White House steers $5 billion toward AI research in biggest federal science overhaul in 80 years
The federal government allocated more than $5 billion across federal agencies for the Genesis Mission, an Energy Department-led program using artificial intelligence to accelerate scientific research. The initiative selected 278 projects from over 5,000 applications submitted to the program.
Meta hires Assaf Keren from Qualtrics and PayPal as its new chief information security officer
Meta appointed Assaf Keren as its new chief information security officer, replacing Guy Rosen who left after 13 years. Keren previously served as chief security officer at both Qualtrics for two years and PayPal.
Arrakis emerges from stealth with $38 million to bring AI to factories and supply chains
An AI operating system for factories and supply chains has launched with $38 million in funding, including a $30 million Series A round. The startup targets industrial companies, believing AI's largest returns will come from manufacturing and logistics rather than office software applications.
Europe’s EV market share tops 25 percent for the first time as June registrations surge nearly 40 percent
Battery-electric vehicle registrations across 17 European markets reached 275,060 units in June 2026, surging nearly 40 percent year-over-year. Electric vehicles exceeded 25 percent market share of all new car sales in those markets for the first time.
Samsung unveils the Z Fold8 Ultra, a reimagined Z Fold8, and intelligent eyewear at Galaxy Unpacked in London
Samsung launched six new products including the Galaxy Z Fold8 Ultra, marking the first time the company applied its Ultra designation to a foldable device. The Z Fold8 features new display proportions while the Z Flip8 is now slimmer than previous versions.
US Official Says Moonshot Accessed Banned Nvidia Chips
Moonshot, a Chinese AI company, improperly accessed banned Nvidia chips and US artificial intelligence models to develop the Kimi K3 system. A White House official made this accusation after Kimi K3 demonstrated advanced capabilities that impressed the technology industry.
OpenAI unveils Presence, a new platform that lets enterprises launch and manage realtime voice agents and chatbots
OpenAI launched Presence, an enterprise platform for deploying and managing realtime voice agents and chatbots that can answer questions, access company systems, and take approved actions. The product is available through limited general availability with deployments led by OpenAI Forward Deployed Engineers and select systems integrators, not on a self-service basis.
Synthesia’s AI training platform is moving beyond videos into live coaching
Synthesia launched AI Roleplay Sessions, an interactive training platform where employees practice workplace conversations with AI avatars. The system provides feedback, scoring, and analytics to help companies measure training effectiveness.
These are the countries moving to ban social media for children
Australia issued a ban on social media for children in late 2025 to reduce cyberbullying, addiction, and predator exposure. The legislation targets pressures and risks that young users face on platforms.
Intel confirms more layoffs in its data center unit as stock rallies on turnaround momentum
Intel is cutting an unspecified number of jobs in its data center division, which produces Xeon server processors and AI-related hardware. The announcement occurred as part of CEO Lip-Bu Tan's broader restructuring, with Intel shares rising as much as 8 percent in early trading.
Poolside releases Laguna S 2.1, the open-weight coding model pitched as the West’s answer to DeepSeek and Qwen
Poolside released Laguna S 2.1, a 118-billion-parameter open-weight coding model with eight billion active parameters per token using mixture-of-experts architecture. The model runs on a single Nvidia DGX Spark desktop system and matches or exceeds larger models for agentic coding tasks.
Gritt raises $32M for AI robots that bolt onto existing construction equipment to build solar farms faster
AI-powered robotic systems that attach to existing construction equipment have been developed to accelerate solar farm building. Gritt raised $32 million across pre-seed and Series A funding rounds, with the $26 million Series A led by Obvious Ventures.
Sila raises $300M to fast-track gigascale anode production and shore up US battery supply chains
Sila raised $300 million in funding to expand its silicon anode manufacturing plant in Moses Lake, Washington. The round was led by Atreides Management and Sutter Hill Ventures, with participation from 8VC, Bessemer Venture Partners, Matrix Partners, and T Rowe Price.
London robotics startup Humanoid raises $152M Series A, with Bosch set to manufacture its wheeled robots at scale
Humanoid, a London robotics startup, raised $152 million in Series A funding to manufacture wheeled robots at scale through Bosch. The round valued the company above $1 billion and was led by Prime Movers Lab, with participation from Bosch, Schaeffler, and other investors.
Intel Foundry lands its first named outside customer: Fortinet
Intel Foundry secured its first named external customer, Fortinet, to manufacture the Security Processor 6 for FortiGate firewalls. Intel will handle chip design, advanced packaging, and manufacturing for the custom silicon.
