Blog

It’s not just electricity — Bitcoin mines burn through a lot of water, too

Lights illuminate application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) devices used for Bitcoin mining. | Andrey Rudakov/Bloomberg via Getty Images Bitcoin mines aren’t just energy-hungry, it turns out they’re thirsty, too. The water consumption tied to a single Bitcoin transaction, on average, could be enough to fill a small backyard pool, according to a new analysis. Bitcoin mines

Read More
Together AI, which helps pre-train and fine-tune open source foundation models more efficiently, raised a $102.5M Series A led by Kleiner Perkins (Eric Newcomer/Newcomer)

Eric Newcomer / Newcomer: Together AI, which helps pre-train and fine-tune open source foundation models more efficiently, raised a $102.5M Series A led by Kleiner Perkins  —  I spoke with Together AI CEO Vipul Ved Prakash  —  Together AI, a startup that’s helping companies pre-train and fine-tune open source foundation models …

Read More
Wormhole, a messaging protocol started by Jump Crypto to let blockchain developers communicate, raised $225M at a $2.5B valuation, 2023’s largest crypto raise (Ben Weiss/Fortune)

Ben Weiss / Fortune: Wormhole, a messaging protocol started by Jump Crypto to let blockchain developers communicate, raised $225M at a $2.5B valuation, 2023’s largest crypto raise  —  In a parched fundraising landscape, the team behind Wormhole, the messaging protocol that lets developers communicate across different blockchains …

Read More
A profile of Adam D’Angelo, who will remain on OpenAI’s board despite agreeing to oust Sam Altman and who was a key figure in negotiations to bring Altman back (Bloomberg)

Bloomberg: A profile of Adam D’Angelo, who will remain on OpenAI’s board despite agreeing to oust Sam Altman and who was a key figure in negotiations to bring Altman back  —  Adam D’Angelo will continue to serve on the board despite previously agreeing to oust Altman as CEO and running a company that competes with

Read More
Sources: Apple pays Arm under 30 cents per device to license Arm’s IP, the lowest rate among Arm’s smartphone customers; Apple accounts for <5% of Arm's sales (Wayne Ma/The Information)

Wayne Ma / The Information: Sources: Apple pays Arm under 30 cents per device to license Arm’s IP, the lowest rate among Arm’s smartphone customers; Apple accounts for <5% of Arm’s sales  —  In 2017, SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son gathered a group of executives from Arm Holdings, the British chip designer SoftBank had just bought

Read More
How to find your 2023 Spotify Wrapped

Image: Samar Haddad / The Verge One of the more popular end-of-year items is Spotify Wrapped, where the music service puts together a roundup of everything you listened to that year in various statistical formats, wrapped up (well, that’s what it’s called, right?) in bright, fun graphics. You can see what music categories you followed,

Read More
After the mass layoffs in late 2022 and early 2023, Amazon, Google, Microsoft, and Meta continue to make small staff cuts to keep tight control on costs (Wall Street Journal)

Wall Street Journal: After the mass layoffs in late 2022 and early 2023, Amazon, Google, Microsoft, and Meta continue to make small staff cuts to keep tight control on costs  —  Amazon, Google, Microsoft and Meta are making strategic trims even as they rebound from the tech downturn

Read More
Meta pauses shipments of the Quest 3’s Elite Strap with Battery after widespread user reports of a charging fault that renders the battery useless (Scott Hayden/Road to VR)

Scott Hayden / Road to VR: Meta pauses shipments of the Quest 3’s Elite Strap with Battery after widespread user reports of a charging fault that renders the battery useless  —  Meta paused shipments of its Elite Strap with Battery for Quest 3 amid widespread user reports of a charging fault that renders the battery

Read More