Ellen DiMauro / Semafor: Sources: Waymo aims to expand its fleet to 8K by the end of this year, up from 4K today, and to 20K by the end of 2027, after raising $5B in debt this month — THE SCOOP — As Waymo expands into new cities with its self-driving cars, the company plans to use the $5 billion it recently borrowed to massively increase its fleet.
Reed Albergotti / Semafor: Perplexity open sources SPACE, its AI agent sandbox, and says partners including CoreWeave, Akamai, and Crusoe agreed to offer SPACE to customers — THE SCOOP — Perplexity is giving away the software it has been using to combat rogue AI agents, the company told Semafor Thursday.
Ashley Gold / Semafor: The US stood alone in dismissing AI safety concerns at the UN, leaving nations to set nonbinding rules without buy-in from the home of the biggest AI companies — ASHLEY'S VIEW — The White House and its allies are lonely in their insistence that AI development in America must accelerate without governments setting ground rules.
J.D. Capelouto / Semafor: At the UN AI for Good summit, a big Chinese delegation argued Chinese open-source AI models are the future for most of the world, while US presence was muted — Reporter and Lead Writer, Semafor Flagship — THE SCENE — In the days before the American AI industry erupted in a bitter dispute …
Rachyl Jones / Semafor: A slew of top Boston Dynamics execs have left the Hyundai-owned company in recent months, as sources say it faces pressure to speed the delivery of humanoids — In recent months, a slew of top executives at Boston Dynamics have left the company, which Hyundai bought a majority stake in back in 2021.
Matthew Martin / Semafor: Alat, a $100B Saudi Arabia PIF-backed electronics manufacturing fund, has removed CEO Amit Midha; sources say it has dropped plans to invest in chip production — The Scoop — Know More — Notable — THE SCOOP — Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund has dismissed Alat CEO Amit Midha …
Semafor: Sources: the US and China approve a deal to sell TikTok's US business to a group of mostly US investors led by Oracle and Silverlake, set to close this week — The US and China have signed off on a deal to sell TikTok's US business to a consortium of mostly US investors led by Oracle and Silverlake …
Max Tani / Semafor: Adam Mosseri says “maybe we'll need” premium longform video for Instagram, and that TikTok's US sale turmoil has given Meta time to retune algorithms — A day before Instagram's new integration for Amazon Fire smart TVs was set to roll out, Adam Mosseri, who runs the platform for Meta …
Semafor: In a letter to the Trump administration, the GOP Senatorial Committee Chair Sen. Tim Scott said the Netflix-WBD deal raises “significant antitrust problems” — THE SCOOP — A key Republican senator Friday joined the mounting opposition in Washington to Netflix's takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery.
Rachyl Jones / Semafor: Singapore-based ChemLex raised a $45M funding round led by Granite Asia to build an AI-powered, automated chemistry lab to accelerate drug discovery — Singapore-based ChemLex raised $45 million to build out its autonomous chemistry lab with hopes it can speed drug discovery and therapy development …
Matthew Martin / Semafor: HP plans to build millions of computers in Saudi Arabia by 2030, primarily for export to MENA, as part of the kingdom's plans to boost manufacturing and exports — HP is set to build millions of devices in Saudi Arabia with the majority earmarked for export into the wider Middle East …
Andrew Edgecliffe-Johnson / Semafor: A profile of eBay CEO Jamie Iannone, who said the platform was “too complacent” in 2020 and now focuses on its power users, boosting its stock by ~50% in 2025 — THE SIGNAL INTERVIEW — As the AI frenzy drives US stock markets higher, one tech company's shares have jumped almost 50% …
Ben Smith / Semafor: How David Sacks emerged as the most effective advocate for tech, crypto, and AI in the Trump administration, using his tech expertise and All-In co-host status — The care with which David Sacks tracks his days in Washington has been described to me, variously, as matching the focus …
Kelsey Warner / Semafor: Source: G42 is talking to Google, AWS, Meta, Microsoft, and xAI to become tenants at its UAE-US AI Campus, and aims to diversify chip suppliers beyond Nvidia — THE SCOOP — Abu Dhabi-backed G42 is still negotiating with major American technology firms — with no agreements yet …
Kelsey Warner / Semafor: Airalo, which offers affordable eSIM roaming packages for travelers, raised $220M at a $1B+ valuation — A startup looking to address steep roaming charges with lower-cost digital SIM cards is the telecom industry's latest unicorn. Airalo has raised $220 million in new funding …
Andrew Edgecliffe-Johnson / Semafor: An interview with Autodesk CEO Andrew Anagnost on settling the proxy fight with Starboard Value, serving the “design and make” workforce, US reshoring, and more — Twice in the past two years, Andrew Anagnost has found himself under siege from the same activist investor.
