SpaceX, led by Elon Musk, acquired Musk's artificial intelligence startup, xAI, with plans to build data centers in space, the spaceflight company announced Monday. The merger aims to address the growing electricity demands of AI, which Musk believes cannot be met by terrestrial solutions without negatively impacting communities and the environment, according to a memo posted on SpaceX's website.
Musk stated that current AI advancements rely on large terrestrial data centers that require immense power and cooling. He suggested that space-based data centers are a necessary alternative. However, xAI has faced accusations of imposing hardship on communities near its data centers in Memphis, Tennessee.
In other news, Waymo, Alphabet's autonomous vehicle company, raised $16 billion to expand its driverless taxicab fleet internationally. The funding round, led by Dragoneer Investment Group, DST Global, and Sequoia Capital, values Waymo at $126 billion, according to a company blog post on Monday. The expansion plans include launching in more than a dozen new cities, including London and Tokyo. Alphabet remains the majority investor.
Additional investors in Waymo's funding round included Andreessen Horowitz, Mubadala Capital, Bessemer Venture Partners, Silver Lake, Tiger Global, T. Rowe Price, BDT MSD Partners, CapitalG, Fidelity Management Research Company, GV, Kleiner Perkins, Perry Creek Capital, and Temasek.
Meanwhile, Adobe announced it would discontinue its 2D animation software, Adobe Animate, on March 1, 2026, as the company increases its investments in AI. The company issued an update to its support site and sent emails to customers on Monday. Enterprise customers will receive technical support through March 1, 2029, while other customers will have support through March of next year.
The decision to shut down Adobe Animate has been met with criticism from users, who are concerned about the lack of suitable alternatives. One customer pleaded with Adobe on X to open source the software.
In China, new safety rules will prohibit hidden, electronically actuated door handles, a design feature popularized by Tesla. The rules, published Monday by China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, require cars sold in the country to have mechanical releases on their door handles. The new regulations, set to take effect on January 1, 2027, mandate that each door (excluding the tailgate) have a mechanically released external door handle, as well as a mechanical release on the interior of the vehicle. Bloomberg previously reported on the new safety policy. This decision follows numerous fatal incidents where occupants became trapped in vehicles.
Lastly, Gökçe Güven, the 26-year-old Turkish national and founder and CEO of fintech startup Kalder, was charged last week with alleged securities fraud, wire fraud, visa fraud, and aggravated identity theft, according to TechCrunch. Güven is also an alum of the Forbes 30 Under 30 list, a list that has included other individuals later charged with fraud, such as FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried and Frank CEO Charlie Javice. Kalder, based in New York, claims to help companies create and monetize individual rewards programs.
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