New York Times:
Internal documents from 2025: Microsoft expects its annual water consumption to reach 28B liters by 2030, up from 7.9B liters in 2020 and 10.4B liters in 2024  —  Driven by the artificial intelligence frenzy, Microsoft is internally projecting that water use at its data centers will more than double …

Jack Ryan / Bloomberg:
Paolo Ardoino says Tether now holds ~140 tons of gold, worth ~$23B, has been buying one to two tons a week, and plans to keep doing so for the next few months  —  There are roughly 370,000 nuclear bunkers in Switzerland, a legacy of the Cold War that are now rarely used.  One of them, though, is a hive of activity.

Kate Clark / Wall Street Journal:
Sources: SoftBank is in talks to invest up to $30B more in OpenAI; SoftBank is already one of OpenAI's largest shareholders after investing $22.5B in December  —  The Japanese conglomerate is exploring further investment as part of the startup's efforts to raise up to $100 billion

Eli Tan / New York Times:
AdImpact: Meta spent $6.4M in November and December 2025 to run TV ads in eight US state capitals and DC, aiming to change negative opinions about data centers  —  The advertisement began with a panning shot of Altoona, Iowa, a town of 20,000 near Des Moines.  The camera moved from a diner to a farm to a high school football field.

Zaheer Kachwala / Reuters:
Seagate reports Q2 revenue up 22% YoY to $2.83B, vs. $2.73B est., forecasts Q3 results above estimates on strong data storage demand; STX jumps 8%+ after hours  —  Seagate Technology (STX.O) forecast third-quarter revenue and profit above Wall Street expectations on Tuesday …