Rachyl Jones / Semafor: A look at Meta's recent hires for its nascent superintelligence unit, including Pei Sun, who developed two generations of Waymo's perception models — Meta's new hires offer a glimpse into its nascent superintelligence unit, aimed at making the social media company's AI capabilities more competitive with industry leaders.
Rachyl Jones / Semafor: AIM Intelligent Machines, which retrofits heavy construction equipment to operate autonomously, raised $50M from Khosla Ventures, General Catalyst, and others — THE SCOOP — Tech startup AIM Intelligent Machines, which retrofits heavy construction equipment to operate autonomously …
Reed Albergotti / Semafor: A Replit employee details a critical security flaw in web apps created using AI-powered app builder Lovable that exposes API keys and personal info of app users — THE SCOOP — Lovable, the popular vibe coding app that describes itself as the fastest-growing company in Europe …
Reed Albergotti / Semafor: Sources: Anthropic has been lobbying Congress to oppose a bill banning states from regulating AI, and pushed against the recent US AI deal with Gulf states — THE SCOOP — Anthropic is going toe-to-toe with the Trump Administration on artificial intelligence policy …
Olumuyiwa Olowogboyega / Semafor: African e-commerce giant Jumia says it is ramping up the number of China-based merchants on its platform, as it faces competition from Temu and Shein — Jumia, Africa's biggest online retailer, is ramping up the number of China-based merchants on its platforms as it struggles …
Rachyl Jones / Semafor: Zeki: the US risks losing its edge as the top destination for AI talent, as the 12-month rolling average of AI talent entering in 2025 equals the number leaving — The US risks losing its edge as the best place in the world to work in tech, according to new reports.
Ben Smith / Semafor: A look at the network of group chats that surged in 2020 as a place where Silicon Valley leaders allied with the new right, revolving around Marc Andreessen — THE SCOOP — Last Thursday morning, a bit before 10 am in Austin and nearly 11 pm in Singapore, Joe Lonsdale had enough of Balaji Srinivasan's views on China.
Rachyl Jones / Semafor: An off-Broadway theater in New York is offering Worldly's AI-powered live translations in 60 languages, via headphones during the show, to attract new audiences — An off-Broadway theater in New York has a new way to attract audiences: live, AI-powered translations that make performances more accessible to non-English speakers.
Andrew Edgecliffe-Johnson / Semafor: An interview with Affirm co-founder Max Levchin on hitting profitability, international expansion, building an “Affirm mafia”, DOGE, friendship with Musk, more — This article first appeared in The CEO Signal. Request an invitation. — THE SIGNAL INTERVIEW
Max Tani / Semafor: Documents: the NYT greenlights using select internal and external AI tools for editorial and product staff, including from OpenAI, Amazon, Google, and Microsoft — The Scoop — The New York Times is greenlighting the use of AI for its product and editorial staff, saying that internal tools …
Reed Albergotti / Semafor: The US could encourage future DeepSeeks to happen inside the US by funding the NAIRR, a pilot project providing compute power to university-level researchers — The Scene — More than two weeks before the recent market meltdown, OpenAI's head of global policy Chris Lehane told me he thought …
Reed Albergotti / Semafor: Q&A with Samsara CEO Sanjit Biswas on how AI has changed the $30B company, which offers sensors, cameras, and software for managing vehicle fleets and equipment — THE SCENE — Samsara, a company that helps businesses track and monitor assets like vehicle fleets and equipment …
Reed Albergotti / Semafor: Q&A with Palo Alto Networks CEO Nikesh Arora about the role of the tech industry in Trump's administration, AI, the future of cybersecurity, and more — The Scene — While Palo Alto Networks CEO Nikesh Arora and his firm are more under the radar than Silicon Valley's consumer companies …
Max Tani / Semafor: Substack, which still isn't profitable but has added 1M+ paid subscribers over the past year, is trying to become a primary way creators of all mediums get paid — The News — Seven years since its launch, the newsletter platform Substack has consolidated its dominance of the independent news business.
Joseph Zeballos-Roig / Semafor: Kamala Harris is courting crypto investors and pro-crypto Democrats, as some prominent Democrats temper their initial skepticism of crypto assets — THE SCOOP — Kamala Harris isn't just talking about a friendlier approach to cryptocurrency than President Joe Biden.
Rachyl Jones / Semafor: Some former CrowdStrike employees say they raised concerns about executives rushing deadlines and quality checks, more than a year before the July 2024 outage — THE SCOOP — Software engineers at the cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike complained about rushed deadlines, excessive workloads …
J.D. Capelouto / Semafor: Once hesitant to openly comment about politics, German tech leaders publicly voice their opposition to the far-right AfD ahead of Sunday's state elections — DRESDEN — The rise of populist candidates in Germany is spurring the country's tech scene into the political fray.
