Welcome to the September 19, 2025 edition of ACM TechNews, providing timely information for computer professionals three times a week.

HEADLINES AT A GLANCE

• U.K., U.S. Agree to $42-Billion Tech Pact
• House Committee Summons CEOs of Discord, Twitch, Reddit to Testify on Online Radicalization
• Nvidia to Buy $5-Billion Stake in Rival Intel
• DDR5 Memory Vulnerable to New Rowhammer Attack
• Microsoft to Open Quantum Research Center in Maryland
• Brazil Launches Proposals to Attract Datacenters, Regulate Digital Competition
• DeepMind, OpenAI Achieve Gold at ‘Coding Olympics’
• NIST Awards More Than $3 Million to Support Cybersecurity Workforce Development
• CRISPR-GPT Helps Scientists Plan Gene-Editing Experiments
• Simulating the Universe on a Laptop
• Scientists Call for Global Alliance for Biodiversity in U.N. Pact for the Future
• Shipping Industry Enlists AI to Tackle Cargo Fires
• Volunteers Helped Train Satellites to Health-Check the Chesapeake

U.K., U.S. Agree to $42-Billion Tech Pact

The U.K. and U.S. signed a “Tech Prosperity Deal” during President Trump’s state visit, securing $42 billion in U.S. tech investment. Prime Minister Keir Starmer said the pact would boost growth, scientific research, and energy security through cooperation in AI, quantum computing, and civil nuclear projects. Microsoft will invest £22 billion to expand cloud and AI infrastructure, including Britain’s largest AI supercomputer, while Nvidia pledged 120,000 GPUs in its biggest European rollout.
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House Committee Summons CEOs of Discord, Twitch, Reddit to Testify on Online Radicalization

The U.S. House Oversight Committee has summoned the CEOs of Discord, Twitch, Reddit, and Steam to testify on Oct. 8 regarding their platforms’ role in online radicalization and politically motivated violence. Committee Chair Rep. James Comer cited the recent murder of conservative activist Charlie Kirk as a key concern, arguing Congress must hold platforms accountable. The suspect being held in Kirk’s killing, Tyler Robinson, allegedly confessed to it on Discord.
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Nvidia to Buy $5-Billion Stake in Rival Intel

Nvidia announced it will buy a $5-billion stake in Intel, worth about 4% of the company. The investment, which follows the Trump administration’s agreement last month to buy a 10% stake in Intel, comes alongside plans for the companies to collaborate on chips for personal computers and datacenters that combine Intel’s central processing units with Nvidia’s graphics processing units.
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DDR5 Memory Vulnerable to New Rowhammer Attack

A new Rowhammer-style exploit discovered by researchers at Google and ETH Zurich in Switzerland can corrupt data in DDR5 memory modules and expose sensitive information. The team found the Phoenix exploit against SK Hynix DDR5 using tools Google developed to test susceptibility, noting many DDR5 systems have not implemented JEDEC’s Per-Row Activation Counting defenses. ETH said it disclosed findings to vendors and cloud providers in June.
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Microsoft to Open Quantum Research Center in Maryland

Microsoft plans to open a quantum research center in the University of Maryland’s Discovery District in College Park, part of a broader effort to position Maryland as a leader in quantum science. The project, a partnership between Microsoft, the state, and the University of Maryland Enterprise Corporation, will provide researchers early access to Microsoft’s quantum technology and foster collaborations with government, academia, and private firms. Governor Wes Moore said the initiative builds on Maryland’s $1-billion quantum investment package.
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Brazil Launches Proposals to Attract Datacenters, Regulate Digital Competition

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva signed an executive order and proposed a bill to boost datacenter investment and regulate digital competition. The executive order exempts federal taxes on IT-related capital expenditures such as servers and cooling equipment, aiming to attract datacenter projects. Separately, the proposed bill seeks to create specific procedures for Brazil’s antitrust regulator, CADE, when reviewing tech companies with “systemic relevance,” and to establish a dedicated digital markets division.
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DeepMind, OpenAI Achieve Gold at ‘Coding Olympics’

AI systems from Google DeepMind and OpenAI performed at a “gold-medal level” in the International Collegiate Programming Contest (ICPC) earlier this month. OpenAI’s GPT-5 solved all 12 tasks, placing ahead of human teams, while DeepMind’s Gemini 2.5 Deep Think ranked second and solved a problem no human team did.
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NIST Awards More Than $3 Million to Support Cybersecurity Workforce Development

The U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has awarded over $3.3 million to support cybersecurity workforce development in 13 states. Seventeen cooperative agreements of roughly $200,000 each will fund educational and community organizations to address the nation’s cybersecurity talent shortage. Initiatives include curricula development, internships, apprenticeships, workshops, competitions, and hackathons.
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CRISPR-GPT Helps Scientists Plan Gene-Editing Experiments

Stanford Medicine researchers developed an AI-powered “copilot” that streamlines gene-editing experiments. Built on the CRISPR platform, CRISPR-GPT automates experimental design, predicts off-target effects, and troubleshoots errors. Trained on more than a decade of published data and expert discussions, CRISPR-GPT offers personalized guidance through a simple chat interface.
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Simulating the Universe on a Laptop

Researchers led by Marco Bonici at Canada’s University of Waterloo developed an emulator that lets researchers simulate the universe on an ordinary laptop. Previously, modeling the large-scale structure of galaxies and dark matter required supercomputers and lots of time, but the Effort.jl emulator can complete such tasks in minutes. Built on a neural network, the tool “learns” model responses and integrates known physics to cut training time.
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Scientists Call for Global Alliance for Biodiversity in U.N. Pact for the Future

A new white paper from Europe’s biodiversity and data science communities calls for biodiversity to become a core pillar of the U.N. Pact for the Future. The paper highlights the need for a global alliance uniting researchers, policymakers, civil society, and industry, supported by advanced infrastructures like digital twins and genomic observatories. ACM is among contributing organizations, as it brings expertise in computing and AI to biodiversity research and policy.
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Shipping Industry Enlists AI to Tackle Cargo Fires

The global shipping industry is starting to use AI to reduce deadly fires at sea, which reached a decade-high level in 2024 due to cargoes containing batteries and other flammable materials. The World Shipping Council said misdeclared hazardous goods, often underreported to avoid fees, were the main cause. Its new AI tool scans millions of bookings in real time, flagging risks for inspection.
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Volunteers Helped Train Satellites to Health-Check the Chesapeake

Chesapeake Water Watch, a collaboration between the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center, City College of New York, and NASA, used data collected by over 230 volunteers to improve satellite monitoring of Chesapeake Bay’s coastal waters. Satellites often misread indicators like algae blooms and dissolved organic matter, but volunteer input enabled greater accuracy. Chesapeake Water Watch’s Ray Terracina said she hopes the program can serve as a model for similar waterways in other countries.
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