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Amazon Astro home robot
Todd Haselton | CNBC

Amazon announced its long-rumored $999 Astro home robot on Tuesday. I had a chance to check it out in a demo with Amazon last week and wanted to share a few thoughts on what Astro is, what it can and can’t do and why Amazon decided to build a home robot.

Astro seems like a strange gadget for Amazon to launch. The company is best known as an online store. And most of its operating profit comes from its AWS cloud business. Notably, Astro is a “Day 1 Edition” product, which means it won’t be sold to everyone at first. Instead, Amazon will ask people to sign up and then invite them to order the robot. That allows Amazon to avoid building too many gadgets it won’t sell and a public flop like the Amazon Fire Phone that was discontinued in 2015.

Amazon said Astro will go on sale later this year but did not give a specific launch date. (It’s worth noting that Amazon has made similar promises about future products that either never launched or were severely delayed.)

So, why robots?

Amazon Astro home robot
Todd Haselton | CNBC

“We get together every once in a while and we organize a senior team meeting around ‘what are some of the changes in technology?'” Amazon’s vice president of product Charlie Tritschler told me. “And we talked about AI and processors getting more powerful and inevitably robotics came up. And one of the discussions was: ‘Does anyone here in this meeting think that in 5-10 years there won’t be more robots in your home?’ And everyone was like ‘well yeah, of course.’ It’s like, well then let’s going.”

Tritschler said Astro brings together a lot of what Amazon already offers in other products.

“We’ve got a decade-plus with what we’ve done in fulfillment centers,” Tritschler said of the company’s industrial robots that cart products through its warehouses. “But then all of the things we’ve done in devices and Amazon Prime Video and Alexa and home monitoring, and we had so many things we could pull together.” 

That’s a good representation of what I saw in the demo. 

Amazon’s Astro robot

What is Astro?

Astro is about the size of a small dog. It roams around your house on three wheels, including two big ones that prevent it from getting stuck and a smaller one for rotating. It has a camera that rises up on a 42-inch arm that can keep an eye on your home as Astro patrols while you’re away. It can follow you around and play music or display TV shows on its 10-inch touchscreen. It can recognize faces (if you want it to) so you can load up two sodas in the back storage compartment and tell Astro to go to someone in the living room.

Astro is like a combo of lots of Amazon’s other gadgets placed on wheels. The cameras can be used for home security or for video chat, sort of combining Amazon’s Ring cameras with its Echo Show smart screens. The cameras are also used to create a map of your house when you set Astro up for the first time. You can talk to Astro much like you’d talk to an Echo or Alexa (you can change the name to Alexa if you want) to get sports scores or the weather. And you can play movies or TV shows like you would on an Amazon tablet or Fire TV.

Astro can carry things in this cubby. You can also add accessories, like a cupholder or an Omron blood pressure monitor.
Todd Haselton | CNBC

I also saw how you can control Astro remotely from a phone app, which is useful if you want to keep an eye on a loved one who lives alone, like an aging family member. Tritschler told me Amazon will also sell a third-party insert made by Omron that fits into the back storage compartment and can hold a blood pressure cuff. That will allow folks to control Astro remotely and remind people who live alone to check their blood pressure, which seems useful and opens Astro up to an audience outside of just gadget-geeks who want a home robot.

But Astro doesn’t have arms or hands so, it can’t pick things up. It’s not quite the level of Rosie from “The Jetsons” TV show. (Speaking of that show, Astro is not named after the Jetsons’ dog. Early testers just preferred that name over others.) It also can’t go up or down stairs, so it’s really only good for one floor of a house.

“Wouldn’t it be nice if manipulation could do more? Could you have an arm that picks things up off the floor or tidies up or brings you drinks? But when we looked at technologies and the cost and complexity of those technologies today, and reliability at the consumer level, they’re just not there yet,” Tritschler said. “And we realized, hey, this is a journey, we don’t have to do everything in the first product. So we focused here on mobility, intelligent motion, visual ID, and some of the other really tough challenges we had to overcome.”

