SK Telecom plans to build a 15GW AI data center in Korea to become an AI infrastructure hub in Asia, aligning with the government's AI G3 strategy.

Palantir Technologies is betting big on a simple idea: The U.S. government should never have to depend on someone else's AI model to protect the country. That idea is now a formal partnership. Palantir (PLTR) recently announced it is teaming with NVIDIA to give federal agencies and companies that run critical U.S. infrastructure their own version of powerful AI models, ones they can control, retrain, and keep locked inside secure walls. The announcement comes at a moment when Palantir is already riding one of the strongest growth stretches in its history, and it signals the company wants to plant its flag even deeper in the national security world that built its reputation. Why sovereign AI matters in 2026 For years, the biggest worry about using commercial AI models inside government has been simple. Sensitive data goes in, and nobody outside the vendor really knows what happens to it once it's incorporated into a model's training. Palantir and NVIDIA (NVDA) say their new offering solves that problem. It combines NVIDIA's open-source Nemotron models with Palantir's existing products, including AIP, Foundry, Ontology, and Apollo, so agencies can train and run AI without handing proprietary information to an outside company, according to a company statement. More Palantir: Palantir's 2 deals answer a question investors keep asking Michael Burry pulls back on massive Palantir short bet Palantir flashes a warning signal Wall Street can't ignore The system includes several built-in protections. These cover explicit data authorization, secure isolation between customers, and the ability for an agency to fully erase its data whenever it wants. Perhaps the most notable feature is what the companies call a self-improving model. The system collects data on how users interact with it and uses that information to retrain the model over time, so it gets better at the specific job it was built for, whether that is battlefield logistics or fraud detection. "Combining Palantir infrastructure with NVIDIA's AI and Nemotron models will allow the U.S.

MOSCOW - Russia's second city of St Petersburg and the surrounding Leningrad region came under a large Ukrainian drone attack overnight on Saturday, with a local port and oil infrastructure struck, Russian and Ukrainian authorities said. St Petersburg Governor Alexander Beglov said the city of 6 million had been subjected to a "large-scale" drone attack, with the city's oil terminal struck. He said there were no casualties and that the aftermath of the attack had been dealt with. Leningrad region Governor Alexander Drozdenko said a drone had struck the area of Vysotsk port, about 170 km (105 miles) northwest of St Petersburg on the Baltic Sea. The port handles oil, grain, coal and liquefied natural gas. Drozdenko said 72 drones had been shot down over the Leningrad region, and there was minor damage in several settlements.

Palantir and NVIDIA partner to provide U.S. government with secure AI models for national security, addressing data privacy concerns.

MOSCOW - Russia's second city of St Petersburg and the surrounding Leningrad region came under a large Ukrainian drone attack overnight on Saturday, with a local port and oil infrastructure struck, Russian and Ukrainian authorities said. St Petersburg Governor Alexander Beglov said the city of 6 million had been subjected to a "large-scale" drone attack, with the city's oil terminal struck. He said there were no casualties and that the aftermath of the attack had been dealt with. Leningrad region Governor Alexander Drozdenko said drones had struck the port of Vysotsk, about 170 km (105 miles) northwest of St Petersburg on the Baltic Sea. The port handles oil, grain, coal and liquefied natural gas. Drozdenko said 72 drones had been shot down over the Leningrad region. In a post on Telegram, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said: "Ukraine's defence forces struck port oil infrastructure that generates revenue for Russia's war, and also hit Kronstadt, an important military target more than 850 km (528 miles) from Ukraine's state border." There was no information from Russia on a strike on Kronstadt, a major naval base close to St Petersburg that Ukraine hit in a previous attack on the city in June. Ukraine has intensified strikes on Russian energy infrastructure this year, causing fuel shortages in parts of Russia. Elsewhere, the governor of Russia's Bryansk region, as well as the Russian-installed governor of Crimea, said that drone strikes had killed one person in each region, with several more wounded. South of St Petersburg, the governor of Pskov region said more than 30 drones had been shot down overnight.

