> daily_signal(2026_06_01)

Mississippi power customers are paying $10.60 more per month on their bills to cover an Amazon data center deal that bypassed utility review. North Korea publicly claimed an operational AI-guided cruise missile and ordered it to the southern border.

PickBits Daily Signal · Monday, June 1, 2026

By Mark Pickering · 11 min read · June 1, 2026

// tl;dr

Entergy Mississippi residential customers are paying $10.60 per month extra under a 2024 state legislature tariff called Section 22 that routed around the Public Service Commission entirely. A Synapse Energy Economics analysis commissioned by Earthjustice found $38 million has already been collected from about 384,000 residential customers. Amazon and Entergy dispute the framing; neither disputes the math.
The US Bureau of Industry and Security posted guidance May 31 closing a year-long loophole that let Chinese companies buy Nvidia Blackwell and Rubin AI chips by routing orders through subsidiaries in Malaysia, Singapore, and the UAE. One US industry official estimated hundreds of thousands of advanced chips may have reached Chinese-owned entities through the gap while it was open.
35 EU Green and Socialist MEPs accused the European Commission of incorporating Microsoft lobbying text almost verbatim into the upcoming June 3 Delegated Act on data-centre ratings. The disputed confidentiality clause would hide every per-facility emissions and energy-use data point from public view. French MEP David Cormand led the signatories; Corporate Europe Observatory and AlgorithmWatch published the comparison report.
North Korea tested an AI-guided tactical cruise missile on May 26 under Kim Jong Un's personal supervision. KCNA described a combination of ultra-precision autonomous navigation, terrain-matching navigation, and AI terminal guidance with a 100km range. Kim ordered the system rapidly deployed to long-range artillery brigades near the South Korean border. First public DPRK acknowledgment of AI terminal guidance on a kinetic weapon system.

This week a state legislature in Mississippi handed residential ratepayers a $10-per-month cost with no public hearing, the US government quietly admitted a year-long chip-export gap may have sent hundreds of thousands of advanced AI processors to Chinese companies, 35 European parliamentarians accused the Commission of letting Microsoft lobbyists draft the language that would hide per-data-centre emissions across the EU, and North Korea publicly tested an AI-guided cruise missile and ordered it deployed near the South Korean border.

Four different systems, one direction: the cost of building AI infrastructure is landing on people who had no seat at the table when the deals were made, the transparency mechanisms that were supposed to constrain it are being captured by the firms they were meant to constrain, and the same AI capability stack is now publicly diffusing into kinetic weapons in a state with few production controls.

Mississippi ratepayers got a $10.60/month bill increase they never voted on. The Commerce Department closed a chip export door it had quietly left open for a year. The European Commission was caught with Microsoft lobbying text inside its forthcoming data-centre rule. And North Korea published video of its leader watching an AI-guided missile hit a target.

1. Mississippi residential power customers are paying $10.60 more per month to subsidize an Amazon data center under a 2024 state law that cut the utility regulator out of the process entirely.

Continuing the data center cost-allocation arc. Oregon mandated full grid-cost coverage last week. Georgia cut bills while leaving the cost gap unresolved. Mississippi shows what happens when the legislature bypasses the regulator entirely.

A Synapse Energy Economics analysis commissioned by Earthjustice and published May 28 found that Entergy Mississippi residential customers are paying an extra $10.60 per month on their power bills under a tariff called the Section 22 Interim Capacity and Facilities Rate Adjustment, created by Mississippi Senate Bill 2001 during a 2024 special session. The bill authorized Entergy to recover costs for large industrial customer agreements directly from the general ratepayer base without filing a standard rate case before the Mississippi Public Service Commission. As of March 2026, approximately $38 million has already been collected from about 384,000 residential customers, with $74 million projected by end of 2026 under the current trajectory.

The arrangement is specifically tied to a large-scale data center agreement with Amazon, though the law's language covers any qualifying industrial customer. Entergy and Amazon both disputed the framing in statements to Mississippi Today, characterizing the arrangement as a mechanism for economic development and arguing that the analysis overstates residential impact. Neither disputed the per-customer dollar figures. The PSC, which typically reviews rate changes before they take effect, was not a party to the approval: SB2001 created a separate statutory path that bypasses the standard rate-case process. The PSC has an open inquiry into SB2001 implementation but has not yet issued any ruling that alters the current billing.

