Welcome, Weekenders! In this newsletter:âą The Big Read: Pickleball is the pastâthe tech elite is obsessed with padel. ⹠Plus, an Americana-themed batch of Recommendationsâour weekly pop culture picks: âThe Americans,â âEast of Eden,â âHigh Desert Daydream,â âLonesome Dove,â USA vs. Belgium, and âThe Twilight Zone.â The yearâs midpoint is an apt moment for some studied reflection, and Iâve been thinking about how much has changed in the last six... Read more âș
0
Adam DâAngelo is basking in an âendless summerâ of artificial intelligence. A few weeks before he and 350 industry peers released a bizarre, one-line statement warning that AI could herald a nuclear-level extinction event, the 38-year-old co-founder of Quora told me he actually sees more upside in AI than downside. âRight now thereâs a little bit of a climate of, like, if you say something thatâs too positive, people need... Read more âș
0
Zume, which raised $375 million from SoftBank to automate pizza-making with robots before switching to developing sustainable packaging, has shut down. The company is insolvent and has retained restructuring firm Sherwood Partners to liquidate the assets for the benefit of the creditors, an alternative to bankruptcy, according to Martin Pichinson, Sherwood Partnersâ cofounder. It ceased operations late last month, according to a person with direct knowledge. Zume, which raised a... Read more âș
125
Until it reached its planned obsolescence last week, the mythical city of Zuzalu was an intellectual wonderland. Days at Zuzalu began shortly after dawn at the edge of the Adriatic Sea. In the pursuit of an infinite life, Zuzalans (as they self-identify) enjoyed submerging themselves in the frigid waters of Montenegro at 8 a.m.âand again at 1 p.m., depending on their level of dedicationâbefore heading to a white geodesic dome... Read more âș
205
Welcome back!To help readers track the frenzy around generative artificial intelligence, we launched The Information's Generative AI Database, listing 39 startups that make AI models or build services on top of them. Together, those companies have raised more than $15 billion from more than 50 investors.OpenAI, whose ChatGPT fueled the generative AI craze, has seen the bulk of that haul, raising $11 billion from investors including Microsoft and Khosla Ventures.... Read more âș
0
Microsoft and other software companies that recently launched artificial intelligence features now face the hard part: getting customers to pay for the features, which are costly to operate. More than 600 of Microsoftâs largest customers, including Bank of America, Walmart, Ford and Accenture, have been testing the AI features in its Microsoft Office 365 productivity apps, and at least 100 of the customers are paying a flat fee of $100,000... Read more âș
20
You donât need special glasses to see why Meta Platforms announced its latest mixed-reality headset, the Quest 3, on Thursday, just days before Apple is expected to unveil its own entry to the field. CEO Mark Zuckerberg has literally bet the company, and its name, on the metaverse, but the results so far have been disappointing. Itâs been almost a decade since Meta, nĂ©e Facebook, stepped into another reality by... Read more âș
53
Grocery upstarts Instacart and Gopuff havenât been able to deliver two things at once this year: growth and profits. Privately held Instacart disappointed some investors last week by reporting the number of grocery orders it facilitated declined by 2% in the first quarter from the same period last year, and was flat compared to last yearâs fourth quarter, people familiar with the matter said. The companyâs gross transaction volumeâthe amount... Read more âș
9
After OpenAIâs ChatGPT took the world by storm six months ago, social media companies have been scrambling to join the cluster of tech giants integrating and adapting OpenAI's large language models or rival technology to their platforms to create conversational chatbots.Snapchat was the first to enter the fray, launching its My AI chatbot, which is based on OpenAIâs ChatGPT technology, in February for its paying Snapchat+ subscribers. The company then... Read more âș
1
Meta Platforms has notified employees they will need to return to the office three days a week starting in September, according to a person familiar with the matter. The announcement, which has not been previously reported, marks the strictest policy change since it embraced remote work during the pandemic. While tech companies have met resistance from employees about such mandates in the past, leverage has swung to employers in the... Read more âș
301
Welcome back,Amid all the hype for generative artificial intelligence, some venture capitalists have refused to join the fray. These young companies need so much capital and so much computing resources, the VC skeptics say, that theyâll have little chance of competing against Google, Amazon and other big tech companies that may soon have similar products.Our recent reporting this week was a reminder of how the internet giants are staking out... Read more âș
