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Tim Newman

@tnewmsblues.bsky.social
1.6K followers 1.9K following 3.8K posts

Labor + Tech | Currently @techequity.bsky.social | Formerly Coworker(.)org, Coworker Solidarity Fund, Change(.)org, International Labor Rights Forum

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Tim Newman @tnewmsblues.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
"A model from OpenAI has been trained to assess more than 50 discrete aspects of each phone call and provide pass and fail scores to managers who use the data to analyse employee performance." www.theguardian.com/technology/2...
theguardian.com
‘Dystopian’: Co-op becomes latest firm to put staff under AI surveillance
Whistleblower says recording and analysis of all probate calls in Co-op Legal Services is oppressive
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Tim Newman @tnewmsblues.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
"Remote jobs such as content moderation & data annotation have been promoted as a win-win by UN agencies & global tech companies... But interviews with more than two dozen refugees in Kakuma show that only one side has clearly benefited." www.theguardian.com/technology/n...
theguardian.com
‘Someone else will do it for less’: Refugees in Kenya are powering tech for dwindling pay
Refugee gig workers for tech companies don’t know how much they’ll be paid – if AI hasn’t already taken their jobs
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Tim Newman @tnewmsblues.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
Keep in mind that the stat below is from a survey of over 30K technologists from 169 countries.
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Tim Newman @tnewmsblues.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
Stack Overflow survey of +30K technologists from 169 countries: "This year, we’re finding respondents are less happy in their work... All that innovation and uncertainty can make it tough to feel comfortable in your job." survey.stackoverflow.co/2026
survey.stackoverflow.co
Stack Overflow Developer Survey 2026
More than 30K technologists from 169 countries have shared their thoughts with us, and now it’s time to share everything we’ve learned with you. So let’s dive into this year’s Annual Developer Survey.
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Tim Newman @tnewmsblues.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
"They are often low-level criminals, sometimes teens, who don’t know whom they’re working for & agree to take on a task for a fee in cryptocurrency... 'It appears that just as in other areas of the gig economy, benefits generally accrue to the employer." www.nytimes.com/2026/10/05/w...
nytimes.com
The Rise of Gig Economy Warfare
An incident at a British air base may demonstrate a new era of low-intensity conflict.
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Tim Newman @tnewmsblues.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
"IDme harvests personal data as a gatekeeper to public agencies—which have no business requiring citizens to use a for-profit intermediary. Providing access, with privacy & security safeguards, is a core part of agencies’ job." bsky.app/profile/pros...
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Free DC @freedcproject.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
Joint task forces have historically been used to fight drug cartels and terrorism. In DC, Trump is using them to police children on their way to school and harass people simply for being outside.
prospect.org
Time on Task - The American Prospect
The Trump administration has abused the interagency task force process to intervene in law enforcement across the country.
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Tim Newman @tnewmsblues.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
If there are folks out there who want to dismiss the themes in this piece or just look the other way from these trends, please do not make the same mistake as not taking the gig economy and crypto seriously.
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Tim Newman @tnewmsblues.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
“In 2025, Meta overhauled its content moderation process, which saw the company drop rules meant to combat hate speech against the LGBTQ+ community” This year, Meta cut contracts with scores of human content moderators. Another example of how Big Tech’s attacks on workers harm broader communities.
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Tim Newman @tnewmsblues.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
Just checkin out the White House website… greeted by this pop up.
"The Real Cost of Socialism in America The White House Priced the Democratic Socialists of America’s Agenda: TRILLIONS Added to the Deficit, Wages Cut, Prices Driven Higher — a Cost that Devastates Every Household.  $49T Added to the Deficit. $355k Charged to Each Household."
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Tim Newman @tnewmsblues.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
“the investment in AI has come under criticism from some CSU faculty & some students remain skeptical of the value of knowing how to use AI even as most are concerned it will threaten their chances of landing a job & keeping it" edsource.org/2026/csu-ai-...
edsource.org
Cal State goes all in on AI, but some job-seeking students remain skeptical
Cal State was the first public university system in the country to offer students systemwide access to a version of ChatGPT as a way to help students prepare for a workforce impacted by AI.
