March 18th, Alibaba Cloud announced price increases for its AI computing power and storage products of up to 34% due to a global surge in AI demand and supply chain cost increases. Computing cards and file storage products also saw significant price hikes. This round of price increases is primarily driven by a surge in Token invocation volumes, with Alibaba Cloud prioritizing the fulfillment of AI computing power demand for Token services.
Multiple U.S. Democratic senators have expressed concerns about Meta's plan to introduce facial recognition in smart glasses, pointing out that the technology could threaten privacy and data security. The senators emphasized the surveillance risks of smart glasses and demanded that Meta clarify data usage and consent acquisition procedures. This move reflects increasingly intense regulatory discussions on surveillance technology.
Ukrainian President Zelenskyy stated that over 200 military experts have been assisting the United States in the Middle East to address Iranian drone threats. These experts possess rich experience and can build defense systems. Ukraine is optimizing air defense costs, emphasizing the importance of low-cost drone interception. Zelenskyy revealed that 2000 interceptor drones can be produced daily, and discussions are underway with the United States on cooperation plans.
On March 18, US natural gas prices fell short-term by 3.6%, leading network liquidations, with a cumulative decline of 11.6%. The largest long position address was liquidated when prices fell below $2.91, with a liquidation scale of 638,364 contracts and a loss of $200,000. The address simultaneously held BTC short positions and long positions in crude oil and gold as hedges, but suffered losses on both sides.
Harry Howard AI recently completed testing of its prediction market product, attracting 8,518 participants and generating 26,423 transactions. The platform secured $3 million in seed funding in 2025, is currently advancing private fundraising efforts, and will launch a token.
Gate News reported that on March 18, Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf, Speaker of Iran's Parliament, stated in an interview on March 17 that Iran had no intention of blocking the Strait of Hormuz or attacking neighboring countries, but as enemies are firing on Iran, Iran needs to respond, which is an inalienable right of self-defense. Qalibaf also stated that the United States and Israel believe they can intercept Iranian missiles and destroy Iranian institutions with bombers, but this is not the case. Iran is fully prepared and can rely entirely on its own capabilities and technology to counter enemy attacks.
Gate News Reports that on March 18, Tencent Cloud AI Agent Security Center launched the Credential Sandbox product, implementing a security mechanism of "Agents Never Hold Keys". Through this product, Agents can complete all cloud API calls without holding any keys. Every operation is fully auditable, administrators can adjust Agent capability boundaries at any time, and it adopts an authorization mode of "granting permissions, not keys".
Gate News Report: On March 18th, Samsung Electronics is considering shifting its memory chip contract model towards multi-year agreements, extending contract periods from the current quarterly or annual terms to 3-5 years to stabilize supply and alleviate market concerns about critical component shortages. Samsung Electronics Co-CEO Jun Young-hyun stated at the annual shareholders' meeting that Samsung is considering extending existing contract terms to a maximum of 3-5 years. He pointed out that this adjustment is significant as AI memory chip demand is expected to continue surging through 2026.
Gate News reports that on March 18, Helen Liu, former co-CEO of a certain CEX, will launch a new platform called ABFinance. The platform will build its business under U.S. regulatory frameworks, integrating deposit, earn, trading, and consumption features in one, while connecting fiat and cryptocurrency. According to previous reports, the CEX announced that co-CEO Helen Liu will step down on April 30, 2026, and start her own venture.
