Global hyperscale data center bookings will be up sharply in 2020, said Wells Fargo’s Eric Luebchow in a Wednesday note to investors. Hyperscalers, including Microsoft, AWS, Facebook and Google, “are taking down meaningful capacity in the U.S. and Europe and shifting more toward third-party leasing given the demand spikes on their platforms,” he said, noting Northern Virginia leased more capacity this year than in all of 2019. “While several private operators have won significant new hyperscale deployments, we think the broad increase in activity will benefit the operators that have these hyperscalers as existing customers,” Luebchow said: “Pricing in competitive U.S. markets remains at or near historic lows, but appears to have stabilized.”

Apple’s announcement this week it's moving away from Intel microprocessors in Mac computers by year-end, switching to its own processors used in the iPhone and iPad (see report, June 23), could be part of a larger shift in information technology leadership, blogged Bret Swanson, American Enterprise Institute visiting fellow. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp. -- the largest contract manufacturer of chips for “fabless” semiconductor firms, such as Apple, Amazon, Qualcomm and Nvidia -- announced plans to build a $12 billion chip fab in Arizona, which could help alleviate a supply-chain worry: overdependence on Taiwan for chip manufacturing, Swanson said Wednesday. Though the U.S. is home to tech firms that design 65% of the world’s fabless chip volume, it has 10% of worldwide foundry capacity for manufacturing, he said. TSMC was first to reach the 7 nanometer process threshold, while Intel’s similar effort is reportedly delayed. Intel has an additional challenge: Apple and Amazon are using the alternative ARM architecture, not Intel’s x86, the dominant desktop and server architecture since the late 1970s, Swanson noted. TSMC’s Arizona investment provides not only “supply-chain resilience but also an overall boost to America’s bleeding-edge info-tech leadership,” he said. An Intel spokesperson emailed Wednesday that its 7-nanometer process "remains on track" with first products due by the end of 2021. On Apple's decision to move to its own processors, she said: "Apple is a customer across several areas of business, and we will continue to support them. Intel remains focused on delivering the most advanced PC experiences and a wide range of technology choices that redefine computing. We believe Intel-powered PCs -- like those based on our forthcoming Tiger Lake mobile platform -- provide global customers the best experience in the areas they value most, as well as the most open platform for developers, both today and into the future."

The EU general data protection regulation is generally a success but needs more work, European Values and Transparency Commissioner Vera Jourova said at a Wednesday briefing. The European Commission's two-year assessment found that fears the privacy framework would be "the end of the world" didn't materialize, she said. Seventy percent of Europeans have heard of the regulation but more awareness is needed, she said. The review found the EC approach was correct, with more companies using privacy by design as a competitive advantage, and the one-continent, one-law philosophy enabling more businesses, particularly small and mid-sized ones, to operate in Europe's single market. It included a "serious to-do list," Jourova noted. One key issue is the resources available to national data protection authorities (DPAs). There was a 42% increase in staff and a 49% hike in budgets between 2016 and 2019, but the European Data Protection Board (EDPB) and DPAs must boost cooperation to provide a pan-EU data protection culture, Jourova said. The EC is monitoring DPA resources, said Justice Commissioner Didier Reynders. It's possible some national authorities, such as Ireland and Luxembourg, that handle complex cases involving big tech companies might need more capacity and cross-border cooperation, he said. "Consistent and efficient enforcement of the GDPR remains a priority," said European Data Protection Supervisor Wojciech Wiewiorowski. He proposed creating a shared pool of experts in the EDPB to help DPAs in complex and resource-heavy cases. The EC review was "thorough but critical," said Computer and Communications Industry Association Europe Senior Policy Manager Alex Roure: Two years after becoming law, companies and consumers still "lack clear guidance from enforcers which too often take diverging, national actions." The GDPR "has failed to live up to its promise," proving to be a "complicated, burdensome drain on Europe's digital economy," said Center for Data Innovation Senior Policy Analyst Eline Chivot. The review shines an "unflattering lights" on many shortcomings, yet the EC "seems determined to double down by layering on even more rules."

Pass the Justice in Policing Act, which rejects “qualified immunity" for police, nearly 700 artists, actors, musicians, and music and entertainment groups asked House leaders Tuesday. RIAA, Motion Picture Association, Spotify, the Songwriters Guild of America, Elon Musk and the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers signed.

Deutsche Telekom will launch an IoT unit, the “world's first open platform” for the IoT combining “connectivity, devices, cloud services and solutions for data analysis,” DT said Monday.

Authorities seized CityXGuide.com over sex trafficking allegations and charged its owner in a 28-count federal indictment, DOJ said Friday. The announcement described the website as a successor to Backpage.com (see 1909200052). Wilhan Martono, owner of CityXGuide.com, was indicted June 2 on various charges of facilitation of prostitution, sex trafficking, interstate transportation and money laundering. The website was seized by the Department of Homeland Security. “Like the owners of Backpage, this defendant made millions facilitating the online exploitation of women and children,” U.S. Attorney Erin Nealy Cox said. Martono faces up to 25 years in federal prison. Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, welcomed the announcement, saying the Stop Enabling Sex Traffickers-Allow States and Victims to Fight Online Sex Trafficking (SESTA-FOSTA) acts made the indictment possible “by clarifying that it is illegal to knowingly facilitate sex trafficking.” CityXGuide.com didn’t comment.

NTIA will hold a virtual meeting on the multistakeholder process for promoting software component transparency (see 1904010057) at noon EDT July 9, said Thursday’s Federal Register.

Facebook removed some of President Donald Trump’s campaign posts and ads for violating the company’s policy against organized hate, a campaign spokesperson confirmed Thursday: The antifa-related ad included an inverted red triangle, similar to one once used by Nazis to designate political prisoners. “Facebook still has an inverted red triangle emoji in use, which looks exactly the same, so it’s curious that they would target only this ad,” the spokesperson said. “It is ironic that it took a Trump ad to force the media to implicitly concede that antifa is a hate group.” The company didn’t comment.

Target CEO Brian Cornell said George Floyd could have been one of his retail employees, speaking on a Thursday National Retail Federation Leadership Series webinar. That was the executive's initial reaction to Floyd's death while under police arrest in Minneapolis, near the company's headquarters. The second reaction was to focus on safety as protests and rioting broke out after video of the killing spread on social media, Cornell said. Management reached out to African-American employees, an effort he began with a Zoom meeting with black officers, followed by another led by Target’s African-American business council that was attended by over 7,000. Cornell cited stories of store leaders that are pulled over by police routinely "for simply being black" as they're driving between stores, jogging or looking for a new home after relocating. The consensus was, "It’s enough. We have to drive change,” he said. The company set up a racial equality task force to determine "the right steps to take." Experts want more action: 2006160038. On business during COVID-19, Cornell said "millions and millions” of Americans learned to shop online during the pandemic. Target had 5 million new online users in Q1 and did $3 billion in sales. The five-year vision of retail’s future has been pulled forward “within a few months,” with new shopping methods accelerated in response to sheltering in place, said NRF CEO Matthew Shay.

Defund “police surveillance technology” used to “spy” on minorities and protesters, more than 100 advocacy groups wrote House leaders Wednesday. The American Civil Liberties Union, Color of Change, Free Press and Center for Democracy & Technology signed, urging barring federal funding of “unwarranted mass-surveillance programs” like those enabled by the Patriot Act: “Congress has failed to take sufficient action to prevent increased surveillance.”