Clean Energy

Picture thousands of giant steel orbs bobbing in the Pacific Ocean, each one quietly running AI models while powered entirely by the waves beneath them. No power grid. No cooling towers. No angry neighbors fighting a new data center build. Peter Thiel just bet $140 million that this isn’t science fiction. Portland-based startup Panthalassa announced its Series B this week to build what might be the most audacious answer yet to AI’s insatiable hunger for electricity: autonomous, wave-powered computing nodes that operate in the open ocean. And in a world where companies are exploring space-based solar and nuclear micro-reactors to keep the lights on, floating data centers might actually be the conservative option. ...

Every electric vehicle on the road hides a dirty secret inside its motor. The magnets that make it spin depend on rare earth elements — and China controls nearly 90% of the global supply. One research team just used AI to crack that problem wide open. The Supply Chain Everyone Ignores Here’s the uncomfortable math: over 86% of EV motors sold in 2024 used rare earth permanent magnets. Each vehicle packs roughly 1.5 kilograms of neodymium iron boron (NdFeB) — the strongest permanent magnets money can buy. They’re in your phone, your MRI machine, your wind turbine, and increasingly, your car. ...