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Congresses: Zamfara APC ward, LGA executives emerge by consensus
Politicsvanguard-ng22h ago

Congresses: Zamfara APC ward, LGA executives emerge by consensus

The All Progressives Congress (APC) has conducted ward and Local Government congresses across the 147 political wards and 14 Local Government Areas of Zamfara State in a peaceful and orderly manner. The post Congresses: Zamfara APC ward, LGA executives emerge by consensus appeared first on Vanguard News.

2027: Akpabio endorses nephew, Reps member for second term
PoliticsPremium Times1d ago

2027: Akpabio endorses nephew, Reps member for second term

Mr Akpabio announced the endorsement on Saturday in Essien Udim during the APC Local Government Congress, where party chapter executives were elected. The post 2027: Akpabio endorses nephew, Reps member for second term appeared first on Premium Times Nigeria.

Boards Are Replacing CEOs At The Fastest Pace In Over A Decade
Businesszerohedge1d ago

Boards Are Replacing CEOs At The Fastest Pace In Over A Decade

Boards Are Replacing CEOs At The Fastest Pace In Over A Decade A historic wave of leadership change is sweeping corporate America. Across 1,500 of the largest publicly traded companies, roughly one in nine CEOs was replaced last year—the highest churn since the post-financial-crisis years., according to the Wall Street Journal. The turnover has ushered in the largest cohort of new chief executives in more than a decade, and they’re arriving younger and, in many cases, with thinn...

AI Money Floods Midterm Elections
PoliticsNYT2d ago

AI Money Floods Midterm Elections

AI companies, along with allied groups and executives, spent at least $83 million on federal elections last year, with significant amounts expected to be invested in the upcoming midterm elections.

OpenAI has a Hollywood problem. They just hired a guy to fix it.
TechnologyBusiness InsiderYahoo4d ago2 sources

OpenAI has a Hollywood problem. They just hired a guy to fix it.

Charles Porch (with red flower), formerly of Meta and now OpenAI, at the Met Gala. Theo Wargo/FilmMagic OpenAI just hired Charles Porch, Instagram's head of partnerships. Porch has deep connections to celebrities and Hollywood, and plans to talk to them about their "fears" of AI. Maybe OpenAI is realizing they need celebrities to stop publicly hating AI so much. A "detriment" to human creativity, said Vince Gilligan, creator of "Breaking Bad" and "Pluribus" about AI. "Horrifying," said James Cameron about the possibility of AI actors. "I'd rather die," said Guillermo del Toro. "Incredibly destructive," said Cate Blanchett. It's not hard to see why OpenAI recognizes it has a bit of an image problem among some people in Hollywood. It appears that the company is now trying to change that. OpenAI just poached Charles Porch from Meta, where he oversaw celebrity partnerships for over a decade, as Vanity Fair reported earlier. Porch is generally recognized for helping make Instagram the cultural juggernaut it is today by helping celebrities who might have been confused by or disinterested in newfangled social media join and use the platform. Porch has deep connections in the entertainment industry — celebrities like Harry Styles attended his lavish wedding this summer in France. Porch wrote on his personal Instagram about his job change: "From helping Beyoncé figure out how to launch an album exclusively on social media to onboarding Pope Francis to Instagram (he held my hands and asked me to pray for him) to watching creators become the next generation of entrepreneurs, the impact on culture that me and the team have been able to have is something that I take great pride in." It's not clear exactly what Porch's new gig will entail. He told Vanity Fair that his first step will be to go on a "listening tour" to hear the hopes and fears about AI from creatives and celebrities. I've asked OpenAI for comment. For Hollywood actors, filmmakers, and studio executives, those fears are pretty big. Why wouldn't Brad Pitt be alarmed to see a passably real AI-generated version of himself in a fist-fight against Tom Cruise? The idea that AI could replace actors, screenwriters, and other creatives is alarming, especially as Hollywood as an industry is hurting. Box office sales haven't bounced back from the pandemic, streaming is complicated, fewer and fewer projects are being made, and efforts to cut costs by filming overseas have devastated Los Angeles' middle-class of film industry workers. On top of that, AI is, as far as I can tell, widely considered a theft machine that gobbled up tons of images and videos from movies and TV for training data, largely without permission or compensation. You can see a filmmaker or actor's point of view here: They stole my face and my work to build this tool, and now they want to use it to make soulless slop that will undercut the value of my work? Why OpenAI's hire has a tough road ahead Not great! I imagine Porch has his work cut out for him. OpenAI and other AI companies have started making deals with Hollywood. Disney made a $1 billion deal with OpenAI around the time Sora 2 launched, licensing Disney characters like Mickey Mouse and Darth Vader, and also becoming a customer and investor in OpenAI. Lionsgate and AMC made deals allowing their catalogs to be used for training Runway. (Business Insider, through our parent company, has a somewhat similar deal with OpenAI.) But those deals with studios, while they might stave off copyright lawsuits and create some cash flow, aren't winning over the hearts and minds of the celebrities and creatives — the kinds of people who make headlines when they call AI "horrifying." Perhaps OpenAI is realizing that celebrities still hold the kind of cultural capital that can't be built in the Bay Area. And while OpenAI has been pretty successful in pushing its agenda in Washington, thanks to an AI-friendly administration, it still has an uphill battle to win over the general public, which remains fairly skeptical of AI. And for that, you need to get the celebs on board. There's a beautiful irony now that these big AI companies are paying big bucks to hire human writers, and VCs are now obsessed with the concept of "taste." It turns out that kinds of "soft skills" that had long been undervalued in Silicon Valley are more relevant than ever now that AI can do a lot of the technical work. And someone like Charles Porch, who has the connections and ability to charm a roomful of Hollywood types and other cultural elites, is more valuable than ever. That's the kind of job AI can't take. Read the original article on Business Insider

