TSMC CEO C.C. Wei says the company is speeding up construction of its second and third Arizona plants “by several quarters” to meet chip demand from US clients
TOKYO — Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. says it is speeding up construction of its second and third plants in Arizona …
Roblox taps Persona to estimate users' ages and verify they are 13+, renames Friends to Connections, and says only users over 13 can message Trusted Connections
Teens will have to prove they are older than 13 to make ‘Trusted Connections’ they can chat more freely with.
Google says threat actors are breaching fully patched, end-of-life cybersecurity company SonicWall's appliances and stealing sensitive data from organizations
Threat actors are stealing sensitive data from organizations by breaching end-of-life appliances made by cybersecurity company SonicWall.
Meta shareholders suing Mark Zuckerberg and Meta leaders over Facebook's Cambridge Analytica privacy violations reach a settlement deal, ending an $8B trial
Mark Zuckerberg and current and former directors and officers of Meta Platforms (META.O) agreed on Thursday to settle claims seeking $8 billion …
TSMC reports Q2 net income up 61% YoY to ~$13.5B, beating est. every quarter since 2021, and raises its 2025 sales growth guidance in USD from mid-20% to 30%
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. raised its outlook for 2025 revenue growth, shoring up investors' confidence in the momentum of the global AI spending spree.
Uber partners with EV maker Lucid and AV startup Nuro to deploy 20K+ robotaxis in the US over six years; Uber plans to invest $300M in Lucid and more in Nuro
The companies plan to launch 20,000 robotaxis in the US over the next six years, starting with the first city in 2026.
The US House votes to advance three crypto bills following over nine hours of private talks on July 16, a day after President Trump intervened to save the bills
The Republican-controlled U.S. House of Representatives cleared key procedural hurdles on crypto legislation on Wednesday …
Delta plans for 20% of its fares to be individually determined using AI by the end of 2025, up from ~3% now, and has a goal to eliminate static pricing entirely
Each passenger has their specific price, and AI is helping Delta find it. — Delta has a long-term strategy to boost …
Big Tech's acquihires of AI startups, like Meta's $14.3B Scale AI deal, leaves investors with modest or no returns and may further entrench Big Tech's dominance
Meta and Google's AI talent grab may lead to more sustainable tech companies. — If you're a venture capitalist …
Jack Dorsey invests $10M in “and Other Stuff”, a nonprofit focused on funding open-source projects and tools built on open protocols like Nostr and ActivityPub
Twitter co-founder and Block CEO Jack Dorsey isn't just vibe-coding new social apps, like Bitchat and Sun Day …
In response to a FOIA request, the US Marshals Service said it held 28,988+ BTC as of March, worth ~$3.4B at current prices, far fewer than previously believed
- The U.S. Marshals Service reportedly holds slightly over 28,988 BTC, worth about $3.4 billion, as of March …
Substack raised a $100M Series C from Chernin Group, a16z, and others, sources say at a $1.1B valuation, as it builds its social network and warms up to ads
Substack, originally a newsletter service, says its app now has millions of users interacting with its creators.
Spotify expands audiobook access to family plan members with new plans, including Audiobooks+, offering more listening hours, in the UK and 10+ countries
Spotify on Thursday announced an expansion of its premium audiobooks service, with two new plans that offer additional listening hours to subscribers …
Sources: some Trump administration officials are holding up finalizing a deal for the UAE to buy Nvidia AI chips over concerns that China could access the chips
Some administration officials worry China could get access to advanced Nvidia chips and are holding up efforts to iron out the agreement
Sources: in a Trump meeting last week, Jensen Huang argued US chips should be the global standard and was backed by David Sacks, who disliked Biden's chip rules
With help from a longtime Silicon Valley investor turned White House insider, Mr. Huang got the administration to reverse course on restrictions.
Swedish AI coding startup Lovable raised a $200M Series A led by Accel at a $1.8B valuation, making it Europe's newest unicorn; Lovable was founded in 2023
Lovable, a Swedish artificial intelligence startup that streamlines software development, raised a $200 million fundraising round, making it Europe's newest unicorn.
