Pennsylvania Cracks Down on AI Data Centers as Backlash Grows
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South Korean President Lee Jae-myung: Launch a "speed war" in three major projects: semiconductors, physical AI, and AI data centers.
According to Mars Finance, South Korean President Lee Jae-myung, speaking at a joint meeting of the public and private sectors on the "three super projects"—semiconductors, physical artificial intelligence (AI), and AI data centers—held at the Blue House on the 6th, stated that the key to these three projects lies in winning the "speed battle." Lee emphasized that competition in cutting-edge industries is crucial to the fate of all nations, and the ultimate winner will be who acts faster. He stated that the government should eliminate any obstacles that companies may encounter during investment and project construction in advance, and must not allow delays in administrative approval procedures to affect investment and project implementation. Lee stated that the Blue House will establish special working groups for the three projects as soon as possible, and the government will provide maximum support. Currently, the semiconductor industry is generating a large amount of unexpected tax revenue, and the government will fully utilize relevant financial resources to provide guarantees for project construction in all aspects, including financial support. (Cailian Press)
Serenity focuses on floating AI data centers: Samsung Heavy Industries aims for commercial deployment by 2028, with free seawater cooling to solve power and land bottlenecks.
According to Mars Finance, on July 4th, Serenity stated that floating AI data centers and ocean computing already exist, with their core advantage being significant energy savings through natural seawater cooling. This is particularly beneficial for areas with limited land resources, similar to the concept of "orbital computing." Samsung Heavy Industries plans to launch its first commercial floating AI data center, approximately 50MW, in 2028, while Singapore's Keppel is also advancing a similar project, expected to be operational that same year. Serenity also noted that Microsoft previously explored submerged data centers under Project Natick, but this has since been terminated; this is not the same concept as the currently discussed floating data centers. This addresses two major pain points in AI infrastructure: power and cooling. Furthermore, its modular and mobile characteristics are naturally suited to areas with scarce land.
Global AI data centers face the threat of extreme heat.
Mars Finance reports that with heatwaves sweeping across many countries, major global technology companies are facing a severe challenge: ensuring the continuous and stable operation of high-performance chips within their AI data centers. The report cites recent research data from a climate risk analysis agency, stating that up to 79% of the computing capacity of global data centers is currently threatened by various sudden weather disasters, including floods, extreme winds, and wildfires. These disasters could lead to operational disruptions, increased downtime, and higher insurance and maintenance costs. Currently, major technology companies are recognizing the challenges that climate factors pose to the operation of AI data centers and are exploring solutions. Microsoft stated that it is managing the risks posed by extreme temperatures and severe weather through site selection, improving redundancy systems, and real-time monitoring. Nvidia announced last week that its new AI servers can operate in coolant environments up to 45 degrees Celsius. Nvidia claims that a 1-degree Celsius increase in coolant temperature can reduce cooling system energy consumption by approximately 4%. (CCTV Finance)
Guangdong: Support Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Foshan, Dongguan and other cities to take the lead in building high-value-added intelligent computing centers.
According to Mars Finance, 11 departments, including the Guangdong Provincial Government Service and Data Management Bureau, recently issued the "Guangdong Provincial Action Plan for Promoting the Digital Transformation of Cities and Building Smart Cities," which mentions optimizing the layout of urban computing networks. Addressing the development needs of megacities and urban clusters, the plan calls for a comprehensive planning of urban computing center systems, constructing a cloud-edge-device collaborative computing network. It also emphasizes accelerating the construction of an all-optical network foundation for cities, creating a high-quality computing capacity network capable of "millisecond-level computation," achieving millisecond interconnection of computing centers, millisecond-level access to computing services, and millisecond-level response to computing applications. The plan supports Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Foshan, and Dongguan in taking the lead in building high-value-added intelligent computing centers, flexibly deploying edge computing nodes to meet the high-bandwidth, low-latency, and high-reliability computing power requirements of scenarios such as low-altitude economy, autonomous driving, and the industrial internet. (Cailian Press)
The South Korean government is considering extending the sovereign AI core GPU guarantee project, with a budget of up to 4 trillion won next year.
According to Odaily Odaily, the South Korean government is considering extending its support project for GPUs, a core resource for AI. On July 7th, industry sources indicated that the Ministry of Science and ICT is investigating the capacity of major South Korean cloud service providers to build additional GPUs, aiming to extend the "AI Computing Resource Utilization Infrastructure Enhancement Project." The core of this project involves government-funded purchases of GPUs, deployment in cloud service provider data centers, and support for industry-academia-research collaboration. Last year, the South Korean government allocated a budget of 1 trillion won, and this year it allocated 2 trillion won, securing over 20,000 GPUs. The project was originally scheduled to end this year, but with the surge in demand for advanced resources such as NVIDIA's next-generation GPU Vera Rubin, the South Korean government is developing comprehensive countermeasures, including data center efficiency optimization and new space security plans. It is reportedly already applying to the Planning and Budget Office for a "limited additional budget" for GPU security. Industry estimates suggest that, considering this year's GPU security budget and the government's intentions, next year's budget could reach a maximum of approximately 4 trillion won. Industry experts say that compared to the GPU supply itself, "equipment installation space" will be the key to the success or failure of the project, because running thousands of high-performance GPUs simultaneously requires a large power supply and advanced cooling systems, and the equipment installation space held by South Korean companies is nearing saturation. (ETNews Electronics)
Public Bitcoin miners cut hashrate 13.4% as AI infrastructure revenue grows
AI and HPC are reshaping mining economics as operators repurpose power and data centers, while a smaller group of miners continues to expand Bitcoin capacity.