The periscope camera that rises out of the Amazon Astro robot.
Todd Haselton | CNBC

I’m torn on how I feel about the Astro.

On one hand, wow, it’s cool that we finally have a home robot, even if it can’t clean up and bring me stuff from the fridge. On the other, I can’t really think of many reasons why I’d need one in my house at its current price, other than as a conversation starter or for home security since a roaming robot seems like it would be effective.

I think Astro will be most compelling for people who want to keep an eye on loved ones who live alone, and who might find it useful to call over a robot with their medicine inside, or a blood pressure monitor sitting in its cubby. 

Sensors on the front of the Astro robot help it avoid running into stuff.
Todd Haselton | CNBC

Tritschler said Amazon is bullish on robots, though, and made it clear this is just the first one. Amazon has a lot of ideas on how to make them even better. I knocked the Amazon Echo when it first launched in 2014. Now millions of people have one in their homes. Maybe the same will be true for Astro in 10 years. That’s Amazon’s goal.

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TSMC hits yet another record as profit surges 39%, beating estimates on AI chip demand surge

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TSMC hits yet another record as profit surges 39%, beating estimates on AI chip demand surge

The TSMC logo is displayed on a building in Hsinchu, Taiwan April 15, 2025.

Ann Wang | Reuters

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company on Thursday reported a 39.1% increase in third-quarter profit from last year, hitting a fresh record as demand for artificial intelligence chips stayed strong.

Here are the company’s results versus LSEG SmartEstimates:

  • Revenue: NT$989.92 billion new Taiwan dollars, vs. NT$977.46 billion expected
  • Net income: NT$452.3 billion, vs. NT$417.69 billion 

TSMC’s revenue in the September quarter rose 30.3% from a year ago to NT$989.92 billion, beating estimates.

TSMC’s high-performance computing division, which encompasses artificial intelligence and 5G applications, drove third-quarter sales.

As Asia’s largest technology company by market capitalization, TSMC has benefited from the artificial-intelligence megatrend as it manufactures advanced AI processors for clients, including Nvidia and Apple.

TSMC said advanced chips, with sizes 7-nanometer or smaller, accounted for 74% of TSMC’s total wafer revenue in the quarter. 

In semiconductor technology, smaller nanometer sizes signify more compact transistor designs, which lead to greater processing power and efficiency. 

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FCC moves to expel one of Hong Kong’s largest telco companies from U.S. networks

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FCC moves to expel one of Hong Kong’s largest telco companies from U.S. networks

People walk past a PCCW sign in Hong Kong.

Mike Clarke | AFP | Getty Images

Regulators in the U.S. have moved to block one of Hong Kong’s largest telecommunications companies from accessing domestic networks, citing national security concerns.

The U.S. Federal Communications Commission announced on Wednesday that it had initiated proceedings to potentially bar HKT Trust and HKT Ltd and its subsidiaries from interconnecting with American networks, escalating concerns over its ties to China. 

The government agency asked HKT, which is a subsidiary of information and communication technology giant PCCW, to justify why its authorizations should not be revoked.  HKT’s current hold permits allowing direct exchange of calls and data with U.S. carriers.

China Unicom, which owns about 18.4% of PCCW, lost its own U.S. network access in 2022 due to similar concerns.

“The FCC’s action on HKT today is an appropriate step towards ensuring the safety and integrity of our communications networks,” FCC Chairman Brendan Carr said in a statement. 

“The FCC will continue to safeguard America’s networks against penetration from foreign adversaries, like China.

The Hong Kong-listed shares of HKT fell more than 5%, while PCCW fell 3.6% in Thursday trading.

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Share price of HKT and PCCW

According to their 2024 annual reports, HKT and PCCW derived about 13% of their 2024 revenues from regions outside greater China and Singapore, though specific countries weren’t detailed. HKT made up about 90% of the group’s total revenue.

