Technology Sector

OpenAI head of data centers Chris Malone left the company last week amid a broader executive exodus and an internal infrastructure reorganization. Malone joined the lab in March 2025 after engineering stints at Meta and Google, stepping in shortly after the announcement of the Stargate Project. OpenAI recently reorganized its infrastructure unit, shifting Malone's reporting line to Vice President Sachin Katti while other leaders took over day-to-day data center build and engineering programs. The departure adds to a string of more than a dozen high-profile exits this year, including Chief Operating Officer Brad Lightcap, Chief Revenue Officer Denise Dresser, and product and business chief Fidji Simo. These departures coincide with the company working toward an initial public offering slated for 2027 while scaling up infrastructure spending targets to between $600 billion and $750 billion through 2030.

SpaceX is investing $100 billion to build a second Starship spaceport in Vermilion Parish, Louisiana, concluding a seven-year search for a new launch location. The 125,000-acre site on Pecan Island will serve as the primary launch facility for SpaceX's Starship rocket and support thousands of annual launches for its Starlink and AI satellite networks. Construction is scheduled to begin in 2027, with initial launches targeted for 2029, though state officials project operations to begin in 2030. The project is expected to create 3,000 direct new jobs over ten years alongside up to 30,000 peak construction positions. SpaceX plans to develop the area into a self-sustaining facility featuring propellant production, power generation, vehicle processing, and an airport, while partnering with state agencies on coastal restoration and erosion protection.

LayerZero has launched ATLAS, a headless trading engine designed to let institutions and fintech platforms operate onchain markets without building exchange infrastructure from scratch. The system combines matching, clearing, settlement, and risk management into a single stack built on Zero, a Layer-1 blockchain backed by firms including Citadel Securities, the DTCC, and the Intercontinental Exchange. ATLAS features a headless design with no consumer-facing frontend, allowing external trading venues to supply the user interface while routing orders through the underlying engine. The platform targets sub-millisecond median latency, with testing showing 1.418 milliseconds at the 95th percentile and 2.641 milliseconds at the 99th percentile, alongside a planned capacity of 200,000 transactions per second. Trading venues using the infrastructure can stake LayerZero's native token, ZRO, to qualify for fee rebates ranging from 20% to 65%. After rebates, 25% of the remaining economics goes to the market creator, while 75% is allocated to buying and burning ZRO. ZRO surged between 20% and 30% following the announcement.