The Verge

OpenAI is now valued at $1.25 trillion in a new round of funding that has raised another $11 billion, according to Bloomberg. That would make it one of the world's most valuable companies, not long after raising $122 billion from investors in March at a valuation of $852 billion. Echoing FT and Wall Street Journal [...]

China's intelligence agency recruited Megaspeed executive Alice Huang to spy on Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, according to The New York Times. The Ministry of State Security (MSS) enlisted her to glean information about American AI chips and "potentially influence the company to push for its most advanced chips to be made available to China." Megaspeed [...]

SpaceX has declared that it's going to make Starlink Mobile a major" mobile carrier. The Elon Musk-owned company has already deployed thousands of direct-to-cell satellites, but its next big challenge is building out its 5G network here on Earth. As part of its plans to rival AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile, SpaceX has inked a deal [...]

Buying the 4K Blu-ray disc version of KPop Demon Hunters was already going to be a wise idea for some people, especially those who primarily keep their $26.99 Netflix Premium subscription just to watch the hit animated flick in 4K. But at just $24.99 from Barnes and Noble and Amazon instead of its original $49.95 [...]

Massive new data centers are the physical foundation for tech companies' hopes and dreams for AI. But the rush to expand warehouses full of energy-hungry servers has also kicked up fights across the world over their impact on power grids, utility bills, nearby communities, and the environment. Data centers were a major bipartisan issue ahead [...]

While the Shure Mv7 Plus is popular with streamers and podcasters, it's equally good at impressing your friends and coworkers on meetings and Discord calls. It's currently marked down to $255 at various retailers, including Amazon, Guitar Center, and directly from Shure. That's almost $50 lower than its usual price, and just a few dollars [...]

A massive permitting bill that could help energy projects come online much quicker and potentially lower utility bills for Americans is advancing with bipartisan support. And while it could be a catalyst for lots of clean energy, it could also speed up polluting projects and limit oversight of new data centers. With data centers demanding [...]

Meta will now allow you to build customized, app-like experiences within Muse. The new feature, called "spaces," allows its AI assistant to build things like a shopping hub, school dashboard, music tracker, trivia game, and more, which you can interact with directly in the Muse app. Meta says you can create a new space by [...]

Following the Melania documentary movie that premiered earlier this year, Amazon is now planning to release a two-part Prime Video series focusing on the first lady. The show, Melania: The Series, is set to debut on November 20th. "MELANIA, The Series reveals never-before-told stories, offering unprecedented insight into Melania Trump's life, including the extraordinary days [...]

Someone at the White House appears to be running software that could enable outsiders to rent access on the presidential network for just "a few dollars," as reported by Krebs on Security and The Register. That's according to findings from the security firms Layer3 Intel and Synthient, which discovered residential proxy activity on the White [...]

Kobo is launching a new monthly subscription service called Stack that lets you upload your own ebooks and documents to the company's servers where they'll be synced across multiple devices and apps, including your reading progress, highlights, and annotations. Kobo Stack is similar to Amazon's Send to Kindle feature that allows users to upload a [...]

Apple's iPhone Duo has been officially on sale for two weeks, and the company said today that the App Store now has over 100,000 apps that are built for the foldable. "It's been wonderful to see how quickly developers have embraced iPhone Duo, and we're grateful for their creativity and innovation," Susan Prescott, Apple's VP [...]

When Irene moved to San Francisco last year, she started using dating apps as a way to meet new people, get to know her new city, and connect with others who care about the things she does. After the 25-year-old analyst downloaded Hinge and started swiping, she noticed a trend. "Hinge has a prompt where [...]

If you're curious about virtual reality, Meta's Quest 3S is a good entry-level headset for dipping your toes in, especially now it's on sale in refurbished condition for $255.99 directly from Meta's eBay storefront through November 8th when you use coupon code SAVE20TECH. For comparison, the headset recently dropped to $300 in new condition as [...]

On Tuesday, millions of American voters went to the polls and voted overwhelmingly for Democrats and against AI. The fight against Big Tech is about to come roaring back, and the fight over data centers is looking even harder for the folks trying to build them. On this episode of The Vergecast, Nilay and David [...]

inMusic, the parent company of Akai, Moog, Native Instruments, and more, has decided to embrace the modding community. In an interview with The Verge, inMusic CEO Jack O'Donnell said, "We're going to provide a toolbox to the community, we're going to provide the inner workings of, say, an MPC or Sample so that people can [...]

Lutra, a South Korean startup, has debuted a new brand called Humans of Authenticity (HOA) that's launching another screen-free digital camera that incorporates a large open viewfinder into its design, as spotted by PetaPixel. The camera is reminiscent of the Godox C100 but the HOA A1 positions its lens and sensor close to the center [...]

