All posts tagged: space

SpaceX IPO Filing Reveals Anthropic Is Paying Billion a Year to Access Its Data Centers

SpaceX IPO Filing Reveals Anthropic Is Paying $15 Billion a Year to Access Its Data Centers

Published by skeptic

Anthropic has agreed to pay SpaceX $1.25 billion per month through May of 2029 for access to cloud computing infrastructure, a long-awaited US regulatory filing revealed on Wednesday. In other words, Anthropic will be sending a rival artificial intelligence lab roughly $15 billion a year, an extraordinary sum that demonstrates how access to compute has become one of the defining bottlenecks in the race to develop advanced artificial intelligence. Anthropic and SpaceX announced a deal earlier this month that gives the Claude developer access to GPUs at Colossus and Colossus II, a pair of data centers straddling Tennessee and Mississippi with more than one gigawatt of computing power. SpaceX had rushed to build the facilities for its xAI unit, which develops the Grok AI chatbot, but Musk said his company didn’t need all of their computing capacity in the end. Terms of the deal had not been previously disclosed. Anthropic is paying an unspecified reduced fee for May and June before the $1.25 billion per month rate takes effect, SpaceX said in its S-1 regulatory …

Shiver me timbers: Do we have to worry about space pirates now?

Shiver me timbers: Do we have to worry about space pirates now?

Published by skeptic

Feedback is New Scientist’s popular sideways look at the latest science and technology news. You can submit items you believe may amuse readers to Feedback by emailing feedback@newscientist.com LunAAARRRR pirates The moon looms large in the sky – and also, it seems, in the minds of future-oriented people. Right now, there is an awful lot of forward-thinking going on with regard to our natural satellite. One might almost imagine that people were trying to distract themselves. For instance, in our 21 March missive, we discussed accounting firm PwC’s ongoing attempts to forecast the size of the future lunar economy: its future estimates were all measured in billions, which is a strong claim given that the current Gross Lunar Product is, to a close approximation, $0.00. Now, via spacenews.com, we learn that some thinkers have taken it a step further. Readers may recall the existence of the US Space Force, the newest branch of the military. It seems the Space Force is establishing “a cislunar [near the moon] coordination office” to think through “the importance of …

Mars shines in ethereal photo from Psyche space probe

Mars shines in ethereal photo from Psyche space probe

Published by Jenni Sidey

Get the Popular Science daily newsletter💡 Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent six days a week. NASA’s Psyche spacecraft is currently en route to a small, metal-rich asteroid near Jupiter. However, the barely 3,600-pound probe recently required a little help from Mars to complete its lengthy 2.2-billion-mile mission. Despite its complex gravity assist earlier this month, the groundbreaking spacecraft still found time to snap some travel photos showcasing its Red Planet flyby. NASA released the latest image from Psyche’s trip on May 20, which offers a gorgeous view of Mars just hours before Earth’s neighbor temporarily eclipsed the cosmic traveller. According to NASA, the image was taken on May 15 at about 8:03 a.m. EDT by the spacecraft’s multispectral imager instrument. The thin crescent view of Mars is due to the spacecraft’s approach at what’s known as a high phase angle. The fingernail slice of Red Planet actually looks brighter and wider than mission specialists anticipated, thanks to a large level of sunlight scattering through the dusty Martian atmosphere. Interestingly, the instrument’s original unfiltered image …

Open plan is not the answer: design professionals on the dos and don’ts of small space living | Homes

Open plan is not the answer: design professionals on the dos and don’ts of small space living | Homes

Published by Sam Flores

In 2010 Colin Chee picked up the keys to his 37 square metre off-the-plan apartment in Melbourne’s city centre. “It was only then that I realised how shit it was.” With no design experience and a limited budget, his quest to find inspiration eventually led to the birth of Never Too Small, a YouTube channel showcasing clever designs for small spaces from around the world. Launched in 2017, it now has more than 3 million subscribers. A housing crisis and a surge in apartment building means more Australians are searching for ways to make the most of small-scale abodes. This weekend Chee will join Claire Scorpo, a director of Agius Scorpo Architects, and Tahj Rosmarin, a director of Card Practice, for Small Spaces, Big Living – a free talk at the National Gallery of Victoria. In the lead-up to the event they share their experiences of designing their own diminutive domiciles. Formulate your furnishings When we move into a new space the first instinct is to settle in as quickly as possible. But Chee cautions …

EU strikes deal on Trump trade pact – POLITICO

EU strikes deal on Trump trade pact – POLITICO

Published by Sam Flores

The European People’s Party — the largest group in the chamber — is keen to get the trade deal on the books, and negotiators hope a majority will back it. Zeljana Zovko, the EPP lawmaker representing the center-right group in the negotiations, told POLITICO that the deal “will save our businesses and give them breathing space to continue trade with our most important trading partner.”  Failure by the Parliament to ratify the compromise would humiliate Bernd Lange, the chair of the chamber’s trade committee and the Parliament’s chief negotiator. Lange declared himself satisfied with the result despite the concessions. “We are ensuring stability and security for European manufacturers, fully aware that we cannot, of course, always guarantee that the U.S. will abide by the agreement,” he said. The German Social Democrat had assembled a broad coalition of lawmakers to demand that extra conditions be attached to the accord to shield the EU from Trump’s periodic attempts to coerce America’s longtime allies. But it remains to be seen whether the text can command a majority in the …

