Google's Cloud division is taking a major step toward making operational recent gains in AI weather forecast models and marketing them for the energy industry, the company tells Axios exclusively.
Why it matters: This is a prominent example of a tech company that invested in developing AI models to make the transition from research to applications.
Elon Musk and Republican senators are eyeing a package to claw back tens or hundreds of billions of dollars in federal spending after meeting in a closed-door lunch on Wednesday.
Why it matters: Musk has been leading the charge on spending cuts from the White House. Some lawmakers want to make his actions more permanent by making them law.
Federal authorities have charged 10 individuals and two Chinese government officials on Wednesday in connection to several high-profile Beijing-backed intrusions.
Why it matters: The U.S. alleges that these individuals helped carry out a wide-reaching Chinese espionage campaign that targeted U.S. government agencies, state governments, news services, universities, defense contractors, law firms, and critical infrastructure.
The big picture: A federal judge last month required the HHS to restore webpages and datasets that had been altered or taken offline to comply with executive orders that Trump issued on DEI and gender identity, but several links are broken and the pages are not easy to locate through web searches.
DataBank launched 20 years ago to build and operate data centers, when artificial intelligence was still widely regarded as science fiction. It's now riding the AI wave to more than 65 facilities and billions of dollars in private equity investment.
Apple on Wednesday announced an M4-powered MacBook Air with a $100 price drop. It also refreshed the Mac Studio with faster chips.
Why it matters: The move brings Apple's latest chip to more of its lineup and the lower MacBook Air cost could help spur sales in a price-conscious environment.
A think tank's new analysis provides eye-popping estimates on data center power and chip needs — and offers Trump 2.0 officials ideas for meeting them.
Why it matters: "[W]hile the AI revolution is digital in nature, its binding constraint is physical infrastructure," states the Center for Strategic & International Studies report about keeping the U.S. lead on AI.
There are few words as belovedin the defense-tech zeitgeist as "scale" and "mass." And it makes sense: War is a numbers game.
But today's defense industrial base is hurting, and not just by a single metric.
Why it matters: It's go big or go home for production lines, as a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan haunts Beltway thinkers and a protracted war in Ukraine proves just how quickly stockpiles evaporate.
In this city of little political agreement, there's consensus on one big thing: President Trump is picking more fights, with more action than mere words, with more lasting consequences than anyone expected.
Why it matters: Turns out, Trump wasn't bluffing about imposing 25% tariffs, about pardoning Jan. 6 criminals, or punishing Europe, or rewarding Russia, or growing executive power, or gutting the FBI, or filling his Cabinet with loyalists, or penalizing the media, or taking a wrecking ball to government.
This year's Turing Award — often called the Nobel Prize of computer science — is going to Andrew Barto and Richard Sutton, the pioneers of a key approach that underlies much of today's artificial intelligence.
Why it matters: Reinforcement learning, as the technique is known, posits that computers can learn from their own experiences, using a system of rewards similar to how researchers have trained animals.
Epirus plans to expand production of its directed-energy weapons and jump into overseas and commercial markets on the heels of a $250 million funding round.
Why it matters: Powerful lasers and microwaves are exploding in popularity as militaries scramble to more effectively — cheaply, quickly, sustainably — counter drones.
President Trump praised Elon Musk for his work on DOGE, which he said the billionaire "headed," during Tuesday evening's address to a joint session of Congress.
Driving the news: Musk was met with two standing ovations and protest signs during Trump's speech as he sat as a White House guest of first lady Melania Trump.
