June 15, 2025

The U.S. Navy is more aggressively telling startups, ‘We want you’

While Silicon Valley executives like those from Palantir, Meta, and OpenAI are grabbing headlines for trading their Brunello Cucinelli vests for Army Reserve uniforms, a quieter transformation has been underway in the U.S. Navy. How? Well, the Navy’s Chief Technology Officer Justin Fanelli says he has spent the last two and a half years focused […]

The Download: the desert data center boom, and how to measure Earth’s elevations

May 22, 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. The data center boom in the desert In the high desert east of Reno, Nevada, construction crews are flattening the golden foothills of the Virginia Range, laying the foundations of a data center…

Three takeaways about AI’s energy use and climate impacts

May 22, 2025
This week, we published Power Hungry, a package all about AI and energy. At the center of this package is the most comprehensive look yet at AI’s growing power demand, if I do say so myself.  This data-heavy story is the result of over six months of reporting by me and my colleague James O’Donnell…

A new atomic clock in space could help us measure elevations on Earth

May 22, 2025
In 2003, engineers from Germany and Switzerland began building a bridge across the Rhine River simultaneously from both sides. Months into construction, they found that the two sides did not meet. The German side hovered 54 centimeters above the Swiss side. The misalignment occurred because the German engineers had measured elevation with a historic level…

Signal’s new Windows update prevents the system from capturing screenshots of chats

May 22, 2025
Signal said today that it is updating its Windows app to prevent the system from capturing screenshots, thereby protecting the content that is on display. The company said that this new “screen security” setting is enabled by default on Windows 11. Signal said that this new feature is designed to protect users’ privacy from Microsoft’s […]

OpenAI’s next big bet won’t be a wearable: report

May 22, 2025
OpenAI pushed generative AI into the public consciousness. Now, it could be developing a very different kind of AI device. According to a WSJ report, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman told employees Wednesday that the company’s next major product won’t be a wearable. Instead, it will be a compact, screenless device, fully aware of its user’s […]

Alt Carbon scores $12M seed to scale carbon removal in India

May 22, 2025
From a struggling family tea estate to an innovative climate venture, Alt Carbon has raised $12 million in a seed round as it plans to scale its carbon dioxide removal work in the South Asian nation. The climate-tech startup, which locks away carbon for thousands of years through enhanced rock weathering on farmlands, attracted investment […]

Luminar secures up to $200M following CEO departure and layoffs

May 22, 2025
Lidar company Luminar reached a deal with Yorkville Advisors Global and another unnamed investor that could bring another $200 million into its coffers through the sale of convertible preferred stock over an 18-month period. The agreement, which was announced in a regulatory filing Wednesday, follows an abrupt change in leadership and layoffs. Earlier this month, […]