Africa Editors Congress Held in Nairobi
Worldmyjoyonline1d ago

Africa Editors Congress Held in Nairobi

Africa's most influential editors, media executives, and journalism leaders have gathered in Nairobi, Kenya, for the Africa Editors Congress (AEC 2026), a two-day forum to confront mounting pressures threatening the future of media.

Steven Spielberg Flees California Amid Raging Wealth Tax Battle
Politicszerohedge3d ago

Steven Spielberg Flees California Amid Raging Wealth Tax Battle

Steven Spielberg Flees California Amid Raging Wealth Tax Battle Another day, another rich liberal leaving a state over policies they promoted.  In today's episode of modern hypocrisy, Steven Spielberg, director of blockbuster hits like Jaws, E.T., Poltergeist and Saving Private Ryan, has moved to Manhattan, according to the Los Angeles Times. A spokesperson for one of Hollywood’s most reliable Democrat Party donors was quick to insist the relocation has nothing to do with California’s highly controversial wealth tax proposal. “Steven’s move to the East Coast is both long-planned and driven purely by his and Kate Capshaw’s desire to be closer to their New York-based children and grandchildren,” spokeswoman Terry Press told the newspaper. Unsurprisingly, Press declined to say where Spielberg stands on the wealth tax when asked. California is now seriously considering a new wealth tax targeting billionaires, including a levy on unrealized gains. The idea has already spooked investors and contributed to several high-profile tech figures running for the exits. It’s a familiar pattern when progressive policies finally start to bite, a surprising number of billionaires discover a sudden deep affection for Florida, Texas, or even New York. Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin quietly began unwinding portions of their financial empires in California in the days leading up to Christmas, while Meta founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg dropped $150 million on a Miami mansion. Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan had been looking for a home on Indian Creek Island, the ultra-exclusive, heavily guarded enclave nicknamed “Billionaire Bunker” that is already home to Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, former NFL star quarterback Tom Brady, and Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump. Even Jeffrey Epstein pal Reid Hoffman, LinkedIn co-founder and major Democratic donor, has taken aim at the billionaire tax proposal, slamming it as a "horrendous idea" that could drive tech founders and executives out of the state. Rep. Khanna reached out to me to discuss the proposed California wealth tax; and while I am against the proposed tax, I'm always open to dialogue with our elected leaders. The proposed CA wealth tax is badly designed in so many ways that a simple social post cannot cover all of… January 7, 2026 "The proposed CA wealth tax is badly designed in so many ways that a simple social post cannot cover all of the massive flaws. One well-documented example is the horrendous idea to tax illiquid stock in the proposal. Poorly designed taxes incentivize avoidance, capital flight, and distortions that ultimately raise less revenue," Hoffman said of the plan. Hedge fund billionaire Bill Ackman, a longtime Democrat who voted for Trump in the 2024 election, warned that California is on a "path to self-destruction." California is on a path to self-destruction. Hollywood is already toast and now the most productive entrepreneurs will leave taking their tax revenues and job creation elsewhere. And then the Democrats highlight @CAgovernor Newsom as a great leader. Crazy. https://t.co/bFyLhARrNn December 27, 2025 "Hollywood is already toast, and now the most productive entrepreneurs will leave, taking their tax revenues and job creation elsewhere,” Ackman said. Our readers will recall that Tesla and SpaceX Ceo Elon Musk was one of the first big names to leave California years ago, citing the state’s punishing taxes and its embrace of radical left-wing governance. The list keeps growing. Buckle up, Newsom. Musk was the first and Spielberg won’t be the last. Tyler Durden Fri, 02/20/2026 - 16:40

