Mission Everywhere

Andre Rucker for BI Pinterest's VP of product management said mixing open-source and closed-source AI models helped cut costs. The social platform's recent AI-enabled features combine OpenAI, Alibaba, and its own AI models. To support this approach, Pinterest invested in cloud infrastructure and an updated hiring strategy. In its pursuit of creating AI-supported tools for its users and advertisers, Pinterest leaders said it is actually shrinking part of its AI budget. As companies continue to spend on AI, they face pressure from investors to show returns on investment from this fast-evolving technology. One way to do that: Stretch investments by shrinking the budget needed for the systems that power AI features. Pinterest, the visual-first social media platform where users can save images to curate their ideas, is taking what it calls a "model-agnostic" approach to generative AI, said Vicky Gkiza, the company's vice president of product management. Th...

Bloomberg : Sources: Meta drew about $96B of orders from investors for a $25B bond sale it launched on Thursday; Meta sold $30B of corporate bonds in October 2025   —  Investors placed about $96 billion of orders for Meta Platforms Inc.'s bond sale, according to people with knowledge of the transaction … from Techmeme https://ift.tt/XM4eZ9E

Bloomberg : Sources: KKR has secured $10B+ to launch Helix Digital Infrastructure, a company led by ex-AWS CEO Adam Selipsky that will develop and operate AI infrastructure   —  KKR & Co. has secured more than $10 billion to launch a company that will develop and operate artificial intelligence infrastructure … from Techmeme https://ift.tt/YEl6Q3h

Rocket Drew / The Information : Standard Intelligence, which is developing computer use AI models, raised $75M led by Sequoia and Spark at a $500M post-money valuation   —  Pedestrians in downtown San Francisco are used to seeing Waymos navigating the streets.  But two months ago, people in the South Park neighborhood saw something new … from Techmeme https://ift.tt/gDzCJ6N

Jasmine Bhatti is the CEO of Navi Nurses. Caitlin O'Hara for BI Jasmine Bhatti's alternative to traditional home health has grown an average of 80% year over year. She says the keys to her growth has been using fractional staff and delaying full-time hires. Navi Nurses hit $7 million in revenue last year. This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Jasmine Bhatti, CEO of Navi Nurses . It has been edited for length and clarity. Since I was in college, I always knew I wanted to make an impact in healthcare at a big level. At the time, my grandmother was diagnosed with cancer and needed 24/7 care. I learned through her experience that there were major gaps in the current home health system . I became a nurse and was reminded of this problem again. So many of my patients would pull at my scrubs and ask if they could pay for me to come home and support them. Bhatti started pitching herself in local Facebook groups in late 2020. Caitlin O'Hara for BI ...

Hugh Son / CNBC : Sources: PayPal is separating Venmo into its own standalone unit and is looking to recruit a digital banking executive to run the new Venmo segment   —  PayPal CEO Enrique Lores has this week told managers that he is reorganizing the firm's reporting lines to separate Venmo … from Techmeme https://ift.tt/EhNL5AP

The Information : SpaceX's draft IPO filing: from 2023 to 2025, Starlink's individual subscribers rose from 2.3M to 8.9M, revenue grew from $3.9B to $11.4B, and ARPU fell 18%   —  SpaceX's Starlink satellite internet service quadrupled its individual subscribers between 2023 and 2025—but the average revenue … from Techmeme https://ift.tt/xUmv4Z6

Gannon Van Dyke, an Army Special Services sergeant, pleaded not guilty in Manhattan on Tuesday to charges that he won $400,000 on Polymarket using his access to military secrets. Théo MARIE-COURTOIS / AFP via Getty Images An Army Special Services sergeant pleaded not guilty to using military secrets to win on Polymarket. Prosecutors say Gannon Van Dyke won $400,000 using classified intel from Nicolás Maduro's capture. A judge agreed to a $250,000 bail package, with Van Dyke ordered to turn in his firearms. An Army Special Forces sergeant pleaded not guilty on Tuesday to felony charges of using classified military secrets about the capture of former Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro to win more than $400,000 on Polymarket . Gannon Van Dyke , 38, appeared in federal court in Manhattan, answering with a brisk "Yes, your honor" when asked if he had read his indictment and discussed it with his legal team. He stood to enter his not guilty plea, again answering crisp...

