WhatsApp just caught an Italian spyware firm building a fake version of its app for iPhones
WhatsApp has notified approximately 200 users, primarily in Italy, that they were tricked into installing a counterfeit version of the messaging app that was actually government spyware. The fake application was built by SIO, an Italian surveillance technology company that develops spyware for law e
ALSO hits $1B valuation and signs DoorDash as its first major autonomous delivery partner
The Palo Alto small-EV company raised $200M in a Series C led by Greenoaks, with DoorDash investing alongside a multi-year commercial agreement to deploy purpose-built autonomous vehicles for last-mile delivery. DoorDash co-founder Stanley Tang joins the board as an observer. ALSO, the small electri
EnerVenue lands $300 million to bring NASA’s space batteries down to Earth
For decades, nickel-hydrogen batteries have been the quiet workhorses of space, powering the International Space Station and the Hubble Space Telescope through the extremes of orbit. Now, a California startup wants to put that same chemistry to work on the ground, and it just secured serious money t
Nexus raises $4.3M seed to let non-technical teams deploy enterprise AI agents
The Brussels-founded, Y Combinator-backed startup counts Orange among its early enterprise customers, which deployed a customer onboarding agent in four weeks. General Catalyst led the round. Nexus, the Brussels-founded AI agent deployment platform backed by Y Combinator, has raised $4.3 million in
Apple Intelligence briefly goes live in China without approval, raising the spectre of regulatory penalties
In the small hours of Tuesday morning, something unexpected appeared on iPhones across mainland China. Apple Intelligence, the suite of AI-powered tools that the company has spent nearly two years trying to bring to its largest market outside the US, flickered to life, showed up in users’ settings m
South Korea turns to Russian naphtha as Asia’s chip supply chain feels the squeeze
When Iran effectively closed the Strait of Hormuz in late February, choking off the corridor through which a fifth of the world’s oil and gas flows, the immediate consequences were predictable: crude prices spiked, energy markets convulsed, and geopolitical analysts reached for their most alarming a
OpenAI closes record $122 billion round at $852 billion valuation, opens door to retail investors for the first time
There is a number that keeps getting larger, and on Tuesday it got larger again. OpenAI announced that it had closed its latest funding round with $122 billion in committed capital, valuing the ChatGPT maker at $852 billion post-money. The figure is up from the $110 billion the company announced in
ByteDance adds watermarking and IP guardrails to Seedance 2.0 as it begins cautious global rollout
Six weeks ago, a video of Tom Cruise fighting Brad Pitt on a rooftop went viral. It was, of course, not real. It was generated by Seedance 2.0, ByteDance’s AI video model, and it set off a firestorm that drew cease-and-desist letters from six major Hollywood studios, a formal denunciation from the M
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards just named 18 US tech firms as military targets. The age of the civilian data centre is over.
At 8pm Tehran time on Tuesday, a new kind of front line was drawn, not through desert terrain or along a disputed border, but through the server farms, cloud regions, and corporate campuses of America’s largest technology companies. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps published a statement on its
The Multi-Hop Challenge: Understanding Indirect Blockchain Exposure in Compliance
Public blockchains operate as permissionless networks where anyone can send digital assets to any address at any time. This open architecture creates a fundamental technical challenge for compliance teams tracking the flow of funds. Digital assets rarely travel in straight lines. They often move thr
Decentraland just launched on the Epic Games Store.
The metaverse was supposed to be its own destination. You would put on a headset, enter a virtual world, and never need to think about the platform that brought you there. That was the pitch, anyway. Decentraland, one of the earliest and most persistent experiments in decentralised virtual worlds, a
Judge throws out Musk’s advertising boycott lawsuit against X’s former sponsors
A US federal judge has dismissed Elon Musk’s antitrust lawsuit against advertisers who pulled their spending from X, ruling that the company failed to state a valid legal claim and barring it from ever refiling the case. US District Judge Jane Boyle, presiding in Dallas, dismissed the suit with prej
UK fines Apple subsidiary for paying a sanctioned Russian streaming service through the App Store
The UK’s Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation has fined Apple Distribution International, Apple’s Ireland-based subsidiary, £390,000 for making two payments totalling more than £635,000 to a sanctioned Russian entity through the App Store in 2022. The fine is, by Apple’s standards, negligibl
Mainland Chinese tech firms are flooding into Hong Kong as the West tightens the door
The number of mainland Chinese companies listing on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange rose from 30 in 2024 to 76 in 2025, an increase of 153 per cent, according to PricewaterhouseCoopers. Hong Kong reclaimed the top global position for IPO fundraising last year, with 119 listings raising HK$285.8 billion
Uber is acquiring Blacklane, the Berlin chauffeur platform backed by Sixt and Mercedes-Benz
The deal, financial terms undisclosed, expected to close by end of 2026, arrives weeks after Uber launched its own Uber Elite chauffeur service and positions the ride-hailing giant as a serious player in the corporate and executive travel segment. Uber has agreed to acquire Blacklane, the Berlin-fou
Midas raises $50M Series A to solve tokenised finance’s liquidity problem
The Berlin-based RWA tokenisation platform, which has powered $1.7B+ in asset issuance and won EU regulatory approval to serve retail investors, is using the round to launch Midas Staked Liquidity, a dedicated liquidity layer designed to make instant redemptions the default for on-chain investment p
ScaleOps raises $130M to autonomously manage cloud and AI infrastructure
The New York and Israel-based startup, founded by a former Run:ai engineer and professional triathlete, has grown 350%+ year-on-year and counts Adobe, Wiz, DocuSign, and Salesforce among its customers. Insight Partners led the Series C. ScaleOps has raised $130 million in a Series C round at a valua
Rebellions closes $400M pre-IPO round at a $2.34B valuation
The South Korean fabless AI chip company, backed by Samsung, SK Hynix, and Aramco, raises $650M in six months and targets Meta and xAI as US customers. Korea’s National Growth Fund chose Rebellions as its very first investment. Rebellions, the South Korean AI inference chip company, has closed a $40
From satellite ops to nordic launchpad
Bjørn Ottar Elseth, an aerospace engineer and strategic advisor, has dedicated his career to connecting technology, leadership, and collaboration in ways that support meaningful industrial progress. His work is shaped by a longstanding commitment to helping organizations navigate complexity while un
How AI’s capital explosion signals opportunity but also reveals a critical need for measurable ROI and meaningful impact
The current wave of investment in artificial intelligence reflects one of the largest capital shifts in modern technology, yet questions around financial return remain central to how this growth is being interpreted. According to a report, global venture capital investment in AI firms reached over $