Business & Markets — September 18, 2026

Solidigm weighs U.S. memory chip factory. SK Hynix’s Solidigm unit is weighing a NAND memory factory in the U.S., with upstate New York a leading candidate, during a global memory shortage, Reuters reported.

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Diesel prices hit record highs. Supply shocks from the Iran war collided with years of lost refining capacity, pushing diesel to record prices. Those costs ripple through trucking, rail, and consumer goods.

According to The Conversation, the price spike reflects a structural problem that predates the conflict: refining capacity lost over several years left the fuel market with little cushion to absorb a war-driven disruption. Because diesel powers freight movement across much of the economy, the outlet notes, higher fuel costs tend to feed through into the prices of a wide range of goods.

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Crusoe raises $3.9 billion. The data center builder’s latest round values it at $30.9 billion, the newest sign of capital flowing into AI infrastructure despite rising interest rates.

Beyond large-scale data centers, Crusoe plans to use the funding for what TechCrunch describes as small modular “AI factories,” a more compact format for delivering AI computing capacity. The financing underscores that investors continue committing large sums to AI infrastructure even as higher borrowing costs make capital-intensive construction projects more expensive to finance.

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Bank of Japan raises rates to 31-year high. The benchmark rate rose from 1% to 1.25% Friday, the highest since 1995, as the central bank joined the Fed and ECB in tightening against inflation.

The Guardian attributes the inflation pressure behind the decision to the war, the same force it says has driven tightening by the U.S. Federal Reserve and European Central Bank. The quarter-point move aligns Japanese monetary policy more closely with those Western central banks, and the paper frames the increase as an effort to curb the effect of rising prices on households.

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