Tech news picked on 2026-08-23
Equipment Costs Up 15%, Funding Interest Rate 7%, Fixed-Rate Plans Under Pressure First
- NVIDIA informed Microsoft, Google, and Oracle that it will raise AI server and chip prices by more than 15% starting early 2027 shipments.
- The reason is the cost of HBM and DRAM, and at the same time, QTS Realty issued data center bonds at an annual 7.228% interest rate.
- When equipment and financing costs rise together, AI services sold under unlimited fixed-rate plans will be the first to struggle.
- If you have an annual cloud contract, check the renewal date first.
TikTok Added $100 Million to Wipe Out 2019 Settlement
- The U.S. Department of Justice reached a $400 million settlement with TikTok and ByteDance.
- $300 million will be paid immediately, and $100 million will be paid when the 2019 Musical.ly consent decree is vacated by the court.
- Seven years ago, the amount paid under the same law was $5.7 million.
- The increase was due not to age verification screens but to internal procedures for handling deletion requests.
- If your service includes child users, first check the records of deletion request queue processing.