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Data centers are coming for rural America

2026-05-12T22:08:42-04:00

At its peak, the Androscoggin paper mill in Jay, Maine, a rural town about 67 miles northwest of Portland, employed about 1,500 people - until a pulp digester exploded in 2020, forcing the mill to close permanently.

In 2023, the 1.4 million-square-foot facility was purchased through a joint venture by JGT2 Redevelopment and a number of other holding and capital companies. The project is led by developer Tony McDonald. Over the next three years, McDonald and his team broke down the mill's machinery and shipped it to Pakistan, and worked to clean up the industrial site for resale. That resale agreement was finalized earlier this year, accord …

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All the latest updates on AI data centers

2026-05-13T14:33:29-04:00

Massive new data centers are the physical foundation for tech companies’ hopes and dreams for AI. But the rush to expand warehouses full of energy-hungry servers has also kicked up fights across the world over their impact on power grids, utility bills, nearby communities, and the environment.

From audacious plans to launch data centers into space to the latest legal battles over pollution, The Verge has the biggest news and reporting surrounding data centers.

SpaceX has a $55 billion plan to build AI chips in Texas

2026-05-08T06:00:54-04:00

Elon Musk's plans to get into the AI chip manufacturing business are going to be costly. As the The New York Times and CNBC report, SpaceX is planning to invest at least $55 billion into its "Terafab" chip plant in Austin, Texas. That's according to the details of a public hearing notice filed in Grimes County, Texas, for a meeting to request tax breaks for the project.

The company says that if additional phases are constructed, its investment could someday balloon to $119 billion total. When Musk initially announced the project in March, he shared ambitious plans for it to produce enough chips to support up to 200 gigawatts per year of com …

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Google’s taking a big swing at AI health with the Fitbit Air

2026-05-07T18:13:01-04:00

It's a Whoop dupe. That was my first thought when I saw the new $99 Google Fitbit Air. You can hardly blame me. The band is screenless with a metallic fabric clasp. My eyes flickered between the Fitbit Air and my wrist, where I'm wearing a Whoop MG. Was I not seeing double?

But as my press briefing went on, my opinion started changing. The Air is sort of like the OG Fitbits that Whoop then duped once Fitbit went all in on smartwatches. Think back to 2012, when the Fitbit One could clip to your pants, be turned into a pendant, or dangle from a keychain. That device was mostly a pedometer, whereas the Air is more of a modern, modular sensor t …

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From Alan Shepard to Artemis, celebrating 65 years of Americans in space

2026-05-05T13:27:27-04:00

Astronaut Alan Shepard, May 5th, 1961. | Photo: Photo12 / UIG / Getty Images

On the morning of May 5th, 1961, 37-year-old Alan Shepard woke up, ate a breakfast (consisting of a filet mignon wrapped in bacon, scrambled eggs, and orange juice), strapped into the Freedom 7 rocket, and blasted off into space, becoming the first American astronaut to do so.

Shepard's historic flight - and the first crewed flight of Project Mercury - did two things. It demonstrated that after getting beat to space by Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, America was still in the race. And it proved the United States could safely send a human into space and back, helping to restore national confidence during the Cold War. Shepard's flight only l …

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My $5K smart bed needs to shut the hell up

2026-05-01T16:39:34-04:00

This is Optimizer, a weekly newsletter sent every Friday from Verge senior reviewer Victoria Song that dissects and discusses the latest gizmos and potions that swear they're going to change your life. Opt in for Optimizer here.

I take my beauty rest seriously. So seriously that, after months of testing, I bought my ludicrously expensive Eight Sleep Pod 4 Ultra review unit. It had a lot of things going for it. It kept my spouse's side of the bed cool and mine toasty. That, in turn, convinced my aloof cats to curl on my side at night. It improved my marriage by dramatically reducing my spouse's sonorous snoring. What more could I possibly wa …

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Oura adds birth control support to its period tracker

2026-05-01T06:24:52-04:00

Here’s an example of what the new Hormonal Birth Control support will look like when it rolls out on May 6th. | Image: Oura

Oura is launching a new reproductive health feature that takes hormonal contraception into consideration when tracking period cycles. The smart ring maker describes the Hormonal Birth Control update as a "first-of-its-kind experience" inside Oura's existing Cycle Insights feature, allowing users to see how over 20 combinations of hormonal birth control methods - including pills, patches, IUDs, and implants - can affect their overall biometric data.

The feature will begin rolling out globally on May 6th. It's designed to show the impact that hormonal contraception may have on temperature patterns, sleep, and recovery, and can help users to t …

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Is this ‘de-extinction’ project actually onto something?

2026-04-30T07:53:07-04:00

Dallas-based genetics and biotech startup Colossal has raised hundreds of millions of dollars from venture capitalists, the CIA, and Peter Thiel, among others. Its buzzy "de-extinction" projects aim to "bring back" lost animals like the woolly mammoth, the Tasmanian tiger, and the dire wolf - although it isn't creating copies of extinct creatures from ancient DNA, as the "de-extinction" tagline may suggest. In the case of the "dire wolves" presented to the world in 2025, the pups were gray wolves spliced with a few genetic traits to somewhat resemble the dire wolves. This ambitious branding opened the company up to questions about its conser …

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Spotify is partnering with Peloton for guided workouts

2026-04-27T07:18:12-04:00

Spotify has dabbled in customized running playlists, but now it's diving more firmly into the fitness space with curated playlists and content from creators like Yoga with Kassandra, Sweaty Studio, Chloe Ting, and Pilates Body by Raven. Not only that, but Premium subscribers will have access to over 1,400 classes from Peloton.

Spotify has already expanded well beyond its music roots, with audiobooks, podcasts, and video. So moving into fitness and wellness doesn't seem like a big stretch, especially since there are plenty of playlists out there built around exercise. But it does further crowd an already messy app.

Users will now have acces …

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Trump fires the entire National Science Board

2026-04-25T18:29:03-04:00

Multiple sources are reporting that the Trump administration has dismissed the entire National Science Board (NSB). The NSB advises the president and Congress on the National Science Foundation (NSF), which has already been funding research at historically low levels and has seen significant delays in doling out that funding. The NSF has been fundamental in helping develop technology used in MRIs, cellphones, and it even helped get Duolingo get off the ground.

In a statement, Zoe Lofgren, the ranking Democrat on the House Science, Space, and Technology Committee, said:

"This is the latest stupid move made by a president who continues to …

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