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Tim Newman @tnewmsblues.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
I’m still really proud of this report and grateful to the workers who shared their experiences. For a number of reasons, I think it’s really important to listen to workers in the U.S. involved in the work of training AI systems. This is a global workforce, including precarious work here.
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Tim Newman @tnewmsblues.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
Stop interviewing Acemoglu about AI data work challenge. He has no expertise on this subject! There are many brilliant experts who know what they are talking about - most importantly, workers themselves!
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Tim Newman @tnewmsblues.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
The way in which this segment feels like a personal attack to annoy me specifically… kidding, but also not. Instead what @moreperfectunion.bsky.social! youtu.be/aooiDA-AsNo?...
youtu.be
I Tracked Down the Hidden Workers Secretly Powering ChatGPT
YouTube video by More Perfect Union
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Tim Newman @tnewmsblues.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
Help! I’m reading Julian Posada’s Platform Extractivism in a location where 60 Minutes’ interview with Mercor CEO Brendan Foody is playing on a screen.
Blurry photo of the book Platform Extractivism and in the background is a TV screen. In which the CEO of Mercor is being interviewed.
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Paresh Dave @peard33.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
Over the past four months, Amber Retzloff, a critical care nurse in Florida, requested to work 50 specific 12-hour shifts. But over half the time, she says the AI scheduling software her hospital developed with Palantir assigned her to different shifts. What gives? www.wired.com/story/health...
wired.com
Health Care Workers Are Tired of Cleaning Up Palantir’s Mess
A hospital giant and radiology network turned to Palantir to streamline scheduling, but nurses and other staff say the new software is causing errors, burnout, and frustration.
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Tim Newman @tnewmsblues.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
Some thoughts on what “innovation” means.
From “The Rulers: Corporate Power in the Age of AI and the Cloud” By Cecilia Rikap

"Innovation becomes a power relation exercised by those who have captured what others perceive as unique and desirable. In the process of knowledge capture, creative workers are not only deprived of the product of their labor; innovation itself becomes a fragment of human knowledge stripped of its history and redirected towards accumulation and control."
I think this was from Enshittification by Cory Doctorow? I’ve had the screenshot floating around for a while and forgot the original source. 

"Tech leaders point to this stuff and call it innovation. It's more accurate to call it obfuscation. Except for the level of indirection introduced by the presence of an app, the algorithmic wage discrimination gambit would trigger labor law enforcement."
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Mike Hixenbaugh @mikehixenbaugh.com · 02/10/2026
Scoop: At a secret meeting this summer, an aide to Stephen Miller laid out Trump administration's plan to make it easier for states to round up and institutionalize mentally ill homeless people — by pushing a drastic policy change that would weaken the rights of millions of disabled Americans.
nbcnews.com
How Trump’s homelessness crackdown became a sweeping retreat from disability rights
After issuing a memo making it easier to institutionalize homeless people, the Justice Department began abandoning cases protecting disabled people’s right to live in the community.
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liz pelly @lizpelly.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
Major magazines report this crisis of reading, but the crisis of listening barely registers // new letter from me about understanding AI music generators as amusements, the distracted state of listening, etc plus new music recommendations lizpelly.ghost.io/the-state-of...
lizpelly.ghost.io
The state of listening doesn't make headlines
Major magazines report this crisis of reading, but the crisis of listening barely registers.
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Tim Newman @tnewmsblues.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
@saalevine.bsky.social in @thenation.com with some *actually* good policy ideas that other cities and states could pick up to meet the moment. www.thenation.com/article/poli...
thenation.com
Reclaiming Worker Power in the Age of AI
When every price and wage is personalized, organizing gets harder. Here’s how we’re fighting back in New York City.
