Plus: IPO documents show Softbank-backed data center venture issued perks to land OpenAI. And SLB acquires data-center cooling company Kelvion for $4.1 billion. Imani Moise hosts.
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[00:00:01] [SPEAKER_00] Here's your morning TNB Tech Minute for Monday, August 31st. I'm Imani Moise for The Wall Street Journal. The European Union said OpenAI's ChatGPT, Reddit and Roblox should be held to a higher standard of scrutiny under the Digital Services Act. The EU's executive arm, the European Commission, says it has designated ChatGPT as a very large online search engine
[00:00:24] [SPEAKER_00] and Reddit and Roblox as very large online platforms under the DSA because they counted at least 45 million average monthly users in the region. Under the DSA, tech giants have obligations to ensure their products are safe or risk a fine of up to 6% of their annual revenue as well as periodic penalty payments. The designation puts them in the company of heavyweights like Amazon.com, Apple, Alphabet's Google, Meta Platforms, Microsoft and TikTok.
[00:00:50] [SPEAKER_00] News Corp, owner of Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal, has a content licensing partnership with OpenAI. SoftBank's data center venture, SB Energy, issued OpenAI warrants worth an estimated $5.5 billion as a perk to land it as a data center tenant ahead of its IPO. That's according to draft IPO documents reviewed exclusively by the journal. SB Energy is expected to make its IPO filing public as soon as this week.
[00:01:17] [SPEAKER_00] The draft IPO documents provide the first detailed look at the financial ties between SB Energy and the company supporting its ambitious expansion into AI infrastructure. SB Energy's base of data center customers currently consists of firms that are also its investors. The documents show SoftBank and OpenAI are the planned tenants in three SB Energy data centers.
[00:01:39] [SPEAKER_00] And oil drilling and production company, SLB, has agreed to acquire thermal management company, Kelvion, from private equity funds for $4.1 billion to strengthen its growing data center business. Kelvion provides the heat transfer technology that data centers need to operate. It is expected to generate up to $2.4 billion in revenue this year.
[00:02:00] [SPEAKER_00] The company said it expects the deal to be accretive to earnings per share and free cash flow in the first 12 months following close, which is currently slated for the first half of 2027. And that's your TNB Tech Minute. We'll be back this afternoon with more.