Salesforce is all in on AI. An internal survey reveals how employees feel about it.
TechnologyBusiness Insider4d ago

Salesforce is all in on AI. An internal survey reveals how employees feel about it.

Marc Benioff said that the promise of AGI was a "TK" Halil Sagirkaya/Anadolu via Getty Images Business Insider obtained the results of Salesforce's annual employee survey. Most employees felt AI made them more productive. Fewer felt it had decreased their workloads. Salesforce says the survey shows big gains in AI use and enthusiasm. Salesforce says it's at the vanguard of the AI revolution and has even toyed with renaming itself Agentforce in honor of its bet on AI agents. The company is rapidly adopting AI internally as well, and a survey obtained by Business Insider reveals how that's actually playing out behind the scenes. The results — which were broadly positive — show that most employees feel AI is increasing their productivity, although fewer say it's lightening their workloads. Salesforce's annual "Great Insights" survey, which is not public, was conducted in November 2025 and released inside the software company the following month. It surveyed about 80% of the 76,000-person workforce. Most questions about AI received high favorability ratings: In addition to the 81% of employees who said AI tools boost productivity, 83% said they feel equipped to handle AI risks such as bias, and 81% said they felt encouraged to experiment with AI. More than half of employees — 57% — said AI tools helped their team identify opportunities that would have been impossible otherwise. And 62% said their workload is more manageable because they use AI tools. Both of these were among the lowest results in the survey. Salesforce told Business Insider in a statement that the survey showed significant gains in AI use and strong enthusiasm. A composite it creates called the AI Readiness score was at 85% enterprise-wide, an 18% gain year-over-year. "We're thrilled that our employees have moved on from adoption and are seeing AI tools make a meaningful impact in their daily work," a Salesforce spokesperson said. The results suggest that Salesforce is ahead of the pack on encouraging AI adoption, said Jason Schloetzer, an associate professor at Georgetown University's business school who has interviewed dozens of executives about AI adoption. The results also show that, for some employees, AI intensifies their workload rather than reducing it. "The gaps suggest people believe AI is enabling them to do more work, but it's not making their work easier," he said. Salesforce, which sells customer relationship management software, has garnered attention for an intense AI push led by CEO Marc Benioff. Last August, he said half of the work at Salesforce was being done by AI and that the company had eliminated 4,000 support roles because of AI agents. Salesforce's website says the company uses a mix of internal AI tools, including an AI from Salesforce-owned Slack that can quickly find old project templates, and Career Connect, which analyzes employees' strengths and weaknesses to help them move within the company. Salesforce is facing challenges despite its embrace of the AI revolution. Its stock is down over 40% in the past year as concerns mount about the fate of legacy software companies amid the arrival of AI tools from OpenAI and Anthropic. The company has also struggled to deliver on promises made in demos of its AI product Agentforce, Business Insider previously reported. Read the original article on Business Insider

