Reliance Industries plans to set up a 1-gigawatt AI data center in India’s Andhra Pradesh, the state’s chief minister said on Friday, adding to infrastructure capacity in India where the likes of Google and Microsoft have made huge AI investments.

Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu did not disclose financial details of the investment. Reliance did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Globally, companies are investing heavily to build new infrastructure to meet booming demand for AI services.

India is a critical growth market where nearly a billion users access the internet. Google last month committed to a $15 billion investment over five years to create an AI data center in Andhra Pradesh, its biggest ever investment in India. Microsoft and Amazon have also poured billions into building data centers in India.

Reliance’s planned data centre will operate as a twin to its gigawatt-scale AI data center in Jamnagar city in Gujarat state, “together forming one of Asia’s strongest AI infrastructure networks,” Naidu said.

AI requires enormous computing power, pushing demand for specialised data centers that enable tech companies to link thousands of chips together in clusters.

The Reliance group, led by Indian billionaire Mukesh Ambani, includes Jio, India’s leading telecoms carrier, Reliance Retail Ltd, Network18 Media & Investments Ltd and Jamnagar, India’s largest oil complex.

Washington has accused online marketplace company Alibaba of providing technological support for Chinese military operations against targets in the United States, the Financial Times said on Friday, citing a White House memo.

The national security memo includes declassified top secret intelligence on how the Chinese group supplies the People’s Liberation Army with capabilities that the White House believes threaten U.S. security, the FT reported.

The report did not specify which capabilities or operations were involved, or whether the U.S. was seeking to respond in any way.

Alibaba shares traded in the U.S. were down 4.2% after the news.

“The assertions and innuendos in the article are completely false,” Alibaba said in a statement.

“We question the motivation behind the anonymous leak, which the FT admits that they cannot verify. This malicious PR operation clearly came from a rogue voice looking to undermine President Trump’s recent trade deal with China.”

The Chinese embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Google announced Friday a major $40 billion investment in Texas through 2027 to build new cloud computing and artificial intelligence infrastructure, marking the latest in a series of massive technology investments in the U.S. state.

The investment will fund new data centre campuses in northern Texas, adding to Google’s presence in the Lone Star State that spans more than 15 years, the company said.

“Our latest investment in Texas is designed to not only support Texas’ workforce and infrastructure, but to ensure the US retains the technical backbone to lead the world in AI,” Google said in a blog post.

Google’s announcement continues a trend of major technology companies making substantial investments in Texas.

The state’s deregulated energy market and access to renewable energy sources have made it particularly attractive for data center development, even as energy demands of these facilities have raised concerns about grid stability, particularly following 2021 winter storms that caused widespread outages.

ChatGPT-maker OpenAI has made one of the most ambitious commitments through its $500 billion “Stargate” project, with its flagship data center campus in Abilene, Texas.

Meta, Facebook’s parent company, has invested billions in data centres in Fort Worth, while Tesla relocated its headquarters to Austin in 2021 and built a major manufacturing facility there.

Oracle also moved its headquarters to Austin, and Samsung announced a $17 billion semiconductor plant in Taylor, Texas.

As part of its commitment, Google is establishing a $30 million Energy Impact Fund to aid energy initiatives in Texas, as communities increasingly worry about the strain data centres put on local power supply.

Google pledged to bring new energy resources onto the grid and pay for costs associated with its operations while supporting community energy efficiency initiatives.

The company said in its latest earnings call that it expects 2025 capital expenditures of $91-$93 billion, reflecting massive investments in data centres and computing power to fulfill its AI ambitions.

Deep-rooted cultural barriers, male-dominated access points, and absence of safe, women-centric digital spaces were among the key concerns highlighted by speakers at the Digital Citizen Summit 2025 at T-Hub in Hyderabad on Friday. Speakers said that without women-led, community-driven networks, digital inclusion will remain uneven and exclusionary across South Asia.

Gayani Perera, project manager at Foundation.lk, a not-for-profit organisation based in Sri Lanka, spoke about how fear, surveillance and cyberbullying continue to keep women away from online spaces. Her organisation’s ‘Hitavathi’ centres, around 30 now operating across Sri Lanka, provide safe environments where women can learn, work and navigate the internet without judgement or intimidation. These spaces that work as help centres as well as e-learning platforms, have helped women rebuild confidence, acquire new skills and overcome long-held apprehensions about using technology, she said.

Hyderabad-based academic Sarbani Banerjee Belur said that connectivity projects often fail women because they overlook who actually ends up using digital access points. In many rural areas, she said, the spaces created for “community access” are quickly monopolised by young and older men, leaving women excluded, especially those who do not own mobile phones.