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Tim Newman @tnewmsblues.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
"While an earlier wave of AI hiring was dominated by engineers & data scientists building models or adapting them to corporate data, the boom has expanded to include people responsible for embedding AI directly into business lines" www.cnbc.com/2026/10/02/a...
cnbc.com
How AI is redefining Wall Street jobs — and boosting demand for this new 'hottest skill' by 1,721%
Banks are fueling a hiring surge for AI engineers who are good at "agent orchestration" — the ability to coordinate teams of specialized agents.
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Tim Newman @tnewmsblues.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
Cheers to @epic.org for weighing in with support for @afacwa.org in this incredibly important fight for worker data rights. We’ll look back at this as a really consequential moment in that long battle. epic.org/epic-files-a...
epic.org
EPIC Files Amicus Brief Challenging Spirit Airlines’ Bankruptcy Sale of Employee Data to Google
On Thursday, EPIC, along with Professor Seema Patel, filed an amicus brief using privacy grounds to challenge the sale of sensitive employee data in Spirit Airlines’ bankruptcy proceedings to Google t...
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Tim Newman @tnewmsblues.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
Sometimes it’s fun to check in on what anti-union law firms are hearing from employers about AI and worker power. www.littler.com/news-analysi...
THE GROWING IMPORTANCE OF AI IN LABOR RELATIONS:
 AI has emerged as both a workplace concern and an opportunity. The majority of respondents (87%) expect unions to utilize fear around AI displacing or changing jobs to fuel employee interest in organizing over the next year, including 58% who anticipate this to a moderate or large extent. A substantial proportion of employers believe that increased use of AI will reshape job responsibilities (67%), redistribute work across teams (42%) and reduce entry-level roles (30%). Yet fewer than 10% feel very prepared to manage the potential labor/employee relations issues that may arise as a result. Again, communication will be a key tool in managing employee fears. Though most employers say they are communicating in some form with employees who are worried about AI- related impacts, only 17% are doing so proactively and consistently. The survey also spotlights two developing AI use cases: how unions are leveraging the technology in organizing efforts and, on the other side of the table, how businesses are incorporating it into collective bargaining negotiations. While 60% of employers are concerned with the use of AI in the former, employers with unionized workers appear to be underutilizing AI to prepare for and aid in bargaining efforts.
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Tim Newman @tnewmsblues.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
"Many of OpenAI’s employees — whom the company is fighting to keep in intense talent wars whose bidders also include Meta, Google & startups — aren’t sanguine about unregulated AI. And they dislike being associated with the political group’s aggressive tactics." www.semafor.com/article/10/0...
semafor.com
Exclusive: How employees forced OpenAI’s president to back down
A set of internal Slack messages details the politics at one of the world’s most powerful AI companies.
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Tim Newman @tnewmsblues.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
One of my favorites from this year from a favorite album: “Quick!” by Tasha youtu.be/VUD7M9VXnkQ
youtu.be
Tasha - Quick! (Official Video)
YouTube video by TashaMusicVEVO
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Tim Newman @tnewmsblues.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
🗑️🤖 www.axios.com/2026/10/02/c...
axios.com
Change.org leans into AI with $100 million investment
The nonprofit believes new tech could empower civic engagement.
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Tim Newman @tnewmsblues.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
@katiejwells.bsky.social was saying we should view “self-driving” cars as roving, urban data centers. They sure have the surveillance part down! Is this what we want for our communities?
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Tim Newman @tnewmsblues.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
Excellent new piece on data workers in the AI supply chain, and I swear I’m not just saying that because it cites almost all of our recent work on this topic @techequity.bsky.social, along with many friends and colleagues! www.thecairoreview.com/essays/ais-d...
thecairoreview.com
AI’s Dark Secrets: Inside the Global Exploitation of Data Workers
As the Global North continues to benefit from the AI boom, it is increasingly critical that multinational corporations provide protections of and be accountable for the wellbeing of data workers aroun...