Scientists discover new state of matter inside Uranus and Neptune

Scientists discover new state of matter inside Uranus and Neptune

Published by Jenni Sidey

Far beneath the thick blue clouds of Uranus and Neptune, matter may behave in ways never before seen. Under crushing pressures and searing heat, carbon and hydrogen could organize into a bizarre new state that blurs the line between solid and liquid. Researchers from Carnegie Science now believe they have found evidence for this hidden phase through advanced computer simulations. Their work predicts the existence of a “quasi-one-dimensional superionic” state of carbon hydride deep inside ice giant planets and possibly in massive worlds beyond our Solar System. The discovery opens a new chapter in planetary science. It also offers fresh clues about how giant planets move heat, conduct electricity and generate magnetic fields. “Our work shows that even simple combinations of elements can organize into surprisingly complex states under extreme conditions,” said Cong Liu, one of the study’s authors. Schematic illustration of thermally driven phase evolution in a binary compound. (CREDIT: Nature Communications) A Hidden World Beneath Planetary Clouds Uranus and Neptune may appear calm from afar, but their interiors are violent environments. Beneath their …

Teyana Taylor Says It’s ‘Powerful’ When Women Are Given the ‘Space’ to ‘Step Into Their Vision’

Teyana Taylor Says It’s ‘Powerful’ When Women Are Given the ‘Space’ to ‘Step Into Their Vision’

Published by Daniella Wilson

Lights, camera, inspiration! Teyana Taylor is bringing her bold creative vision to the 25th Tribeca Festival for a special event celebrating women in film and storytelling. The multi-hyphenate star will take the stage for a talk presented by Through Her Lens: The Tribeca CHANEL Women’s Filmmaker Program as part of Tribeca’s Storytellers Series on Sunday, June 7, at Spring Studios in New York City. Through Her Lens Taylor, who recently joined the Through Her Lens Advisory Committee alongside powerhouse names including Jane Fonda, Lucy Liu, Tessa Thompson, Kerry Washington, Olivia Wilde, and more says the mission behind the initiative feels especially personal to her. “Joining the Through Her Lens Advisory Committee with Tribeca and CHANEL felt personal to me because I know how powerful it is when women are given the space, support, and confidence to fully step into their vision,” the Golden Globe winner said in a press release. “That’s what Through Her Lens is about, empowering women to tell bold, honest stories in their own voice. I’m proud to be part of something …

How space and AI outpace wildfires

How space and AI outpace wildfires

Published by skeptic

In the world of disaster management, tracking data about fire is only useful if it arrives before the smoke does The image of a wildland fire is no longer a distant threat confined to remote wilderness. In recent years, ‘mega-fires’ have rewritten the rules of disaster management, leaping across traditional firebreaks and threatening urban fringes from the Mediterranean to the sub-Arctic. As climate change accelerates the frequency of these extreme events, the tools we use to track and fight them must evolve from reactive to predictive. At the forefront of this evolution is RSS-Hydro, a science-led geospatial tech company known primarily for its leadership in satellite Earth Observation (EO) and modelling intelligence. Through its FireSENS and FireSENS-GEO applications, RSS-Hydro is proving that the best way to fight fire is with actionable, rapid-response data. FireSENS: Delivering critical impacts in real-time In the escalating battle against wildfires, timely and comprehensive information is the most valuable asset. RSS-Hydro’s FireSENS represents a leap forward, providing multi-faceted wildfire impact intelligence that bridges the gap between raw data and life-saving action. …

Finnish spy chief warns Europe may never break free from foreign tech – POLITICO

Finnish spy chief warns Europe may never break free from foreign tech – POLITICO

Published by Sam Flores

Cloud services featured in the Finnish agency’s recent annual report, which said their adoption can obscure the digital independence of states. Martelius said that there had been discussion in Finland about putting election information in a cloud service, but given that the Finnish election system functions “extremely well,” the idea was eventually dropped. “The kind of information that is critical for securing national security, like for instance, election-related data, is one thing which definitely should not be handled by any foreign firm,” he said. On European innovation, Martelius said Finland has excellent R&D in the areas of quantum and space, but, like other parts of Europe, it lacks sufficient capital. The intelligence chief, who took up the post in 2024, questioned whether Europe could even develop European cloud services as efficient as those from U.S. hyperscalers or win the war against Russia without foreign technology. “Currently not,” he said. “But it’s also a question of how much does Europe want to win the war by itself and how much does it want to rely still …