The Verge

OpenAI is now valued at $1.25 trillion in a new round of funding that has raised another $11 billion, according to Bloomberg. That would make it one of the world's most valuable companies, not long after raising $122 billion from investors in March at a valuation of $852 billion. Echoing FT and Wall Street Journal reports from last week, Bloomberg says OpenAI is still pursuing additional investments that could increase the amount to $20 billion, and that it had initially hoped to raise as much as $30 billion at a higher valuation of $1.4 trillion. That was before tech stocks dropped, and the

The Verge·قبل 11 ساعة

China's intelligence agency recruited Megaspeed executive Alice Huang to spy on Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, according to The New York Times. The Ministry of State Security (MSS) enlisted her to glean information about American AI chips and "potentially influence the company to push for its most advanced chips to be made available to China." Megaspeed is a customer of Nvidia's, and Alice Huang also has "relationships with executives at the highest levels of the A.I. chip industry," including leaders at Gigabyte, the NYT says. Last week, the NYT reported that Jensen Huang was seen as the target of

The Verge·قبل 12 ساعة

SpaceX has declared that it’s going to make Starlink Mobile a “major” mobile carrier. The Elon Musk-owned company has already deployed thousands of direct-to-cell satellites, but its next big challenge is building out its 5G network here on Earth. As part of its plans to rival AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile, SpaceX has inked a deal with Qualcomm, which will deploy its cellular technology across tens of thousands of 5G cell sites starting in 2027. SpaceX is also reportedly in talks to buy Boost Mobile, potentially allowing it to launch Starlink Mobile through the service. Another report suggests

The Verge·قبل 12 ساعة

Massive new data centers are the physical foundation for tech companies’ hopes and dreams for AI. But the rush to expand warehouses full of energy-hungry servers has also kicked up fights across the world over their impact on power grids, utility bills, nearby communities, and the environment. Data centers were a major bipartisan issue ahead of the 2026 midterms, and voters largely opposed data center expansion at the polls. Tech giants like OpenAI and Amazon are promising to work more closely with local communities and cover their data center energy costs. But following the election, Democrat

The Verge·قبل 15 ساعة

Shure’s MV7 Plus is a popular podcasting and streaming mic. | Image: Shure While the Shure Mv7 Plus is popular with streamers and podcasters, it’s equally good at impressing your friends and coworkers on meetings and Discord calls. It’s currently marked down to $255 at various retailers, including Amazon, Guitar Center, and directly from Shure. That’s almost $50 lower than its usual price, and just a few dollars off Amazon’s all-time low. If you don’t already have a stand, both Amazon and Shure are offering a bundle that includes the mic and a desktop stand for $269, and the white model is a

The Verge·قبل 15 ساعة

A massive permitting bill that could help energy projects come online much quicker and potentially lower utility bills for Americans is advancing with bipartisan support. And while it could be a catalyst for lots of clean energy, it could also speed up polluting projects and limit oversight of new data centers. With data centers demanding more electricity for AI, environmental advocates fear that developers could take advantage of the reforms to evade public scrutiny and rely more heavily on fossil fuels. The bill sacrifices caution for speed, limiting environmental reviews and preventing comm

The Verge·قبل 16 ساعة

Meta will now allow you to build customized, app-like experiences within its Muse AI assistant. The new feature, called "spaces," allows Muse to build things like a shopping hub, school dashboard, music tracker, trivia game, and more, which you can interact with directly in the app. If you connect your space to a relevant app, Muse will update pricing, dates, and other information in the background. Meta says you can create a new space by describing it, and continue to tweak it by asking Muse. You can also interact with your spaces by checking things off, adding notes, and making edits. Y

The Verge·قبل 17 ساعة

Following the Melania documentary movie about Melania Trump that premiered earlier this year, Amazon is now planning to release a two-part Prime Video series focusing on the First Lady. The show, Melania: The Series, is set to debut on November 20th. "MELANIA, The Series reveals never-before-told stories, offering unprecedented insight into Melania Trump's life, including the extraordinary days immediately following the 47th Presidential Inauguration," according to a description in a press release. Here's what Amazon says the two episodes will be about: I. Family & Trust: Melania Trump sets p

The Verge·قبل 17 ساعة

Someone at the White House appears to be running software that could enable outsiders to rent access on the presidential network for just "a few dollars," as reported by Krebs on Security and The Register. That's according to findings from the security firms Layer3 Intel and Synthient, which discovered residential proxy activity on the White House network. A residential proxy opens up a way for people to rent access to a home IP address and route their internet traffic through it, allowing them to conceal where their activity is actually coming from. Some apps and browser extensions include th