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TechEquity @techequity.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
Using data from the Data Work Landscape combined with original data, Cunyan Ma visualized the locations of workers involved in data work, the platforms that employ them, and the AI companies that contract with those platforms. www.ai-materiality-map.org/data-workers/
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Tim Newman @tnewmsblues.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
“On the final day to act on his last scheduled legislative session, Gov. Gavin Newsom today signed several bills to protect workers from AI, including limits on the use of AI in patient care and in firing people.” @khari.bsky.social for @calmatters.org: calmatters.org/economy/tech...
calmatters.org
On AI, Newsom gives labor only some of what it demanded
The governor signed AI regulations to limit how workers can be terminated, overridden, or surveilled by the technology.
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TechEquity @techequity.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Undergrad Cunyan Ma did just that in “Where are the data workers behind AI?”, combining data from the Data Work Landscape with original data to visualize the locations of workers involved in data work. We talked to Cunyan about her research and what she learned: techequity.us/2026/09/30/c...
techequity.us
Cunyan ma is finding where the data workers are - TechEquity Collaborative
Everyday Californians can play a role in the government beyond voting. If you choose to accept, you can help pass a bill that may become law.
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California Federation of Labor Unions @californialabor.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
calaborfed.org/press-releas...
calaborfed.org
Governor Gavin Newsom Signs California Federation of Labor Unions’ Sponsored Bills Regulating AI in the Workplace  - California Federation of Labor Unions
Release Date: September 30, 2026  Press Contact: Shubhangi Domokos, shubhangi@calaborfed.org  Governor Gavin Newsom Signs California Federation of Labor Unions’ Sponsored Bills Regulating AI in the Wo...
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California Federation of Labor Unions @californialabor.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
‼️BREAKING: @CAGovernor Newsom SIGNS @CaliforniaLabor's Priority Bills Regulating AI at Work‼️ Working people across California fought for and WON the strongest guardrails on AI anywhere in the country. When working people organize, we get results. Once again, California workers lead the nation!
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Tim Newman @tnewmsblues.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
A thrilling mail day for me! Congrats again, @posada.website!
A photo of a copy of the new book “Platform Extractivism: Data Work and the People Powering Artificial Intelligence” by Julian Posada
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Tim Newman @tnewmsblues.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
@theinformation.com has some v interesting recent reporting on enterprise AI: "Software firms & cloud providers including Amazon, Microsoft, Figma & Workday are dangling discounts on AI products to clients & consulting partners exhausted by shifts in pricing” www.theinformation.com/articles/sof...
theinformation.com
Software Firms Discount AI to Keep Customers From Anthropic, OpenAI
Software firms and cloud providers including Amazon, Microsoft, Figma and Workday are dangling new discounts on AI products to clients and consulting partners exhausted by shifts in pricing. The speci...
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The San Francisco Standard @sfstandard.com · 30/09/2026
Tech royalty has a new answer for the angry villagers. 🎨: Amy Kurzweil
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Tressie McMillan Cottom @tressiemcphd.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Counterpoint: It would be great if people read some of the things that have been written about AI surveillance of workers! press.princeton.edu/books/hardco... www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/hilke... www.cambridge.org/core/books/q... www.ucpress.edu/books/uberla... jacobin.com/2026/09/amaz...
press.princeton.edu
Data Driven
A behind-the-scenes look at how digital surveillance is affecting the trucking way of life
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The Verge @theverge.com · 29/09/2026
More than a dozen organizations came together at OpenAI DevDay to sponsor a rally outside the entrance to the event venue at San Francisco’s Fort Mason, including Bay Resistance, Tech Workers Coalition, Service Employees International Union, San Francisco Rising, and the San Francisco Labor Council.
