March 17, 2025

OpenAI exec leaves to found materials science startup

Liam Fedus, OpenAI’s VP of research for post-training, is leaving the company to found a materials science AI startup. The Information initially reported Fedus’ plans. In a statement on X, Fedus confirmed the report and added a few additional details. “My undergrad was in physics and I’m keen to apply this technology there,” Fedus said […]

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GV invests in Home From College, a career platform for Gen Z

April 3, 2024

Home From College, a career platform for young professionals and college students looking for their first job or internship, announced Wednesday that it raised $5.4 million in a seed round led by GV (formerly Google Ventures). The new capital will go toward building out the platform’s main offering, “Gig,” a marketplace for companies to list […]

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How to reopen a nuclear power plant

April 3, 2024
A shut-down nuclear power plant in Michigan could get a second life thanks to a $1.52 billion loan from the US Department of Energy. If successful, it will be the first time a shuttered nuclear power plant reopens in the US.   Palisades Power Plant shut down on May 20, 2022, after 50 years of generating…

Stock Q1 Recap & Future Outlook

April 3, 2024
The first quarter of 2024 brought with it even more impressive gains helping to push the S&P 500 (SPY) to new heights. That is then…this is now. Meaning that there…

Opera allows users to download and use LLMs locally

April 3, 2024

Web browser company Opera announced today it will now allow users to download and use Large Language Models (LLMs) locally on their computer. This feature is first rolling out to Opera One users who get developer stream updates and will allow users to select from over 150 models from more than 50 families. These models […]

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Threads is giving Taiwanese users a safe space to talk about politics

April 3, 2024
This story first appeared in China Report, MIT Technology Review’s newsletter about technology in China. Sign up to receive it in your inbox every Tuesday. Like most reporters, I have accounts on every social media platform you can think of. But for the longest time, I was not on Threads, the rival to X (formerly Twitter) released…

Full Glass Wine raises $14M to continue acquiring DTC wine marketplaces, buys Bright Cellars

April 3, 2024

Full Glass Wine, a brand acquisition management startup that specializes in acquiring wine marketplaces, has raised $14 million in a Series A round to continue acquiring DTC (direct-to-consumer) wine marketplaces, aiming to lead the DTC wine market.  The outfit recently acquired Bright Cellars, a subscription-based wine service provider in Wisconsin, for an undisclosed price. The deal […]

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The race to fix space-weather forecasting before next big solar storm hits

April 3, 2024
Tzu-Wei Fang will always remember February 3, 2022. It was a Thursday just after Groundhog Day, and Fang, a physicist born in Taiwan, was analyzing satellite images of a cloud of charged particles that had erupted from the sun. The incoming cloud was a coronal mass ejection, or CME—essentially a massive burst of magnetized plasma…

After reaching profitability, carpooling platform BlaBlaCar secures $108 million debt line

April 3, 2024

BlaBlaCar is an iconic name in the French startup ecosystem. The carpooling and bus ticketing company has been around for so long that it’s hard to consider it a startup anymore. Still, BlaBlaCar is an extremely interesting company today due to its unique trajectory. What started as a scrappy online hitchhiking community became a startup […]

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Indian government’s cloud spilled citizens’ personal data online for years

April 3, 2024

The Indian government has finally resolved a years-long cybersecurity issue that exposed reams of sensitive data about its citizens. A security researcher exclusively told TechCrunch he found at least hundreds of documents containing citizens’ personal information — including Aadhaar numbers, COVID-19 vaccination data, and passport details — spilling online for anyone to access. At fault […]

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