There's a lot at stake for the tech giants betting big on wearables
TechnologywsjBusiness InsiderTimes of India5d ago3 sources

There's a lot at stake for the tech giants betting big on wearables

Getty Images; Tyler Le/BI This post originally appeared in the Business Insider Today newsletter. You can sign up for Business Insider's daily newsletter here. AI's next target? Helping you kick your phone addiction. AI devices are a top priority for Big Tech companies that view it as the future of how humans and AI interact, writes BI's Amanda Hoover. You've likely heard of this hardware before, which acts as a sort of AI sidekick for your life. From the Rabbit R1 and Humane to Friend, the names are different, but the stories are the same: big expectations, difficult execution. Amanda's story covers how it's not just upstarts looking to shake things up. Tech giants like Apple, Meta, and OpenAI are working on their own solutions. It's an uphill battle considering how addicted most of us are to our phones. However, the push for phone-free lifestyles, especially among Gen Z, does create an opening. These tech giants also don't have much of a choice. Apple, for example, has largely sat out the AI wars, saving a ton of money on model development. That only works if the iPhone remains a key distribution channel for the AI it's skipping out on developing. Meta's business is also heavily reliant on smartphone usage. (How often do you check Instagram on your desktop computer? Do you even have a desktop computer?) If user behavior around phones changes in a meaningful way, you can bet Meta wants to be ahead of it. AI devices also give companies a front-row seat to your life. You could argue that's already the case with these AI chatbots. I'd argue the relationship between you and your chatbot of choice is still mostly transactional. You have a question/problem/thought; the chatbot has an answer (hopefully). The relationship with AI wearables is more fluid. It's always listening, learning, and collecting. The pitch is that makes it a better copilot. Understanding your habits means it can figure out the best way to serve you. That's putting a lot of faith, and your personal data, into an AI device, though Many executives I've spoken to have said this is the future. Truly leveraging AI is about incorporating it into your daily routine, not treating it as a one-off for specific problems. The irony is that strategy has the potential to make AI even more addictive than the smartphones it's trying to replace. But maybe that's the point. Read the original article on Business Insider

Branded Entertainment Executives Anthony Damianakis, Pete Fergusson Launch Dubai-Based Startup IPX to Connect Brands With Content (EXCLUSIVE)
Businessvariety7d ago

Branded Entertainment Executives Anthony Damianakis, Pete Fergusson Launch Dubai-Based Startup IPX to Connect Brands With Content (EXCLUSIVE)

Branded entertainment executives Anthony Damianakis and Pete Fergusson are launching an ambitious startup called IPX headquartered in Dubai, with offices also in London and Sydney. The innovative startup aims to connect brands with creators, producers, broadcasters, streamers and other content platforms to jointly develop premium content and ownable IP. IPX – which is being touted […]

Eat The Rich: California Democrats Trigger Reverse Gold Rush With Wealth Tax
Politicszerohedge7d ago

