US government body paid $1M to hackers who never locked a single file
A US government agency paid approximately $1 million to hackers who claimed to possess stolen files but never actually encrypted any systems. The payment was traced through blockchain records and negotiation chats analyzed by a researcher, with the threatening group identifying itself as Kairos.
India’s CG Semi starts commercial chip production at $870M Gujarat plant
CG Semi has begun commercial chip production at its Gujarat facility, which will initially manufacture 200 million chips annually with plans to scale to 500 million. The plant operates as an outsourced semiconductor assembly and test facility that handles chip packaging.
Hong Kong now handles more than half of China’s chip imports
Hong Kong handled more than half of China's $239 billion in semiconductor imports during the first five months of 2026. The city has become the primary conduit for high-tech goods flowing into and out of China.
Apple users beware: This ‘copy-paste’ scam could allow someone to take control of your Mac
A copy-paste scam tricks Mac users into entering terminal commands that grant scammers remote access to their computers and data. Apple added safeguards earlier this year to protect users from this increasingly common tactic targeting MacBooks, iMacs, Mac minis, and Mac Studios.
Scientists say Elon Musk’s orbital data centers could blind Earth’s biggest telescopes
Starlink's orbital satellite fleet of roughly 10,400 units scatters light unpredictably and interferes with ground-based telescope imaging. The European Southern Observatory warns that Musk's proposed 1-million-satellite network of orbital data centers could have devastating consequences for space observation from Earth.
The AI chip trade cracked this week, and the hunt for what replaces it has begun
GPU-adjacent semiconductor stocks experienced sharp declines, with the PHLX Semiconductor Index dropping 6.3% on Wednesday and 5.4% on Thursday after surging over 80% earlier in 2026. Investors have begun seeking alternative investments beyond the chip trade that dominated the first half of the year.
The man who built Pegasus now sells governments the antidote, and Latin America is buying
Dream, an Israeli cybersecurity startup that reached a $3 billion valuation, is expanding into Latin America to sell governments AI-powered defenses. The company targets Washington-aligned nations in a region experiencing 25% annual growth in cyber attacks and relatively weak national defenses.
Why building AI for schools is harder than building a chatbot: inside Smartschool’s approach to exam prep
AI systems struggle to teach exam preparation effectively because students require personalized learning paths and adaptive feedback beyond simple information retrieval. Smartschool addresses this by building AI that adjusts to individual student performance on high-stakes tests like the SAT and ACT.
The chip industry has a warning for Trump: hands off the memory market
SEMI, a semiconductor industry group, warned the Trump administration against intervening in the memory chip market to address shortages. The industry cautioned that price controls or market intervention would worsen the supply squeeze.
Trunk Tools' stack cut document review from 60 days to 10 by ditching general-purpose models
Document review time for construction projects dropped from 60 days to 10 days using a specialized three-layer architecture with perception, semantics, and agents instead of general-purpose models. The system processes data through an ontology into a knowledge graph, enabling autonomous agents to reason over millions of pages of documentation.
Quantum Systems Doubles Valuation to $8B in New Round
Quantum Systems raised $1.2 billion in funding, doubling its valuation to $8 billion. The German drone startup is benefiting from increased European military spending on unmanned aerial vehicles.
Politician who investigated spyware abuses had his phone hacked with Pegasus spyware
A European politician serving on an EU committee investigating spyware had his phone hacked with Pegasus spyware by a government customer of NSO Group. The politician was targeted while actively working on investigations into the spyware industry.
Anthropic is in talks with Samsung to manufacture a custom AI chip
Anthropic is negotiating with Samsung Electronics to produce a custom artificial intelligence chip designed for internal use. The project is in early stages with undecided specifications regarding the chip's purpose, power capacity, and server integration.
Boeing’s autonomous air taxi subsidiary faces a whistleblower lawsuit over rushed software testing
A Wisk Aero software manager filed a wrongful termination lawsuit after being fired for raising safety concerns about reduced software testing. The former employee alleged the autonomous air taxi subsidiary rushed testing procedures for its aircraft systems.
Sony’s ditching game discs for the PlayStation, but fans are still hungry for physical media
Starting in 2028, PlayStation will discontinue physical game disc production and release new games only through digital downloads. Sony cited data showing 85% of full-game software sales on PlayStation 4 and 5 were digital downloads in the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2025.
