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Trade Wars
US Business Equipment Borrowings Fall In August, ELFA Says
U.S. companies borrowed 2% less to finance equipment in August than a year earlier, the Equipment Leasing and Finance Association (ELFA) said on Tuesday. However, equipment borrowings rose by 2.8% from July. The Washington-based trade association, which monitors economic activity in the equipment sector valued at more than $1 trillion, also reported that the average credit approval rate rose to 78.7% in August, the highest rate since December 2021.
The ELFA CapEx Finance Index of leasing and finance activity is based on a survey of 25 members, including Bank of America, the financing units of Caterpillar, Dell Technologies, Siemens AG, opens new tab, Canon, and Volvo AB. The Equipment Leasing & Finance Foundation, ELFA's non-profit affiliate, sees its September confidence index relatively unchanged at 59.9 from 60.2 in August. A reading above 50 indicates a positive business outlook.
Read more at Marketplace
Study Finds Collaborative Robots Pose Hidden Cybersecurity Risks
A new study from the University of Waterloo has revealed that collaborative robots can unintentionally leak sensitive information—even when commands are encrypted—raising urgent concerns for patient privacy and industrial security. Researchers from Waterloo’s Cybersecurity and Privacy Institute demonstrated that hackers could analyze patterns in robot network traffic to infer private details, such as medical treatments or factory processes.
Using signal-processing techniques, the team identified a Kinova Gen3 robotic arm’s actions with 97% accuracy based solely on encrypted data flow. “Even if you can’t understand the content of the conversation between a robot and its controller, you can still learn a lot by studying when and how often it talks,” said Cheng Tang, lead author and engineering undergraduate student. The findings highlight a growing risk as hospitals, manufacturers, and other industries increasingly adopt remotely controlled robots. The researchers propose stronger safeguards, such as adjusting API timing and deploying traffic-shaping algorithms, to prevent leaks.
Read more at Assembly
Lilly To Build $6.5B Houston Factory For Its First Obesity Pill
Eli Lilly said it will build a $6.5 billion factory in Houston focused on manufacturing the company’s first obesity pill and other small molecule medicines. The 236-acre site will produce active pharmaceutical ingredients, among them orforglipron, a small, oral GLP-1 receptor agonist, according to a news release. The molecule agonist is up for regulatory consideration later this year. Located at Generation Park, the factory will create 615 full-time jobs for the area, such as engineers, scientists and lab technicians, according to the Greater Houston Partnership.
Construction is expected to finish in the next five years. The Houston facility is the second of four U.S. manufacturing sites Lilly plans to unveil this year as part of a larger pledge to bolster domestic medicine production. The first location was announced last week and is set for Goochland County, outside of Richmond, Virginia. That $5 billion facility will make ingredients used in cancer and autoimmune treatments.
Read more at Manufacturing Dive
The Other Boeing Strike – Company Stays Silent On Machinists’ Proposed Settlement
Boeing workers represented by the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers District 837 at the company’s St. Louis area plants are still waiting for the plane maker to officially respond to their pre-ratified strike settlement, the union said in a virtual press conference Tuesday. Dan Gillian, Boeing Air Dominance VP, general manager and senior St. Louis site executive, said last week that the company would not accept it. While Boeing has not formally responded to the proposal, the union is not taking the company’s silence as a rejection, Jody Bennett, IAM’s resident general VP, said at the press conference.
If the union doesn’t receive an official response, IAM is prepared to meet with Boeing “on any days that they’ll provide us to get face to face,” Bennett added. However, he said the reason talks have not resumed was due to Boeing’s “unwillingness to come and meet.” Boeing workers at the St. Louis-area facilities are seeking a deal comparable to what other plant workers at the company’s commercial aircraft facilities on the West Coast and in South Carolina have received.