Eat The Rich: California Democrats Trigger Reverse Gold Rush With Wealth Tax

Eat The Rich: California Democrats Trigger Reverse Gold Rush With Wealth Tax Authored by Jonathan Turley, This month, the anniversary of the California Gold Rush came and passed with little mention … for good reason. When James W. Marshall found gold at Sutter’s Mill, millions traveled great distances to seek their fortune in the “Golden State.” Now, 178 years later, California has engineered an inverse Gold Rush, virtually chasing wealth from the state. Rather than covered wagons going West, there is a line of U-Hauls going anywhere other than California. From boondoggle projects to reparations, California politicians continue to rack up new spending projects despite a soaring deficit and shrinking tax base. Rather than exercise a modicum of fiscal restraint, Democrats are pushing through a tax that takes five percent of the wealth of any billionaires left in the state. I have long criticized the tax as perfectly moronic for a state with the highest tax burden and one of the highest flight rates of top taxpayers. In my new book, “Rage and the Republic: The Unfinished Story of the American Revolution,” I discuss the reversal of fortunes in California and other blue states as politicians unleash new “eat the rich” campaigns before the midterm elections. The problem, of course, is that billionaires are mobile, as is their wealth. Liberals expect billionaires to stay put in a type of voluntary canned hunt.  They are not. Billionaires are joining the growing exodus from the state, taking their companies, investments, and jobs with them. The latest billionaire to be chased off may be Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, who is reportedly heading for Florida. The growing departures have triggered outrage among many on the left, who are in disbelief that billionaires will just not stand still to be fleeced. Former New York Magazine editor Kara Swisher captured that rage in a recent posting, declaring “you made…all your money in California, you ungrateful piece of s***, you could figure out a way to pay more taxes, and we deserve the taxes from you, given you made your wealth here . . . so why don’t we just do shock and awe at this point, because you don’t seem to be availing yourself to thinking that you owe your state something more.” By some estimates, California has already cost over a trillion dollars in lost investments and business. That is no small achievement. Here’s a mind teaser: How can you burn a trillion dollars (which would create a stack some 67,866 miles high) without taking years and destroying the environment? California politicians have a solution: Have people take it out of the state in a reverse gold rush. In addition to saying that they want to grab 5 percent of the wealth of these billionaires, California Democrats are planning to base wealth calculations on the voting shares of corporate executives. Often, particularly with start-ups, entrepreneurs have greater voting shares than actual ownership. However, they will be taxed as if voting shares amounted to actual wealth. In other words, California is moving to nuke the entrepreneurs who created the Silicon Valley boom. Emmanuel Saez, the U.C. Berkeley economist who helped design the tax, insists that they may not want to stay, but they will still be tapped. They are planning to trap the wealthy fleeing the state retroactively: “The tax is based on residence as of Jan. 1, 2026, sharply limiting their ability to flee the state to avoid paying. Despite billionaires’ threats to leave, I think extremely few will have been able to change residence by Jan. 1, given the complexity of doing so.” The effort to retroactively impose such a tax is legally controversial and will face years of challenges. In my view, this is unconstitutional, but admittedly it is a murky area. Regardless of the outcome, a wealth tax will affect a wide range of other wealthy taxpayers. If Democrats can get a retroactive wealth tax to be upheld, it is doubtful that they will stop with billionaires. Why should other top taxpayers stick around to find out where the next cull will fall in the tax brackets? Recently, Gavin Newsom boasted, “California isn’t just keeping pace with the world — we’re setting the pace.” That is undeniably true if the measure is the record number of U-Hauls fleeing the state — more than any other state. Indeed, the only thing harder to find than a wealthy taxpayer in California appears to be a U-Haul. According to U-Haul’s data, the state is again leading blue states in the exodus. The Washington Post noted recently that “California came in last. Massachusetts, New York, Illinois, and New Jersey rounded out the bottom five. Of the bottom 10, seven voted blue in the last election.” Conversely, “nine of the top 10 growth states voted red in the last presidential election,” with Texas again leading the growth states. The Post put it succinctly, “People want to live in pro-growth, low-tax states, while the biggest losers tend to be places with big governments and high taxes.” The problem is that, while the economics are horrific, the politics remain irresistible. Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna, who represents part of Silicon Valley, recently mocked billionaires rushing to escape the state. Laughing at his own constituents, Khanna quipped, “I will miss them very much.” You will not be alone as California becomes known as the La Brea Tar Pit of taxation. They are on the verge of converting the state motto from “Eureka” to “Welcome to Hotel California, you can check out any time you like, but you can never leave.” Jonathan Turley is a law professor and the best-selling author of “Rage and the Republic: The Unfinished Story of the American Revolution.” Tyler Durden Sat, 02/14/2026 - 20:15

Culturehollywood-reporter23m ago

Filmmaker John Patton Ford Discusses 'How to Make a Killing'

Filmmaker John Patton Ford shares his vision for the revenge comedy 'How to Make a Killing,' emphasizing a nuanced take beyond simple rich-people-bad narratives. He also revealed concerns from executives about lead actor Glen Powell's significant physical transformation for the role.