The Verge·قبل 17 ساعة

Kobo is launching a new monthly subscription service called Stack that lets you upload your own ebooks and documents to the company's servers where they'll be synced across multiple devices and apps, including your reading progress, highlights, and annotations. Kobo Stack is similar to Amazon's Send to Kindle feature that allows users to upload a wide variety of files to their Kindle libraries for free, but Kobo's version will cost a few dollars each month. Kobo Stack is being introduced as part of a major 6.0 update to the company's e-reader software, which is available in beta now as an opti

The Verge·قبل 18 ساعة

Apple's iPhone Duo has been officially on sale for two weeks, and the company said today that the App Store now has over 100,000 apps that are built for the foldable. "It's been wonderful to see how quickly developers have embraced iPhone Duo, and we're grateful for their creativity and innovation," Susan Prescott, Apple's VP of Worldwide Developer Relations, says in a statement. "Today there are well over 100,000 apps built for iPhone Duo already live on the App Store, and thousands of optimized apps are being added to the store each day." Prescott adds that "The enthusiasm has been incredibl

The Verge·قبل 18 ساعة

When Irene moved to San Francisco last year, she started using dating apps as a way to meet new people, get to know her new city, and connect with others who care about the things she does. After the 25-year-old analyst downloaded Hinge and started swiping, she noticed a trend. "Hinge has a prompt where you can say, 'We'll get along if''," she recalls. "Sometimes people will be like, 'Fuck AI.'" Usually, the people who include this kind of value statement on their profile work in the arts, nursing, maybe graphic design. Within the span of a few minutes of sitting down and swiping, Irene shows

The Verge·قبل 18 ساعة

If you’re curious about virtual reality, Meta’s Quest 3S is a good entry-level headset for dipping your toes in, especially now it’s on sale in refurbished condition for $255.99 directly from Meta’s eBay storefront through November 8th when you use coupon code SAVE20TECH. For comparison, the headset recently dropped to $300 in new condition as part of Amazon’s fall Prime Day event, and currently retails for $349.99. According to eBay, the certified refurbished headset is in “like-new” condition and has undergone professional inspection and cleaning by the manufacturer. More importantly, it com

The Verge·قبل 19 ساعة

On Tuesday, millions of American voters went to the polls and voted overwhelmingly for Democrats and against AI. The fight against Big Tech is about to come roaring back, and the fight over data centers is looking even harder for the folks trying to build them. On this episode of The Vergecast, Nilay and David discuss what the 2026 midterms mean for the tech industry going forward. They dig into the self-quarantining echo chamber that is X, the congressional energy likely to be pointed at tech CEOs and AI regulation, and whether anything is actually likely to get done in the next two years. A

The Verge·قبل 19 ساعة

inMusic, the parent company of Akai, Moog, Native Instruments, and more, has decided to embrace the modding community. In an interview with The Verge, inMusic CEO Jack O'Donnell said, "We're going to provide a toolbox to the community, we're going to provide the inner workings of, say, an MPC or Sample so that people can do what they want." That "toolbox" includes making the code for devices like the recently teased MPC Sample Key open source, but also offering developers an SDK to make modifications easier and lessen the risk of bricking your beloved sampler. While Akai is eager to see what t

The Verge·قبل 19 ساعة

Lutra, a South Korean startup, has debuted a new brand called Humans of Authenticity (HOA) that's launching another screen-free digital camera that incorporates a large open viewfinder into its design, as spotted by PetaPixel. The camera is reminiscent of the Godox C100 but the HOA A1 positions its lens and sensor close to the center of its large viewfinder window so that a photographer can maintain eye contact with their subject, or feel more in the moment while framing a shot without staring at a screen. The HOA A1 First Edition is expected to launch on December 1st in a very limited run of

The Verge·قبل 20 ساعة

Buying the 4K Blu-ray disc version of KPop Demon Hunters was already going to be a wise idea for some people, especially those who primarily keep their $26.99 Netflix Premium subscription just to watch the hit animated flick in 4K. But at just $24.99 from Barnes and Noble instead of its original $49.95 price, it’s easier than ever to recommend. One important thing to note: it’s unavailable to ship from Barnes and Noble, but you can find a discounted copy at most retail stores, and the site makes it easy to reserve a copy online to pick up later. Amazon was matching the price earlier today, bu

The Verge·قبل 20 ساعة

A researcher found over 100,000 words and phrases in "every major language" that are blocked from autocomplete and swipe-type in iOS, Reuters reports. The researcher, Derik Kauffman, says you can still type the words on the blocklist one letter at a time. But they won't pop up as predictive text suggestions and iOS's keyboard may automatically alter them when swipe-typing, like changing "left wing conspiracy" to "left wrong conspiracy." Kauffman posted the full list online, including the individual lists for different languages. Most of the words and phrases on the list are offensive, slurs, o

The Verge·قبل 20 ساعة