News

Benoît Morenne / Wall Street Journal: Geothermal energy company Fervo, which aims to power data centers and more, raised $462M from Google and others, taking its total funding to $1.5B since 2017  —  The company, also backed by Bill Gates’s… Read More »Geothermal energy company Fervo, which aims to power data centers and more, raised $462M from Google and others, taking its total funding to $1.5B since 2017 (Benoît Morenne/Wall Street Journal)

Pia Singh / CNBC: Starcloud, which launched a satellite with a Nvidia H100 chip in November, says the satellite is running and querying responses from Google’s Gemma  —  Nvidia-backed startup Starcloud trained an artificial intelligence model from space for the… Read More »Starcloud, which launched a satellite with a Nvidia H100 chip in November, says the satellite is running and querying responses from Google’s Gemma (Pia Singh/CNBC)

Bloomberg: In a series of lawsuits, Intel, AMD, Texas Instruments, and Berkshire were accused of failing to keep their tech out of Russian-made weapons used in Ukraine  —  Microchip manufacturers Intel Corp., Advanced Micro Devices Inc. and Texas Instruments Inc.… Read More »In a series of lawsuits, Intel, AMD, Texas Instruments, and Berkshire were accused of failing to keep their tech out of Russian-made weapons used in Ukraine (Bloomberg)

Mark Bergen / Bloomberg: Nvidia says that it hasn’t seen “substantiation or received tips” about chip smuggling via data centers outside of China, after The Information’s DeepSeek story  —  Chinese artificial intelligence startup DeepSeek has relied on Nvidia Corp. chips… Read More »Nvidia says that it hasn’t seen “substantiation or received tips” about chip smuggling via data centers outside of China, after The Information’s DeepSeek story (Mark Bergen/Bloomberg)

Samantha Kelly / Bloomberg: Amazon Kindle Scribe Colorsoft review: the $630 pen-enabled e-reader is a tough sell for most people, even with its big 11″ display and productivity features  —  Review: Amazon’s $630 pen-enabled device is a tough sell for… Read More »Amazon Kindle Scribe Colorsoft review: the $630 pen-enabled e-reader is a tough sell for most people, even with its big 11″ display and productivity features (Samantha Kelly/Bloomberg)

Emma Roth / The Verge: The RSL Collective, backed by Ziff Davis, Yahoo, and others, launches RSL 1.0, to let publishers set licensing and compensation rules for AI web crawlers  —  RSL 1.0 helps publishers outline how AI companies should… Read More »The RSL Collective, backed by Ziff Davis, Yahoo, and others, launches RSL 1.0, to let publishers set licensing and compensation rules for AI web crawlers (Emma Roth/The Verge)

Bloomberg: Sources: Meta’s new model, codenamed Avocado, may launch in 2026 as a “closed” model, a move Alexandr Wang advocates, shifting from Meta’s open-source strategy  —  Meta Platforms Inc.’s Mark Zuckerberg, months into building one of the priciest teams in… Read More »Sources: Meta’s new model, codenamed Avocado, may launch in 2026 as a “closed” model, a move Alexandr Wang advocates, shifting from Meta’s open-source strategy (Bloomberg)

Ivan Mehta / TechCrunch: Google launches a cheaper AI Plus plan in India, costing ~$2.21 per month for the first six months and ~$4.44 thereafter, to compete with ChatGPT Go  —  Google on Wednesday launched its more affordable AI Plus… Read More »Google launches a cheaper AI Plus plan in India, costing ~$2.21 per month for the first six months and ~$4.44 thereafter, to compete with ChatGPT Go (Ivan Mehta/TechCrunch)

Reece Rogers / Wired: Instagram launches Your Algorithm, which shows users an AI analysis of their activity to let them customize the topics shaping their Reels recommendations  —  In the battle for your attention, Instagram is betting that more control… Read More »Instagram launches Your Algorithm, which shows users an AI analysis of their activity to let them customize the topics shaping their Reels recommendations (Reece Rogers/Wired)

Heather Somerville / Wall Street Journal: How US startups like Oakland-based Brimstone are racing to develop sources of raw materials that the US needs for tech, an industry China has long dominated  —  Startups and venture capital are joining the… Read More »How US startups like Oakland-based Brimstone are racing to develop sources of raw materials that the US needs for tech, an industry China has long dominated (Heather Somerville/Wall Street Journal)