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Texas governor bars state employees from using Shein, Alibaba products

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Texas Governor Greg Abbott has ordered a ban on state employees using products from several Chinese-owned companies, including Shein, Alibaba and TP-Link, citing concerns over data security and the privacy of Texans. The restriction applies to state-owned devices and networks and covers physical hardware, software and artificial intelligence tools.

The list of prohibited companies also includes online shopping platform Temu, battery maker CATL, Chinese drone manufacturer Autel and artificial intelligence firm iFlyTek. Abbott said the move was aimed at preventing potential access by the Chinese government to sensitive data handled by Texas state agencies.

The decision follows a broader trend among U.S. state and federal officials to limit the use of technology linked to China on security grounds. While Texas has taken a firm stance, the move comes as Washington and Beijing reached a temporary easing of tensions last October after years of trade and technology disputes.

Abbott’s order reflects ongoing concerns about foreign technology in government systems and adds Texas to a growing list of U.S. jurisdictions imposing restrictions on Chinese-linked products in the name of cybersecurity and national security.

Taiwan’s GlobalWafers Prepares Phase Two Expansion at Texas Plant

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Taiwanese silicon wafer maker GlobalWafers is preparing for a second-phase expansion of its Texas manufacturing plant, pending customer commitments, chairperson Doris Hsu said on Wednesday.

The company opened a $3.5 billion facility in Texas last year and later announced plans to invest an additional $4 billion in the United States to meet rising demand. The site is GlobalWafers’ most advanced fully integrated 300mm silicon wafer plant and is currently the only advanced wafer manufacturing facility of its kind in the U.S.

Hsu said customers have begun asking about further capacity increases, noting that the first phase serves multiple clients and may not be sufficient. GlobalWafers is moving ahead with factory design work to shorten timelines once commitments are finalized.

GlobalWafers supplies TSMC, which is investing heavily in U.S. chip production. The expansion aligns with a recent U.S.-Taiwan trade deal aimed at strengthening local semiconductor supply chains.

OpenAI and SoftBank Invest $1 Billion in SB Energy to Expand Stargate Data Center Buildout

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OpenAI and SoftBank Group will jointly invest $1 billion in SB Energy, committing $500 million each to accelerate the expansion of data center and power infrastructure for their Stargate initiative, SB Energy said on Friday.

SB Energy, which is owned by SoftBank, will build and operate OpenAI’s previously announced 1.2-gigawatt data center campus in Milam County, Texas. The facility is a key component of Stargate, a massive, multi-year plan to scale artificial intelligence training and inference capacity in the United States.

As part of the partnership, SB Energy will also become a customer of OpenAI, using its application programming interfaces and deploying ChatGPT internally for employees.

Stargate is a $500 billion initiative backed by major investors including Oracle, and was publicly endorsed by Donald Trump when the plan was unveiled in January 2025. The project reflects the scale at which leading AI developers are now operating as they race to secure computing power.

The deal highlights a broader industry shift in which technology companies are investing directly in energy and power infrastructure. Access to reliable electricity has become a critical bottleneck for AI expansion, as larger and more numerous data centers sharply increase power demand.

SB Energy said it is developing several data center campuses, with initial facilities expected to begin service later this year. “The partnership accelerates our delivery of advanced AI data center campuses and associated energy infrastructure at the scale required to advance Stargate and secure America’s AI future,” said SB Energy co-CEO Rich Hossfeld.

The data center construction boom has also driven rivals to commit unprecedented sums to infrastructure. Meta Platforms and other Big Tech firms have announced multi-billion-dollar investments spanning chips, cooling systems, servers and power generation.

At the same time, OpenAI is facing rapidly rising costs to train and operate its AI models amid intensifying competition from Alphabet’s Google. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman told employees late last year that the company had entered a “code red” phase, prioritising improvements to ChatGPT while delaying other product launches to counter Google’s Gemini gaining traction.