Iran ties Hormuz reopening to US conditions after tanker strike Child among four killed near Kyiv as Ukrainian drones hit Ilsky refinery Yemen's army counterattacks Houthis as UN warns of wider war Thai police detail gunman's preparations as school toll rises to nine Ankara says Mecca defence pact carries NATO-style obligations Israel holds off as Hamas presses for Gaza phase two Typhoon Dolphin shuts eastern China's ports after battering Okinawa Spain checks arrivals from Italy as Ceuta braces for new crossing US emergency oil reserve falls to lowest level since 1983 as Hormuz stays shut At least 13 killed in ADF attack in eastern DR Congo Car bombing and drone attack follow Colombian president's inauguration British Columbia declares emergency as wildfire drives 20,000 from Okanagan Valley Pentagon gives arms makers 21 days as Patriot stocks run low Turkey curbs Black Sea shipping after attacks on its vessels OpenAI halts part of Astra work after 'critical' cyber rating Drones sighted over German military base after Leipzig airport incident Romania sinks barges in the Danube to cool Cernavoda reactor CIA widens Cuba operations in search of a new leadership US calls China's Scarborough Shoal reserve a bid to seize fishing waters Amazon confirms financing of Texas gas plant for AI data centres Drone explodes near Trans-Balkan gas pipeline in Bulgaria Taiwan's Lai rehearses night-time escape in largest annual drill Lebanon says Israeli troops entered army-held village in the south Apple integrates Alibaba's Qwen model into macOS in China More than 1,500 injured in police crackdown outside Argentina's Congress Push grows to use frozen Russian assets for Ukraine as Senate passes sanctions bill More than 178,000 migrants leave South Africa amid crackdown and attacks China's factory-gate inflation eases to three-month low as consumer prices slow Ukrainian drones repeatedly strike warehouses of Russian retailer Wildberries Trump's birth-tourism orders face new legal challenge as New Jersey probes detention deaths Leaking tanker off Oman sinks deeper, satellite images show Zelensky makes first Serbia visit as Belgrade pledges free-trade deal Palestinians near Bethlehem report daily settler attacks Deadly protests in Pakistani Kashmir challenge military leadership Hungary's governing camp nominates Orban's judicial adversary for president Washington presses billionaire to exit Venezuela as Caracas reshuffles power utility India tests home-grown Kusha long-range air-defence missile Scientists warn 'Super El Niño' could flood western US Senate confirms Trump's former lawyer Blanche as attorney general Berkshire buys back $4.5bn in shares as Abel deploys cash pile US stocks close week at records with Dow at 54,000 Crypto market bill stalls in Senate despite $225m lobbying push SpaceX valuation falls sharply after June listing New York funds water security after cyberattacks on US utilities New York Times reconstructs Delhi police crackdown on youth march US judge halts Pentagon's Chinese military company label for WuXi AppTec Amazon deforestation falls to ten-year low as clearing shifts to Bolivia US Senate passes stopgap funding bill to avert shutdown Cuba turns to solar power with Chinese systems amid fuel shortage Thailand receives Myanmar's junta chief with red-carpet honours Chagos islanders' return stalls after US strikes on Iran UK children report surge in explicit deepfakes of themselves Chinese-led team confirms existence of the glueball FIFA accuses media of concerted effort to undermine Infantino Biden's prostate cancer has spread, son says Nagasaki warns of rising risk of nuclear war on 81st anniversary Turkish parliament passes bill aimed at peace with Kurdish rebels Iran ties Hormuz reopening to US conditions after tanker strike Child among four killed near Kyiv as Ukrainian drones hit Ilsky refinery Yemen's army counterattacks Houthis as UN warns of wider war Thai police detail gunman's preparations as school toll rises to nine Ankara says Mecca defence pact carries NATO-style obligations Israel holds off as Hamas presses for Gaza phase two Typhoon Dolphin shuts eastern China's ports after battering Okinawa Spain checks arrivals from Italy as Ceuta braces for new crossing US emergency oil reserve falls to lowest level since 1983 as Hormuz stays shut At least 13 killed in ADF attack in eastern DR Congo Car bombing and drone attack follow Colombian president's inauguration British Columbia declares