A new space race is emerging, but this time it’s for server racks. Tech billionaires are pouring millions into the idea of building AI data centers in orbit, betting on a future where Earth’s grid can’t keep up. The economics and engineering, however, are still science fiction.
Coinbase is making a major infrastructure play for its new prediction markets business. The crypto giant is acquiring The Clearing Company, a startup founded by veterans of Kalshi and Polymarket.
Researchers are creating synthetic lichens by pairing fungi with cyanobacteria. This engineered living material can produce valuable compounds, heal cracks in concrete, and might one day be used to build structures on Mars from local soil.
Forbes spotlights five technologies designed for measurable human impact, not futuristic promises. They include a $200 satellite dongle for any phone, a $3,800 window heat pump, and an AI companion for seniors. Each tackles a concrete problem like disaster resilience, energy use, and loneliness.
Intuit, the fintech giant behind TurboTax and QuickBooks, is partnering with Circle to integrate the USDC stablecoin as a core payment rail. The move aims to offer 100 million customers near-instant, low-cost transactions. This is a major validation of stablecoins for mainstream finance.
Sandfall Interactive’s award-winning RPG has been stripped of two Indie Game Awards titles after confirming it used AI-generated placeholder textures. The developer says the assets were removed five days after launch but violated the awards’ strict rules.
Elon Musk just secured a massive legal victory, reinstating a $56 billion Tesla pay package that a court had tossed out last year. The win makes him $139 billion richer, fueling his stated mission to fund a Mars colony. But a closer look reveals the timeline and logic behind his grand ambition are d
Arch Linux is making a major shift by replacing its main proprietary NVIDIA driver packages with the open kernel modules. The move, tied to driver version 590, officially ends support for Pascal-generation GPUs and older. Affected users must manually switch to a legacy branch.
Google has placed Aakash Woodward, a 42-year-old executive who started as an intern in 2009, at the center of its AI fight. He now runs the critical Gemini app while also heading Google Labs, as the company rushes to keep pace with rivals like OpenAI ahead of 2026.
Starbucks has named Amazon grocery technology leader Anand Varadarajan as its new Chief Technology Officer. He starts on January 19, 2025, reporting directly to CEO Brian Niccol. The move is a key part of the “Back to Starbucks” turnaround effort launched last September.
