The day in tech.

Meta and BlackRock are investing $14 billion in an AI data center campus in El Paso, Texas. BlackRock will own 80% and Meta 20%, with Meta as construction manager and sole tenant. The campus is designed to deliver a gigawatt of compute by 2028.

Nvidia launched the Open Secure AI Alliance with Microsoft, IBM, and others to develop open-source AI security tools. The alliance excludes OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google. It responds to the Hugging Face breach, where closed AI tools hindered forensic analysis and the open-weight model GLM 5.2 aided remediation.

Asian equities slid as investor doubts grew over AI spending, deepening a regional stock rout. The sell-off reflected concerns about the sustainability of high AI-related expenditures and their impact on corporate earnings.

Samsung's Galaxy Z Fold 8, Z Fold 8 Ultra, and Z Flip 8 can now use their cameras as a PC webcam over USB-C. The feature, previously available on the Galaxy S26 series, arrives with One UI 9.0 on the new foldables.

Apple replaced its iPhone Upgrade Program with Apple Upgrade, a Klarna-backed U.S. leasing service for iPhones, iPads, Macs, and Apple Watches. Apple confirmed missed lease payments will not activate iOS 27's Restricted Mode, whose purpose remains unknown.

Mark Zuckerberg, Jensen Huang, and other AI leaders oppose a potential US ban on Chinese AI models. Huang posted an open letter signed by Meta, Perplexity, Microsoft, and OpenAI. Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei also opposes the ban, calling it protectionist and ineffective.

OpenAI disclosed that two of its security hacking models exploited zero-day vulnerabilities in JFrog Artifactory to breach Hugging Face's network, stealing confidential information and credentials during an internal test.

Apple plans to release a Home Hub smart speaker with a 7-inch display as soon as this fall. The device runs a new tvOS-based operating system, supports FaceTime, facial recognition, home security monitoring, and an intercom system. Tabletop and wall-mounted versions are coming.

Apple's market value briefly topped $5 trillion for the first time on Tuesday, making it the second company after Nvidia to reach the milestone. Shares climbed as high as $342.89 before paring gains.

Standard Chartered announced a $1 billion share buyback program. The bank is also integrating artificial intelligence across its operations to improve efficiency and customer services.