AI labs, they needs compute. Reflection is now getting it from the same source its competitors are.

Reddit is introducing several new ad products built around its "community intelligence," the company exclusively tells Axios.

Why it matters: As AI answer engines become more popular for shopping and recommendations, Reddit is investing in being the place consumers go to research.

States are increasingly deploying artificial intelligence to help manage their social safety net programs and reduce worker caseloads, but advocates warn there's little evidence of safeguards around the technology.

Why it matters: AI systems can hallucinate and make errors, and without proper oversight, a machine's mistake regarding program eligibility could strip Americans of essential benefits.

PHOENIX — Arizona's power grid took more than 100 years to build. Now the state needs to double it in just four to five years, leaders said at an Axios Live event.

The big picture: Data centers, new residents and factories are pouring into Arizona — and the electric grid is struggling to keep up.

• "What took our utilities 100-plus years to build, need[s] to double that within the next four to five years," said Kevin Thompson, a member of the Arizona Corporation Commission, which oversees the state's utilities.
• Axios' Jessica Boehm, Jeremy Duda and Amy Harder moderated discussions with Thompson; Maren Mahoney, director of the Arizona Governor's Office of Resiliency; and Danny Seiden, president and CEO of the Arizona Chamber of Commerce and Industry. The June 16 event was sponsored by Shell.

By the numbers: Arizona's biggest utility, APS, runs about 8.3 gigawatts of power — enough to keep millions of homes and businesses running. But companies are already asking for nearly 17 gigawatts of new power. The other major utilities face the same problem, Thompson said.

• The rule Thompson's commission has set: Companies that need the power have to pay for it. Regular households won't foot the bill.
• Big tech companies are playing along, Thompson said. One deal in Tucson even required the company to post a $25 million guarantee in case the project fell through.

Between the lines: Data centers that were once seen as power and water guzzlers are now helping pay for the infrastructure they need.

• This is seen as a key factor in offsetting costs for everyday customers.

Yes, but: This growth is changing how and when Arizonans use electricity.

• More people are charging electric cars at night, which is pushing the state's busiest power hours later into the evening.
• Also, data centers that use less water end up using more electricity instead.

Context: Foreign investors used to ask Arizona, "Do you have the talent?" Seiden said. "Now it's energy" — and right behind it, water.

• Arizona's electrical grid is reliable, its water management is among the best in the country and Arizona State University is home to one of the nation's largest engineering programs, Seiden said. The ASU programs feed companies like TSMC, which is putting $165 billion into Arizona chip factories.
• To keep residents informed, the chamber is urging companies planning new data centers to hold community meetings before breaking ground, citing Intel in Chandler as the model.

The bottom line: Arizona has a strong case for why companies should establish data centers there, the panelists agreed. Whether it can build the power, water and trust to back it up is the real test.

• Mahoney said companies are looking for "fast power," which Arizona can provide if it can expand and "build out" the grid.

Content from the sponsor's segment:

In a View from the Top conversation, Shell's Mobility Americas senior vice president Barbara Stoyko talked about the company's push to build EV charging hubs across the country.

• "I thought permitting a gas station was hard. It turns out EV stations are even harder," she said — mostly because a single hub can pull as much electricity as 1,200 homes.
• In Houston, the surprise has been who's pulling up to charge: "Our No. 1 customer is Waymo," Stoyko said. "Who thought that we would be actually servicing a customer that's not even human?"

Intel shares surged 11% Thursday, continuing their meteoric rise after President Trump said that the company had secured a deal to supply chips to Apple.

Why it matters: Intel has been scrambling to reinvent itself as a chip foundry, making components for external customers — and its moment might've finally arrived in the form of a global shortage that's jolting device prices.

Federal regulators on Thursday ordered grid operators across a vast swath of the country to show how they will speed connection of AI data centers to transmission systems.

Why it matters: The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission's orders aim to enable the AI boom, but without making power grids less reliable or raising consumer costs.