The Download: climate tech under Trump, and scaling up quantum computing

February 5, 2025

XOi raises $230M, acquires Specifx to expand its tech for field service technicians

Field service engineers may not be the first group of customers that come to mind when you think about lucrative opportunities in B2B technology. But that same blind spot speaks of the opportunity in the space for those who are stepping up and targeting “the job site.” One of the players in that space, XOi […]

January 30, 2025

This is today’s edition of The Download, our weekday newsletter that provides a daily dose of what’s going on in the world of technology. Three questions about the future of US climate tech under Trump Donald Trump has officially been in office for just over a week, and the new administration has already issued a blizzard of…

AI Made the Internet Louder Than Ever — Here’s How to Use It to Cut Through the Noise and Make a Lasting Impact

January 30, 2025

The democratization of content creation means one thing: the marketplace is noisier than ever.

DeepSeek exposed internal database containing chat histories and sensitive data

January 30, 2025

The internal DeepSeek database was exposed to the internet without a password.

Data analytics startup Athenic AI wants to be an enterprise’s central nervous system

January 30, 2025

Jared Zhao originally got interested in data analytics during his time at UC Berkeley because he was drawn to how it could turn raw data into a story. Zhao founded his first data analytics startup Polyture in 2021. But advancements in generative AI just a year later made Zhao realize what Polyture was building was […]

US blood donation giant warns of disruption after ransomware attack

January 30, 2025

New York Blood Center said it does not have a “specific timetable for system restoration” following the attack, which has led to canceled appointments and delays

SuperOps bags $25M to use AI and better help managed service providers

January 30, 2025

SuperOps has raised $25 million in an all-equity Series C round led by March Capital to bolster AI integration into tools supporting managed service providers and IT teams.

Three questions about the future of US climate tech under Trump

January 30, 2025

This article is from The Spark, MIT Technology Review’s weekly climate newsletter. To receive it in your inbox every Wednesday, sign up here. Donald Trump has officially been in office for just over a week, and the new administration has hit the ground running with a blizzard of executive orders and memos. Some of the…

This quantum computer built on server racks paves the way to bigger machines

January 30, 2025

A Canadian startup called Xanadu has built a new quantum computer it says can be easily scaled up to achieve the computational power needed to tackle scientific challenges ranging from drug discovery to more energy-efficient machine learning. Aurora is a “photonic” quantum computer, which means it crunches numbers using photonic qubits—information encoded in light. In…

India lauds Chinese AI lab DeepSeek, plans to host its models on local servers

January 30, 2025

India’s IT minister on Thursday praised DeepSeek‘s progress and said the country will host the Chinese AI lab’s large language models on domestic servers, in a rare opening for Chinese technology in India. “You have seen what DeepSeek has done — $5.5 million and a very very powerful model,” IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said on […]

European embedded banking startup Swan adds another $44 million to its Series B

January 30, 2025

French startup Swan has raised another €42 million (around $44 million at current exchange rates). The company considers this round as the second part of the Series B round that was originally announced in September 2024. Swan helps other companies offer financial products at scale. The company can generate both virtual and physical cards that […]

XOi raises $230M, acquires Specifx to expand its tech for field service technicians