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Tim Newman @tnewmsblues.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
"Meta-acquired Assured Robot Intelligence along with Handshake AI and Mercor are among those accused of deliberately misclassifying data annotators, engineers & others to dodge minimum wage, overtime & other employment benefits afforded to employees." news.bloomberglaw.com/daily-labor-...
news.bloomberglaw.com
AI Data Trainers Suits Open New Misclassification Fight Frontier
A new crop of worker misclassification lawsuits brought by AI trainers will potentially benefit from a worker-friendly test forged in earlier gig economy battles and the data trails created by their w...
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Tim Newman @tnewmsblues.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Also, is the FTC investigating for deceptive claims? They’ve taken quite a few actions against other AI claims.
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Tim Newman @tnewmsblues.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Who are these customers? "Anthropic said nearly a quarter of its revenue came from two customers last year" www.cnbc.com/2026/09/28/a...
cnbc.com
Anthropic's IPO prospectus shows sweeping AI vision, surging costs: Reuters
Anthropic is making a massive bet that AI will transform the global economy more profoundly than industrialization, electricity and the internet, according to its IPO prospectus seen by Reuters.
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Tim Newman @tnewmsblues.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Who are these customers? "Anthropic said nearly a quarter of its revenue came from two customers last year" www.cnbc.com/2026/09/28/a...
cnbc.com
Anthropic's IPO prospectus shows sweeping AI vision, surging costs: Reuters
Anthropic is making a massive bet that AI will transform the global economy more profoundly than industrialization, electricity and the internet, according to its IPO prospectus seen by Reuters.
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Tim Newman @tnewmsblues.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
“Anthromorphizing AI comes with specific risks in a work context. Research from Bedard and her colleagues at BCG found that, when managers were told work was completed by an AI employee, they caught 18% fewer errors than when told it came from an AI tool.” www.wired.com/story/ai-age...
wired.com
AI Agents Are About to Flood the Workforce. No One’s Ready for It
Your next coworker might well be an AI agent—and will require a whole new model of workplace interactions.
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Astra Taylor @astra.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
Forget grandiose talk of curing cancer - this is what AI is actually doing to healthcare. In the words of one cardiologist: “it’s bots fighting bots, agents fighting agents, a horrible dystopic future nobody wants to live in.”
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Tim Newman @tnewmsblues.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
“More firms are using AI tools to comb job boards for competitors’ salary ranges in effort to pinpoint market rates… Third-party companies now offer AI salary benchmarking as a service, helping employers understand what it costs to hire & retain people in specific roles.” www.wsj.com/lifestyle/ca...
wsj.com
The Invisible Way Companies Are Using AI to Set Salaries
New services allow employers to pinpoint who is being paid too much or too little.
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Vox @vox.com · 24/09/2026
Health insurers are deploying AI to deny claims — and putting people's health at risk. www.vox.com/good-medicin...
vox.com
AI is already deciding whether or not people receive medical care
Health insurers are deploying AI to deny claims — and putting people’s health at risk.
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Tim Newman @tnewmsblues.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
This is a Blue Owl project that is part of the Stargate initiative. “The debt tied to the development is already trading at stressed levels, below 90 cents on the dollar, according to a person with knowledge of the matter.” www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
bloomberg.com
Oracle Cites ‘Force Majeure’ to Shield Itself on Controversial Data Center
Oracle Corp. is moving to shield itself from racking up expenses on a massive data center being built in New Mexico, adding a fresh wrinkle to a project beset by opposition and regulatory setbacks.
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Tim Newman @tnewmsblues.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
“Rather than operating purely as a human expert marketplace, Snorkel relies on a hybrid approach, using its software and models to generate data synthetically alongside subject matter experts.”
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Tim Newman @tnewmsblues.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
“The AI build-out is on track to become the biggest economic bet in U.S. history, dwarfing the investments made to fund other huge U.S. infrastructure projects such as the railroads, the highway system and the plumbing for the internet.” www.wsj.com/economy/the-...
wsj.com
The AI Build-Out Is Becoming the Biggest Economic Bet in U.S. History
Data-center spending is greater than that for canals, railroads and grid combined—creating jobs and stock-market wealth, while boosting inflation and crowding out housing.
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