Kling AI raises two billion dollars as Kuaishou spins off its fastest-growing business
Kling AI raised two billion dollars in initial venture capital funding, with potential additional investment that could bring the total to three billion dollars. Kuaishou's stake in its video generation unit would be diluted to approximately 68 percent if the full funding round completes.
Microsoft's 6,000-Person AI Push
Microsoft is building a 6,000-person team to help businesses deploy artificial intelligence systems. The approach mirrors Palantir's forward deployment engineer model and AWS's adoption of it, focusing on hands-on implementation for enterprise clients.
Nuclear Reactor Powers Nvidia AI Chip in US First
A nuclear reactor generated electricity to power an Nvidia AI chip for the first time in the US. Valar Atomics demonstrated its Ward 250 reactor connecting to an Nvidia Blackwell chip at its Utah facility.
Lucid Motors replaces its CFO and overhauls its entire leadership team as new CEO reshapes the company
Lucid Motors replaced its CFO Taoufiq Boussaid with Alexander De Bock, a former TI Automotive finance executive, as part of a broader leadership overhaul under new CEO Silvio Napoli. De Bock will assume the role after a transition period that was not fully specified in the announcement.
Alibaba, Tencent Join $2 Billion Funding for Kuaishou’s Kling AI
Alibaba has joined a $2 billion funding round for Kuaishou's Kling AI video generation service, bringing the company's valuation to approximately $15 billion. Kling AI is one of China's most popular generative video services.
Microsoft launches a $2.5 billion AI deployment business with 6,000 engineers
Microsoft established a new operating business with a $2.5 billion investment and 6,000 engineers to deliver enterprise AI deployments using existing Microsoft tools. Early partners include the London Stock Exchange Group, Unilever, Land O'Lakes, and Accenture.
Tesla delivered 480,126 vehicles in Q2, far exceeding the 406,000 Wall Street expected
Tesla delivered 480,126 vehicles in Q2 2026, exceeding analyst expectations of 406,000 by approximately 74,000 units. The quarterly result represents a 25% year-over-year increase from the prior year period.
Cloudflare gives AI crawlers a September deadline: pay publishers or get blocked
Starting September, Cloudflare will block AI crawlers from accessing ad-supported websites unless publishers explicitly allow access. The company aims to force AI developers to negotiate payment with content creators rather than freely scraping web pages.
Why the next leap in AI video is teaching avatars to see and listen
AI avatars are now being designed to perceive their environment through vision and audio rather than solely improving visual quality and motion smoothness. This shift in focus marks a change from the previous years-long emphasis on video fidelity, physics accuracy, and clip duration.
Getty scraps its $3.7bn Shutterstock merger after a UK regulator won’t budge
Getty Images abandoned its $3.7 billion merger with Shutterstock after UK regulators refused to approve the deal without unacceptable conditions. The board voted unanimously to terminate the merger, with the British regulator's stance proving insurmountable despite approval from American authorities.
A cheap Chinese AI model is closing in on Anthropic and OpenAI
GLM-5.2, an AI model from Chinese startup Z.ai, ranked fourth on a major intelligence benchmark while costing significantly less than comparable models from Anthropic or OpenAI. The model was released last month and is noted for its strong coding and agentic capabilities.
Z.ai launches ZCode to challenge Cursor, Claude Code and GitHub Copilot in AI coding
Z.ai launched ZCode, a free desktop application for its GLM-5.2 language model that runs on macOS, Windows, and Linux with support for third-party models via bring-your-own-key configurations. The tool offers a 1.5x usage-quota bonus for GLM Coding Plan subscribers and competes with Cursor, Claude Code, GitHub Copilot, and Google's Antigravity in the agentic coding agent market.
SAP Restricts Hiring, Travel to Fund ‘Significant’ AI Push
SAP is reducing hiring and travel spending to fund increased investments in artificial intelligence development. The company is redirecting resources to compete against emerging rivals in the AI technology space.
'Absolutely No Sign' of Let Up in AI Demand, UBS Says
Semiconductor stocks remain in high demand with no indication of slowdown in overall AI demand. UBS Wealth Management maintains a slightly overweight position in semiconductor stocks based on this outlook.