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• Oct 16, 2026

  India’s clean power firms prepare for an AI-fuelled data center demand surge

  CleanMax Enviro Energy Solutions founder Kuldeep Jain said India’s renewable energy market is set to benefit from rising demand from data centers and AI hyperscalers.

  • Jain said 5 GW of data center capacity in India would require 30-40 GW of renewable power, and that powering a 1 GW AI data center with 75% renewables would need about 3 GW solar, 3 GW wind, and 3 GWh storage.
  • CleanMax is adding about 1.5 GW of solar and wind capacity per year with annual capex of up to Rs 9,000 crore ($950 million), and Jain said the company has already signed supply deals with Meta, Google, Apple, and Amazon totaling 1.8 GW in India.
• Oct 16, 2026

  Could the Societal Value of Workloads Shape Data Center Policy?

  The article discusses a policy debate about whether data centers or their workloads could face future regulation based on societal value, rather than announcing a new project or rule.

  • A panel at Informa’s Data Center Europe event in Vienna (Oct. 13-15) said workload-based scrutiny may emerge, citing Finland’s grid connection rules that prioritize data centers under 1 MW.
  • Speakers from ADVANT d.o.o., ITIC, and the European Data Centre Association said current European regulation does not differentiate by workload type; the article frames the issue as speculative for now.
  • Background references include AI-driven growth, Goldman Sachs forecasts, and public criticism over power demand, water use, land consumption, and grid impact.
• Oct 16, 2026

  Instagram account of ‘Fridays For Future India’ blocked in India

  Instagram has restricted access to the Fridays For Future India account in India, with no explanation yet from the government or Meta.

  • The article says the account is currently inaccessible in India under India’s intermediary rules, but it is not established whether the block is linked to FFF India’s data-centre-related posts.
  • It also summarizes related enforcement actions against data-centre critics in Andhra Pradesh, including Instagram restrictions on Environmental Reporting Collective and Human Rights Forum content, plus prior legal disputes involving blocking orders and platform removals.
• Oct 16, 2026

  Haryana’s Parallel Power Licence Row Puts Distribution Competition Under Scrutiny

  Haryana’s power regulator is considering Eleven Power Private Limited’s application for a parallel distribution licence for Gurugram and Nuh. - HERC concluded hearings on September 29 and reserved its order, with an expert committee recommending the licence may be considered subject to conditions.

  • Eleven Power has proposed ₹4,716 crore capex over FY27-FY31, while DHBVN says ₹11,397 crore would be needed for universal service; the article also references related distribution-licence cases in Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, and Mumbai.
• Oct 15, 2026

  Google data center secures Van Buren Township approval, with startup expected in late 2027

  Van Buren Township has approved the final site plan for Google’s proposed 1-gigawatt hyperscale data center near Detroit Metro Airport, clearing the way for construction of Michigan’s second hyperscale facility.

  • The Planning Commission voted 5-1 after nearly an hour of public comment; Google says Project Cannoli should begin drawing power by late 2027 / December 2027 and ramp to 1 GW within a year.
  • Google secured electricity through a 20-year contract with DTE Energy; regulators approved special contracts on Oct. 1, and environmental regulators approved wetland permits in August.
  • The contract commits Google to fund 480 MW of energy storage, 1.6 GW of renewable energy, and 300 MW of other power capacity; it also requires payment for at least 80% of claimed power and includes penalties for early termination.
  • Local incentives include an estimated $125 million in tax relief over 12 years and a separate $15.4 million payment to the township for infrastructure projects, in exchange for at least 51 full-time jobs.
• Oct 15, 2026

  How heat from a Wisconsin data center is being stored for the winter

  The article explains how Epic Systems uses waste heat from its Wisconsin data center and underground boreholes to heat and cool campus buildings, and frames this as an example of seasonal thermal storage for data-center heat reuse.

  • Epic Systems in Verona, Wisconsin has spent two decades building a geothermal system with roughly 6,100 wells and a 3.5-megawatt data center that heats and cools about 40 buildings on campus.
  • The article says Epic stores heat in rock during summer and recovers it in winter; it also notes the Department of Energy says the campus buildings use about 25% less energy than comparable buildings, while discussing broader limits, permitting issues, and scale constraints for larger AI campuses.
• Oct 15, 2026

  Facilities could benefit as on-site energy matures: attorney

  This article is commentary based on an interview with David Streier of Fredrikson & Byron about the growing attractiveness of on-site power and storage for building owners.

  • Streier said building owners are increasingly adding on-site generation and energy storage as part of new construction, renovation, or expansion projects, describing it as an incremental budget item that can produce energy savings and an eventual return on investment.
  • He cited state and federal incentives as having reduced renewable and storage costs, noted that lithium-ion remains the most common battery technology, and pointed to emerging options such as iron-air batteries and graphite-block thermal storage; he also referenced Form Energy’s August deal with Google and Xcel Energy to provide 30 gigawatt-hours of battery energy to one of Google’s data centers.
• Oct 15, 2026

  India’s Biggest IPO, Groww’s Q2 Profit Run & More

  Jio Platforms has announced its IPO filing with SEBI, setting up a ₹30,213 Cr public issue in what is presented as India’s biggest IPO so far.