Neither PCCW nor HKT immediately responded to CNBC’s requests for comment.

Under the leadership of Carr, the FCC has expanded efforts to expel Chinese state-linked entities, including China Telecom, Pacific Networks and ComNet, from U.S. markets.

On Friday, the FCC announced that the major U.S. online retail websites had removed millions of listings for banned Chinese electronics as part of its broader China crackdown.

Caught in U.S.-China trade tensions

PCCW is majority-owned by Hong Kong tycoon Richard Li, son of billionaire Li Ka-shing, who has increasingly found his businesses caught in the crossfire of the U.S.-China trade tensions.

FWD Group, owned by Li’s Pacific Century Group, recently faced hurdles expanding into mainland China amid backlash from regulators in China, Bloomberg reported in July.

In March, Beijing reportedly instructed state-owned firms to pause new deals with businesses linked to Li Ka-shing and his family after their conglomerate CK Hutchison agreed to transfer stakes in over 40 global ports — including two in Panama — to a BlackRock-led consortium. 

The ports deal stalled after Beijing objected to the exclusion of Chinese investors, with CK Hutchison indicating it no longer plans to comeplete the transaction in 2025.

The FCC’s latest move against HKT also comes as U.S. President Donald Trump escalates his trade war with China.

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Thirsty AI mega projects raise alarm in some of Europe’s driest regions

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Thirsty AI mega projects raise alarm in some of Europe’s driest regions

Liquid cooled servers in an installation at the Global Switch Docklands data centre campus in London, UK, on Monday, June 16, 2025.

Bloomberg | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Europe’s ambitious artificial intelligence strategy is at risk of colliding with an often overlooked but critically important environmental issue: water scarcity.

The European Union has big plans for data center expansion, announcing in April that it intends to at least triple its capacity over the next five to seven years as part of a push to become a world-class AI hub.

The rapid rollout of data centers, which power all aspects of the digital economy, from social media and online banking to AI tools like ChatGPT, has sparked some concern — particularly in regions already facing water scarcity.

The issue is especially acute across southern Europe, with around 30% of the population known to be situated in areas with permanent water stress. This refers to a situation where the demand for water exceeds the available supply during a specific period.

Data centers typically require large quantities of water to keep them from overheating.

Major tech companies like Amazon, Microsoft and Meta have invested billions of U.S. dollars in new facilities in Spain, for instance, while Google has plans to develop three hubs in Greece’s Attica region.

There's a water crisis looming. Big Tech and AI could make it worse

Kevin Grecksch, associate professor of water science, policy and management at the U.K.’s University of Oxford, told CNBC that plans to build data centers in water-stressed areas across Europe reflects a lack of integrated thinking from policymakers.

“AI is a buzzword and the talk of the town,” Grecksch said. “So, national and regional politicians try to get their hands on it, and it sounds as if you’re investing into the future, creating a few new jobs — but sustainability seems to be an afterthought.”

Grecksch said the rapid rollout of data centers across the region throws up plenty of unanswered questions, such as, given that in most jurisdictions public water supply has priority over everything else, what happens if data centers are shut down in a drought scenario? He conceded he had no answer to this prospect.

“Data centres tend to be built in arid or semi-arid climates because that’s the preferred environment for servers; yet those areas tend to be subject to water scarcity or drought prone as well,” Grecksch said.

A spokesperson for the European Commission, the EU’s executive arm, said policies of the European High Performance Computing Joint Initiative (EuroHPC JU) include selecting hosting sites for AI factories based on criteria that prioritizes energy efficiency and environmental sustainability.

“Green computing will continue to be pursued through energy-efficient supercomputers optimised for AI, using techniques such as dynamic power saving and re-use techniques like advanced cooling and recycling of the heat produced,” the spokesperson told CNBC by email.

The EU referenced the new “JUPITER” supercomputer in Jülich, Germany, as “a prime example of European excellence” in addressing energy efficiency, saying the system runs entirely on renewable energy and features “cutting-edge” cooling and energy reuse.

