🎯Today's Big Data Pulse
Updated 2h agoWhat's happening: DHS signs up to $1 billion Palantir AI and data analytics deal
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has entered a five‑year blanket purchase agreement with Palantir Technologies valued at up to $1 billion. The contract lets agencies such as Customs and Border Protection, ICE, FEMA and CISA use Palantir’s Gotham and Foundry platforms without separate competitive bids. Funding will be distributed through individual task orders under the agreement.
Also developing:
- •Nvidia close to investing $30 billion in OpenAI funding round
- •China launches 10 data zones to boost its $278 billion data industry
- •DPO secures $200 million for Wisconsin high‑performance computing data center
News•Feb 20, 2026
How Moody's Can Be an AI-Enabler, but Remain Resilient to AI Disruption Itself. CEO Robert Fauber Lays Out the Data
Moody’s CEO Robert Fauber argues that a massive, proprietary data estate is the cornerstone of AI adoption for regulated financial institutions. The firm is unifying its data, models, ratings and research into a trusted context layer that makes raw information usable for AI reasoning. Its Orbis database, covering 600 million companies with deep ownership and historical data, creates a unique knowledge graph that competitors cannot easily replicate. AI‑enabled offerings built on this foundation are driving higher client retention, faster growth among strategic accounts, and measurable revenue uplift.
By Diginomica
Video•Feb 19, 2026
10 System Design Interview Tips That Got Me to $500K
⬇️ Click here to get our free ebook on acing the system design interview ⬇️ https://chrisbde942.clickfunnels.com/e-book-optin7a5d08vb Learn how to ace the system design interview for data engineering roles from someone who went from $50K to $500K in under...
By Data Engineer Academy
News•Feb 19, 2026
DHS Awards Palantir up to $1B to Deploy AI and Data Analytics Platforms
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has signed a five‑year blanket purchase agreement with Palantir Technologies worth up to $1 billion. The deal lets agencies such as Customs and Border Protection, ICE, FEMA and CISA tap Palantir’s Gotham and Foundry platforms...
By SiliconANGLE (sitewide)
Social•Feb 19, 2026
Kickstart Your Data Career with Our Free Guide
Aspiring Data Processionals Excel, SQL and PBI are great tools to build projects with. If you're completely confused, start with my Guide 👇🏾 https://tekdlin.com/data-analytics-guide/
By Ebere Oyek (Nelo) — Data | AI | ML
Social•Feb 19, 2026
Ask the Problem First, Then Match Tools
This is an interesting thread. Everyone is suggesting tools to solve the problem. I’d start by asking more about the data and the questions the customer is trying to answer or problems they are trying to solve first before recommending...
By Teri Radichel
Video•Feb 18, 2026
Online Bootcamps vs Data Engineering Course - Which One Gets You Hired? (Live Q&A)
The video is an Ask‑Me‑Anything session where a data‑career coach fields live questions from professionals eyeing higher‑paid roles in data engineering, product management, or technical program management. Participants range from senior clinical data programmers to administrative service managers, each seeking...
By Data Engineer Academy
Social•Feb 19, 2026
Use Exponential Backoff with Jitter for Effective Retries
Not all retries are created equal. Immediate retry: usually fails again Exponential backoff: gives systems time to recover Exponential backoff with jitter: prevents thundering herd Most orchestrators have this built in. But you need to understand what's happening or you'll wonder why your retries...
By SSP Data
Social•Feb 19, 2026
Perfect Salesforce Data: My Superintelligence Benchmark
Test for superintelligence: when the data in Fivetran’s salesforce is 100% accurate and up to date at all times, I’ll know we’re there.
By George Fraser
News•Feb 18, 2026
How to Safely Use MySQL 8.0 Post End-of-Life (and Alternatives to Consider)
MySQL 8.0 reaches official End‑Of‑Life in April 2026, ending Oracle’s security patches and bug fixes. Organizations can still rely on Premier or Extended Support for a limited period, but the safest route is to upgrade to newer MySQL releases or migrate...
By Redgate Simple Talk
Social•Feb 18, 2026
Semantic Layer: Serve Data Like a Menu, Hide Complexity
The semantic layer is like a restaurant menu: you know what you're ordering, but not how it's made. This analogy comes from Maxime Beauchemin and I think it's perfect. Users shouldn't need to understand your star schema to calculate revenue. They should...
By SSP Data
Social•Feb 18, 2026
Analyze Global Data with One BigQuery Query
You've got data spread across geographies. What happens when you want to bring that data together? Usually ETL jobs or other mechanisms. We just launched @googlecloud BigQuery global queries. Do multi-location analysis with a single query: https://t.co/F3p2mn5SjZ
By Richard Seroter
News•Feb 18, 2026
1606 Corp to Acquire Plot of Land in Texas for AI Data Center Development
1606 Corp signed a non‑binding term sheet to acquire roughly 132 acres in Lufkin, Texas, including a 55 MW natural‑gas power plant and a 50,000 sq ft warehouse for an AI‑focused data center. The transaction is priced at about $11.67 million, combining $7.5 million in...
By Data Center Dynamics
News•Feb 18, 2026
Amazon Fends Off Blowback for Ring’s Search Party Tool
Amazon’s Ring introduced the “Search Party” feature, allowing users to share video clips from their doorbell cameras with friends, family, or law‑enforcement agencies to help locate missing persons. The rollout triggered immediate privacy backlash from civil‑rights groups who argue the...