Nellie Peyton / Reuters : South Africa withdraws its first draft national AI policy after revelations that it contained fictitious sources that appeared to have been AI-generated   —  South Africa has withdrawn its first draft national AI policy after revelations that it contained fictitious sources in its reference list which appeared to have been AI-generated. from Techmeme https://ift.tt/MmKwyIR

Ben Thompson / Stratechery : Q&A with Sam Altman and AWS CEO Matt Garman about OpenAI's new partnership with AWS, Bedrock Managed Agents, Trainium chips, and more   —  As I noted yesterday, today's Stratechery Interview is early in terms of my timing — Tuesday instead of Thursday — and late in terms of delivery … from Techmeme https://ift.tt/Uzlw9WD

When you buy through our links, Business Insider may earn an affiliate commission. Learn more Matteo Ciambelli/DeFodi Images via Getty Images Looking for the latest information on where to watch Champions League matches? Our guide can help you find local and international viewing options to watch every match from anywhere, covering both free and paid options. There are free live streams for both of this week's semi-finals further down this page. While many countries charge for access (see details below), there are plenty of free Champions League live streams for every round of games. To get around region blocks, you'll need a  VPN  (virtual private network) to access them from overseas. See also:   Best streaming deals | Best sports streaming services Champions League live stream: quick links Access live streams internationally via ProtonVPN (try it risk-free for 30 days) USA: Paramount Plus Luxembourg (select games): RTL2 (FREE) Ireland (select games...

Sergiu Gatlan / BleepingComputer : Have I Been Pwned: ShinyHunters' breach of ADT exposed the personal data of 5.5M people; ADT previously disclosed data breaches in August 2024 and October 2024   —  The ShinyHunters extortion group stole the personal information of 5.5 million individuals after breaching the systems … from Techmeme https://ift.tt/xiq8Roz

News of the shooting at the White House Correspondents' Dinner on Saturday night happened too late to make the Sunday morning edition of The New York Times. Courtesy of The New York Times The Sunday print edition of the Times made no mention of the White House Correspondents' dinner shooting. Some critics online called the omission intentional. The Times said it sent its Sunday edition to press at 8 p.m. on Saturday night, before the shooting took place. At 8:36 p.m. on Saturday night, shots were fired outside the ballroom of the Washington Hilton, where the White House Correspondents' Dinner was well underway. It marked the third time in three years that President Donald Trump faced the threat of assassination. That news, however, did not make The New York Times' Sunday paper. The Times covered the shooting extensively on its website. For its Sunday print edition, however, the next day's news had already been set when the shooting occurred, setting it ...

Courtesy of the author At first, in-game purchases felt like such a waste of money to me. Letting my son spend his money was an effective and safe way to help him make financial decisions. Open conversation, rather than control, is helping us encourage his independence. When we first stepped into the world of kid-oriented apps and online gaming , my husband and I saw in-game purchases as nothing more than buying nothing . Our 11-year-old son has always been careful with his money, perhaps to a fault. As he grew increasingly willing to spend more and more of his allowance on Robux , V-bucks, and Minecoins, we were alarmed. The whole thing irks me. I really struggle with virtual "cosmetic" purchases. Buying Skins, special emotes (expressions and dance moves, I think?), and expensive Nikes for your avatar? I can't wrap my frugal mind around it. At first, we tried to steer our son away from gaming purchases. We talked about the lure of instant gratification and...

Benjamin Wallace / New York Times : A profile of Dwarkesh Patel, whose podcast has become mandatory listening in the AI community, with guests like Jensen Huang, Elon Musk, and Mark Zuckerberg   —  Dwarkesh Patel was a bored college sophomore looking for intellectual stimulation.  Now he commands interviews with Jensen Huang … from Techmeme https://ift.tt/FjxUTdh

A digital rendering of the huge 1-gigawatt data center campus planned for Saline, Michigan, which will serve Oracle's AI business. Courtest of Related Digital The developer of a huge one-gigawatt data center says it has secured $16 billion in funding. The data center in rural Michigan will serve Oracle's AI business. Local residents have protested the data center, fearing grid impact and pollution. As far as data centers go, it's a big one. The Saline Township campus in Michigan, about 50 miles outside of Detroit, will have a capacity of more than 1 gigawatt. That's huge. Most data centers have capacities between 100 and 300 megawatts. And now the developer behind it, Related Digital, says it has secured the $16 billion needed to build it, with a little help from Blackstone and PIMCO. The campus will span 250 acres to start, making it one of the largest in the United States. Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer last year called it the "largest investment in ...

