Google kicks off $20B renewable energy building spree to power AI

Nuclear power may have received the lion's share of attention from energy hungry tech companies over the past few months, with Google among them. But it appears that those new reactors won't be enough for their AI ambitions: Google is now working with partners to build gigawatts of renewabl

Instagram rolls out ‘trial reels’ that aren’t shown to a creator’s followers

Instagram is officially rolling out “trial reels” to give creators a way to test out new content by publishing videos that don't appear to their followers. The feature, which launched in testing in May, allows creators to experiment with new ideas and see what performs best without

TikTok’s e-commerce ‘Shop’ platform launches in Spain

TikTok’s e-commerce Shop feature is going live in Spain, the company announced on Tuesday, marking the first step of a wider European rollout. The launch indicates that TikTok parent ByteDance is speeding up the expansion of the TikTok Shop in European markets as a potential U.S. ban looms.

Duolingo teams up with Netflix to help 'Squid Game' fans learn Korean

Attention, players. You are about to compete in a new challenge—but first, do you know how to speak Korean? In preparation for Season Two of “Squid Game,” one of Netflix's most popular Korean thriller series, the streaming giant announced on Tuesday that it has teamed up with the languag

Stainless helps build SDKs for OpenAI, Anthropic, and Meta

Devs expect tech vendors to supply software development kits, or SDKs, alongside their products to make it easier to create apps using those products. But many vendors only offer APIs, which are simply protocols that enable software components to communicate with each other. Alex Rattray, the foun

Lucid Motors’ Gravity SUV nabs 450-mile EPA range estimate

The first Lucid Motors Gravity SUV just rolled off the company’s production line last week, and now it has an official EPA range estimate of 450 miles. That’s a tick higher than the 440-mile estimate Lucid had been citing in the run-up to the official launch and production run of the S

Amazon is officially in the online car sales business

Amazon expanded Tuesday into online car sales with the launch of Amazon Autos, an e-commerce business that lets customers find, order, and buy new cars, trucks, and SUVs from dealerships. Amazon is kicking off the new endeavor with Hyundai in 48 U.S. cities, including Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Los

A new wave of desalination startups argues that deeper is better

It's a cruel reality that only about 3% of the world's water is fresh, and of that, only a fraction is readily available. Yet as the world's arid regions encounter intensifying droughts, more people are eyeing the other 97% that's sloshing around in the oceans. Islands, cities, and

Cohesity completes its merger with Veritas; here’s how they’ll integrate

Data protection startup Cohesity completed its merger with Veritas’ enterprise data protection business, creating one entity with 12,000 customers that is valued at $7 billion. The deal was originally announced in February 2024. Cohesity valued Carlyle-owned Veritas’ data protection bu

TeamViewer buys 1E, which detects PC software problems, for $720M

U.K.-based 1E, which detects software problems on desktop PCs remotely, has been acquired by Germany-based remote-working company TeamViewer for $720 million. This is TeamViewer's biggest acquisition so far and will allow it to expand its North American market. 1E, which was sold to Carlyle Gr

OpenAI-backed Speak raises $78M at $1B valuation to help users learn languages by talking out loud

Languages are typically taught by first exposing you to reading and writing, but native speakers always start learning languages by hearing and talking. Speak has built a platform to teach languages by focusing on how native speakers learn: Using AI, the startup generates audio conversations and li

EU cybersecurity rules for smart devices enter into force

Rules for boosting the security of connected devices have entered into force in the European Union. The Cyber Resilience Act (CRA) puts obligations on product makers to provide security support to consumers, such as by updating their software to fix security vulnerabilities. Although the deadline

Nexalus has a new method for liquid-cooling data centers that could make the waste heat useful

As data center power demand surges, tech companies are looking for ways to trim electricity use wherever they can. Cooling is an obvious place to start, since it can account for around 40% of a data center's energy consumption, according to McKinsey. Most data centers are cooled by blowing chi

Hackers are exploiting a flaw in popular file-transfer tools to launch mass hacks, again

Security researchers are warning that hackers are actively exploiting another high-risk vulnerability in a popular file transfer technology to launch mass hacks.  The vulnerability, tracked as CVE-2024-50623, affects software developed by Illinois-based enterprise software company Cleo, accor