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Meta Quits Clean Energy Pledge Amid Gas-powered Data Center Push

Meta's departure from a global renewable energy pledge comes amid a frenzied data center buildout by tech companies. INA FASSBENDER / AFP/File
Meta's departure from a global renewable energy pledge comes amid a frenzied data center buildout by tech companies. INA FASSBENDER / AFP/File
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Meta Quits Clean Energy Pledge Amid Gas-powered Data Center Push

Meta's departure from a global renewable energy pledge comes amid a frenzied data center buildout by tech companies. INA FASSBENDER / AFP/File
Meta's departure from a global renewable energy pledge comes amid a frenzied data center buildout by tech companies. INA FASSBENDER / AFP/File

Meta has abandoned a global pledge by leading companies to source all of their electricity from renewable sources, the social media giant confirmed Friday.

RE100, an initiative of the UK-based nonprofit Climate Group, aims to spur corporate climate action, and counts Apple, Google and Microsoft among its 444 members.

The Climate Group's website no longer lists Meta, the company behind Facebook and Instagram, as a member.

The news was first reported by Recharge News, a renewable energy industry outlet.

Meta joined the pledge in 2016 according to a Wayback Machine archive of RE100's website.

The departure comes amid a frenzied data center buildout by leading tech companies. Meta has struck deals paying utilities to bring new natural gas power plants online, including 10 to power its Hyperion data center in Louisiana alone.

A Meta spokesperson told AFP the company is continuing to scale up investments in renewable energy, and that leaving RE100 does not change its goal of matching its electricity use with 100 percent clean energy.

It has met that goal on an annualized basis since 2020, according to its website, by partnering with renewable energy providers on long-term power purchase agreements.

But the Climate Group told Recharge News that was no longer enough.

"After several in-depth conversations between Meta and Climate Group, Meta has withdrawn from the RE100 initiative, as it is no longer able to meet the technical criteria due to investments made in new gas power," a Climate Group spokesperson told the website.

Natural gas has long been billed as a "bridge fuel" between dirtier polluting fossil fuels and renewables such as wind and solar. While its emissions are lower, drilling and extracting it causes the leakage of methane, a powerful greenhouse gas and the main component of natural gas.

Burning natural gas also causes significant air pollution in the form of nitric oxides, sulfur, mercury and particulates, while hydraulic fracturing or "fracking," can contaminate ground water supplies.

Meta isn't alone in its pivot. Microsoft signed a deal with Chevron last month to supply natural gas electricity to a data center in West Texas, while Google has also been linked to similar partnerships in press reports.

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Technology

Apple’s Ternus Faces AI Test as Foldable iPhone Takes Center Stage

Apple's Senior Vice President Hardware Engineering John Ternus attends the premiere of season four of the Apple TV series "Ted Lasso" at the Academy Museum in Los Angeles, California, US, July 27, 2026. (Reuters)
Apple's Senior Vice President Hardware Engineering John Ternus attends the premiere of season four of the Apple TV series "Ted Lasso" at the Academy Museum in Los Angeles, California, US, July 27, 2026. (Reuters)
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Apple’s Ternus Faces AI Test as Foldable iPhone Takes Center Stage

Apple's Senior Vice President Hardware Engineering John Ternus attends the premiere of season four of the Apple TV series "Ted Lasso" at the Academy Museum in Los Angeles, California, US, July 27, 2026. (Reuters)
Apple's Senior Vice President Hardware Engineering John Ternus attends the premiere of season four of the Apple TV series "Ted Lasso" at the Academy Museum in Los Angeles, California, US, July 27, 2026. (Reuters)

When new CEO John Ternus unveils Apple's latest products on Wednesday, Wall Street expects him to show that the company can still deliver breakthrough hardware and a Siri virtual assistant capable of competing in the AI race.

Analysts expect Apple to announce at its Cupertino, California, headquarters a new iPhone that folds open like a passport. They said it could quickly emerge as the category leader in the nascent folding phone market, despite an expected price of more than $2,500 and having cameras and processors that may not lead the market.

The company has already announced a deep overhaul of Siri — in part by tapping Google's AI tech behind the scenes — and that may prove to be Ternus' first big success after years ‌of delays. A successful ‌revamp by the end of this year could give Apple a good chance ‌of ⁠pulling even with ⁠longtime rival Google's Gemini assistant, analysts said.

Investors have largely looked past Apple's slow start in generative AI because of the company's billion-plus device installed base and loyal customer base. Ternus now faces pressure to convince consumers that Apple's devices are the best way to use AI, which could determine whether he inherits former CEO Tim Cook's momentum or plays catch-up.

NEW PREMIUM IPHONES

Apple is expected to update its premium iPhone Pro and Pro Max devices but hold off on refreshing the iPhone Air and the base and budget lines until spring. The aim is to drive interest in the real ⁠star of this week's show, the folding phone.

"Even with a $2,500 price tag, the ‌Apple foldable is going to fly off the shelves, especially because ‌Apple is excellent at creating an aura of exclusivity, luxury, and scarcity," Nabila Popal, senior research director at IDC, told Reuters.

Popal expects the phone to generate more than $45 billion in revenue for Apple by the end of next ‌year, even as foldables overall remain a single-digit share of the phone market.

The main appeal of a folding phone is the sheer newness after nearly two decades of candybar-style phones.

