Stoke Space announced a massive capital raise on Wednesday that might seem, at first glance, like just another bet on the commercial launch market. The details tell a different story. Led by billionaire Thomas Tull’s U.S. Innovative Technology (USIT), a fund that explicitly invests in technologies tied to national security, …
Read More »Netflix is letting users play games on their TV screens
Starting this week, Netflix subscribers can play games on their smart TV — a feature that has been in the works for some time. Reports about Netflix’s efforts to bring its mobile games to televisions began in early 2023. Later that year, the company launched a game controller app for …
Read More »Tesla’s ‘Full Self-Driving’ software under investigation for traffic safety violations
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has opened an investigation into Tesla’s Full Self-Driving tech after receiving reports that the software caused vehicles to run red lights or cross into wrong lanes. The probe, which identified more than 50 reports of these kinds of violations (four of which led …
Read More »Battlefield alum DevAlly raises €2M to help companies with Europe’s feisty new accessibility law
Many businesses that provide goods and services to the EU’s 450 million consumers must comply with new accessibility standards that took effect in June. Like the GDPR before it, this new act had companies scrambling to adjust their websites, e-commerce platforms, and banking apps. But despite similar standards existing in …
Read More »OpenAI’s affordable ChatGPT Go plan expands to 16 new countries in Asia
OpenAI is rapidly expanding its affordable ChatGPT Go plan, which costs under $5, to 16 new countries across Asia. The subscription tier is now available in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Laos, Malaysia, Maldives, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand, East Timor, and Vietnam. In select countries …
Read More »OpenAI’s Nick Turley on transforming ChatGPT into an operating system
When Nick Turley joined OpenAI in 2022 as the head of ChatGPT, he was tasked with commercializing the company’s research. He has made great strides toward that goal, growing the product to 800 million weekly active users. Now Turley wants to take an even bigger swing: transforming ChatGPT into a …
Read More »Even after Stargate, Oracle, Nvidia, and AMD, OpenAI has more big deals coming soon, Sam Altman says
At nearly the same moment as Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang was expressing surprise over OpenAI’s multibillion-dollar deal with competitor AMD — shortly after his company agreed to invest up to $100 billion into the AI model maker — Sam Altman was saying that more such deals are in the works. …
Read More »Here’s what it’s really like to appear on billionaire VC Tim Draper’s ‘Meet the Drapers’ pitch show
There was barely a breeze on the roof of the MCM studios building in Manhattan last week as six entrepreneurs graced a stage to pitch their businesses. At one point, it was April Wachtel’s turn. She stood and made the case for her company, Cheeky Cocktails, to a judging panel …
Read More »Sora’s first week on iOS in the US was nearly as big as ChatGPT’s
After OpenAI’s video-generating app Sora surged to the No. 1 position on the U.S. App Store, it has now, technically, experienced a bigger first week than ChatGPT on iOS, according to new data from app intelligence provider Appfigures. Its estimates show that Sora saw 627,000 iOS downloads in its first …
Read More »Base Power raises $1B to deploy home batteries everywhere
Base Power has built one of the largest battery storage systems in Texas in two years — and now it wants to grow faster. The Austin-based startup, which had raised $200 million in April, is back with another $1 billion in funding. The Series C round was led by Addition …
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