July 3 (Asia Today) -- A U.S. battery joint venture between South Korea's LG Energy Solution and Honda has begun mass-producing lithium-ion cells for energy storage systems at its Ohio plant, the company said. L-H Battery Company began production Thursday at its factory in Jeffersonville, Fayette County. The cells will be supplied through LG Energy Solution Vertech, the South Korean company's North American energy-storage system integration subsidiary. They are expected to be used in utility power grids as well as commercial, industrial and residential energy-storage systems across the United States. The Ohio plant was originally built primarily to manufacture batteries for Honda electric vehicles. The partners adjusted the factory's production strategy as growth in the electric-vehicle market slowed and changes in the U.S. regulatory and policy environment increased uncertainty for automakers and battery manufacturers. The joint venture decided to prioritize the faster-growing energy-storage market while maintaining the flexibility to produce cells for other applications. It plans to consider manufacturing batteries for hybrid-electric vehicles at the plant as market conditions evolve. Honda said in May that it would convert part of the joint venture's electric-vehicle battery production lines to make batteries for hybrid vehicles. The company also said it would use the Ohio battery facilities for other applications as it restructures its North American vehicle and battery production network. Honda canceled plans in March to develop and launch three electric-vehicle models that had been scheduled for production in North America, citing changes in the business environment. The start of storage-battery production marks a significant step in LG Energy Solution's strategy to manufacture more energy-storage products within North America. Demand is rising as utilities add renewable-energy capacity and seek batteries that can store electricity when supply exceeds consumption. Artificial intelligence data centers are also increasing electricity demand and creating a need for additional power-generation, transmission and storage infrastructure. Energy-storage systems can help stabilize power grids by storing electricity during periods of low demand and releasing it when demand rises. LG Energy Solution has been converting or adapting electric-vehicle battery facilities to produce storage batteries as manufacturers respond to slower electric-vehicle growth. The company plans to operate five energy-storage battery manufacturing sites in North America. The network includes plants in Holland and Lansing, Mich., the NextStar Energy facility in Windsor, Ontario, the Ultium Cells factory in Spring Hill, Tenn., and the L-H Battery Company plant in Ohio. LG Energy Solution said it aims to secure more than 50 gigawatt-hours of annual energy-storage battery production capacity in North America by the end of 2026. The company said batteries manufactured in Ohio will support projects serving power grids, businesses and homes. BloombergNEF has projected that the U.S.

The author, attending the Global Dialogue on AI Governance, emphasizes Africa's need to participate in shaping AI rules to avoid being left behind economically and socially.

XstraStar introduces G-Power Framework to measure brand AI search visibility, focusing on Visibility, Depth, Recommendation, and Competitiveness.

ShengShu Technology introduces Vidu S1, an AI video generation model enabling real-time interactive video creation with voice-guided character control.

1stProtect and Multiverse Computing partner to deliver secure AI inference on-device, eliminating cloud dependency.

Amazon's devices chief Panos Panay discusses the company's AI gadget push, including the upgraded Alexa+ and Amazon's semiconductor efforts.

Elon Musk and Chamath Palihapitiya discuss AI's role in creating universal high income and optional work, emphasizing AI's falling costs and expanding opportunities.

Alibaba bans Anthropic's Claude Code among employees due to concerns over user identification and data extraction, shifting to Qoder.

Iron Mountain predicts a 500% data center supply deficit by 2030 due to AI inference boom, with demand outpacing supply and infrastructure shifts.

BOE, China's leading display panel maker, is accelerating its move into next-generation packaging technologies for the AI era.

Xiaomi and Huawei clash over large models in AI phone market, amid competition with Apple, Google, and Samsung.

The shift from customer experience (CX) to agentic experience (AX) is reshaping customer interactions, with AI taking an active role. Challenges include design and trust, emphasizing the importance of human-AI collaboration.

Palantir CEO Alex Karp discusses AI trust issues in a CNBC interview, highlighting the gap between businesses and AI providers, while Palantir's stock gains.

Beijing's Z.ai launches GLM-5.2, an AI model gaining attention for its competitive capabilities and lower cost compared to US counterparts.

