Infrastructure

US voters in the 2026 midterm elections voted against AI data centers in at least 38 of more than 40 ballot measures across 13 states, passing outright bans in six cities and power limits in 12. Pro-data center politicians also lost offices nationwide, including Texas Governor Greg Abbott, who was defeated by Democratic challenger Gina Hinojosa after his support for AI data centers became a central campaign issue.

SemiAnalysis reports that SpaceX is rapidly constructing massive AI datacenter capacity across multiple locations, including expansions at Colossus 2 and new sites at Starbase and TeraFab in Texas, targeting roughly 13GW by 2027. To achieve record-breaking build times and bypass grid constraints, the company is utilizing modular equipment from Tesla, mobile gas turbines, and a nearly 6GWh battery energy storage system.

AI inference startup Fal raised $1.3 billion in a Series F round led by Bessemer Venture Partners, doubling its valuation to $16 billion since April. The company, which hosts video, image, and audio models, surpassed $800 million in annualized revenue earlier this year amid surging demand for running open-source models.

Anthropic filed an amended Form S-1 for its upcoming IPO, reporting $17 billion in third-quarter revenue and $33.24 billion in revenue for the first nine months of the year alongside a $104 billion net loss. The filing also revealed $895.4 billion in future purchase and lease commitments, nearly all of which are dedicated to compute and infrastructure.

US tech stocks experienced sharp declines as investors grew concerned over the massive scale of AI capital expenditures alongside weaker-than-expected earnings. Companies including Alphabet, Intel, Amazon, and Reddit lost hundreds of billions in combined market value following warnings about rising AI infrastructure costs and disruptions to search advertising and referral traffic.