Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
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Welcome to Tech News Briefing. It's Friday, April 3rd. I'm Julie Chang for The Wall Street Journal. In Maine, a battle is brewing over the future of AI and tech. We'll tell you about a bill that could put a pause on new data center construction projects driven by fears of soaring electricity costs and pollution.
Then in Russia, the Kremlin has long tried to rein in the influence of Western platforms, and that goal may now be within reach. That's thanks to Max, a new Russian super app that could help cement state control over the digital lives of millions of Russians. First up, Maine is set to make history as the first U.S. state to put the brakes on data center construction with a temporary moratorium.
The proposed bill aims to freeze all large new data center projects until November 2027. Why the drastic measure? Maine already grapples with some of the highest residential electricity prices in the nation, and elected officials fear a wave of data center power demand will push those costs even higher.
WSJ reporter Will Parker joins us to break down this landmark power struggle and which areas it could pop up in next. So Will, can you give our listeners just a brief rundown of this bill? What are the highlights we should know?
Yeah, so Maine has a bill that would temporarily freeze the construction of large data centers for more than a year. And this is a bill proposed by a Democratic legislator in the House where there's a Democrat majority. And the plan is to pause data center construction while the state studies the impacts on the environment and the electricity grid.
And which data centers would be impacted by this?
So this bill targets data centers that would be more than 20 megawatts, which is the power load cutoff. It's the data centers over that size where you start to start talking about artificial intelligence, hyperscalers, which is the kind that is growing really fast and that have the largest demands for power and water. It's also the kind that is not proposed for Maine at the current time.
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Chapter 2: What is the significance of the new data center bill in Maine?
So many of those bills probably won't go anywhere. The expectation in the industry though, is that some of them do end up passing in some form. And we've seen local governments like counties and towns enact their own temporary suspensions of data center construction. And we'll probably continue to see more of that.
And how are data center developers reacting to this push?
As data center developers look across the country for new areas to expand, these kind of rules proposed or real and swelling community opposition kind of shrinks the map of where they are likely to try to go and do business. So it's a mounting concern for data center developers. If this snowballs and starts to affect bigger states, I think you'll see much more of a response to that.
What ripple effects could this bill have if it passes or not? Does it tell us anything about data center construction as an issue for voters?
I think it might. I think it shows momentum.
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Chapter 3: How does the Kremlin's new super app Max aim to control digital life in Russia?
You know, the polling on voter opinions of data centers and AI is increasingly negative. And I think you're likely to see more politicians try to respond to that with various legislative proposals for the time being.
That was WSJ reporter Will Parker. Are electricity costs rising in your area? We want to hear from you. If you're a listener on Spotify, leave us a comment with your thoughts. Coming up, how a new Russian super app is helping the Kremlin's efforts to restrict internet freedoms and limit the influence of tech platforms that have built substantial user bases in Russia. That's after the break.
Russia's got a new super app, Max. Modeled after Telegram and China's WeChat, the messaging and e-commerce platform aims to be an all-in-one digital hub, offering everything from taxi hailing services to electronic passport wallets. And another thing the app has? Backing from the government.
WSJ correspondent Matthew Luxmore joins us now to talk about the years-long fight between the Kremlin and foreign tech giants and what the launch of MAX means for that tug of war. Matthew, tell us more about why the Kremlin is backing this up.
Many tech experts I've talked to for this piece say that because Max is not encrypted, it is a way of the Russian government being able to freely monitor what people are discussing online, but also to get their personal data, to get their health data, their financial data, because people will be using this app not just for exchanging messages, but also for making payments to banks, for booking tickets.
appointments with doctors for ordering food and retail online and for all kinds of other services that would allow a government that is following what's happening on the app to get a very, very kind of comprehensive picture of its citizens.
Can you tell us a bit about what paved the way for this app to come about?
In many ways, the Russian government has been trying to get to this point for the past two decades. Now, after the Soviet Union collapsed in the 1990s, Russia was a country that was very open to Western business presence inside the country. But when Vladimir Putin came into power as president in 2000, he understood that the Internet was something that could become a problem for Russia.
And that really became clear to him when protests erupted against his return to power for a third presidential term in 2011. And his main opponent, the opposition leader Alexei Navalny, began to really harness the internet in a way that no other Kremlin critic had done before, using blogs online and social media, Facebook, and other things like that to criticize the government.
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