D’Angelo Ponds, South Florida product who won title with Indiana, prepares for NFL draft
SportYahoo3d ago

D’Angelo Ponds, South Florida product who won title with Indiana, prepares for NFL draft

If there’s one thing NFL scouts and executives will nitpick on Indiana cornerback D’Angelo Ponds, it’s his size. A member of loaded state championship-winning high school football teams of Chaminade-Madonna, Ponds was largely overlooked by college football teams in the 2023 recruiting class on the sole basis that he was small. The next two months before the late April draft will determine how much his diminutive size is weighed by NFL teams versus his elite speed, tenacity and ball skills.

GameStop CEO Ryan Cohen just put 'parasitic' bosses on blast. Michael Burry sees shades of Warren Buffett.
BusinessBusiness Insider4d ago

GameStop CEO Ryan Cohen just put 'parasitic' bosses on blast. Michael Burry sees shades of Warren Buffett.

GameStop CEO Ryan Cohen GameStop GameStop CEO Ryan Cohen channeled Warren Buffett in a fiery post titled "The Hollow Men" on X. He took aim at directors, executives, and managers who collect big money and shirk responsibility. Michael Burry said Cohen has "rougher edges than Buffett," but he's "more modern in approach." Ryan Cohen seems to be doing his best Warren Buffett impression, just like Michael Burry suggested. The billionaire GameStop CEO and Chewy cofounder channeled the legendary investor in a lengthy X post titled "The Hollow Men" on Wednesday. Cohen railed against a "new, parasitic class of corporate bureaucrat: The Risk-Free Insider." He lambasted independent directors who don't dare rock the boat and risk losing their cushy, well-paid jobs. He berated corporate bosses who balk at tying their fortunes to their company's success — they collect big bonuses if its stock price rises, and receive huge payouts if they tank the business and leave. He also chastised managers who avoid accountability by hiring expensive consultants to blame if things don't work out. Cohen labeled those three groups the "hollow men of the boardroom" who "wear the right suits" and "say the right buzzwords" but have little skin in the game. Risking your own bottom line is the "only thing that keeps a business honest," Cohen wrote. He called for a return to an "owner's mentality," where bosses treat shareholders' money as if it were their own. He warned that failure to change would mean "iconic American franchises hollowed out by fees, managed for the benefit of the Insiders, while the true owners — the shareholders — are left holding the bag." Ryan has rougher edges than Buffett, but that just makes him more modern in approach. https://t.co/p0R06M2Ojr — Cassandra Unchained (@michaeljburry) February 18, 2026 Burry shared Cohen's post and wrote: "Ryan has rougher edges than Buffett, but that just makes him more modern in approach." The investor-turned-writer of "The Big Short" fame and GameStop shareholder has been touting the opportunity for Cohen to transform GameStop through acquisitions, drawing parallels to how Buffett reshaped Berkshire Hathaway from a failing textile mill into a $1 trillion conglomerate over six decades. Following Buffett's lead Buffett, who recently stepped down as Berkshire's CEO, has frequently taken aim at crony directors, overpaid executives, and costly consultants. In his shareholder letter for 2019, he bemoaned that many independent directors don't spend a penny of their own money on shares of the companies they're overseeing — and high fees heavily incentivize them to be compliant in the hope of landing additional, lucrative board seats. "When seeking directors, CEOs don't look for pit bulls," Buffett wrote. "It's the cocker spaniel that gets taken home." Buffett joked that he was the "Typhoid Mary of compensation committees," as he'd only ever been appointed to one despite sitting on 18 different boards up to that point. Time and again, Buffett has espoused an owner's mentality, underpinned by having more than 99% of his net worth in Berkshire stock. "We want to make money only when our partners do and in exactly the same proportion," he and the late Charlie Munger wrote in their "Owner's Manual" for Berkshire shareholders. "Moreover, when I do something dumb, I want you to be able to derive some solace from the fact that my financial suffering is proportional to yours," Buffett added. Cohen has diverged from Buffett's playbook in some ways, such as buying bitcoin for GameStop last year, and recently agreeing a compensation package worth tens of billions if he hits certain market-value and profit milestones. But he's also refused a salary as GameStop CEO, built a roughly 9% stake in the video-game retailer, urged frugality across the business, and even modeled its investor-relations website on Berkshire's homepage. Cohen's tirade against the "Risk-Free Insider" is certainly rooted in Buffett's philosophy too, even if he's harsher in his wording as Burry said. Read the original article on Business Insider