Mississippi Today report on Entergy Mississippi $10.60 per month rate hike for residential customers via SB2001 Section 22 tariff for Amazon data center — mississippitoday.org · May 28, 2026

Why this matters: If you pay an Entergy Mississippi bill, you are currently paying $10.60 more per month under a tariff that was never put before the Public Service Commission for review. The mechanism, Section 22 of SB2001, is a legislative workaround that let a specific large-customer arrangement bypass the standard rate-review process. The Mississippi PSC has an open inquiry, but it has not yet issued any ruling that stops the billing. Action this week: If you are an Entergy Mississippi residential or commercial customer, your bill should show a line item called "Interim Capacity and Facilities Rate Adjustment" or similar. The Synapse Energy Economics report is in the public record at earthjustice.org and walks through the per-customer math in detail. If you are watching data center cost-allocation fights in other states, Mississippi is the cleanest example of a legislative end-run around utility oversight, and the PSC inquiry docket number is public at ms.gov/psc. If you advise state utility commissions or rate-case attorneys, Earthjustice's attorneys who commissioned the Synapse analysis are the right contact for evidentiary framing.

mississippitoday.org: Data centers likely increasing Mississippi power rates, new report says
earthjustice.org: Mississippi "Data Center Giveaway Law" Leaves Residents in the Dark and Could Already Be Costing Utility Customers ~$11/mo

2. The US closed a year-long export loophole that let Chinese companies buy Nvidia's most advanced AI chips by routing orders through subsidiaries in Malaysia, Singapore, and the UAE.

On Sunday, May 31, the Bureau of Industry and Security posted guidance on the Commerce Department website clarifying that existing export license requirements for advanced AI chips apply to any entity whose parent company is headquartered in China, regardless of where that subsidiary is physically located. The chips covered include Nvidia's Blackwell and Rubin GPU families and AMD's MI350x. A BIS spokesperson described the guidance as a clarification of rules that have been in place since 2023, not a new regulation. The practical effect is a hard stop on the routing strategy that Chinese AI firms had been using since approximately May 2025, when the Trump administration rolled back the Biden-era AI Diffusion Rule enforcement and inadvertently created ambiguity about whether license requirements followed the parent company or the physical location of the purchasing entity.

One US industry official with supply-chain visibility told Reuters that the number of advanced AI chips that may have reached Chinese-owned entities through overseas subsidiaries could total hundreds of thousands over the roughly twelve months the loophole was open. Nvidia confirmed to Al Jazeera that it was already operating in keeping with the clarified rules and that its products require export licenses for controlled items sold to PRC-headquartered companies. The BIS guidance explicitly states that chips already deployed at overseas subsidiary locations under the old interpretation do not need to be removed, meaning the hardware already in place stays, but new purchases require licenses. A separate action, the Remote Access Security Act passed by the House in January 2026, addresses the parallel loophole of Chinese firms renting GPU access through offshore cloud data centers rather than buying the chips outright.

US Bureau of Industry and Security closes Nvidia Blackwell China export loophole on Chinese company overseas subsidiaries in Malaysia Singapore UAE — aljazeera.com · June 1, 2026

Why this matters: If you follow AI development, the US-China chip gap has been the single most-watched factor in AI capability competition since 2022. For a year, that gap had a hole in it. Chinese AI companies were buying Blackwell chips, the current frontier hardware, through subsidiaries in third countries with no license required. Sunday's guidance closes that specific path. The practical implication for consumers: the AI tools you use are partly shaped by which hardware the developers who build them have access to. A China with unrestricted Blackwell access closes the capability gap faster than one that has to work around controls. Action this week: If you work in semiconductor supply chain, legal export compliance, or trade policy, the BIS guidance document is at bis.gov and the key enforcement question now is how BIS will handle companies that bought chips under the old interpretation: the guidance says existing deployments are grandfathered, but future purchases from the same entities require licenses. If you advise technology investors with exposure to Nvidia or AMD, the guidance does not change the companies' total addressable market, it redirects how that market routes its purchases.

aljazeera.com: US says ban on AI chip shipments applies to Chinese firms outside China
cnbc.com: US takes step to halt Nvidia AI chip shipments to Chinese firms outside China

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3. 35 European MEPs accused the EU Commission of copy-pasting Microsoft lobbying into the upcoming data-centre rule, including a confidentiality clause hiding every facility's energy and emissions data.