TSMC to Hike Chip Prices by Up to 10% in 2027, Nikkei Says
TSMC is planning to raise chipmaking prices by up to 10 percent in 2027 to address increased manufacturing costs. The company has already begun discussions with clients about these price increases.
Kai-Fu Lee stopped building AI models and started selling enterprise data infrastructure. Now 01.ai is heading for a Hong Kong IPO.
01.ai is preparing for a Hong Kong IPO in 2027 after raising a pre-IPO round and unwinding its offshore holding structure. The company shifted from building AI models to selling enterprise data infrastructure under Kai-Fu Lee's leadership.
Neo exits stealth with $100M from a16z and Bessemer to build a control layer for agentic AI software
Neo raised $100 million from Andreessen Horowitz and Bessemer Venture Partners to build a real-time control layer for agentic AI software in enterprises. The startup was founded by former executives from SentinelOne, Wiz, and Palo Alto Networks.
Anduril and Archer unveiled an autonomous attack rotorcraft built on air taxi technology. First flight is planned for 2027.
An autonomous attack rotorcraft called Thunder, built using air taxi technology, is scheduled for its first flight in 2027. The Group 5 aircraft uses a series hybrid-electric powertrain and is designed to operate alongside crewed helicopters in combat.
Paramount and Warner Bros. merger blocked by temporary restraining order one day before close
A temporary restraining order paused the $110 billion Paramount-Warner Bros. Discovery merger for 14 days one day before its scheduled close. California District Judge Araceli Martínez-Olguín granted the order after 12 state attorneys general sued to block the acquisition, citing Clayton Act violations.
A Chinese AI lab just built a giant data centre with no Nvidia inside
A Chinese AI lab called Z.AI has constructed and partially begun operating a massive data centre that runs entirely on domestically manufactured chips instead of Nvidia processors. The facility represents a significant step in developing AI infrastructure independent of foreign semiconductor technology.
AMD’s Helios puts 72 GPUs and 31 terabytes of HBM4 in one rack. It is AMD’s answer to Nvidia’s NVL72.
A single rack contains 72 AMD Instinct MI455X GPUs with 31 terabytes of HBM4 memory and 2.9 exaflops of FP4 inference compute. The system uses 18 compute trays, each holding four MI455X accelerators on the new CDNA 5 architecture.
Inference startup Infinity raises $15M from Touring Capital, OpenAI and Anthropic researchers
Infinity, an AI infrastructure startup, raised $15 million at a $100 million valuation from investors including Touring Capital and researchers from OpenAI and Anthropic. The funding will support the company's inference optimization work for large language models.
Google’s AI cited Facebook 19.5 million times, new research finds
Google's AI cited Facebook posts 19.5 million times when generating answers to user queries. BrightEdge research shows social platforms have become primary sources for Google's AI responses, with users often never visiting the original platforms where the information originated.
Google is building a chip with Gemini baked into the silicon
Google is developing a chip called Frozen v2 that has Gemini's model architecture built directly into the hardware rather than loading the model onto a general-purpose chip. The approach differs from typical AI chips by embedding the model's blueprint into the silicon itself.
Watch Flock Safety CEO Garrett Langley discuss the future of surveillance at TechCrunch Disrupt 2026
Flock Safety's CEO Garrett Langley will discuss the balance between privacy and public safety at TechCrunch Disrupt 2026. The company operates surveillance technology at the center of ongoing debates about where regulatory and ethical boundaries should exist.
China AI Sensation Moonshot’s Gamble on Big Models Pays Off
Moonshot's large language model achieved significant traction at China's tech summit, drawing larger crowds than established tech giants Alibaba and Tencent. The startup demonstrated its AI capabilities by attracting major attention at the event despite being relatively new to the market.
Teleperformance Wants Entire BPO Staff to Be AI-Enabled by 2027
Teleperformance plans to integrate artificial intelligence into workflows across its 500,000-person workforce by 2027. The French outsourcing company aims to embed AI technology throughout its entire staff to accelerate adoption of tools reshaping the business process outsourcing industry.
TSMC’s $265 Billion US Spend Driven by Demand, Rivals, CFO Says
TSMC is adding $100 billion to its Arizona investments, bringing total US spending to $265 billion. The company cited strong demand from American customers and competition from rival chipmakers as drivers of the expansion.
AI advice made people three times less accurate but twice as confident, researchers found
People given AI advice became three times less accurate while their confidence doubled, with accuracy dropping from 27% to 9% and confidence rising from 30% to 76%. Willingness to say "I don't know" collapsed from 44% to 3%.