Wednesday, August 5, 2026
In today’s digest, NYC adds hundreds of EV chargers, the parking sticker of shame returns, and Empire AI goes national. 🗽
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New York just flipped the switch on the country’s most powerful academic AI research computer. Governor Kathy Hochul announced that Empire AI Beta is now fully online, giving researchers across the state a major boost in computing power, and just as the federal government unveiled a similar national initiative inspired by New York’s approach. 🤖 (Governor Hochul’s Office)
The state’s new $40 million system delivers 11 times the AI training capacity of Empire AI’s original Alpha system, with more than 300 research projects already queued up.
Check out the “Today in Tech” section below for a closer look at how Empire AI became the blueprint for a new nationwide AI infrastructure program.
Finding an EV charger in New York is about to get a whole lot easier. The city is adding 600 new curbside EV charging points over the next three years, expanding its PlugNYC network from just 88 public curbside chargers today to nearly 700. 🔌 (electrive)
The rollout will prioritize neighborhoods with limited off-street parking and large numbers of taxi and rideshare drivers.
New Yorkers can also weigh in through a new online portal suggesting and commenting on proposed charging locations.
The city’s infamous “parking sticker of shame” has officially made a comeback. Drivers who don’t move their cars for alternate-side parking can once again expect a bright green sticker — along with a $65 ticket — calling them out for blocking street sweepers. 🧹 (New York Times)
The stickers return after a 14-year hiatus as the city tries to improve street-cleaning compliance.
Meanwhile, Brooklyn’s Prospect Heights will test reducing street cleaning from twice a week to once a week to see if fewer cleaning days lead to better compliance.
In other reading:
The greenest block in Brooklyn is in Crown Heights again (6sqft)
Eleven spots for a NYC staycation in August (New York Times)
Mayor extends deadline for NYC homeowners to apply for pied-à-terre tax exemption (SI Live)
Together with Bilt 🤝
Rent points were just the opening act. Once you join Bilt, the app becomes a neighborhood cheat code, where you can link your existing cards to double-dip on points at local spots and ask the Bilt Concierge about exclusive member benefits at restaurants, fitness studios, and on your Lyft rides.
Three steps — download, link, ask — and your next trip gets a lot closer.
Empire AI Goes National
The federal government wants more researchers to have the kind of AI compute New York is already building. 🗽
The National Science Foundation (NSF) just announced a new $100 million State and Regional Artificial Intelligence Infrastructure Hubs program, which will support up to 10 state or regional hubs designed to expand access to advanced compute, data, technical support, and AI training for researchers, students, and educators.
In other words: The rest of the country is getting a chance to build its own Empire AI-style research engine. 🏗️
Let’s take a closer look at what that means. 🧐
The program is meant to accelerate AI-enabled scientific discovery by helping to build shared infrastructure. 🤝
In June, Hangar (a Tech:NYC member!) and the Secunda Innovation Fund signed a Memorandum of Intent with NSF to help build the next regional AI hub.
The hubs will bring together state and local governments, colleges and universities, nonprofit research institutions, industry, philanthropy, and other partners.
NSF says it will initially support up to 10 hubs, with one award per state or region.
The goal: More machines, and more people who know how to use them.
NSF funding will also support AI infrastructure professionals, faculty training, educator training, and curriculum development.
🗽 Sound familiar, New York? It should! New York has already been running this playbook through Empire AI, the state’s public-interest AI compute consortium based at the University at Buffalo.
Empire AI Alpha has already supported 130+ research projects, with more than 500+ researchers, and projects to an annual increase of $266 million in R&D productivity, amounting to more than $2.7 billion over 10 years.
Empire AI Beta is officially online as of today, and brings a transformative increase in capacity, while construction continues on Empire AI’s permanent, full-scale Gamma facility, expected to be completed by the end of 2027.
As Tom Secunda, Chairman of the Secunda Innovation Fund and Empire AI Board, put it: “Empire AI showed what dedicated partners across research institutions, government, and philanthropy can build together: a scientific asset no institution could create on its own.”
Why this matters: Access to AI infrastructure remains highly uneven across the country, even as frontier science increasingly requires advanced compute, data, and AI tools.
The new hubs are meant to close that gap by pooling resources across states, universities, nonprofits, philanthropy, government, and the private sector.
This gives researchers access to supercomputing power that is usually available only to large technology companies.
🚀 TL;DR: The State and Regional Artificial Intelligence Infrastructure Hubs program effectively takes the Empire AI idea — shared compute, regional partnerships, public-interest research, and workforce development — and invites other regions to build their own versions.
New York started the race to make advanced AI compute a public research asset, but now the NSF is turning that model into a national strategy.
In other reading:
Inside Trump’s AI framework (Axios)
OpenAI report links coding agents to faster science software builds (AI News)
Inside the long, AI-powered quest to perfect pringle-making (Wall Street Journal)
Claryx, an NYC-based hospital infection monitoring platform, raised $3.5m in pre-seed funding. Outlander led, joined by Company Ventures, Boost VC, Neon, Mana Ventures, 640 Oxford, and Precursor Ventures.
Decoded Futures at Tech:NYC has opened applications for our next capacity-building AI program for social sector leaders. Participants will spend four days over six weeks building AI skills to strengthen operations and scale their impact in serving your communities. Apply here by August 23.
Applications for the NYC Game Design Future Lab’s second cohort are now open. The Brooklyn-based incubator for New York City’s digital games industry provides founders with personalized mentorship, industry workshops, investor introductions, access to emerging technologies, and networking opportunities with industry leaders and NYU faculty, all at no cost to participants. Apply here by August 7.
Applications are open for the next cohort of Fierce Foundry’s Investment Readiness Bootcamp kicking off September 14. This is a high-impact, equity-free program designed to help founders prepare for their first institutional raise. Apply here by August 15.
The Social Justice Fund is launching the Brooklyn Pitch Competition to help local businesses access the growth capital, strategic support, and connections they need to scale. The competition will award a total of $450,000 in unrestricted grant funding to selected Brooklyn-based businesses, including a $150,000 grand prize and additional finalist awards ranging from $25,000 to $75,000. Apply here by September 4.
CUNY 2x Tech’s NYC Tech Talent Pipeline Residency Program, connecting high-potential Computer Systems Technology students with NYC-based employers for 10-week, full-time internships focused on software engineering and data analytics. Employers can express interest here.
HubSpot’s How You Hustle, where you and your business could be featured and receive free press exposure to their 1.5 million subscribers. Apply here.
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