By MICHELLE CHAPMAN

Microsoft has entered into a $9.7 billion cloud services contract with artificial intelligence cloud service provider IREN that will give it access to some of Nvidia’s chips.

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The five-year deal, which includes a 20% prepayment, will help Microsoft as it looks to keep up with AI demand. Last week the software maker reported its quarterly sales grew 18% to $77.7 billion, beating Wall Street expectations while also surprising some investors with the huge amounts of money it is spending to expand its cloud computing infrastructure and address the growing need for AI tools.

Microsoft spent nearly $35 billion in the July-September quarter on capital expenditures to support AI and cloud demand, nearly half of that on computer chips and much of the rest related to data center real estate.

“IREN’s expertise in building and operating a fully integrated AI cloud — from data centers to GPU stack — combined with their secured power capacity makes them a strategic partner,” Jonathan Tinter, president of business development and ventures at Microsoft, said in a statement. “This collaboration unlocks new growth opportunities for both companies and the customers we serve.”

Microsoft also announced new deal with OpenAI last week that pushed the Redmond, Washington, company to $4 trillion in valuation for the second time this year. The agreement gives the software giant a roughly 27% stake in OpenAI’s new for-profit corporation but changes some of the details of their close partnership. Microsoft’s $135 billion stake will be just ahead of the OpenAI nonprofit’s $130 billion stake in the for-profit company.

IREN also said Monday that it signed a deal with Dell Technologies to buy the chips and ancillary equipment for about $5.8 billion. The Australian company anticipates the chips being deployed in phases through next year at its Childress, Texas campus.

Shares of IREN jumped 22% before the opening bell in the U.S. Shares of Microsoft rose slightly,.

By SAMUEL PETREQUIN

PARIS (AP) — French authorities have warned they may block access to Shein after it emerged that the online fast fashion giant had been selling sex dolls with a childlike appearance.

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France’s consumer watchdog, the Directorate General for Competition, Consumer Affairs and Fraud Control, said last week it had discovered the dolls on Shein’s website, noting that their descriptions and categorization left little doubt as to their child-pornographic nature.

The agency has referred the case to public prosecutors, and Economy Minister Roland Lescure said on Monday he would seek to ban Shein from the French market if such incidents were to occur again.

“This is provided for by law,” he said. “In cases involving terrorism, drug trafficking, or child pornographic materials, the government has the right to request that access to the French market be prohibited,” Lescure told BFM TV.

The law authorizes French authorities to order online platforms to remove clearly illegal content such as child pornography within 24 hours. If they fail to comply, authorities can require internet service providers and search engines to block access and delist the site.

The watchdog said it has issued a formal notice urging the platform to take urgent corrective measures.

Shein said in a statement that it has banned all sex-doll products, and temporarily removed its adult products category for review. It added that it has launched an investigation to determine how these listings bypassed its screening measures.

“The fight against child exploitation is non-negotiable for Shein,” said Executive Chairman Donald Tang said in the statement. “These were marketplace listings from third-party sellers, but I take this personally. Trust is our foundation, and we will not allow anything that violates it.”

He noted that every related product has been removed and that “We are tracing the source and will take swift, decisive action against those responsible.”

Meanwhile, a parliamentary fact-finding mission on the inspection of products imported into France announced it will summon Shein officials for questioning.

“No economic actor can consider themselves above the law. A retailer who sold such an item would have had their store immediately closed by a prefectoral order. Shein must provide an explanation,” said the mission rapporteur, Antoine Vermorel-Marques.

Under French law, the distribution via electronic communication networks of child-pornographic materials is punishable by up to seven years in prison and a 100,000 euro ($115,000) fine.

The watchdog also noted that Shein sells other pornographic products including adultlike sex dolls without effective age-filtering measures to prevent “minors or sensitive audiences from accessing such pornographic content.”

Shein was founded in China in 2012, and the low-cost online retailer is now based in Singapore. Reaching customers mainly through its app, it has enjoyed a meteoric rise to become a global leader in fast fashion, shipping to 150 countries. The company has faced criticism over its labor practices and environmental record.

Lescure’s comments came just days before Shein is due to open its first permanent physical store in Paris, located inside the BHV Marais department store in the heart of the French capital city. The opening has sparked controversy, with an online petition protesting Shein’s arrival gathering more than 100,000 signatures.