Data centers’ water footprint

In Aragon, an area of severe water stress in northeastern Spain, Amazon is planning to open three data centers. The proposal, which the U.S. tech giant says will create thousands of jobs, has sparked tension between local farmers and environmental activists.

In the U.K., the small English village of Culham has been picked as the first of the British government’s so-called AI “growth zones.” The designation of the Oxfordshire site, which is situated close to one of the country’s first new reservoirs in 30 years, has raised fears that it could put further pressure on local water supplies.

Nick Kraft, senior analyst at political risk consultancy Eurasia Group, said “extremely arid” and high-water stress localities were being targeted across Europe for further data center development.

“Complicating the matter is the fact that the most common understanding of data center water usage, and typically what companies report on when communicating with local stakeholders, is on-site water use — or the water used for cooling in data centers,” Kraft told CNBC by email.

This photograph taken on August 24, 2025 shows a general view of the Mediano reservoir, in the northeastern region of Aragon, Huesca province.

Ander Gillenea | Afp | Getty Images

“This despite more than half of data centers’ water footprint being off-site, occurring in energy generation and semiconductor manufacturing,” he added.

There are emerging signs that data center operators are maturing in their water stewardship, Kraft said, but assessing the full water footprint of these projects is expected to remain a major challenge.

Analysis published by S&P Global last month said the data center industry’s average exposure to water stress is projected to be high in the 2020s, with southern European countries such as Spain and Greece among the locations forecast to face the most water stress.

Data centers power the digital economy

Michael Winterson, secretary general of the European Data Centre Association (EUDCA), which represents the interests of the European data center operator community, said water consumption is a concern that the industry takes seriously.

“Water treatment and collection is now normal for us. And there are continual innovations in this space that reduce energy required, reduce water needed and are fast approaching near zero chemical treatment,” Winterson told CNBC.

An operator works at the data centre of French company OVHcloud in Roubaix, northern France on April 3, 2025.

Sameer Al-doumy | Afp | Getty Images

The EUDC’s secretary general also sought to highlight the importance of data centers to the region’s digital economy.

“This is trillions of dollars of GDP and millions of technology jobs in Europe alone — which in average pay significantly higher salaries than national average wages. A 20 [megawatt] Datacentre uses the similar amount of water as a golf course! How much GDP do golf courses create? What kind of jobs?” Winterson said.

A deepening water crisis

European lawmakers have previously warned about the region’s growing water crisis, saying there is a pressing need to tackle issues such as scarcity, food security and pollution at a time when Europe is the fastest-warming continent on the planet.

The European Environment Agency, for its part, said late last month that the region’s water resources are currently under “severe pressure,” with water stress affecting one-third of Europe’s population and territory.

When factoring in the explosion of AI demand, Laura Ramsamy, climate and hazard lead at data analytics platform Climate X, said the rollout of new hyperscale data centers in already water-stressed European areas “is really exacerbating the problem.”

Europe's power infrastructure needs to keep pace with AI boom

In the Netherlands in 2022, for instance, Meta paused its plans to build a large data center in the region of Zeewolde amid objections over environmental concerns, particularly high power and water consumption.

Ireland, which has long embraced the rollout of data centers to facilitate an AI boom, also recently came under scrutiny from environmental groups, with many of these hubs concentrated in the Dublin area.

Notably, the Netherlands and Ireland have both imposed effective bans on new data centers over the coming years due to concerns over grid capacity and their environmental impact.

A spokesperson of Ireland’s Department of Climate, Energy and the Environment said the construction and operation of data centers have “positively contributed” to the Irish economy over the past decade.

“As with all sectors of our economy, the operation and development of data centres are underpinned by Ireland’s legally binding climate objectives and the need to maintain robust energy security,” the spokesperson said.

“It is understood that the largest data centres in Ireland primarily operate air cooling rather than water cooling systems. This differentiates Ireland from many global data centre locations,” they added.

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