This US state could be the new data center capital of the world by 2030
TechnologyBusiness Insider4d ago

This US state could be the new data center capital of the world by 2030

Google executives meet with officials at a Google data center in Midlothian, Texas. Fortune via Reuters Connect Northern Virginia is home to the world's largest data center market. That could soon change, as Big Tech ramps up data center construction across the US. West Texas, Tennessee, Wisconsin, and Ohio are emerging as key markets. The old saying "Everything is bigger in Texas" now applies to data centers. The Lone Star State is on track to unseat Virginia as the world's largest data center market by 2030, new research from Jones Lang LaSalle shows. The shift indicates how drastically the data center development boom has reshaped the US's digital infrastructure map and the landscape as a whole. Amazon, Microsoft, Google, and Meta plan to spend more than $600 billion on AI infrastructure expansion in 2026 — a number so dizzyingly high that Wall Street is on high alert for signs of an AI bubble. More than half of all data center construction in the US now happens outside the industry's traditional hubs, according to JLL's North America Data Center Report — Year-End 2025. Tennessee, Ohio, Wisconsin, and Texas are now considered the top emerging markets for data centers. Texas alone has 6.5 gigawatts of data center capacity under construction. That amount of power is roughly equivalent to more than three Hoover Dams or over 17,000 Tesla Model 3s when using the US Department of Energy's standard, and it accounts for about one-fifth of the 35 gigawatts of data center capacity the US added to its pipeline. That 35 gigawatts is roughly equivalent to the annual electricity consumption of the UK or Italy, and adding it would nearly double the existing data center capacity in the US, according to JLL. Part of Texas's appeal is its sprawl. The state houses some of the most ambitious data center projects in the country. Oracle and OpenAI's flagship Stargate data center is in Abilene, Google is planning a $40 billion expansion in West Texas, and Meta is building a massive new site in El Paso, just to name a few. Texas also has abundant energy resources, which is good news for data center developers. The AI boom has driven electricity demand to new heights and strained the nation's power grid. In Texas, several data centers — including Stargate — are being built alongside on-site power plants. Northern Virginia has been the data center industry's central hub for more than 15 years, going back to the early days of cloud computing. That has changed rapidly as Big Tech spreads out across the country in search of available power, cheap land, and the best tax incentive packages for the coming wave of AI data centers. Have a tip? Contact this reporter via email at ethomas@businessinsider.com or on Signal at 929-524-6964. Read the original article on Business Insider

OpenAI's OpenClaw hire sparks praise, memes, and rivalry chatter
TechnologycnbcBusiness Insider7d ago2 sources

