With Tim Cook likely to lead Apple through this decade, a look at Apple's executive succession challenges as many of Cook's direct reports near retirement age — Also: The company is scaling back the iOS 26 Liquid Glass revamp; a look at upcoming devices; and Meta poaches Apple's top AI models executive.
Portola, which develops the Tolan app featuring AI companions, raised a $20M Series A led by Khosla Ventures; the app has 3M+ downloads and 100K+ paid users — GeekWire's startup coverage documents the Pacific Northwest entrepreneurial scene. Sign up for our weekly startup newsletter …
A look at Xiaomi AI Glasses, launched in China on June 26 with a starting price of ~$278, featuring a 12MP ultra-wide camera and powered by Qualcomm's AR1 chip — The Xiaomi AI glasses are handy for hands-free photography and videography, which is ideal for situations like cycling
Pump.fun raised $500M via a sale of PUMP tokens, which sold out in 12 minutes; it offered 12.5% of its total token supply at a fully diluted valuation of $4B — - Memecoin launchpad Pump.fun raised $600 million through its public sale of PUMP tokens, which fully sold out in just 12 minutes.
Belkin's move to brick Wemo devices highlights how little accountability IoT companies face when abandoning connected products customers paid for — In a somewhat anticipated move, Belkin is killing most of its smart home products. On January 31, the company will stop supporting the majority …
Stanford study: LLMs struggle to respond appropriately to questions about delusions, suicide, and OCD, but AI could play valuable supportive roles to therapists — When Stanford University researchers asked ChatGPT whether it would be willing to work closely with someone who had schizophrenia …
Studios like Do Big are buying Roblox games for $1M+ in a thriving secondary market; Naavik: seven of the 15 highest-earning games in June have been acquired — Game service spawns a busy after market for the most-popular titles … It sold a few months later for more than $3 million.
Airalo, which offers affordable eSIM roaming packages for travelers, raised $220M at a $1B+ valuation — A startup looking to address steep roaming charges with lower-cost digital SIM cards is the telecom industry's latest unicorn. Airalo has raised $220 million in new funding …
RealSense spins out from Intel after 14 years as the chipmaker's robotics camera unit, and raises a $50M Series A with participation of Intel Capital and others — Intel is spinning out its artificial intelligence robotics and biometric venture as more companies bet big on automation tools.
Sources: Alibaba-backed Chinese AI startup Zhipu plans to raise ~$300M in an IPO in Hong Kong, after previously considering listing in mainland China — Chinese AI startup Zhipu is considering shifting its planned initial public offering to Hong Kong instead of mainland China …
Google launches its AI-powered ad tools in India; the country repealing its so-called “Google Tax” boosts its appeal to global tech companies selling online ads — Google has launched a suite of its AI-powered advertising tools in India, which debuted in the U.S. in May …
Ikea plans to relaunch its smart home line with 20+ new Matter-over-Thread devices, set to release in January 2026, and updates its Dirigera smart home hub — Ikea is relaunching its smart home line in a move that will make its low-cost products work with other brands, with or without Ikea's own hub.
Google rolls out a new Gmail feature to manage subscriptions, showing a list of emails delivered via active subscriptions, sorted by the most frequent senders — The new Manage Subscriptions view in Gmail will help you reclaim an inbox overrun with emails you don't want.
Apple supplier Lens Technology, one of the top smartphone part makers, raised ~$608M in its Hong Kong IPO, as the Chinese company looks to expand overseas — HONG KONG — Apple supplier Lens Technology announced it has raised 4.77 billion Hong Kong dollars ($608 million) in a share listing in Hong Kong …
Bluesky rolls out Activity Notifications, letting users receive notifications of new posts and replies from selected accounts, as it expands its sports presence — A new update has also added much more control over which notifications users will see, and who can trigger them.
Financial Times : Sources: private capital giant Apollo Global has shorted loans and rapidly cut exposure to the enterprise software sect...