Mahima Sonal, working with Soochnapreneur – rural entrepreneurship-based project initiated by Digital Empowerment Foundation (DEF), from Utrakhand shared how community centres have transformed women’s livelihoods by helping them upskill, learn basic computing and take traditional handicraft work online. She said women engage more openly when guided by another woman, making female leadership critical for digital empowerment in rural areas.

Audience from Sri Lanka highlighted the “dual burden” that restricts women’s access to technology – domestic responsibilities combined with cultural conditioning that confines them to household roles.

Another member stressed the need for platforms where women can speak freely about issues including harassment, emotional distress and discrimination. “This initiative cannot just prevent instances of suicides in Sri Lankan women but can also help improve the emotional health of women,” the speaker said.

The session closed with a call to boost women in leadership roles in digital initiatives and to build networks that prioritise confidence, connection and equitable participation beyond profit-driven platform structures.

The Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IIT Madras) has launched the ‘Language and Cognition Laboratory’ (LC-Lab) to study India’s linguistic diversity through an interdisciplinary and technology-driven approach. Established at the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, this is the first lab in India that systematically engages with the country’s vast linguistic diversity through experimental linguistics. The lab will explore how humans perceive, process, and produce language using advanced experimental methods.

In the long term, it aims to contribute to the development of human-centred and linguistically aware AI systems, ensuring that India’s languages and cultures are represented in emerging technologies. This lab will work closely with the Centre for Responsible AI (CeRAI), IIT Madras to explore the applications of AI methods to language and cognition research

V. Kamakoti, Director, IIT Madras, said, “Linguistics is increasingly moving toward empirical, data-driven inquiry, combining methodologies from the sciences and humanities. India needed a dedicated facility that integrated linguistic theory with modern experimental and computational tools. The Language and Cognition Lab was established to fill this gap—creating a space that connects linguistics, cognitive science, neuroscience, and artificial intelligence, and contributes to the development of socially relevant, linguistically informed technologies.”

The Language and Cognition Laboratory (LC-Lab) will investigate how people process linguistic information by employing techniques such as eye-tracking and reaction-time studies. Its research focuses primarily on Indian languages, offering crucial insights into how grammar, voice, and sentence structure are understood and produced in multilingual contexts. While ongoing projects study grammatical voice and copula constructions, upcoming work will examine dyslexia in Indian children, with the goal of improving educational outcomes and developing linguistically relevant teaching interventions.

Speaking about the lab, its Faculty Coordinator Anindita Sahoo said, “The Language and Cognition laboratory (LC-Lab) is dedicated to advancing interdisciplinary research in language and cognition through the use of technologies that reveal behavioural patterns and enable data-driven understanding of human interaction.”

The LC-Lab’s interdisciplinary framework integrates insights from science, technology, and the humanities to advance both academic research and technological innovation.

In the short term, the LC-Lab will conduct experimental research using eye-tracking technology to validate established linguistic theories in Indian languages. In the long term, it plans to integrate advanced neurocognitive techniques such as Electroencephalography (EEG) and Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS).

These tools will support comprehensive research in language, cognition, and computational modelling, while fostering collaboration with experts in psychology, neuroscience, and artificial intelligence.

The lab is currently supported by IITM Pravartak Technologies Foundation and Aspire Infolab, Hyderabad, which have contributed to its establishment and research infrastructure.

Michael Burry, the investor who gained fame after being featured in “The Big Short”—the film about the 2008 financial crisis—has closed his hedge fund Scion Capital amid growing Wall Street concerns about inflated tech and AI valuations.

According to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) database, Scion Capital was listed as “terminated” earlier this week.

Burry had recently placed billion-dollar bets against software company Palantir and semiconductor giant Nvidia, as market specialists increasingly worry that AI-related stocks have become overvalued, potentially creating a dangerous bubble.

These concerns are amplified by mounting questions about whether tech giants can sustain the enormous costs of competing in artificial intelligence.

“My estimation of value in securities is not now, and has not been for some time, in sync with the markets,” Burry wrote in an October 27 letter obtained by multiple U.S. media outlets.

Burry first made his reputation by correctly predicting the 2008 subprime mortgage crisis, when a U.S. housing bubble nearly collapsed the global financial system.

His story was immortalised in Michael Lewis’s bestselling book “The Big Short” and the subsequent film adaptation, where Christian Bale portrayed the contrarian investor.

“Sometimes, we see bubbles. Sometimes, there is something to do about it. Sometimes, the only winning move is not to play,” Burry posted on X in late October.

Since 2008, Burry has repeatedly warned of new speculative bubbles, though his predictions haven’t always materialised.