On May 27, a letter signed by 35 Green and Socialist Members of the European Parliament, led by French Green MEP David Cormand, accused the European Commission of incorporating language drafted by Microsoft lobbyists almost verbatim into the Commission's forthcoming Delegated Act on data-centre ratings, scheduled to be presented on June 3. The MEPs cite a joint Corporate Europe Observatory + AlgorithmWatch report comparing the Commission's draft text to Microsoft's documented lobbying submissions. The disputed provision states that "the Commission and the member states will keep all information on individual data centres confidential". Language the MEPs argue would place "almost all operational emissions and energy-use data behind closed doors." Cormand: "It is one thing for Microsoft to seek to protect its interests; it is quite another for the Commission to incorporate its demands almost word for word into European law."

The Delegated Act sits inside the EU's broader sustainable digital infrastructure framework, which European officials had positioned as a transparency mechanism: a public rating system that would let regulators, investors, and citizens see which hyperscalers run efficient facilities and which do not. Corporate Europe Observatory's assessment is that the confidentiality clause functionally inverts the policy goal. "crucial information on individual data centres' energy use, and their environmental and climate impact, will be kept secret." The Commission has not publicly responded to the letter as of publication. Microsoft has not commented on the lobbying-text allegation. The June 3 presentation will show whether the Commission removes the disputed confidentiality clause or proceeds with the lobbied language intact, and the European Parliament's response will be the next legislative checkpoint.

35 Green and Socialist MEPs led by David Cormand accuse European Commission of copy-pasting Microsoft lobbying text into upcoming June 3 Delegated Act on data centre ratings including confidentiality clause hiding per-facility energy and emissions data — euronews.com · May 27, 2026

Why this matters: The data centres that train and serve every AI tool you use sit on the public grid and pump out emissions that affect the regions they are sited in. The EU was building a public rating system that would have let anyone see which facilities are efficient and which are not. The leaked draft suggests that the Commission, under hyperscaler lobbying pressure, was about to redact every per-facility data point from public view. This is the EU's version of the Mississippi SB 2001 dynamic. The public bears the cost (grid load, emissions, water) but loses the right to see the per-facility evidence. Action this week: If you work in EU policy, compliance, or sustainability reporting, the Corporate Europe Observatory + AlgorithmWatch comparison report is public and is the citable evidence for any submission to the Commission ahead of June 3. If you are at a journalism or civil-society organization tracking AI infrastructure transparency, the EU Delegated Act is the highest-leverage transparency fight of the next 30 days because the confidentiality clause would lock in the data hole across all 27 member states at once. If you are an EU citizen, the European Parliament's environment and industry committees will see the Delegated Act after June 3; a letter to your MEP referencing Cormand's coalition is the formal channel.

euronews.com: MEPs accuse EU of copy-pasting Microsoft lobbying into data centre law
corporateeurope.org: Corporate Europe Observatory + AlgorithmWatch joint analysis (referenced)

4. North Korea tested AI-guided tactical cruise missiles on May 26 under Kim Jong Un's watch, the first public DPRK acknowledgment of AI terminal guidance on a kinetic weapon.

State media KCNA announced on May 27 that on the previous day Kim Jong Un oversaw test launches of a newly-developed lightweight multi-purpose missile launching system and multiple tactical cruise missile weapon systems. The tactical cruise missile that drew the most attention combines an ultra-precision autonomous navigation system, a terrain-matching navigation system, and AI terminal guidance, enabling what KCNA described as "ultra-precision strikes on targets within a 100-kilometre range" using a combined glide-and-propulsion flight pattern. The test also included a special-mission tactical ballistic missile and 240mm controlled artillery rockets with an autonomous navigation system that KCNA said expanded firing range, a system DPRK media has nicknamed "Juche HIMARS" after the US Army's High Mobility Artillery Rocket System.

