Microsoft

Recent news

• Oct 19, 2026

  Nscale Loses Microsoft Deal as Power Delays Threaten AI

  Microsoft has terminated its contract for Nscale’s planned AI data center in Loughton, England, after delays to the site’s expected power connection.

  • Nscale announced the Loughton project in 2025 as a 50 MW campus that could scale to 90 MW, with plans to deploy 23,040 Nvidia GB300 GPUs for Microsoft Azure; a company spokesperson confirmed Microsoft ended the contract.
  • UK Power Networks reportedly told Nscale it could not supply enough electricity until the early to mid-2030s, well after the planned opening; Nscale said it remains committed to the site and is exploring alternative power sources, while the article notes no disclosed financial consequences tied to the termination.
• Oct 17, 2026

  US reviving shuttered nuclear plants to meet growing electricity demand and to power data centres

  The United States Department of Energy is supporting the restart of three shuttered nuclear plants to add power for rising demand, including data centres.

  • The Energy Department is lending up to USD 4.4 billion to restart Palisades in Michigan, Crane Clean Energy Centre at Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania, and Duane Arnold in Iowa, for a combined 2.25 gigawatts of electricity.
  • The article says Palisades could be the first nuclear plant in the world to resume generating power after entering decommissioning; Holtec says Palisades must be in service by March 2027, Google is collaborating on Duane Arnold, and Constellation announced a USD 1.6 billion restart plan for Three Mile Island under a 20-year agreement with Microsoft.
• 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 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 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

  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

  With 90% of its developable land utilised, New Noida to come up in over 20,000 hectares

  Noida Authority has announced a 20,000-hectare greenfield expansion called New Noida to support industrial growth and phased land acquisition.

  • The plan is being presented as a new infrastructure push for Noida, with land acquisition slated to begin in phases and existing areas also being considered for higher FAR to enable vertical redevelopment.
  • The authority said the next groundbreaking ceremony will include about 120 industrial proposals with an estimated investment of nearly Rs 35,000 crore across data infrastructure, electronics manufacturing, commercial real estate, logistics, and institutional development; it also said the region already hosts major firms including Samsung, Dixon, TCS, Infosys, HCL, Microsoft, Wipro, Adobe, Sify, and AdaniConneX.
• 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.
• Oct 12, 2026

  It’s not your model — AI has a data movement problem

  The article argues that enterprises scaling AI are often facing network and connectivity problems rather than compute or model failures.

  • It cites recent research showing 59% of organizations report bandwidth issues and 53% report latency challenges, and says AI agents can generate up to 450% more network traffic per task than humans.
  • The piece references Cisco Live, Azure, and Google Cloud as examples, and emphasizes that performance problems often emerge across Latin America, Asia, and Africa when AI deployments move beyond initial local testing.
• Oct 9, 2026

  Data residency is not enough, says Airtel at IMC 2026, as Indian rules still focus on location

  Airtel’s Chief Business Officer Abhishek Biswal said at India Mobile Congress 2026 that data sovereignty goes beyond storing data in India and includes access and operational control.

  • Biswal said sovereignty has three layers, ending with operational sovereignty over physical infrastructure, logs and telemetry; he also warned that foreign jurisdictions could switch off access or compel disclosure.
  • The article is a panel discussion / commentary piece, not a first-time product launch announcement; it references Airtel’s earlier Airtel Cloud launch in August 2025 and examples involving Microsoft, Nayara Energy, and SAP India.
  • The piece cites policy context including the RBI’s 2018 directive, CERT-In’s 2022 directions, the DPDP Act, 2023, and the US CLOUD Act of 2018; it also quotes GSMA Intelligence survey figures of 75% and an average premium of 15% mentioned by the speaker.
• Oct 7, 2026

  Beyond the Demand Forecast: Six Questions About Powering Data Centers From DPX 2026

  POWER magazine has published a conference-based analysis of DPX 2026, highlighting the main questions discussed about building power infrastructure for data centers and AI load growth.

  • The article summarizes remarks from Peter Lake, Jehmal T. Hudson, Alexander Hubbard, Matthew Gardner, Nelli Babayan, and Jason Reagan rather than announcing a single new project.
  • It includes concrete policy and market details such as Virginia’s GS-5 rate class effective Jan. 1, 2027, Berkeley Lab’s 192 TWh to 649 TWh U.S. data center electricity forecast, and GE Vernova’s planned turbine output ramp to 20 GW in Q4 2026, 24 GW by 2028, and 30 GW by 2030.
• Oct 7, 2026

  AMD to ramp up CPU, GPU supply in 2027 as AI demand surges

  AMD has announced plans to substantially increase CPU and GPU supply in 2027, with CEO Lisa Su saying the company is already expanding supply and capacity in 2026.

  • Su said AMD is planning capacity three to five years ahead and was in Taiwan on October 5-6 to ramp supply for CPU and GPU production.
  • She reportedly met Foxconn and was scheduled to meet TSMC; she also visited South Korea and met Samsung Electronics’ Device Solutions (DS) to broaden partnerships.
  • The article also notes AMD’s 2027 ramp depends on partners including TSMC, SK Hynix, and Samsung, with constraints tied to HBM4, CoWoS packaging, and foundry capacity.
• Oct 7, 2026

  Google enters massive 3.6-GW power deal with Constellation Energy

  Google has announced a long-term power procurement deal with Constellation Energy to secure 3,590 megawatts of electricity in the US’ largest power grid, PJM Interconnection.

  • The agreement includes a 20-year power purchase agreement for 890 MW from multiple Constellation-owned nuclear plants, plus an additional 2,700 MW long-term supply agreement in PJM not tied to a specific generation source.
  • The deal is expected to support more than $4.3 billion of new investment and upgrades to 11 nuclear units in Illinois, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey; first upgraded plant deliveries are expected in 2028. The companies said the arrangement responds to PJM’s proposed “bring your own power” approach for data center customers.