Khalid Ashmawy remembers the first time he wired money home while studying in Europe. He had just received his monthly stipend as a master’s student in Stuttgart and wanted to send part of it back to his family in Cairo. It was usually a slow and expensive process, he recalled. …
Read More »Billionaire Ambani taps Google, Meta to build India’s AI backbone
Mukesh Ambani, India’s richest man and chairman of Reliance Industries, has unveiled an ambitious plan to build the country’s AI backbone through a new subsidiary — starting with strategic partnerships with Google Cloud and Meta. At the company’s 48th annual general meeting on Friday, Ambani launched a new venture called …
Read More »Vocal Image is using AI to help people communicate better
With 4 million app downloads, Estonia-based startup Vocal Image aims to help people improve their voice and communication skills with AI-powered coaching. But out of its 160,000 active users, it may be its CEO, Nick Lakhoika, who best embodies its mission. Lakhoika was born in Belarus, didn’t speak English until …
Read More »Trump administration’s deal is structured to prevent Intel from selling foundry unit
The Trump administration seems intent on controlling Intel’s ability to make key business decisions around its floundering foundry business unit. Intel’s CFO David Zinsner shared new details about the company’s recent deal with the Trump administration, which gave the U.S. government a 10% equity stake, at a Deutsche Bank conference …
Read More »Anthropic users face a new choice – opt out or share your data for AI training
Anthropic is making some big changes to how it handles user data, requiring all Claude users to decide by September 28 whether they want their conversations used to train AI models. While the company directed us to its blog post on the policy changes when asked about what prompted the …
Read More »Nvidia, Google, and Bill Gates help Commonwealth Fusion Systems raise $863M
Fusion power startup Commonwealth Fusion Systems has raised $863 million from a long list of investors that includes Nvidia, Google, Breakthrough Energy Ventures, and more. “We’re continuing our trend here of looking into the world and saying, ‘How do we advance fusion as fast as possible?’” co-founder and CEO Bob …
Read More »AI or not, Will Smith’s crowd video is fresh cringe
Will Smith posted a video on social media that shows oceans of fans cheering him on during his recent European tour. “My favorite part of the tour is seeing you all up close,” the caption says. “Thank you for seeing me too.” In these thousands-deep crowds, some fans are holding …
Read More »Mississippi’s age assurance law puts decentralized social networks to the test
An overly broad age assurance law in Mississippi is leading to arguments about which platforms — Bluesky, Mastodon, or others — offer the best solution for avoiding crackdowns on internet freedoms. The company that makes the Bluesky social app announced last week that it would block access to its service …
Read More »US manufacturing investment stumbles as clean tech cancellations pile up
More clean tech manufacturing investments were cancelled in U.S. in the second quarter than were announced, according to a new study from the Rhodium Group and MIT. Companies cancelled $5 billion worth of projects, while only $4 billion in new investments were announced. Actual clean tech manufacturing investments, not just …
Read More »Threads tests a way to share long-form text on the platform
Threads is testing a new feature that makes it easy to share long-form text on the social network, Meta confirmed to TechCrunch on Thursday. The feature lets users attach a block of text to a post instead of creating a thread of several different posts when looking to share more …
Read More »