3
OpenAIâs ChatGPT launched six months ago, igniting a boom in generative artificial intelligence. Since then, all manner of startups have emerged, building technology to compete with ChatGPT and developing services that use generative AI. Despite an otherwise cool funding environment, investors are jockeying to join the action. The most recent sign: The Information reported Wednesday that Google led a roughly $100 million round in video-generation company Runway. Runway is one... Read more âș
3
One of the biggest open-ended questions in the tech world is whether Twitter is truly dyingâand if it is, what will replace it. Last December, I argued that whatever came next might feel like Twitter in certain ways, but that ultimately there was probably no way to recapture the lightning in a bottle that was the infamous bird site. Six months later weâre a little closer to getting answers. The... Read more âș
9
When Kevin Smyth learned in April that Goldman Sachs and Apple were offering a savings account with higher yields than anyone else, he jumped at the chance to shift money that was earning less at another online bank. But within a few weeks, when he had to withdraw a small portion of the funds to pay for a home renovation, everything went awry. A transaction that was supposed to take... Read more âș
26
Nvidiaâs business of selling chips for artificial intelligence is going gangbusters, but the company faces a looming problem. Its biggest customersâcloud providers including Microsoft, Google and Amazonâare making their own AI chips to reduce their reliance on Nvidia. In response, Nvidia is helping two upstart cloud providers whose ambitions donât include developing their own AI chips. Nvidia has given the startups access to its latest graphics processing units, which the... Read more âș
15
Congress appears poised to shrink a key obstacle to the creation of a competitive U.S. electric vehicle battery industryâthe agonizing, often yearslong wait to obtain permits to mine for battery metals such as lithium and nickel. On Wednesday night, the House approved small but important changes to the permitting process as part of a bill to lift the federal debt ceiling. Now the Senate takes up the bill in the... Read more âș
0
These corporate efficiency initiatives really work! Salesforceâs April-quarter earnings report Wednesday showed an operating profit of $412 million, a 5% margin, compared with $20 million a year earlier, which equated to a margin of 0.27%. The reason was lower expensesâresearch and development costs fell 8.4% while marketing expenses dropped 6.5%âeven as revenue rose 11%. Cutting costs to lift profits is about as basic a concept as there is in business.... Read more âș
1
Google is investing in Runway, a New Yorkâbased startup that lets customers generate video from text descriptions using artificial intelligence it pioneered, at a valuation of around $1.5 billion including the new capital, according to two people familiar with the matter. The investment, part of a roughly $100 million funding round, underscores the fierce competition among cloud providers to get close to companies with cutting-edge AI services that could become... Read more âș
67
Over the past two years, Iâve interviewed dozens of creators. Itâs very rare that I speak to one that hasnât experienced burnout or a toll on their mental health, sometimes spurred by hateful comments, declining views, or simply the loneliness of working solo. Two recent creator suicides, of long-time influencer Heather Armstrong and TikTok dad Bobby Moudy, have trained a spotlight on creatorsâ mental health strainsâand the startups trying to... Read more âș
1
In case you missed it, I scooped Tuesday that insiders at MoonPay, including its DJ-turned-CEO Ivan Soto-Wright, sold $150 million worth of shares in a secondary transaction as part of its $555 million November 2021 funding round. And a few weeks after the Series A announcement, Soto-Wright bought a $38 million Miami Beach estate that was previously owned by retired Miami Heat star Chris Bosh.It was one of the largest... Read more âș
1
If Apple unveils its long-awaited mixed-reality headset next week as expected, it will represent the companyâs riskiest gamble on a new product since the iPhone. It will also test the companyâs prowess in design and manufacturing like nothing before. The headset is the most complicated hardware product Apple has ever created due to its unconventional curved shape, thinness and ultralight weightâwhich has resulted in an expected budget-busting price tag of... Read more âș
4
Most popular sources
ScienceDaily
|
0% |
Tech Wire Asia
|
0% |
ArcticStartup
|
0% |
ReadWrite
|
0% |
EU-Startups
|
0% |
| View sources » | |
LIKE us on Facebook so you won't miss the most important news of the day!
08.07.2026 01:51
Last update: 01:45 EDT.
News rating updated: 08:42.
What is Times42?
Times42 brings you the most popular news from tech news portals in real-time chart.
Read about us in FAQ section.