  • The issue is a fresh issue of 27 Cr equity shares, with subscription opening on October 21 and closing on October 23; the price band is ₹1,065–₹1,119 per share.
  • Jio Platforms is 66.43% owned by Reliance Industries, while Meta and Google hold 9.98% and 7.73% respectively; ₹27,500 Cr of proceeds will repay borrowings and ₹2,713 Cr will go toward corporate purposes, growth, capex, working capital and marketing.
• Oct 14, 2026

  IBM, IonQ, Diraq, and Atom Computing advance to DARPA’s quantum hardware testing stage

  DARPA has announced that four quantum computing companies have entered Stage C of its Quantum Benchmarking Initiative and may receive up to $300 million each for independent testing and validation of their hardware.

  • The new Stage C companies are IBM, IonQ, Diraq, and Atom Computing; earlier Stage C participants were Microsoft and PsiQuantum through a precursor program.
  • IBM says it will continue investing in quantum computing, IonQ says the award will support Superion development, Diraq says the award reinforces its silicon spin qubits path, and Atom says it sees a near-term route to practical quantum computing; the article also cites DARPA, Bob Sutor, and Gartner commentary on the program and industry outlook.
• Oct 14, 2026

  Jio IPO To Open For Subscription On October 21

  Reliance Industries’ Jio Platforms has announced the filing of its red herring prospectus (RHP) for its proposed IPO, with public subscription scheduled for October 21-23, 2026.

  • The IPO includes a fresh issue of up to 27 Cr equity shares, with ₹500 Cr reserved for eligible employees and ₹2,500 Cr reserved for eligible Reliance Industries shareholders; anchor bidding is set for October 19.
  • Jio said ₹27,500 Cr of proceeds will be used to prepay borrowings of Reliance Jio Infocomm, covering three ECB term loan facilities totaling over ₹29,971 Cr with repayment due between March and June 2028; the company also cited its expansion into AI, cloud, data centres, enterprise software, and satellite connectivity.
• Oct 14, 2026

  Centre To Roll Out Data Centre Policy Amid Power Cost Concerns

  The Indian government is preparing a data centre policy, announced by Minister of State for IT Jitin Prasada at a Central Electricity Authority conclave.

  • Prasada said the policy is being prepared amid concerns over rising electricity demand from data centres and its effect on consumer power bills; he did not disclose the scope or rollout timeline.
  • He linked the policy to India’s push to attract hyperscaler data centres while protecting environmental sustainability and water use; the article also cites protests against Amazon and Google projects and mentions CtrlS Datacenters’s separate ₹10,000 Cr Bihar investment and ₹400 Cr Patna data centre inauguration.
  • This is a report about a new policy being prepared, not a detailed government release of the final policy text.
• Oct 14, 2026

  India to roll out data centre policy as concerns grow over power use

  India’s junior IT minister Jitin Prasada said the government is rolling out a policy for data centres, but did not give details on scope or timing.

  • Prasada said the policy aim is to prevent consumers paying more for electricity as data-centre power demand grows, speaking at a New Delhi event organised by the Central Electricity Authority.
  • The story references protests against planned data centres by Amazon near Mumbai and Google’s $15 billion Visakhapatnam project; both companies denied wrongdoing and said their facilities use advanced technologies to minimise resource usage.

  This is a first-time policy announcement rather than a reference to a completed policy; the article also provides background on public opposition and the government’s broader push to attract data-centre investment.

• Oct 13, 2026

  Microsoft Pushes Custom AI Chips with Azure Maia 300

  Microsoft has announced Maia 300 and said Maia 200 is now in production, while also outlining plans to scale the Azure Maia family to multi-gigawatt deployments in 2027.

  • Maia 300 is Microsoft’s third-generation in-house AI accelerator; it is planned for production in 2027 and is designed for inference-first workloads including long-context and memory-intensive AI tasks.
  • Maia 200 is already deployed across Microsoft data centers in the US, Europe, and Australia, powers Copilot and other cloud services, and is expected to extend to GitHub Copilot and Microsoft Foundry by the end of the year; Microsoft says it delivers up to 1.7x more tokens per watt than leading GPU infrastructure and Maia 300 could deliver 40% more tokens per megawatt and up to 7x rack-scale throughput versus Maia 200.
• Oct 13, 2026

  Trump Honors Microsoft’s CEO After Vance Drops an H-1B Visa Hammer on the Company

  The White House honored major technology leaders while Vice President JD Vance separately criticized Microsoft over H-1B visa use and said the company was being suspended from a program for skilled foreign workers.

  • JD Vance said Microsoft had abused the visa system, citing 6,000 U.S. worker layoffs last year alongside 6,300 H-1B visas and almost 3,000 green cards; Microsoft said most H-1B applications were to extend or change status for existing employees.
  • President Donald Trump awarded the National Medal of Technology and Innovation to Satya Nadella and gave National Medal of Science awards to Elon Musk, Sergey Brin, Jensen Huang, and Lisa Su; he also praised AI and data center investment as helping the U.S. economy.