Category: Biz Tech

Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence firm, xAI, has raised $10 billion in its latest financing round, pushing its valuation to $200 billion. The capital includes a split between debt and equity, as Musk’s firm accelerates plans for infrastructure expansion and model development.xAI’s funding round was structured as $5 billion in debt, comprising secured notes and term loans, and another $5 billion via strategic equity investment. The raise, led by Morgan Stanley among others, is aimed at strengthening its data centre capacity

Luxury jewellery house Tiffany & Co. has disclosed that personal data and gift card information belonging to more than 2,500 customers were compromised in a cyber incident originating in May 2025. Legal filings with the Maine Attorney General’s Office describe that names, postal and email addresses, phone numbers, sales data, internal reference numbers, plus gift card numbers and PINs were accessed by an unauthorised party.Tiffany determined on 9 September that an intrusion dated to on or around 12 May had

U. S. regulators have launched legal action against Live Nation Entertainment and its Ticketmaster unit, accusing them of enabling deceptive resale practices that force fans to pay well above face value for live events. The Federal Trade Commission, joined by attorneys general from seven states, filed the lawsuit in California, alleging that Ticketmaster colluded with brokers to violate ticketing limits and mislead consumers about final costs.The complaint states that Ticketmaster allowed brokers to bypass purchase caps imposed by artists by

A federal judge has ordered a high-stakes remedies hearing to begin this week in the case United States v. Google LLC, where Google was found to hold an illegal monopoly in key segments of the digital advertising technology market.The court declared that Google unlawfully monopolised the open-web display publisher ad server and ad exchange markets, tying its publisher ad server to its ad exchange in ways that harm competition. The remedy phase will decide how far Google must

Abu Dhabi and Baku have sealed two Memoranda of Understanding between Presight and Azerbaijan’s government aimed at fuelling the country’s Artificial Intelligence Strategy 2025–2028, with strong emphasis also placed on education. The agreements were formalised with top-level signatories during the state visit of the UAE President to Azerbaijan.Under the deal with the Ministry of Digital Development and Transport, Presight will act as a strategic advisory and implementation partner. It will assist in deploying advanced AI technologies, support government-led digital

Apple is preparing to launch a MacBook Pro with an OLED display that also supports touch input, according to analyst Ming-Chi Kuo. Mass production is set to begin in late 2026, with a global release likely slipping into early 2027.The device will use “on-cell” touch technology, integrating touch sensors directly into the top layer of the display rather than adding a separate touch layer. This represents Apple’s first pivot away from its long-standing policy of keeping MacBook screens

OpenAI has announced a suite of new protections that will tailor the ChatGPT experience depending on whether the system estimates a user is under 18, including stricter content filters, parental controls, and new distress-alerts.The company will use an automatic age-prediction model to infer whether someone is a teenager based on usage patterns, with the safer, under-18 mode activated by default if there is any doubt. Users flagged this way will be routed to a version of ChatGPT that blocks graphic

Samsung Electronics has secured the largest exhibit space in its history for CES 2026, relocating its main showcase to the Wynn and Encore Las Vegas. The company’s pavilion will span approximately 4,628 square metres, about 40 per cent larger than its display at CES 2025, making it the biggest individual booth among all exhibitors.Taking place from 6 to 9 January in Las Vegas, CES is drawing growing attention from both industry insiders and consumers given Samsung’s decision to shift away

ManageEngine has rolled out substantial enhancements to its unified security solution, Log360, aimed at reducing the volume of false alarms faced by security operations centre teams. The upgraded detection system introduces over 1,500 prebuilt, cloud-delivered detection rules mapped to MITRE ATT&CK and SIGMA frameworks, along with advanced filtering and prioritisation features.The alert fatigue that has long plagued SOC analysts is being addressed through a reengineered detection architecture that centralises all detection content—rules, correlation logic, user and entity behaviour analytics, and

Security systems observed a sharp increase in API incidents in the first half of 2025, with over 40,000 security events targeting more than 4,000 environments globally. These incidents indicate that APIs — the unseen conduits connecting apps, payments and authentication — are now at the forefront of cybercriminal strategies.Thales’ API Threat Report for H1 2025, built on Imperva telemetry, shows APIs represent about 14 percent of an organisation’s total attack surface but now draw 44 percent of advanced bot traffic.