By Bloomberg – Technology (sitewide)
News•Feb 18, 2026
Illinois Governor Pritzker to Call for Two-Year Suspension of Data Center Tax Incentives – Report
Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker plans to request a two‑year suspension of tax incentives for new data centers, pending a study of the sector’s impact on the state’s electricity grid and residential bills. Current incentives grant up to 20 years of...
By Data Center Dynamics
News•Feb 18, 2026
Safeguarding IoT & Edge Data Pipelines: QA Best Practices
The migration of data processing from centralized servers to edge devices is reshaping QA strategies for IoT pipelines. Unstable networks, fragmented device fleets, and expanded attack surfaces demand testing that goes beyond functional checks. Specialized IoT testing services now employ...
By Datafloq
News•Feb 18, 2026
Platters: WD New Disk Drive Tech Hits Lucky 14
Western Digital announced a 14‑platter hard‑disk drive architecture that boosts capacity by roughly 27% over its current 11‑platter models, enabling 40 TB drives in 2026 and paving the way for 44 TB HAMR units later this year and 100 TB drives by 2029....
By Blocks & Files
News•Feb 18, 2026
Kubernetes May Be Coming to Apple's OS Container Project
Apple’s open‑source Container project, launched in June 2025, enables Linux containers to run as lightweight virtual machines on macOS. At FOSDEM 2026, engineering manager Eric Ernst outlined a roadmap that adds a Windows Subsystem for Linux‑style layer and native Kubernetes...
By The Stack (TheStack.technology)
Deals•Feb 18, 2026
Caterpillar Acquires RPMGlobal Holdings Limited
Caterpillar Inc. announced it has completed the acquisition of RPMGlobal Holdings Limited, an Australian mining software firm. The deal expands Caterpillar’s data‑driven mining technology portfolio, integrating RPMGlobal’s solutions across the mining value chain. The agreement was first announced in October...
MarTech Series
Video•Feb 17, 2026
From APIs to Warehouses: AI-Assisted Data Ingestion with Dlt - Aashish Nair
The workshop, led by Ashish Nair of dlt Hub, introduced an AI‑assisted approach to ingesting data from public APIs into analytical warehouses using the open‑source dlt Python library. Over a 90‑minute session, participants saw how dlt abstracts the typical ETL...
By DataTalks.Club
Video•Feb 17, 2026
Stop Chasing Titles—Maximize Your Data Salary Instead
The video urges engineers to stop obsessing over titles and instead invest in soft‑skill development that drives business value. It argues that while technical prowess gets candidates through early screening, the interview’s most anxiety‑inducing stage—soft‑skill assessment—filters out the majority of...
By Data Engineer Academy
Video•Feb 16, 2026
Will AI Replace Data Engineers? Here’s the Truth
The video tackles the hot question of whether artificial intelligence will supplant data engineers, concluding that AI is a powerful augmenting tool rather than a job‑killer. Using a crane analogy, the speaker illustrates how new technology speeds construction without eliminating...
By Data Engineer Academy
Video•Feb 16, 2026
Qwen 3.5 Just Changed Open AI Models Forever
The video announces Alibaba’s Qwen 3.5 397B A7B, the first open‑weight model in the Qwen 3.5 series, designed as a native multimodal engine for language, vision, and real‑world agentic workflows. By publishing the model under an Apache 2.0 license, Alibaba signals a strategic shift toward...
By Analytics Vidhya
Video•Feb 15, 2026
From Software Support to Data Engineer: $50K+ Salary Jump
The video advises seasoned software‑support professionals to pivot into data engineering, arguing that the transition can unlock a substantial salary boost—often exceeding $50,000. With 15 years of experience, a support engineer earning $130,000 can realistically target $180,000 as a data engineer....
By Data Engineer Academy
Video•Feb 15, 2026
Are You Competitive for a Data Engineer Job?
The video tackles a common concern among software, backend, and QA professionals: whether their existing skill set positions them competitively for data engineering roles. It highlights that formal data‑engineering degrees or certificates are still scarce in most universities, meaning the...
By Data Engineer Academy
Video•Feb 15, 2026
Stop Chasing Titles—Optimize for Pay in Tech
The video urges tech professionals to abandon title chasing and focus on compensation. The speaker cites stark examples: a 20‑year veteran earning $120,000 while he earned $500,000 with just five years of experience, and junior roles often paying two to...
By Data Engineer Academy
Video•Feb 14, 2026
Andrej Karpathy Built GPT in 243 Lines?! Meet MicroGPT
The video introduces MicroGPT, a minimalist implementation of a GPT‑style transformer written in just 243 lines of pure Python. Created by Andrej Karpathy, the project strips away all external dependencies—no PyTorch, TensorFlow, NumPy or other libraries—so that the entire model,...
By Analytics Vidhya
Deals•Feb 11, 2026
Garner Health Raises $118M Series D at $1.35B Valuation
NYC‑based Garner Health, a data‑analytics platform that helps workers locate healthcare providers, announced a $118 million Series D financing round, bringing its valuation to $1.35 billion. The round was reported on February 11, 2026.
Techmeme
Deals•Feb 11, 2026
Valiance Health Secures Undisclosed Pre‑Seed Funding Led by Gobi Partners
Malaysia‑based AI healthcare startup Valiance Health announced an undisclosed pre‑seed round led by Gobi Partners’ SuperSeed II Fund, with participation from Jati Growth and Artem Ventures. The capital will accelerate its standardized healthcare data platform that uses AI to unify clinical,...
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