Thursday, December 25, 2025

AI sector minted 50+ new billionaires in 2025; Crunchbase: investors poured $200B+ into AI startups in 2025, or about 50% of global funding, up from 34% in 2024 (Alicia Park/Forbes)

Alicia Park / Forbes:
AI sector minted 50+ new billionaires in 2025; Crunchbase: investors poured $200B+ into AI startups in 2025, or about 50% of global funding, up from 34% in 2024  —  Record activity in the AI sector this year has boosted dozens of founders and business executives into the billionaire ranks.



Tesla's robotaxi service in Austin significantly trails Waymo, deploying an estimated 30 cars with safety drivers, vs. Waymo's 200 cars without human monitors (Jack Ewing/New York Times)

Jack Ewing / New York Times:
Tesla's robotaxi service in Austin significantly trails Waymo, deploying an estimated 30 cars with safety drivers, vs. Waymo's 200 cars without human monitors  —  Shares of Tesla have hit new highs on optimism about the company's self-driving taxis.  But experts say Tesla is far behind Waymo, which has a big head start.



A look at the humans employed to rescue robotaxis; Waymo uses the Honk app to pay $20 to $24 to manually close robotaxi doors and $60 to $80 to tow its cars (Lisa Bonos/Washington Post)

Lisa Bonos / Washington Post:
A look at the humans employed to rescue robotaxis; Waymo uses the Honk app to pay $20 to $24 to manually close robotaxi doors and $60 to $80 to tow its cars  —  A recent power outage in San Francisco shows how vulnerable self-driving vehicles can be when problems arise.



A look at Detroit's Apple Developer Academy, launched after the BLM protests, which spends $20K per student, nearly 2x the budget of local community colleges (Paresh Dave/Wired)

Paresh Dave / Wired:
A look at Detroit's Apple Developer Academy, launched after the BLM protests, which spends $20K per student, nearly 2x the budget of local community colleges  —  Apple, Michigan taxpayers, and one of Detroit's wealthiest families spent roughly $30 million training hundreds of people to build iPhone apps.



Sunday, December 21, 2025

Sources detail SoftBank's efforts to raise funds as it races to close its $22.5B funding commitment to OpenAI by the end of this year (Reuters)

Reuters:
Sources detail SoftBank's efforts to raise funds as it races to close its $22.5B funding commitment to OpenAI by the end of this year  —  SoftBank Group (9984.T) is racing to close a $22.5 billion funding commitment to OpenAI by year-end through an array of cash-raising schemes …



Sources: tech lobbyists say that David Sacks' push for an EO blocking state AI laws undercut their efforts to craft a permanent, bipartisan federal solution (Politico)

Politico:
Sources: tech lobbyists say that David Sacks' push for an EO blocking state AI laws undercut their efforts to craft a permanent, bipartisan federal solution  —  President Donald Trump's aggressive move to block states from regulating artificial intelligence is splitting the tech lobby …



Q&A with Blizzard President Johanna Faries on company staff bonus transparency, working under Xbox leadership, restoring the NetEase partnership, and more (Jason Schreier/Bloomberg)

Jason Schreier / Bloomberg:
Q&A with Blizzard President Johanna Faries on company staff bonus transparency, working under Xbox leadership, restoring the NetEase partnership, and more  —  Johanna Faries, who took over as president of Blizzard in 2024, reveals what's coming from the storied studio  —  Hi everyone.



US CHIPS Act-funded SMART USA Institute, focused on digital twins for chipmaking, says the Department of Commerce will terminate its $285M five-year contract (Samuel K. Moore/IEEE Spectrum)

Samuel K. Moore / IEEE Spectrum:
US CHIPS Act-funded SMART USA Institute, focused on digital twins for chipmaking, says the Department of Commerce will terminate its $285M five-year contract  —  SMART USA, a $285-million center devoted to digital twins, loses funding  —  The head of a U.S. CHIPS and Science Act-funded center devoted …



Sources: the US State Department ordered embassies to push back against foreign influence campaigns, as officials worry anti-US views are taking root worldwide (New York Times)

New York Times : Sources: the US State Department ordered embassies to push back against foreign influence campaigns, as officials worry ...