Multi-service messaging app Beeper relaunches, introducing a $10/month plan and the option to switch to an on-device model; Automattic acquired Beeper in 2024
Multi-service messaging app Beeper, which allows people to connect to all their chat apps from one interface …
A US judge rules that three authors suing Anthropic can bring a class action on behalf of all US writers whose books Anthropic allegedly pirated to train its AI
A California federal judge ruled on Thursday that three authors suing artificial intelligence startup Anthropic for copyright infringement …
Internal memo: Adam Mosseri says Meta has named long time executive Connor Hayes as head of Threads, starting in mid-September; Hayes joined Meta in 2011
Longtime Meta executive Connor Hayes has been named head of Threads, Axios has learned, marking a significant milestone for the two-year old product.
Q&A with Perplexity CEO Aravind Srinivas on the browser as AI's killer app, AI talent wars, why users may eventually pay thousands for a single prompt, and more
I'm Alex Heath, deputy editor at The Verge and author of the Command Line newsletter. I'm hosting our Thursday episodes while Nilay is out on parental leave.
In H1 2025, hackers stole $2.17B+ from crypto services, including the DPRK's record $1.5B Bybit hack, surpassing all of 2024 and up 17% on H1 2022
Key findings — Stolen funds — With over $2.17 billion stolen from cryptocurrency services so far in 2025, this year is more devastating than the entirety of 2024.
Sources: the European Commission has stalled its investigation into X for breaking its digital transparency rules, while it negotiates a trade deal with the US
EU was expected to finalise its investigation before the bloc's summer recess but will now miss this deadline
Crypto exchange BigONE confirms a $27M hot wallet hack, says it will “cover all losses”, and is working with security firm SlowMist to trace the stolen assets
Seychelles-based outfit says security attack occurred, will fully cover all losses Isabella Flores / CryptoNinjas : 27M Vanishes in BigONE Hack but That's Not the Most Shocking Part of the Attack Deni...
Location sharing apps like Find My, Snap Map, and Life360 are popular among Gen Z, despite concerns about their impact on real-world relationships and actions
Teens and 20-somethings are embracing location sharing to see where their friends are instantly. Is that a bad thing?
Firestorm Labs, which has contracts with the US DOD for its 3D printed drones, raised a $47M Series A and plans to grow its fleet of airliftable xCell factories
Firestorm Labs plans to move into a larger production facility, grow its fleet of airliftable xCell factories and cook …
Chinese game Revenge on Gold Diggers, one of the most popular and contentious video games in the country, sparks a debate over misogyny and male resentment
A popular and contentious game, Revenge on Gold Diggers, sheds light on misogyny, inequality and the feeling among many men that they are economic victims.
Samsung Electronics Chair Jay Y. Lee wins a full reprieve from South Korea's Supreme Court in a protracted fight over fraud and stock manipulation allegations
Supreme Court Ends 5-Year Battle Adnan Farooqui / SamMobile : Samsung chairman's legal nightmare ends, pressure mounts to recover the lost decade Associated Press : South Korea's top court upholds acq...
AI is already transforming Hollywood, as studios and production companies experiment with AI tools while labor groups warn of job losses and other consequences
The technology is already transforming the industry — and could forever change the entertainment we consume. But the battle to contain it has just begun. Bluesky: @beaucoupkevin.com . X: @beforesmag ...
Amazon's 2024 sustainability report says Amazon emitted 68.25M metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent, up 6% from 2023 and the first increase in three years
Matt Day / Bloomberg :
Microsoft's Copilot struggles to make headway against rival AI assistants; Sensor Tower says Copilot's mobile app has 79M downloads, far below ChatGPT's 900M+
Tyson Jominy routinely summons Microsoft Corp.'s AI assistant by tapping the Copilot key on his computer. Not because he means to.
Filing: Intel is laying off 5,000+ employees across California, Oregon, Texas, and Arizona; California cuts affect 1,935, more than double the initial estimates
new report says retreating operation could become a liability to the state Clare A. Fonstein / Silicon Valley Business Journal : Intel to lay off over 1,000 employees in California, with deepest cuts ...