WASHINGTON - The Trump administration moved to slash commercial fishing regulations from coast to coast on Thursday, including reopening New England waters to scallop fishing that was banned after overfishing. "We're opening the Atlantic and the Pacific, and the American consumers are going to benefit from what we're doing now," White House adviser Peter Navarro said in a briefing with reporters. The Commerce Department and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced regional priorities that the government said were designed to revitalize the seafood sector. It was not clear how NOAA planned to implement these priorities or how long it would take, given their scope. The moves follow an April 2025 executive order from President Donald Trump aimed at increasing domestic seafood production by directing the Commerce Department to loosen regulations and by opening marine monuments to commercial fishing. "The goal was really simple: We need to defend our domestic fishing industry, promote productive harvest of our resources and boost the great American fishermen," a senior administration official said. The desire to ease restrictions on scallop fishing came out of an Oval Office meeting between Trump and scallop fishermen, who complained they were not allowed to fish in parts of Georges Bank, Navarro said. The northern edge of those waters off the coast of New England is closed to scallop fishing. "We're going to fix that in an environmentally sensitive way, and in a conservation way. It's going to be done systematically," Navarro said. The process will involve input from the New England Fishery Management Council, he said. Officials closed a large segment of fishing grounds in Georges Bank in 1994. That year, a National Marine Fisheries Service assessment of cod stock on Georges Bank found a 40% decline over four years, and concluded that the fishing fleet was about twice the size that Georges Bank could sustain, according to the American Museum of Natural History in New York. The New England Fishery Management Council voted in 2024 not to reopen those fishing grounds, which are also spawning grounds for Atlantic cod, to protect the long-term productivity of scallops. The council discussed restarting work to consider scallop fishing on the Georges Bank northern edge but decided not to add it to its 2026 priorities, said spokesman Alexander Dunn.

KNAV launches AI platform KNAV Tara for assurance, tax, and advisory services, enhancing efficiency and accountability.

Cognizant joins OpenAI Daybreak Cyber Partner Program to enhance AI cyber defense services using GPT-5.5 for vulnerability discovery and validated fixes.

Bloom Energy () is trying to make power part of the artificial intelligence trade. The company is getting a larger role in infrastructure after Brookfield for AI power projects from $5 billion to $25 billion. The fivefold increase gives Bloom a bigger opening to sell fuel-cell power systems into a market where data-center developers are racing to secure electricity for artificial intelligence and cloud computing. Bloom closed at on Jun 30 after the announcement. Shares were up 2% to $308.71 around midday July 1, after trading between during the session. The expanded partnership is designed to and accelerate the global deployment of Bloom's fuel cells. Bloom's role is centered on onsite power. The company's for customers that need reliable power near where it is used, including data centers, semiconductor manufacturing sites, utilities and other commercial and industrial users. Brookfield brings the capital.

Sitemetric launches Sitemetric AI, an agentic AI for construction site access control and monitoring, offering real-time data and insights via an intuitive chat interface.

Guangzhou CanSemi Technology Inc expands silicon photonic chip production to meet AI era demands, investing over 25 billion yuan in Phase IV project.

Fleet Space CEO Flavia Tata Nardini emphasizes the need for AI in mining exploration to meet global mineral demand for energy transition.

Amazon Web Services invests $1 billion in modernizing US intelligence systems, with CIA Director John Ratcliffe emphasizing AI's strategic importance akin to digital nuclear weapons.

Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce will celebrate their wedding at Madison Square Garden on Friday night, according to a law enforcement official briefed on the security plans. The festivities will kick off with a smaller rehearsal dinner planned for Thursday night, the official said. The person spoke to The Associated Press on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to publicly discuss the events. Speculation about the superstar singer and football player's nuptials has built to a frenzy in recent days, following weeks of unconfirmed reports that it would take place over July Fourth weekend at one of New York's iconic landmarks. MORE TAYLOR NEWS | Taylor Swift files trademark applications to protect her voice and image from AI This week, crews have been unloading equipment from trucks outside Madison Square Garden. A large carpet was briefly unveiled outside one entrance and then promptly removed. Nothing has been publicly confirmed by the couple, despite multiple requests from The Associated Press to Swift's representative for comment, including on Wednesday. At a press conference Wednesday, New York Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said the department was tracking an event at Madison Square Garden planned for Friday, but declined to go into further detail. IN CASE YOU MISSED IT | Taylor Swift debuts original song for Toy Story 5 "The NYPD will of course have a detail in place, but I'm not going to go into more specifics at this time," Tisch said. New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani has also confirmed that a permit was filed for a large event.

NATO begins using Palantir's controversial AI system for operations, despite human rights concerns and previous plans to stop using it.

California man sues OpenAI over ChatGPT exacerbating bipolar disorder, leading to self-harm.

