tech:

taffy

Google Makes $200M Equity Investment In Texas Wind Project

Google_Texas_Wind_Project

[Techtaffy Newsdesk]

Google has made an approximately $200 million equity investment in the Spinning Spur Wind Project, a 161 megawatt facility located in Oldham County, Texas. The project was built by EDF Renewable Energy, a subsidiary of EDF Energies Nouvelles, who remains an owner and manager in the project, bringing its operational and management expertise in over 50 other renewable energy projects to the partnership.

Construction of the Spinning Spur wind energy project commenced in February, and achieved commercial operation in late December. The Spinning Spur project consists of 70 Siemens 2.3 MW turbines. The facility has the capacity to generate enough clean energy to power approximately 60,000 average U.S. homes, and the energy it produces has been contracted to SPS, a utility that primarily serves Texas and New Mexico.

Spinning Spur joins 10 other renewable energy investments Google has made since 2010, which together can produce 2GW of power.

Just in

Apple sued in a landmark iPhone monopoly lawsuit — CNN

The US Justice Department and more than a dozen states filed a blockbuster antitrust lawsuit against Apple on Thursday, accusing the giant company of illegally monopolizing the smartphone market, writes Brian Fung, Hannah Rabinowitz and Evan Perez.

Google is bringing satellite messaging to Android 15 — The Verge

Google’s second developer preview for Android 15 has arrived, bringing long-awaited support for satellite connectivity alongside several improvements to contactless payments, multi-language recognition, volume consistency, and interaction with PDFs via apps, writes Jess Weatherbed. 

Reddit CEO Steve Huffman is paid more than the heads of Meta, Pinterest, and Snap — combined — QZ

Reddit co-founder and CEO Steve Huffman has been blasted by Redditors and in media reports over his recently-revealed, super-sized pay package of $193 million in 2023, writes Laura Bratton. 

British AI pioneer Mustafa Suleyman joins Microsoft — BBC

Microsoft has announced British Artificial Intelligence pioneer Mustafa Suleyman will lead its newly-formed division, Microsoft AI, according to the BBC report. 

UnitedHealth Group has paid more than $2 billion to providers following cyberattack — CNBC

UnitedHealth Group said Monday that it’s paid out more than $2 billion to help health-care providers who have been affected by the cyberattack on subsidiary Change Healthcare, writes Ashley Capoot.