A researcher found over 100,000 words and phrases in "every major language" that are blocked from autocomplete and swipe-type in iOS, Reuters reports. The researcher, Derik Kauffman, says you can still type the words on the blocklist one letter at a time. But they won't pop up as predictive text suggestions and iOS's keyboard may [...]

Fox has officially closed its $22 billion acquisition of Roku, the companies announced on Friday. With Roku under its umbrella, Fox now controls a major streaming platform that reaches more than 100 million households in the US. First announced in June, the deal will allow Fox to bring Fox Sports, news content, and local stations [...]

Gift-giving isn't just about grabbing something solid under a determined spending limit. It's an expression of love, a way to show someone how well you really know them. That doesn't mean you have to do it all on your own, though. Sometimes you just need a push in the right direction to get things rolling. [...]

Netflix isn't done with Hawkins, Indiana just yet. The streamer just announced a live-action spinoff of Stranger Things which is expected to debut in 2028. It's called Other Worlds: A Stranger Things Adventure. There aren't a lot of details, but the show will be going back in time quite a bit. According to Netflix, Other [...]

The European Commission claims TikTok broke its online platform rules by offering a recommendation algorithm that creates a "rabbit hole effect" on users. In an announcement on Friday, the regulators allege TikTok's algorithm can harm users with "endless and repeated exposure" to content related to sadness, isolation, or body image. The findings come months after [...]

Amazon is adding a new feature to Alexa for Shopping that allows customers to purchase items by texting the AI shopping assistant. Users can describe the products they're looking to buy and/or provide a photograph of the item, and Alexa for Shopping will search for matching results in Amazon listings, text back with recommendations, and [...]

Note: Some spoilers for Control Resonant's "Recursions and Iterations" mission follow. One of Control Resonant's most memorable missions involves time travel - kind of. There are certainly multiple timelines intersecting, or maybe overlapping, or maybe running in parallel. As protagonist Dylan Faden, you meet some of the researchers who are trapped in and investigating these [...]

When I first read Allison and Nilay's Verge review of the iPhone Duo, I was immediately struck by one of their complaints: that the cover display is too small. That's not how the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 feels, I thought. Had they got it wrong? After a week and a half using the Duo, [...]

I've been wanting to try 3D printing, people tell me. Which printer should I get? I finally have a fairly easy answer: the Bambu Lab P2S Combo. The auto-loading, fully enclosed touchscreen printer is one of the very few I can recommend. It's the only one I'd buy for myself. It's on sale for $649 [...]

It's a bad time and maybe also a great time to make a new smartphone. Brennan Jordan and Austin Boer are two-thirds of the trio behind the Enough Phone, a small phone that will run your choice of stock Android or the minimalist OdysseyOS. They're currently seeking funding on Kickstarter, and just a day after [...]

Protesters have broken into a construction site of a new Microsoft data center in Amsterdam this morning. Members of the Geef Tegengas group helped organize the protest against the construction of three 85-meter data center towers in the outskirts of Amsterdam. Reuters reports that around 100 people made it into the construction site, with some [...]

Tesla is getting the Cybertruck ready for retirement in an effort to ramp up its robotaxi output. In an X post on Friday, Tesla CEO Elon Musk said that the company will be "winding down" Cybertruck production at its Texas Gigafactory sometime around the middle of next year, "to make room for increased Cybercab production." [...]

Following this week's midterms where voters resoundingly voiced their opposition to data center expansion, OpenAI today announced new commitments to communities where it is working on data center projects, including that it won't use non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) with public officials. Many data center projects have come under scrutiny for relying on NDAs to hide discussions [...]

Airbnb plans to roll out an AI agent in the first half of 2027 that will help users plan and book travel, the company said in its Q3 2026 earnings shareholder letter released today. "Today's AI agents are good at simple, routine tasks, like making a restaurant reservation or scheduling an appointment," Airbnb said. "But [...]

The New York Times Company is in talks"exclusive negotations" to acquire Letterboxd, the social network for film lovers, for around $330 million, The New York Times reports. The Times Company, Sony Pictures Entertainment, and A24 were all recently rumored to be among those interested in buying Letterboxd. The negotiations with the Times Company have included [...]

The head of T-Mobile's parent company is casting doubt on SpaceX's plans to make Starlink Mobile a "major" carrier in the US. During an earnings call on Thursday, Deutsche Telekom CEO Tim Hottges says he takes the Elon Musk-owned company "super serious," but that it will cost at least $200 billion to pull off: He [...]