Read more at Manufacturing Dive
Microsoft Invests $4 Billion To Build Artificial Intelligence Data Center In Wisconsin
Microsoft has announced plans to build a second artificial intelligence data center in Racine County, Wisconsin. The company, which develops software, cloud services, and AI technology, invested $4 billion into the project, which will create 800 new jobs once the facility is complete. The new facility will join a $3.3 billion data center in Mount Pleasant that remains on track to open next year and will employ about 500 people at its peak. Together, the two sites will expand Microsoft’s total investment in Wisconsin to more than $7 billion.
According to the company, the site will eventually house the world’s most powerful AI supercomputer by connecting hundreds of thousands of Nvidia chips. To support operations, Microsoft said it will pre-pay for electrical infrastructure to avoid raising electricity rates in the region. The facility will also feature a cooling system that takes advantage of Wisconsin’s cool climate, keeping annual water usage at the level of an average restaurant.
Read more at Plant Services
GE Aerospace, Merlin Team On AI-Powered Autonomy For Military And Civil Aircraft
GE Aerospace in Cincinnati and Merlin Labs, a developer of autonomous flight technology in Boston, announced a joint effort to develop a next-generation autonomy and pilot-assist platform. The platform will introduce artificial intelligence (AI)-enabled capabilities to existing and future military and civil aircraft, enabling crew reduction and supporting uncrewed flight operations. GE Aerospace’s Flight Management System already operates on more than 14,000 aircraft worldwide, providing an opportunity to integrate Merlin’s autonomy software into legacy military platforms. The autonomy core aims to become the system of record for high-assurance aerial systems, enabling single-pilot operations (SPO) and reduced crew workload.
"At GE Aerospace, we're constantly working to find innovative solutions to meet the evolving needs of our customers. Working with Merlin, we're able to combine our proven Flight Management System expertise and Modular Open System Architectures with Merlin's autonomy software to unlock new capabilities," said Matt Burns, general manager of Avionics Systems at GE Aerospace.
Read more at Military and Aerospace Electronics
Boeing Chooses Palantir to Boost AI Adoption in Defense, Space Unit
Boeing (has partnered with Palantir Technologies to use the software firm's AI solutions platform across the planemaker's defense and space unit, the companies said on Tuesday. The tie-up will help Boeing standardize data analytics across its production lines. Boeing has also tapped Palantir to supply AI tools for several classified projects aimed at supporting sensitive military missions.
The Boeing unit, called Boeing Defense Systems, operates production lines for military aircraft, helicopters, satellites, spacecraft, missiles and weapons. The BDS unit would use Palantir’s Foundry platform to standardize data analytics and insights across its geographically dispersed defense factories. Boeing’s BDS unit operates more than a dozen major production lines, manufacturing military aircraft, helicopters, satellites, spacecraft, missiles and weapons.
Read more at the WSJ
The 2026 Best Colleges Rankings Are Out
The annual U.S. News Best Colleges rankings were released today, with top-ranked schools staying mostly steady from last edition as the methodology was largely unchanged. The vast majority of schools U.S. News surveyed continued to report data: 79% of the more than 1,700 ranked institutions returned their statistical information in the spring and summer of 2025, compared to about 78.1% last year. This includes 99 of the top 100 ranked National Universities and 97 of the top 100 National Liberal Arts Colleges. Here's a look at the top-ranked schools in their respective categories in the 2026 Best Colleges rankings.
National Universities:
- Princeton University in New Jersey (No. 1)
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology (No. 2)
- Harvard University in Massachusetts (No. 3)
- Stanford University in California (No. 4, tie)
- Yale University in Connecticut (No. 4, tie)
National Liberal Arts Colleges:
- Williams College in Massachusetts (No. 1)
- Amherst College in Massachusetts (No. 2)
- United States Naval Academy in Maryland (No. 3)
- Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania (No. 4)
- Bowdoin College in Maine (No. 5, tie)
- United States Air Force Academy in Colorado (No. 5, tie)
Read more at US News and World Report
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