Australia announced plans to impose a 2% levy on major technology companies that fail to negotiate deals with local news organizations, according to government officials. The measure targets large tech platforms and represents the latest effort by the Australian government to ensure technology companies contribute to local media sustainability.

Separately, investor Kevin O'Leary detailed plans for a significant artificial intelligence data center project in Utah. O'Leary described the facility as part of efforts to maintain American competitiveness in artificial intelligence development, though specific details about the project's scale and timeline were not provided.

The Australian levy proposal follows previous legislative efforts by the country to require tech platforms to pay for news content. The government has not specified which companies would be subject to the 2% charge or provided a timeline for implementation.

Meanwhile, the technology industry continues to grapple with infrastructure challenges as artificial intelligence applications require increasingly powerful computing resources. Industry observers note that large AI models are placing significant demands on server capacity and processing capabilities.

Both developments highlight ongoing tensions between technology companies and government regulators, as well as the infrastructure requirements needed to support advancing AI capabilities.