Kim's public statement, per KCNA, called the tests "a clear signal of upgrading our military force and an event of showing great technical progress in strengthening our army's combat power" and ordered the AI-guided tactical cruise missile system to be rapidly deployed to long-range artillery brigades stationed near the "southern border area," Pyongyang's term for the border with South Korea. This is the first time DPRK state media has used the term "AI terminal guidance" in describing an operational missile system. South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff acknowledged the launch and said they were analyzing the technical claims; the US Indo-Pacific Command had not issued a public statement at the time of reporting. Coming alongside last month's Google Threat Intelligence Group report naming APT45, a DPRK-linked actor, as one of the state hackers using AI tools for offensive cyber operations, North Korea's pairing of AI-assisted cyber capabilities and AI-guided kinetic weapons is now public in both domains in the same six-week window.

North Korea KCNA announces May 26 test of AI-guided tactical cruise missile under Kim Jong Un supervision with ultra-precision autonomous navigation terrain-matching and AI terminal guidance 100km range deployed to long-range artillery brigades near southern border — news.usni.org · May 27, 2026

Why this matters: The proliferation question for AI in 2026 was always going to be whether terminal-guidance AI for kinetic weapons would diffuse out of the US, China, Russia, and Israel into states with less mature production controls. North Korea publicly claiming an operational AI-guided cruise missile, on a system Kim has ordered into immediate deployment near the South Korean border, answers that question. The technical claim is unverified by an outside party, but the public framing matters as much as the technical reality: the DPRK is now positioning AI terminal guidance as a routine feature of its kinetic arsenal, not an experiment. The same actor is named in a separate stream as an active AI-assisted cyber threat. The two pictures combined are how AI proliferation actually manifests in a small-state deterrence posture: not one moonshot weapon, but commoditized AI inputs across both the cyber and kinetic stacks. Action this week: If you work in defense policy, arms control, or proliferation analysis, the KCNA description of the dual-navigation + AI-terminal-guidance combination is the first publicly attributed DPRK statement of an operational AI-kinetic system; the question for analysts is whether the autonomous-navigation claim is independently verifiable through the May 26 telemetry or whether it is positioning. If you advise companies operating in or with exposure to the Indo-Pacific, the deployment order to long-range artillery brigades near the South Korean border is the change in posture that South Korean and Japanese threat assessments will incorporate, and downstream procurement, insurance, and continuity-planning decisions will follow within weeks.

news.usni.org: North Korea Tests New Lightweight Launch System and Tactical Cruise Missiles
bloomberg.com: Kim Jong Un Tests Pyongyang's AI-Guided Tactical Missiles: KCNA

» What to watch this week

Brunswick, Maine data center moratorium hearing, today. The Brunswick Town Council is holding a scheduled public hearing today on a proposed moratorium on new data center construction. Brunswick sits near the Maine grid interconnection points that have drawn hyperscale interest, and the hearing follows the national pattern of communities seeking a pause before permanent zoning decisions are locked in.
Reno, Nevada City Council moratorium extension vote, today. The Reno City Council is scheduled to vote today on extending its existing data center moratorium. Nevada's grid operator has flagged Washoe County as a high-stress load zone; the moratorium extension vote will signal whether Reno treats the pause as a bridge to new permanent rules or a longer freeze.
European Commission Delegated Act presentation on data-centre ratings, June 3. The Commission is scheduled to present the Delegated Act on data-centre ratings on June 3. The MEP coalition's letter on the confidentiality clause lands days before the presentation. Watch whether the Commission removes or retains the disputed Microsoft-aligned language and whether the Parliament's environment or industry committees signal early opposition.
South Korea and US Indo-Pacific Command official assessment of the DPRK AI-missile test. Initial South Korean Joint Chiefs reporting acknowledged the launch without endorsing the AI-terminal-guidance claim. A formal allied technical assessment, when it lands, will set the baseline analysts use to revise proliferation posture for the next round of DPRK tests.

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