OpenAI Announces IPO; China Bows Wind Powered Underwater AI Data Center; FCC Lifts Deadline on Amazon Leo Satellites, Judge Blocks Trump’s $100 Grand H-1B Visa Fee 

OpenAI, makers of ChatGPT, has filed for its initial public offering. Benzinga.com reports that the AI firm decided to announce as the information was going to be leaked anyway. OpenAI plans on evolving ChatGPT into something of a ‘Superapp,’ which they say “…will transcend the actual surface…  what we’re building towards is where you have your own personal agent that is capable of helping you… across everything in your life, be it personally or at work.” OpenAI plans to give the US government early access to its new AI models. President Trump, meanwhile, has said that the government will take stakes in the AI companies like OpenAI. 

China has launched the first wind-powered underwater data center. According to the guardian.com, the 24 megawatt facility is a joint project of HiCloud Technology and China Communications Construction, a company owned by the Chinese government. The plant is 6 miles off the coast of Shanghai, and is powered by a nearby offshore wind farm. The natural cooling from the ocean saves a vast amount of power. On land, anywhere between 25% and 40% of the total electrical demand for AI data centers comes from the need to pipe chilled water around the servers to keep them from overheating. This setup solves the problem of data centers syphoning off water for family and agriculture use, as well as that of the centers pushing up power costs for consumers. It should be noted that Microsoft did a pilot underwater data center project off the coast of Scotland in 2018, but that project stalled out. China admits the US firm was first. “Microsoft was earlier in proving the concept, while China moved further on commercial deployment because it was able to bring together market demand, industrial capability, marine engineering and policy support more quickly into a commercial project,” said Dr Hanjiang Dong of Hong Kong Polytechnic University. 

The clock had been ticking, but now the FCC has kicked the can down the road for Amazon. Arstechnica.com says that a deadline had been coming for Amazon to get half its system of Leo satellites in orbit by the end of this July, but now has given them until July 30th, 2029 to get half of its some 3232 satellites in orbit. Right now, Amazon is the only company that can realistically get satellites in orbit to supply a broadband service that competes with SpaceX’s Starlink satellite network. The FCC considers it it the public interest to have a competitor for Starlink.

A court has blocked Trump’s $100,000 H-1B visa fee scheme. Thenextweb.com reports that US District Judge Leo Sorokin ruled yesterday that the fee is an unlawful tax and must be vacated. The court noted that Congress has not delegated the power to levy such a tax to the executive branch. It already costs several thousand dollars to get an H-1B visa, which is generally paid by a sponsoring employer. The tech industry and other sectors have used these visas for years to bring in cheaper engineers and scientists. At present, there is a cap of 85,000 visas per year. 

I’m Clark Reid and you’re ‘Technified’ for now.