Sultan Quadri / Semafor: Starlink faces regulatory obstacles in Africa, as countries worry about losing control over content and the company providing services without paying taxes — LAGOS — At the end of April, Starlink, the satellite broadband service owned by South African-born tech billionaire Elon Musk …
Martin K.N Siele / Semafor: How Kenya's anti-government protestors are using AI tools, including the Corrupt Politicians GPT, a chatbot that reveals corruption cases involving politicians — NAIROBI — Kenya's government has raised concerns about risks associated with use of artificial intelligence (AI) as youth-led …
Reed Albergotti / Semafor: Sources: Mustafa Suleyman's presence at Microsoft is causing some awkwardness with OpenAI, as he looks at the algorithms behind models like GPT-4 — The Scoop — OpenAI was founded, in large part, as an AI safety countermeasure to DeepMind, the AI company acquired by Google in 2014.
Max Tani / Semafor: Many outlets have increased reliance on Apple News+; The Daily Beast is set to make $3M-$4M from it in 2024, and Time says it delivers a 7-figure annual revenue — The Scoop — Like many digital publishers, The Daily Beast was struggling at the end of 2023.
Ben Smith / Semafor: Billionaire tech critic Frank McCourt says he is preparing a “people's bid” for TikTok to buy and rebuild the app as “a new and better version of the internet” — The Scoop — A billionaire tech critic says he is mounting a bid to buy TikTok …
Reed Albergotti / Semafor: Q&A with Linda Moore, the CEO of TechNet, which represents OpenAI, Apple, and others, about the 400+ AI bills proposed across the US, tech backlash, and more — The Scene — While Congress is talking a lot about artificial intelligence but doing little to regulate it …
Max Tani / Semafor: Sources: Apple suggests podcasters join its subscription program to be on its Podcast “browse” carousel; 5 of the first 7 podcasts last week were participants — The Scoop — To get their show featured at the top of the Apple Podcasts feed, one of the best placements in the audio world …
Reed Albergotti / Semafor: Memo: Google CEO Sundar Pichai calls Gemini's problematic responses around race “completely unacceptable” and vows to make structural changes to fix the problem — The Scoop — Google CEO Sundar Pichai addressed the company's Gemini controversy Tuesday evening …
Liz Hoffman / Semafor: Q&A with Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev about the meme-stock craze, launching in the UK and EU, becoming customers' primary financial institution, and more — On The Record — Three years ago, an army of bored, stimulus-rich day traders upended the stock market.
Reed Albergotti / Semafor: Sources: OpenAI has received only a fraction of Microsoft's $10B investment, a big portion of which is in cloud purchases, giving Microsoft significant leverage — Only a fraction of Microsoft's $10 billion investment in OpenAI has been wired to the startup, while a significant portion of the funding …
Semafor: Source: Sam Altman was in the middle of raising money for a new VC fund focusing on hard tech when OpenAI fired him — Sam Altman was in the middle of raising money for a new venture capital fund focusing on hard tech when he stepped down as CEO of OpenAI, according to a person familiar with the matter.
Reed Albergotti / Semafor: Q&A with Discord's head of trust and safety John Redgrave on the content moderation challenges in the age of generative AI, exploring E2EE on Discord, and more — Discord, the online messaging platform that started as a haven for gamers, became better known earlier this year as the site …
Louise Matsakis / Semafor: Hugging Face confirms “regrettable accessibility issues in China”, after a report says the country fully blocked access to the AI model platform on September 12 — AI startup Hugging Face told Semafor it was aware of the “regrettable accessibility issues in China” …
Reed Albergotti / Semafor: Q&A with Microsoft's consumer chief marketing officer Yusuf Mehdi on AI trends, competition, taking over some of Panos Panay's responsibilities, and more — Usually, when Microsoft unveils its new laptops, the focus is on the hardware. Last week, it was all about the software …
Reed Albergotti / Semafor: Q&A with Microsoft Consumer Chief Marketing Officer Yusuf Mehdi on where AI is headed, competition, taking over some of Panos Panay's responsibilities, and more — Usually, when Microsoft unveils its new laptops, the focus is on the hardware. Last week, it was all about the software …
Louise Matsakis / Semafor: Sources: The White House is weighing requiring cloud companies to disclose when a client buys computing resources above a set threshold, as part of an EO on AI — The White House is considering requiring cloud computing firms to report some information about their customers to the U.S. government …
Louise Matsakis / Semafor: Q&A with TikTok Head of Music Ole Obermann on launching TikTok Music in Indonesia and Brazil before the US and helping artists from discovery to distribution — Since it first exploded in popularity five years ago, TikTok has evolved into the de facto launching pad for new musicians around the world …