The race in AI is shifting from chatbots to data centers, with tech giants investing billions in infrastructure to support AI systems.

Meta plans to offer AI models and server capacity, similar to Amazon AWS, as reported by Bloomberg. The company is building datacenters for AI but may not fully utilize the computing power, integrating Meta AI into apps like WhatsApp and Facebook.

Palantir's AI technology raises concerns over surveillance and human rights violations, drawing parallels with J.R.R. Tolkien's 'seeing stone' and its historical misuse.

UpGuard report finds 28% of top higher education vendors had security breaches since 2024, highlighting risks in vendor ecosystems and AI adoption.

REI Systems' GovOrch™ AI becomes available on DoW CDAO's Tradewinds Solutions Marketplace, enhancing data-driven decision-making for government agencies.

DriveNets unveils high-capacity AI networking platforms with Broadcom's TH6 ASIC, targeting large-scale AI infrastructures.

Companies that heavily invested in artificial intelligence hired more workers than those that invested little, new research suggests, challenging the narrative that large-scale adoption of the technology would lead to job losses. At 53%, most Americans worry AI could cost them or someone in their household a job, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll released in June. To find out if they’re right to be concerned, researchers from the financial technology company Ramp and the workforce intelligence company Revelio Labs compared AI spending and employee data at 21,559 U.S. firms. They found that over a two-year period, "low-intensity" adopters – or those who spent an average of $2.78 per employee on AI – saw little change in their head counts.

Companies that heavily invested in artificial intelligence hired more workers than those that invested little, new research suggests, challenging the narrative that large-scale adoption of the technology would lead to job losses. At 53%, most Americans worry AI could cost them or someone in their household a job, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll released in June. To find out if they're right to be concerned, researchers from the financial technology company Ramp and the workforce intelligence company Revelio Labs compared AI spending and employee data at 21,559 U.S. firms. They found that over a two-year period, "low-intensity" adopters – or those who spent an average of $2.78 per employee on AI – saw little change in their head counts.

Companies that heavily invested in artificial intelligence hired more workers than those that invested little, new research suggests, challenging the narrative that large-scale adoption of the technology would lead to job losses. At 53%, most Americans worry AI could cost them or someone in their household a job, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll released in June. To find out if they're right to be concerned, researchers from the financial technology company Ramp and the workforce intelligence company Revelio Labs compared AI spending and employee data at 21,559 U.S. firms. They found that over a two-year period, "low-intensity" adopters – or those who spent an average of $2.78 per employee on AI – saw little change in their head counts.

Companies that heavily invested in artificial intelligence hired more workers than those that invested little, new research suggests, challenging the narrative that large-scale adoption of the technology would lead to job losses. At 53%, most Americans worry AI could cost them or someone in their household a job, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll released in June. To find out if they're right to be concerned, researchers from the financial technology company Ramp and the workforce intelligence company Revelio Labs compared AI spending and employee data at 21,559 U.S. firms. They found that over a two-year period, "low-intensity" adopters – or those who spent an average of $2.78 per employee on AI – saw little change in their head counts.

OpenAI engineers announce a method to reduce inference costs by half, aiming to enhance model efficiency.

Chinese semiconductor material manufacturers are accelerating investments in advanced products as Beijing pushes for greater self-sufficiency, challenging the long-standing dominance of Japanese suppl...

Ireland's Fastnet transatlantic cable highlights the country's AI ambitions and security risks due to limited military capabilities.

Vocus plans $500m fibre network between Sydney and Melbourne to boost AI infrastructure, warning of global competition risks.

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CIQ's Fuzzball platform now offers a production-ready AI environment for NVIDIA DGX Spark, streamlining AI development and inference processes.

CreditRefresh launches an AI platform for automating credit bureau disputes, making professional credit repair accessible to consumers with smartphones.

Harness launches Autonomous Worker Agents for software delivery, enabling enterprises to build and run AI agents for tasks between coding and production. The platform includes a curated Marketplace with managed and community-authored agents, featuring sandboxing, policy enforcement, and audit trails for safe production use.

Stathera raised $55M in Series B funding to scale its silicon timing technology for AI data centers. The round was led by Maverick Silicon with existing investors. Funds will support mass production of GEN2 products and development of next-gen AI solutions.

Equifax adds 39 new patents in 2026, expanding its global IP portfolio and enhancing AI product innovation.