Pope Leo XIV on Monday released a 42,000-word encyclical calling for government regulation of artificial intelligence and implored world leaders to ensure the burgeoning technology is used for the benefit of all humankind — not concentrated in the hands of a powerful, profit-seeking few. Leo warned in the first major theological document of his papacy that unrestrained AI and its potentially…
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In communities large and small, red and blue, all across the United States, residents are filling local council meetings in opposition to the explosive growth of high-tech police surveillance systems. Local movements to rid city streets of AI-powered surveillance cameras and Automated License Plate Recognition (ALPR) networks used by law enforcement are growing rapidly amid scandals…
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An increasing number of states are pursuing legislation aimed at preventing local municipalities from regulating data centers and artificial intelligence (AI), legal advocates warn, all but ensuring their construction. This “preemption legislation” truncates efforts led by residents to counter the rapid expansion of facilities that have been widely criticized for everything from noise pollution to…
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This story originally appeared in Jacobin on May 11, 2026. It is shared here with permission.
We’re really going into what we believe is the early chapters of an investment supercycle in the US for electricity growth,” Scott Strazik, CEO of GE Vernova, told Barron’s during an interview at the World Economic Forum in Davos earlier this year. “If you take a step back, we probably haven’t seen an analogous period of time like this since 1945.”
The AI build-out being undertaken at lightning speed is big business for companies like GE Vernova, which, along with Siemens Energy and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, supply over 75 percent of the world’s gas turbines. GE Vernova’s equipment alone supplies 25 percent of the world’s electricity, and a staggering 55 percent in the United States. In the first quarter of this year, the company racked up $2.4 billion in sales related to orders for data centers, more than total sales for the previous year. Orders for gas turbines are booked out into 2030.
In February, Siemens Energy announced it was investing $1 billion to expand its production of grid equipment in response to soaring demand for electrification, including restarting production of gas turbines at a plant in Charlotte, North Carolina, which had stopped producing them in 2020.
Hitachi Energy invested $37 million to expand an existing facility in South Boston, Virginia, that produces large power transformers — another key piece of equipment in meeting the energy demands of the AI build-out. The company has invested over $1.5 billion into its transformer business alone. Like the gas turbine business, more than 50 percent of the large power transformer market is controlled by the same three companies, alongside Hitachi Energy and Toshiba Energy
Trump arrived in China on Wednesday for his summit with Chinese president Xi Jinping accompanied by an entourage of billionaire tech CEOs. Tesla’s Elon Musk, Apple’s Tim Cook, and Nvidia’s Jensen Huang were just 3 of 17 tech executives who joined Trump at the summit. Trump was also joined by Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. On his Truth Social account…
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Microsoft’s Israel subsidiary has announced that its general manager, Alon Haimovich, will be stepping down from his position on May 31, after an investigation into the subsidiary’s collaboration with the Israeli military. Microsoft ordered an inquiry into its Israel subsidiary last year after a joint investigation by The Guardian, Israeli-Palestinian publication +972 Magazine…
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