As visa crackdowns and diplomatic tensions block traditional study-abroad routes, India’s Leverage Edu is helping students reroute their dreams — from Canada to Germany, and from India to Nigeria and Saudi Arabia. That agility is paying off: The startup has doubled its revenue, turned profitable, and is now expanding its global footprint. Over the past … Read more
Instagram head Adam Mosseri posted on his account on Wednesday to dispel the myth that the social networking giant is actively “listening” to its users surreptitiously, in order to target them with relevant ads. The idea that Meta would secretly turn on the microphones on users’ phones to record their conversations is an age-old conspiracy … Read more
New York City regulators have extended Waymo’s autonomous vehicle testing permit through the end of the year, the company said Wednesday. The permit was initially granted in August to allow Waymo to test its robotaxis in the city until the end of September. The terms of the extended permit are the same: Waymo can deploy up to eight of its … Read more
Fortnite maker Epic Games said that Apple’s new installation workflow, implemented in iOS 18.6, has had a positive impact on its user growth, with a 60% decrease in drop-offs. Apple started allowing EU users to install alternative marketplaces earlier this year under the Digital Markets Act (DMA). At that time, the installation process was lengthier … Read more
The U.S. Department of Energy has taken equity stakes in Canadian company Lithium Americas and its Nevada mining joint venture with General Motors as part of a renegotiation of a federal loan. Under the new terms, the U.S. government will take a 5% equity ownership in Lithium Americas and a 5% ownership in the Lithium … Read more
Starbase is a city without a police department, but not without police. For months, Cameron County sheriff’s deputies have patrolled the roads and beaches surrounding SpaceX’s sprawling rocket facility in South Texas. Now, less than a year after Starbase residents voted to incorporate, the city has signed formal agreements making those deputies its de facto … Read more
ChatGPT, OpenAI’s text-generating AI chatbot, has taken the world by storm since its launch in November 2022. What started as a tool to supercharge productivity through writing essays and code with short text prompts has evolved into a behemoth with 300 million weekly active users. 2024 was a big year for OpenAI, from its partnership … Read more
Browser maker Opera launched its AI-centric browser Neon Tuesday, with the ability to create apps through AI prompts and create repeatable prompts through a feature it calls cards. With this Opera joins a growing number of companies like Perplexity and The Browser Company that are trying to make agentic browsers happen. The company first announced … Read more
The lack of growth capital in Europe is such a persisting issue that some early-stage firms have taken the matter into their own hands. London-headquartered firm Notion Capital is one of them. In 2017, Notion Capital was one of the first in Europe to close an opportunities fund to provide its portfolio companies with follow-on … Read more
California Gov. Gavin Newsom has signed SB 53, a first-in-the-nation bill that sets new transparency requirements on large AI companies. SB 53, which passed the state legislature two weeks ago, requires large AI labs – including OpenAI, Anthropic, Meta, and Google DeepMind – to be transparent about safety protocols. It also ensures whistleblower protections for employees at those companies. In addition, SB 53 creates a mechanism … Read more