Perplexity is taking on OpenAI and Anthropic with its own work-focused AI agents. The startup's new always-on "Teammates" can take on multiple roles within a workspace, while pulling existing projects, skills, and memory from the Perplexity tools you already use. Teammates integrate with Perplexity Computer, an AI system that can deploy agents on your device [...]

Salon launched 31 years ago as one of the first online-only news magazine outlets, and it announced today in an unsigned post that it's ceasing publication. The company said that the "business realities of independent digital journalism have changed profoundly over the years," and it decided that its publishing model is "no longer sustainable." It [...]

A week before the midterm elections, Vice President JD Vance hosted a town hall in Texas with Fox News host Jesse Watters. It was a friendly event with a friendly audience in what should have been a friendly state, and maybe that's why Vance couldn't help himself. When a college student earnestly asked how the [...]

Blue Origin plans to do its next New Glenn rocket launch in January 2027, according to CNBC and the Financial Times, which cite a memo from CEO Dave Limp sent to staff. The new timeline follows a May launchpad explosion that damaged Blue Origin's New Glenn launchpad ahead of a flight that would have brought [...]

Android fans with a bit of iPhone Duo envy, take note: The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 is discounted to $1,599.99 at both Amazon and Best Buy, a hefty $300 markdown from its usual price, and just $50 higher than the lowest we've seen. Considering the device only launched a few months ago, you're saving [...]

Meta now lets you have voice conversations with your Muse AI agent in real time, CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced today. The feature has been rolled out to me, and I gave it a spin on the iOS app while writing this article. As you chat with your Muse agent, the avatar at the top of [...]

Electronic Arts is launching 25 classic games on Steam, including "Anniversary Editions" of the motorcycle racer Road Rash and six Wing Commander titles. These Anniversary Editions preserve "the original look, feel and creative intent of the game" but also have quality-of-life updates to support modern systems and controls and improve performance, according to EA. The [...]

Anthropic has a new pitch for managing your personal finances: let Claude do it instead, with a new Personal Finance feature that connects it to your bank and card accounts via the Plaid bank bridging platform. You can ask the chatbot "where did my money go this month," for example, and it'll create an overview [...]

On Tuesday night, Democrats made history as they took control of the House and the Senate, and a blue wave swept through traditionally red and swing states - with the nation's first Black woman governor elected in Georgia, the country's first Native American woman governor elected in New Mexico, and a Maine Senator ceding to [...]

We've been fans of Ember's temperature-controlled mugs for years, though given the price tag, we admit that they're somewhat of a luxury purchase. Thankfully, if you've been looking for a more affordable option, Woot is selling the Ember Cup in black for $32.99 ($67 off) with a 90-day warranty through November 7th. You can potentially [...]

TikTok has released a standalone app for TikTok Shop in a few countries, as spotted by social media consultant Matt Navarra. According to its App Store listing, the TikTok Shop app offers: - Personalized picks inspired by your interests - LIVE streams & short videos to see products in action - App-only deals, free shipping [...]

Nintendo president Shuntaro Furukawa said during the company's latest earnings call that it's "not considering additional changes" to the Switch 2's price, Reuters reports. The Switch 2 got a $50 price hike earlier this year, bringing its starting price up to $499. Nintendo said in Thursday's earnings report that Switch 2 sales have dropped 37.4 [...]

It's the year 2026 and the Federal Aviation Administration is still running critical pieces of American airspace on 3.5-inch magnetic floppy disks. But those technology artifacts could be headed for the dustbin after Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy announced an effort to ditch floppy disks in favor of a new digital system. Duffy announced Thursday that [...]

The AI-generated sci-fi film Gods Don't Give Gifts has added a bit of star power: Pop star Grimes is going to appear in the movie. Billed as "the first AI film to come to theatres," Gods Don't Give Gifts is a notable test case for the commercial potential of AI films, and it releases on [...]

OpenAI is launching GPT-6 Cyber, the latest version of its cybersecurity AI model, which it says is better at finding vulnerabilities and less likely to go rogue and hack other platforms in the process. OpenAI says that during testing, GPT-6 Cyber went out of bounds less than 1 percent of the time, down from around [...]

Many of my childhood summer afternoons were spent riding around my hometown on my Huffy bike or, in later years, taking the bus into Harvard Square to walk around and hang out at The Garage. My Sony Walkman was always in my jacket pocket, and a pair of headphones were always on my head. For [...]

After introducing new color options for its screen-free CS-8 video camera last month, Camp Snap announced a miniature version today that's less than half the size of the original. The new CS-8 Mini carries forward the retro design of the larger version that was inspired by Canon and Kodak Super 8mm film cameras from decades [...]