Frederic Merlin, president of Societe des Grands Magasins, which owns BHV, called the sale of the dolls on Shein’s platform “indecent” and “unacceptable,” adding that “no product from Shein’s international marketplace” will be sold at the department store.

Meanwhile, the child-protection NGO Mouv’Enfants staged a protest at BHV. “As long as these dolls are available somewhere in the world, the company will remain an accomplice to a system that enables sex crimes against children,” co-founder Arnaud Gallais said.

By MIKE CATALINI, ADRIANA GOMEZ LICON and OLIVIA DIAZ

TOTOWA, N.J. (AP) — New Jersey Republicans are trying to ride the coattails of Donald Trump’s 2024 electoral momentum, with gubernatorial candidate Jack Ciattarelli courting voters in a key — and traditionally Democratic — stronghold that contributed to the president’s gains in the state.

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Ciattarelli and Virginia candidate Winsome Earle-Sears are crisscrossing their respective states, while Trump is expected to speak at telephone rallies with voters later Monday. This comes after their opponents, U.S. Rep. Mikie Sherrill and Abigail Spanberger, campaigned over the weekend alongside former President Barack Obama.

It’s a delicate balance for Republicans, who want to catch some of Trump’s electoral energy by drawing infrequently voting conservatives to the polls while not dismissing concerns about increasing costs. Democrats are urging voters to see the off-year election as a referendum on Trump’s economic policies and his efforts to expand his power.

Ciattarelli paid a visit to a crowded Irish bar in Passaic County, one of the traditionally blue areas that highlighted Trump’s strength in 2024. It’s also a county where the Department of Justice is set to send poll watchers.

At the bar, a reporter pointed out the president’s absence on the campaign trail and asked Ciattarelli: Is Trump a “liability” to him? The candidate was also asked to respond to attacks from his opponent that he would not stand up to the Republican president.

“New Jerseyans know who I am. I will fiercely defend the 9 million citizens of this state every day,” Ciattarelli said.

The stop featured a surprise appearance of the candidate’s son, Army Capt. Jake Ciattarelli, who flew in from Kuwait and showed up in uniform. Defense Department regulations impose broad restrictions on troops participating in partisan activity, especially in uniform, in an effort to maintain the military’s historically apolitical role in American society.

Sherrill, the Democratic opponent, spoke in Morristown, where her first campaign for Congress in 2018 got its start. She tried to cast the contest in New Jersey in clear national terms.

“It’s going to be up to the next governor to take on the federal administration to claw back as much money as possible and have them in court if they refuse to run programs that they should be running for the people of New Jersey,” Sherrill said. She has seized on the Trump administration’s decision to abruptly freeze funding for a project on the Hudson River to replace the aging rail tunnels that connect New Jersey to New York City.

In Virginia, the Democratic National Committee chair, Ken Martin, was knocking on doors for Spanberger and other Democrats. He said he felt confident that Democrats’ focus on affordability would pay off on Tuesday.

Republican gubernatorial candidate and current Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears resides over the Virginia Senate during a special legislative session, Wednesday, Oct. 29, 2025, Richmond, Va. (Mike Kropf/Richmond Times-Dispatch via AP)

Martin said he felt the diverse array of candidates, from Spanberger and Sherrill to Zohran Mamdani, New York City mayoral candidate, did well because they put the economy at the forefront of their campaigns.

“People are going to vote their pocketbook issues, their kitchen table issues, their own family anxieties about their future, before any other issue they care about,” Martin told The Associated Press.

Officials on Monday identified two men who died in an apparent shoot-out with each other on Friday in St. Paul.

Lawrence A. Harris, 30, of St. Paul, was found shot in the street in the North End early Friday.

Meanwhile, someone drove Lasean T. Williams, 28, of St. Louis Park, to a nearby fire station. He and Harris, who police said knew each other, sustained multiple gunshot wounds.

St. Paul Fire Department medics took Williams to the hospital, where he was pronounced dead a short time later.

Harris died at the scene in the 400 block of Front Avenue. Officers responded to the shooting about 4:20 a.m. Friday.

Investigators were working to determine what led to the men exchanging gunfire.

Their homicides were the 10th and 11th of the year in St. Paul. There were 25 homicides as of the same time in the city last year.

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