Saudi Arabia’s AI company Humain is engaged in detailed negotiations with leading private equity and investment firms, including Blackstone Inc. and BlackRock Inc., over a major funding alliance aimed at strengthening its data centre infrastructure and other AI-related operation capacities. Key participants say the deal size could run into the billions of dollars.Humain, which is wholly owned by the Public Investment Fund and chaired by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, began construction of its first two data centres

Abu Dhabi – Inception, the AI division of G42, has made seven of its domain-specific enterprise products available through Microsoft Azure Marketplace, looking to streamline global access to its scalable, enterprise-grade AI tools.The suite includes: ExecEdge, which automates executive meeting workflows and connects with Microsoft 365; Genius for business strategy research and reporting; Alpha to analyse unstructured data for investment decisions; Business Procurement for supplier discovery, contract sourcing and regulatory compliance; Business Process, a no-code platform for designing and deploying

A framework agreement has been reached between the United States and China that will shift control of TikTok to a US‐based ownership, while aiming to protect both national security and the app’s “Chinese characteristics,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said after trade talks in Madrid. The deal, though lacking full disclosure of commercial details, is to be finalised when President Donald Trump and President Xi Jinping speak on Friday.The framework responds to a deadline that could force TikTok offline in

Financial institutions across the Middle East are grappling with a sharp increase in fraud driven by synthetic identities and AI-powered deepfakes, placing traditional verification systems under intense strain.Rob Woods, director of fraud and identity at LexisNexis Risk Solutions, says fraudsters are now exploiting a mix of demographic complexity and regulatory fragmentation in the region to bypass security checks. The region’s high number of expatriates and frequent cross-border mobility provide both cover and confusion in identity verification. Deepfake tools—once primitive—are now

OpenAI’s latest working paper, published via the National Bureau of Economic Research, reveals that 52% of ChatGPT users are women, reversing an earlier dominance by men, who made up about 80% of users in the service’s first months.The study, based on 1.5 million messages from about 130,000 consumer users between May 2024 and July 2025, shows that users aged 18-25 generate nearly half of all messages. Work-related use is much lower among that age cohort: just 22.5% of

Malicious actors are exploiting Remote Monitoring and Management tools such as ITarian, PDQ Connect, SimpleHelp, Atera, and ConnectWise ScreenConnect, to embed long-lasting remote access inside compromised systems. These operations make use of highly convincing phishing lures—fake browser-updates, meeting or party invitations, government or tax forms—to trick users into installing legitimate-looking software that gives attackers administrator-level control.Phishing pages often mimic trusted brands or meeting applications like Microsoft Teams and Zoom, with AI-generated content, obfuscated URLs, or hijacked email threads

Bitcoin mining operations are undergoing a transformation as firms leverage their substantial electricity capacity and infrastructure to meet booming demand for artificial intelligence compute. Companies that once focused solely on mining are now converting parts of their facilities into AI data centres, pressing for more stable revenue amid tightening profit margins in crypto.CoreWeave’s $9 billion acquisition of Core Scientific stands out as a major move in this trend, enabling CoreWeave to control more high-performance data centre capacity and eliminate costly

Quadrille Capital has completed a €500 million capital raise aimed at funding technology ventures in Europe and the United States. The firm has allocated €285 million for direct investments, €70 million for its primary fund backing VC and growth funds, and €150 million for a secondary fund focused on later-stage opportunity. The fundraising elevates its assets under management to approximately €1.8 billion.Jérôme Chevalier, CEO, noted that the multi-strategy model positions Quadrille to capture value across software, artificial intelligence, healthcare,

OpenAI will purchase approximately $300 billion worth of cloud computing capacity from Oracle over a five-year period beginning in 2027, according to statements from the companies and industry analysts. The deal is among the largest ever in the cloud infrastructure sector, and is intertwined with OpenAI and Oracle’s joint Stargate initiative.The agreement requires Oracle to supply 4.5 gigawatts of power-capacity for the data centres that will be built as part of the Stargate project, an initiative shared with SoftBank

Security researchers at ESET have identified a new malware strain called HybridPetya that combines traits of Petya and NotPetya ransomware with advanced boot-kit functionality to infect systems protected by UEFI Secure Boot. It exploits the vulnerability CVE-2024-7344 in the Howyar “Reloader” UEFI application to bypass signature checks, allowing unverified code execution.HybridPetya was first spotted when samples uploaded to VirusTotal in February 2025 caught the eye of ESET’s threat analysts. The malware installs a malicious EFI application into the

The role of artificial intelligence in reshaping the global economy has never been more critical. According to the latest projections, AI is poised to add a staggering $15.7 trillion to global GDP by 2030. This growth is expected to revolutionise various sectors and create new economic paradigms as nations and industries race to harness the transformative potential of AI.The growth trajectory of AI is being driven by four interconnected factors: compute, data, models, and talent. As these elements evolve,

The OpenSearch Software Foundation has appointed Bianca Lewis as its new Executive Director, tasking her with guiding the foundation’s strategy, growing its community engagement, and maintaining vendor-neutral development. She takes on the post as the foundation marks its first year under the Linux Foundation banner.Lewis arrives with more than two decades of experience in technology, entrepreneurship, and business strategy, having held leadership roles at firms such as Opster and Logz. io. She serves on the advisory boards of several

Via Transportation raised US$492.9 million through its initial public offering, with the shares priced notably higher than expected. The transit-tech company sold 10.7 million Class A common shares at US$46 apiece, above its marketed range of US$40 to US$44. The valuation implied by this pricing is around US$3.65 billion.Founded in 2012 and headquartered in New York, Via specialises in software and technology solutions that optimise public transit systems across more than 30 countries. Its platform supports local governments, transport