OpenAI's OpenClaw hire sparks praise, memes, and rivalry chatter

Jakub Porzycki/NurPhoto via Getty Images OpenAI hired the creator of OpenClaw, Peter Steinberger. The news made waves in the AI community. Some AI leaders took to X to celebrate the news, and others expressed concern. OpenAI announced on Sunday it had hired Peter Steinberger, the creator of OpenClaw. Within hours, the news sent ripples across the AI community, drawing praise from some executives, jabs from rivals, and a flood of memes from engineers watching the talent wars unfold. Steinberger wrote in a blog post shared on X Sunday that he was "joining OpenAI to work on bringing agents to everyone." OpenAI CEO Sam Altman amplified the news, writing that "the future is going to be extremely multi-agent." Peter Steinberger is joining OpenAI to drive the next generation of personal agents. He is a genius with a lot of amazing ideas about the future of very smart agents interacting with each other to do very useful things for people. We expect this will quickly become core to our… — Sam Altman (@sama) February 15, 2026 In response to the news, several OpenAI leaders welcomed Steinberger. Thibault Sottiaux, an engineering lead on OpenAI's Codex team, wrote that "@steipete is proof you can just build things." @steipete is proof you can just build things — Tibo (@thsottiaux) February 15, 2026 Another Codex engineer posted that one of the "neat" parts of OpenAI's culture is how many former founders work there. One thing @steipete and I talked about over lunch last week was how many former founders are at OpenAI. It’s a really neat part of the culture. — Andrew Ambrosino (@ajambrosino) February 16, 2026 Steinberger told Lex Friedman in a podcast last week that both Mark Zuckerberg and Altman had made him offers. OpenClaw and its agent-only social media network Moltbook became wildly popular earlier this year as developers and AI enthusiasts shared clips of autonomous AI agents posting, replying, and interacting online. The open-source project, which demonstrates how networks of AI agents can coordinate to perform tasks across apps, also rapidly gained traction on GitHub. After Steinberger's announcement on Sunday, some of the people who worked on OpenClaw commented on the news. "I know the decision was not an easy one, and I saw firsthand the pressure Peter was under, given that he understands how fundamental this could be for the AI timeline," Jamieson O'Reilly, an OpenClaw advisor, wrote on X in a post congratulating Steinberger. One thing has become very clear to me working together with @steipete on @openclaw. While lots of people spectate from the sidelines, sharing their opinions, concerns and even hot takes at times, the dude is there, vigilantly on the front-lines pushing AI forward for every one… https://t.co/fe5OEKgevm — Jamieson O'Reilly (@theonejvo) February 16, 2026 Aaron Levie, the CEO of Box, said it was a sign "2026 was the year of the agents." If anyone was wondering if 2026 was the year of agents, OpenAI is bringing on the maker of Openclaw. This space is about to get very real. https://t.co/ocqX4kE9PT — Aaron Levie (@levie) February 15, 2026 Not everyone in the tech space was as enthusiastic about the news. XAI cofounder Igor Babuschkin asked users on X: "What's the best open alternative to OpenClaw right now? Doesn't make sense to put all your data into it if it's owned by OpenAI." PayPal mafia member Jason Calacanis expressed similar concerns. 😔 what are the chances the open source project survives / thrives after this? https://t.co/4sUZkKWkGh — @jason (@Jason) February 15, 2026 Steinberger and OpenAI have said that OpenClaw will remain an open-source project with OpenAI's support. Other experts in the space pointed out that OpenAI's win could be a loss for Anthropic, especially after Steinberger wrote on X that Anthropic sent "love letters from legal." "Another interesting detail is Anthropic's visible disdain for anything open source: their only contribution to this was legal threats," George Orosz, a tech industry analyst and author of the tech newsletter The Pragmatic Engineer, wrote on X. Kris Puckett, a designer at Stripe, expressed a similar sentiment Instead of @AnthropicAI getting Claudebot, they rushed legal to send a C&D and lost out on not only brilliant talent but community drive. Truly would love to know the decision making process. — Kris Puckett (@krispuckett) February 16, 2026 Raphael Schaad, a visiting partner at Y Combinator, said, "I bet this causes lots of VC tears." I bet this causes lots of VC tears and angry OSS folks. But think about this: - Peter showed the future and lots of awesome startups are starting to bloom from this. Invest in those! - Peter created one of the most exciting OSS projects in years. The community is vibrant and… https://t.co/RFWwfXU9Lz — Raphael Schaad (@raphaelschaad) February 15, 2026 And finally, some X power users did what they do best: posted memes about the news. Was expecting this one in replies pic.twitter.com/bfcZt3Ugg6 — Tibor Blaho (@btibor91) February 15, 2026 Read the original article on Business Insider