Wall Street Journal : Trump hosted a gala luncheon for leading $TRUMP holders, where he spoke about his pro-crypto policies, but avoided the memecoin's declining value   —  The president's address touched on everything from the war in Iran to his policies supporting the crypto industry from Techmeme https://ift.tt/tJAiKz9

Samantha Kelly / Bloomberg : A look at Tin Can's $100 retro-style, Wi-Fi-enabled landline phone, and how some schools are seeding the device to students in an attempt to curb smartphone use   —  The Tin Can has gone viral over the past year, mostly through word of mouth.  Now schools want to get even more of them in students' homes. from Techmeme https://ift.tt/8vs7OBz

Consulting firms and Silicon Valley are growing closer than ever. Kilito Chan/Getty Images AI startups are increasingly relying on consultants to distribute their technology to companies. Working with AI startups has become a key survival tactic for consulting firms. The result: partnerships galore. Things are getting serious. For consulting firms , partnering with AI startups has become a key survival tactic as the technology upends everything about their industry. And for AI startups, consulting firms have become an important channel for distributing their products to companies. This blossoming love affair between the two industries was apparent in a flurry of recent dalliances. Google announced Wednesday it was launching a $750 million fund to help consulting firms like McKinsey, Accenture, and Deloitte roll out agentic AI to their clients. McKinsey and Google have also created a new working group to help companies go from identifying AI opportunities to building and sc...

ChatGPT tried to tell me Don Rickles tried to hit on Lena Dunham. Ethan Miller/Getty Images for Caesars Palace / Aeon/GC Images I asked ChatGPT to identify the unnamed male celebrity who allegedly tried to sext Lena Dunham in 2012. It told me it was Don Rickles, which I feel pretty certain is not correct. So what are we doing here, folks? Learning to use AI? Did you hear about the time Don Rickles tried to chat up Lena Dunham in the middle of the night? No? Let me explain. First, we need to talk about Reese Witherspoon. See, I'm a simple woman. I have only two interests: tech news and celebrity gossip. So I was naturally intrigued by a recent online fuss over Reese Witherspoon's admonition for women to learn to use AI. It sparked so much backlash that she had to issue a follow-up explanation. I've also been intrigued by Lena Dunham's new book . (They're related — sort of. Keep reading!) I think Reese is generally right about AI — she's saying the...

Wall Street Journal : Sources: JPMorgan and other banks struggled to spread the risk of billions in loans they made to build data centers leased to Oracle in Texas and Wisconsin   —  The AI boom has hit a funding snag, compounding power constraints and a growing public backlash against data centers from Techmeme https://ift.tt/y9VG87b

Rachel Metz / Bloomberg : OpenAI launches GPT-5.5, designed to handle complex tasks with minimal guidance; the model will be used to power the company's upcoming “super app”   —  OpenAI is introducing an artificial intelligence model that's intended to be better at completing work without much direction … from Techmeme https://ift.tt/2nid9KW

Tom Warren / The Verge : At a town hall, Asha Sharma said Microsoft is returning to using Xbox for its gaming division, instead of Microsoft Gaming, as “Xbox needs to be our identity”   —  Xbox is Microsoft's gaming identity moving forward. … Xbox CEO Asha Sharma has had a busy week. from Techmeme https://ift.tt/mKUn2VN

Jordan Novet / CNBC : Microsoft announces its first voluntary retirement program, for staff whose years of employment and age add up to 70+; source: 7% of US employees are eligible   —  Microsoft will offer voluntary buyouts to some U.S. employee, a first for the 51-year-old software giant, as the tech industry grapples … from Techmeme https://ift.tt/Xyz280H

My wife and I originally quit our jobs to travel for a year, but we're still going after four. Scott McConkey A few years ago, my wife and I quit our corporate jobs to travel the US for a year. We started documenting our adventures online to capture our experiences and make some money. Four years later, we're still going thanks to some small tweaks to our travel style. As my wife Julie and I hiked along the rugged shores of Acadia National Park , the scents of pine and sea salt felt intoxicating. I couldn't help but smile as my troubles melted away. At the time, we had both been working together at the same company for nearly 30 years, raising four kids along the way. Although we were grateful for the steady income and benefits, the stressful, nonstop grind led to burnout. This feeling of unease only intensified when a few of our friends received news of serious health conditions shortly before or after retirement. Those scares shook us and made us question why ...