emergency as wildfire drives 20,000 from Okanagan Valley Pentagon gives arms makers 21 days as Patriot stocks run low Turkey curbs Black Sea shipping after attacks on its vessels OpenAI halts part of Astra work after 'critical' cyber rating Drones sighted over German military base after Leipzig airport incident Romania sinks barges in the Danube to cool Cernavoda reactor CIA widens Cuba operations in search of a new leadership US calls China's Scarborough Shoal reserve a bid to seize fishing waters Amazon confirms financing of Texas gas plant for AI data centres Drone explodes near Trans-Balkan gas pipeline in Bulgaria Taiwan's Lai rehearses night-time escape in largest annual drill Lebanon says Israeli troops entered army-held village in the south Apple integrates Alibaba's Qwen model into macOS in China More than 1,500 injured in police crackdown outside Argentina's Congress Push grows to use frozen Russian assets for Ukraine as Senate passes sanctions bill More than 178,000 migrants leave South Africa amid crackdown and attacks China's factory-gate inflation eases to three-month low as consumer prices slow Ukrainian drones repeatedly strike warehouses of Russian retailer Wildberries Trump's birth-tourism orders face new legal challenge as New Jersey probes detention deaths Leaking tanker off Oman sinks deeper, satellite images show Zelensky makes first Serbia visit as Belgrade pledges free-trade deal Palestinians near Bethlehem report daily settler attacks Deadly protests in Pakistani Kashmir challenge military leadership Hungary's governing camp nominates Orban's judicial adversary for president Washington presses billionaire to exit Venezuela as Caracas reshuffles power utility India tests home-grown Kusha long-range air-defence missile Scientists warn 'Super El Niño' could flood western US Senate confirms Trump's former lawyer Blanche as attorney general Berkshire buys back $4.5bn in shares as Abel deploys cash pile US stocks close week at records with Dow at 54,000 Crypto market bill stalls in Senate despite $225m lobbying push SpaceX valuation falls sharply after June listing New York funds water security after cyberattacks on US utilities New York Times reconstructs Delhi police crackdown on youth march US judge halts Pentagon's Chinese military company label for WuXi AppTec Amazon deforestation falls to ten-year low as clearing shifts to Bolivia US Senate passes stopgap funding bill to avert shutdown Cuba turns to solar power with Chinese systems amid fuel shortage Thailand receives Myanmar's junta chief with red-carpet honours Chagos islanders' return stalls after US strikes on Iran UK children report surge in explicit deepfakes of themselves Chinese-led team confirms existence of the glueball FIFA accuses media of concerted effort to undermine Infantino Biden's prostate cancer has spread, son says Nagasaki warns of rising risk of nuclear war on 81st anniversary Turkish parliament passes bill aimed at peace with Kurdish rebels

Symbolic image: Amazon confirms financing of Texas gas plant for AI data centres

Symbolic image

Amazon confirms financing of Texas gas plant for AI data centres

2 sources

Amazon has confirmed that it is financing a private gas-fired power plant in Texas to supply new data centres. The plant could become the single largest source of greenhouse gas emissions in the United States.

The confirmation followed a report on Saturday, 8 August by the market intelligence company Cleanview, which reviewed satellite imagery to link three data centre construction permits Amazon filed this week to a plant being developed by Pacifico Energy and known as GW Ranch. Earlier permits show 35 turbines and a capacity of 7.65 gigawatts, larger than any gas plant currently operating in the country, and allow more than 30 million tonnes of greenhouse gases a year. Agence France-Presse described the project as the latest case of technology firms going off the grid to bring their AI operations online faster.

A larger plant is planned in Ohio

A 9.2 gigawatt facility is planned in Ohio under a public-private partnership involving SoftBank, a Tokyo-based investment holding company. It would feed the grid as well as a data centre.

Other opinions

The New York Times foregrounds the pollution risk and the contradiction with Amazon's climate pledges, while the Agence France-Presse report carried by the South China Morning Post frames the project mainly as a bypass of the grid to speed up AI expansion.