Oregon sets AI safety standards for what the state buys, and orders a look at a 'kill switch' for frontier AI
The AI stack on 23 September 2026. 7 moves, 7 with a primary source.
Oregon sets AI safety standards for what the state buys, and orders a look at a 'kill switch' for frontier AI
· Band Rules and society · Executive Order 26-26; implementation proposal due within 90 days · Confirmed
Oregon Governor Tina Kotek signed Executive Order 26-26 on 23 September. It sets out safeguards for how state government buys and uses frontier AI models, the most powerful ones. It directs the state's chief information officer to write standards for adequate third-party review of AI safety, and orders the state to assess whether a "kill switch" requirement for frontier AI models is workable. The order takes effect immediately. Within 90 days the chief information officer must send the governor a proposal for putting it into practice. The order governs the state's own buying and use of AI rather than setting rules for AI companies.
A research firm's test of 77 AI clouds puts Nebius beside CoreWeave at the top, and moves Microsoft Azure to Silver
· L3 Iron and cloud · 77 providers tested; 19 earned a Medallion rating; 15 in a new lower tier · Confirmed
SemiAnalysis, a research firm, has published the third edition of its ClusterMAX ratings of companies that rent out AI computing, covering 77 providers. It puts Nebius alongside CoreWeave in its top tier, Platinum, and adds Google Cloud to Gold beside Oracle. Microsoft Azure moves to Silver and Crusoe drops to Bronze. SemiAnalysis says it raised its bar this round, so only 19 providers earned what it calls a Medallion rating, and it created a new Participation Ribbon tier below Bronze for 15 providers it says "do the bare minimum to get by." The ratings are the firm's own judgement, built from its tests of reliability, performance, support, pricing and security, and from interviews with more than 200 users.
OpenAI says ChatGPT Ads reached a $1 billion annualised revenue run rate less than 200 days after launch, and is expanding to Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam and Taiwan, which brings it to more than 60 countries. A run rate multiplies recent revenue out to a full year; it is not a year of sales. For ChatGPT users in those seven places, it means businesses can now advertise to them there.
UK regulator proposes letting people choose an AI assistant as their search service on Android and Chrome choice screens
· Band Rules and society · proposal; views by 9 Oct; decision expected by year end · Confirmed
The UK's Competition and Markets Authority has updated its proposals for the screens where people using Android phones or Chrome choose a search service, so that AI assistants can be included when they meet criteria that include technical and security requirements. It also wants providers on those screens to attribute content clearly and accurately. It is taking views until 9 October and expects to decide by the end of the year. For people in the UK, it could mean picking an AI assistant as their default way to search.
A nuclear and gas developer goes public with 5 gigawatts of Louisiana projects, two beside planned data centres
· L1 Power and land · 5 GW portfolio; up to 1 GW nuclear; 2.88 GW and 1.2 GW gas · Confirmed
ONE Nuclear Energy closed its merger with Hennessy Capital Investment Corp. VII, a company listed on the stock market in order to buy another, on 23 September, and its shares were expected to start trading on Nasdaq under the ticker ONEN on or about 24 September. It brings a Louisiana portfolio it puts at 5 gigawatts: Project Amberjack, a campus of small modular nuclear reactors targeting up to 1 gigawatt; Project Cayman, a 2.88-gigawatt gas plant with a large battery and a data-centre campus on the same site; and Project Barracuda, a 1.2-gigawatt gas plant with a battery and a 1-gigawatt data centre beside it. All three are in development. The company says going public gives it the money to move them forward, including for AI and data-centre customers, and it names none of those customers.
Maryland will review every data centre of 25 megawatts or more that asks the state for a permit or incentive
· L1 Power and land · 25 MW and up; one state review; monthly public dashboard; tax break repeal sought · Confirmed
Maryland Governor Wes Moore signed an executive order on 23 September that, in his office's words, creates one standard, one review process and one public record for every large data centre of 25 megawatts or more proposed in Maryland, as soon as it seeks any state action, including a permit, an incentive or a letter of support. The order sets up a Maryland Data Center Task Force, with members from the Maryland Energy Administration and six state departments. Each project is judged on five principles: ratepayer and grid protection, economic benefits for Marylanders, community voice, environmental protections, and transparency and accountability. It then gets a written, public determination from the task force: Aligned, Conditionally Aligned or Not Aligned. A public Data Center Dashboard, updated monthly, serves as the state's record of data-centre development. Moore also said he will work with the General Assembly in the upcoming legislative session to repeal the data-centre sales and use tax exemption, originally enacted in 2020.
Thinking Machines Lab signs a $65 million-a-year deal to run its open models on Crusoe's cloud
· L3 Iron and cloud · $65m a year; Crusoe's inference business past $100m contracted ARR · Confirmed
Crusoe, a GPU cloud company, and Thinking Machines Lab announced on 23 September a $65 million annual agreement for Crusoe to run the lab's open models, including its Inkling models, for its production workloads. The work runs on a dedicated deployment of Nvidia HGX B200 systems that Crusoe operates and supports. This is inference, the computing that happens every time someone uses an AI model, as opposed to training it. Crusoe says the deal takes its managed inference business past $100 million of contracted annual recurring revenue less than a year after launch.