Microsoft has revealed Visual Studio 2026 Insiders, a major update to its flagship integrated development environment that weaves artificial intelligence into core workflows, boosts performance, and delivers a modernised user interface. The rollout introduces new features and channels aimed at enhancing developer productivity and addressing long-standing feedback.Visual Studio 2026 integrates GitHub Copilot across the IDE to understand the coding context, make suggestions, and automate repetitive tasks. Notable among the AI features are adaptive paste, which adjusts pasted code to match

Anthropic has launched a file-creation and editing feature for its AI assistant Claude, enabling users to generate Excel spreadsheets, PowerPoint presentations, Word documents, and PDFs via Claude. ai and its desktop application. The capability is now in preview for users on the Max, Team, and Enterprise plans; Pro-plan access will follow in the coming weeks.Claude now supports crafting working spreadsheets with formulas, project trackers with automated dashboards, and budget templates with variance calculations. Users can upload existing data, request

Senator Ron Wyden is pressing the Federal Trade Commission to investigate Microsoft over what he terms its "gross cybersecurity negligence," asserting that inherent weaknesses in Microsoft’s security framework enabled a damaging ransomware attack on a hospital system. Wyden’s letter, dated 10 September 2025, identifies how default encryption settings and flawed user-interface design played pivotal roles in the infiltration of Ascension, one of the largest non-profit health systems in the United States.Wyden’s analysis traces the breach to a contractor who unwittingly

A newly revealed flaw in Apple’s CarPlay ecosystem enables attackers to achieve remote code execution with root privileges, raising serious cybersecurity concerns for connected vehicles. Tracked as CVE-2025-24132 and identified by the Oligo Security Research team, the weakness stems from a stack-based buffer-overflow flaw in AirPlay protocol implementations used by CarPlay systems. It remains exploitable over Wi-Fi via a wormable, zero-click exploit—allowing attackers to take full control of vehicle infotainment systems without user interaction. The stack-based buffer overflow allows root

Signal users can now protect their chat history through a new secure backup system, available in the Android beta and set for wider release. The platform’s secure backup enables daily, end-to-end encrypted snapshots of text messages and media, complemented by both free and paid storage tiers. Central to the system’s security is a device-generated, 64-character recovery key—the only way to unlock the backup—which Signal cannot recover if lost.

The cybersecurity community is confronting a highly evolved phishing campaign that exploits Google’s no-code AppSheet platform to harvest credentials and two-factor authentication codes. Attackers are sending authentic-looking emails from the legitimate domain noreply@appsheet. com—circumventing common defences such as SPF, DKIM and DMARC—and impersonating Meta to pressure users into submitting sensitive data. On 20 April 2025, AppSheet-originated emails made up 10.88 percent of all phishing attempts intercepted by KnowBe4 Defend, with 98 percent mimicking Meta and the remainder posing as PayPal.These

Plex has warned its users about a serious security lapse following unauthorised access to a database containing scrambled passwords and authentication details, urging swift action to protect accounts.A database breach exposed a confined set of user data, including email addresses, usernames, and securely hashed passwords, along with authentication information. Plex assures that no credit card or payment data were compromised, as such information is not stored on its systems. The company stated that it has already addressed the vulnerability used

Alphabet Inc.’s Google faces a fresh lawsuit from advertising exchange PubMatic Inc., which claims the company illegally monopolised the ad-technology market and seeks billions in damages. The complaint, filed on 8 September 2025 in a federal court in the Eastern District of Virginia, builds upon a pivotal April ruling that found Google unlawfully controlled both ad servers and ad exchanges, harming competition.PubMatic asserts that Google’s dominance has distorted the digital advertising ecosystem, creating systemic barriers that suppressed innovation across the

Security investigators uncovered a sweeping campaign named GhostAction supply chain campaign that compromised 327 GitHub user accounts across 817 repositories on 5 September 2025. Attackers inserted deceptive workflow files, disguised as security enhancements, into projects—including the open-source FastUUID library—extracting and exfiltrating 3,325 secrets such as PyPI, npm and DockerHub tokens to an external server.The campaign began when GitGuardian noted a suspicious commit on 2 September by the GitHub user Grommash9. The change, titled “Add Github Actions Security workflow”, embedded a

A wave of ransomware incidents has incapacitated over 300 co-operative banks across India, exposing deep vulnerabilities tied to outdated VPN-based security. These attacks underline the urgent need for a shift towards modern access frameworks such as Zero Trust Network Access.Operational disruptions began when C-Edge Technologies—a key IT provider to numerous co-operative banks—was targeted by ransomware on 31 July 2024. NPCI responded swiftly by isolating C-Edge from the retail payments network, causing near-total outage across nearly 300 local banks. While the

Medium’s decision to address AI-generated content on its platform has stirred a lively discussion among users and industry stakeholders alike. As artificial intelligence continues to gain ground in content creation, the platform is outlining its approach to ensure transparency while preserving its core commitment to human storytelling.Earlier this year, Medium reached out to its community for feedback regarding the rise of AI-generated writing. In response, users voiced concerns ranging from the potential dilution of human-authored content to the financial implications