Why Silicon Valley is really talking about fleeing California (it’s not the 5%)

If you’ve been following the billionaire exodus from California with some confusion, here’s what’s actually driving the nervousness: it’s not the 5% rate. As highlighted Friday in the New York Post, the proposed wealth tax would hit founders on their voting shares rather than the actual equity they own. Take Larry Page, who about 3% … Read more

Black Forest Labs launches open source Flux.2 [klein] to generate AI images in less than a second

The German AI startup Black Forest Labs (BFL), founded by former Stability AI engineers, is continuing to build out its suite of open source AI image generators with the release of FLUX.2 [klein], a new pair of small models — one open and one non-commercial — that emphasizes speed and lower compute requirements, with the … Read more

AI journalism startup Symbolic.ai signs deal with Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp

Newsrooms have been experimenting with AI for several years now but, for the most part, those efforts have been just that: experiments. A relatively unknown startup, Symbolic.ai, wants to change that, and it just signed a major deal with News Corp, the media conglomerate owned by Rupert Murdoch. News Corp, the major assets of which … Read more

ASUS has stopped producing the NVIDIA RTX 5070 Ti and 5060 Ti 16GB, saying they’ve reached ‘end of life’

YouTube channel Hardware Unboxed is reporting that ASUS has stopped producing the RTX 5070 Ti and 5060 Ti 16GB due to the ongoing memory crunch. In its most recent video, the channel states ASUS “explicitly” told it the RTX 5070 Ti is “currently facing a supply shortage.” As a result, the company has “placed the … Read more

New York governor clears path for robotaxis everywhere, with one notable exception

New York Governor Kathy Hochul plans to introduce legislation that would effectively legalize robotaxis in the state — except for its most populous metropolis: New York City.  Hochul, who made the comments Tuesday during her State of the State address, said the legislation would advance the next phase of the state’s autonomous vehicle pilot program.  … Read more

Why Egnyte keeps hiring junior engineers despite the rise of AI coding tools

Egnyte, the $1.5 billion cloud content governance company, has embedded AI coding tools across its global team of more than 350 developers — but not to reduce headcount. Instead, the company continues to hire junior engineers, using AI to accelerate onboarding, deepen codebase understanding, and shorten the path from junior to senior contributor. The approach … Read more

Meta has closed three VR studios as part of its metaverse cuts

Several of Meta’s VR studios have been affected by the company’s metaverse-focused layoffs. The company has shuttered three of its VR studios, including Armature, Sanzaru and Twisted Pixel. VR fitness app Supernatural will no longer be updated with fresh content. Employees at Twisted Pixel, which released Marvel’s Deadpool VR in November, and Sanzaru, known for … Read more

Motional puts AI at center of robotaxi reboot as it targets 2026 for driverless service

Nearly two years ago, Motional was at an autonomous vehicle crossroads.  The company, born from a $4 billion joint venture between Hyundai Motor Group and Aptiv, had already missed a deadline to launch a driverless robotaxi service with partner Lyft. It had lost Aptiv as one of its financial backers, prompting Hyundai to step up … Read more