Mistral adds new features to its Le Chat chatbot, including a new “deep research” mode, native multilingual reasoning, and advanced image editing
French AI lab Mistral introduced a range of new features to its Le Chat chatbot on Thursday that bring it closer to the capabilities of rivals like OpenAI and Google.
Perplexity offers a free one-year Perplexity Pro subscription, which costs $20/month, to 360M users of Bharti Airtel, India's second-largest telecom operator
Moneycontrol :
Reflection, co-founded by ex-Google researchers, unveils Asimov, an AI agent that reads a company's codebase, docs, and more to help software engineering teams
Will Knight / Wired :
Coinbase rolls out the Base App, rebranding its Coinbase Wallet as an “everything app” that combines social networking, mini-apps, chat, payments, and trading
Naga Avan-Nomayo / The Block :
Boulevard, which provides business management software for the self-care sector, raised an $80M Series D led by JMI Equity at an ~$800M post-money valuation
Boulevard, a business management software platform for self-care businesses, has raised $80 million in Series D funding led by JMI Equity, the company announced on Thursday.
The US FCC aims to introduce a ban on companies that use certain Chinese tech and equipment from building submarine communication cables that connect to the US
proposed new rules would ‘secure cables against foreign adversaries’ Michael Kan / PCMag : FCC Moves To Ban Chinese Tech From Undersea Fiber Cables Joe Warminsky / The Record : FCC wants to ban Chines...
OpenAI says it will use the Google Cloud Platform for ChatGPT and its API, adding Google to a list of suppliers that includes Microsoft, CoreWeave, and Oracle
Jordan Novet / CNBC :
SEC filing: Augmodo, which is developing wearable tech for retail store employees, including Smartbadges that collect inventory data, raised $37.5M
Augmodo, a Seattle startup developing wearable tech for retail store employees, raised $37.5 million in a new investment round.
Elliptic estimates cross-chain criminal and high-risk activity at $21.8B+ in 2025, up from $7B in 2023, and attributes ~12% to crypto hacks from North Korea
Yohan Yun / Cointelegraph :
The Novo Nordisk Foundation and the Danish government plan to invest €80M to buy and run a Microsoft-powered quantum computer, due to take on work by early 2027
Sanne Wass / Bloomberg :
A look at Chinese company Hailanyun's $223M wind-powered underwater data center, about six miles from Shanghai and using tech Microsoft pioneered back in 2014
such as a new site near Shanghai—with seawater cooling reduces energy use by ~30% compared to traditional centers. Phase one launches in September. — www.scientificamerican.com/article/ chin... #d...
Bengaluru-based QpiAI, which is integrating AI and quantum computing for enterprise use cases, raised a $32M Series A at a $162M post-money valuation
Jagmeet Singh / TechCrunch :
A look at Neon Coat, an app that offers models and influencers free restaurant meals, fitness classes, and other experiences in exchange for social media posts
here's how you might see it online Bluesky: @hypervisible : “Not just anyone can join. To be accepted, models have to have at least 1,000 followers on Instagram and a substantial portfolio of work. ...
AI and automation are transforming agriculture with autonomous tractors, fruit-picking robots and drones, remote sensing, image analytics, and soft intelligence
William Boston / Wall Street Journal : Forums: r/Futurology Forums: r/Futurology : Drones, AI and Robot Pickers: Meet the Fully Autonomous Farm | New technologies are paving the way for farms that c...
Remagine Ventures: 342 Israeli startups are now building Generative AI-based products, up by 198 since May 2024, and have collectively raised $20B+ to date
Elihay Vidal / CTech :
Shopify: Revolutionizing Commerce with Winter Edition '26
Over 150+ new features transform how merchants build, design, and grow—with technology that amplifies creative vision.
Email fatigue is real: Here's how smart email tools help you regain control
Picture this: It's Monday morning. You walk into the office feeling energized and ready to take on the week.
Protecting your Cloud Applications Data
Backing up Office 365, Google Workspace, Dropbox & Box data is critical to preventing data loss or corruption, complying with laws and avoiding critical downtime in case of a disaster.