While Samsung , Google and China's Huawei have sold folding phones since 2019, analysts expect Apple to benefit from entering late by solving key engineering challenges, such as a hinge that feels sturdy over ‌thousands of uses and minimizing any crease in the screen when the device is open.

"They've seen what has worked and what hasn't worked with their competitors," ⁠said Anshel Sag, an ⁠analyst at Moor Insights & Strategy who has tested many folding devices.

NEW SIRI'S BIG MOMENT

Ternus' key challenge will be persuading customers to adopt the new Siri and convincing them and third-party developers that Apple can keep pace with rivals such as OpenAI, which roll out big improvements every few weeks, while Apple has traditionally moved more slowly.

"If Siri still sucked, then he would have a much more difficult Wednesday," said Carolina Milanesi of Creative Strategies. "Now they can comfortably say Siri is delivering and has value, but they need to just continue to work and make it better and keep up."

Analysts say Ternus, who kept a low profile as hardware engineering chief for five years, is likely to focus on delivering powerful devices as a base to expand on-device AI.

But he faces a steep regulatory challenge, said Gene Munster of Deepwater Asset Management: Apple's Siri update might take until 2028 to win approval in China and won't initially be available in Europe due to a regulatory dispute.

"It matters a lot that they get the US out in time because it builds the confidence that they can do something in Europe," he said.

Technology

French AI Firm Mistral Valued at Over 21Bn Euros after Latest Funding

FILE PHOTO: An advertisement for Mistral AI, the French artificial intelligence company, is displayed inside the Grand Central subway station in New York City, US, May 21, 2026. REUTERS/Shannon Stapleton/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: An advertisement for Mistral AI, the French artificial intelligence company, is displayed inside the Grand Central subway station in New York City, US, May 21, 2026. REUTERS/Shannon Stapleton/File Photo
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French AI Firm Mistral Valued at Over 21Bn Euros after Latest Funding

FILE PHOTO: An advertisement for Mistral AI, the French artificial intelligence company, is displayed inside the Grand Central subway station in New York City, US, May 21, 2026. REUTERS/Shannon Stapleton/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: An advertisement for Mistral AI, the French artificial intelligence company, is displayed inside the Grand Central subway station in New York City, US, May 21, 2026. REUTERS/Shannon Stapleton/File Photo

Mistral said Tuesday it had raised three billion euros ($3.5 billion) in what it described as the largest-ever European tech equity fundraising, valuing the French AI firm at over 21 billion euros.

The startup, which is considered Europe's leading AI model developer and was valued at nearly 12 billion euros following the previous funding round, said new the funding would help expand its leading-edge research.

"This round means we can move faster on R&D, products, infrastructure and keep giving organizations the ability to run AI at scale, on their own terms," Mistral's chief executive and co-founder Arthur Mensch said in a statement.

The company emphasized it is focusing on so-called open-weight AI models that companies can run themselves with their own data.

"Organizations want to industrialize AI inside systems that are already complex: their own data, their own tools, their own compliance constraints," AFP quoted Mensch as saying.

"It's why we've built Mistral on open-weight frontier models and infrastructure that we control end to end, so our customers can too," he added.

With the Dutch maker of chip-making machines ASML leading the previous funding round and Samsung Electronics this round, Mistral said it had attracted the support of advanced manufacturers in the sector.

"This support reflects growing confidence that Mistral's approach can help organizations deploy state-of-the-art AI inside complex real-world environments while maintaining control over their data, infrastructure and knowledge," the company said.

Mistral has increased its spending on infrastructure this year, including a data center, its first, which will be built in France, in addition to a commercial agreement with Microsoft.

Technology

Huawei Launches New Foldable Smartphone as Competition with Xiaomi, Apple Heats Up

The Huawei logo is seen in this illustration taken on January 29, 2025. (Reuters)
The Huawei logo is seen in this illustration taken on January 29, 2025. (Reuters)
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Huawei Launches New Foldable Smartphone as Competition with Xiaomi, Apple Heats Up

The Huawei logo is seen in this illustration taken on January 29, 2025. (Reuters)
The Huawei logo is seen in this illustration taken on January 29, 2025. (Reuters)

Huawei launched a new version of its flagship foldable smartphone on Monday as it seeks to defend its lead in the Chinese market for premium handsets against Apple and Xiaomi, both of which are also unveiling new products.

The new Mate XT2 folds out twice to open into a tablet-sized screen and ‌features Huawei's ‌new Kirin 9050 Pro chip.

Huawei ‌says ⁠the chip's design ⁠allows it to deliver more computing power while using less electricity, helping the company overcome US restrictions on access to advanced technology.

Xiaomi launches a rival foldable phone later on Monday, while Apple unveils its latest ⁠iPhone series on Wednesday, with expectations ‌high that it ‌too will be unveiling a foldable phone.

The Mate XT2 ‌features a redesigned folding mechanism, improved water ‌resistance as well as an optional screen that prevents people nearby from seeing what is displayed. It also has upgraded cameras and delivers ‌42% better overall performance than its predecessor, based on company tests.

Huawei, which ⁠does ⁠not sell in the US due to sanctions, leads China's smartphone market with a 22.6% share in the second quarter, ahead of Apple's 18.1%, according to consultancy IDC. Xiaomi has 12.4% of the market.

Huawei is even more dominant in folding phones, accounting for 68% of shipments in China in the second quarter, according to Smart Analytics Global, a US-based research company.