Elon Musk declared last month that the federal government was engaged in “utterly insane” activity, claiming without evidence that it had distributed $100 billion to people without Social Security numbers. Two days after Mr. Musk’s comments, one of his key lieutenants, Steve Davis, began pressing the Social Security Administration for information. Mr. Davis called the … Read more
SoftBank said on Wednesday that it had agreed to pay $6.5 billion for the Silicon Valley chip start-up Ampere Computing, doubling down on a bet that technology that originated in smartphones will come to dominate the world’s data centers. The deal also reflects the Japanese conglomerate’s belief that Ampere’s chips can begin to play a … Read more
European Union regulators on Wednesday ramped up their efforts to force Apple and Google to change key parts of their businesses, despite potential pushback from the Trump administration over the regulation of American tech companies. The European Commission, the executive branch of the 27-nation bloc, said Apple and Google had violated a law passed in … Read more
On March 4, a Trump appointee at the Department of Veterans Affairs circulated a memo to senior leadership. The agency, it said, would “move out aggressively” to improve efficiency, with an “initial objective” of cutting the work force to 2019 levels. The next morning, someone posted a copy of this “reduction in force” memo to … Read more
As questions continue to swirl around Washington about the future of TikTok, the name of one potential suitor for the popular video app keeps coming up: Oracle. On Tuesday, Oracle met with top aides on Capitol Hill to talk about how the U.S. tech giant, which processes and serves TikTok user data, plans to work … Read more
President Trump fired the two Democratic members of the Federal Trade Commission on Tuesday, a rejection of the corporate regulator’s traditional independence that will clear the way for the administration’s agenda and could draw a legal challenge. The White House told the Democrats, Rebecca Kelly Slaughter and Alvaro Bedoya, that the president was terminating their … Read more
Google has agreed to buy Wiz, a fast-growing cybersecurity start-up, for $32 billion in the company’s biggest push to strengthen its cloud-computing business and expand beyond the search engine and consumer internet services that made it a household name. The all-cash deal, announced on Tuesday, would be Google’s largest, easily surpassing its $12.5 billion purchase … Read more
In 2016, three New York commodities traders — Michael Intrator, Brian Venturo and Brannin McBee — fell in love with cryptocurrencies. They were using Bitcoin to bet on pool games and fantasy football and were captivated by its wild swings in price. They soon decided to create more digital currencies through a process called “mining,” … Read more
Earlier this year, I was thumbing through Facebook Marketplace when I came across a “fire piano” for sale. I clicked the listing expecting that “fire” meant “cool,” but found something far more literal: a pyrotechnic piano, MacGyvered to spit flames from its top whenever a player tickled the keys. In the brief description that accompanied … Read more
In 2009, when Nvidia held its first developer conference, the event was something of a science fair. Dozens of academics filled a San Jose, Calif., hotel decorated with white poster boards of computer research. Jensen Huang, the chipmaker’s chief executive, roamed the floor like a judge. This year, Nvidia’s developer conference is far different. More … Read more