GoKawiil
Tech News
Bolt Graphics powered on a 12nm test chip built with TSMC, confirming its design works ahead of the full Zeus GPU, which won't reach volume production until 2028. The startup also opened a Taipei office to work more closely with manufacturing partners, and Reuters reported it is seeking roughly $100 million in funding at a $700 million valuation.
Nvidia introduced Nemotron 3.5 Super VL, a 120-billion-parameter open-weight model aimed at enterprise agent deployments, alongside two smaller Bolt models built to run locally on new RTX Spark and DGX Spark hardware. Nvidia says Super VL matches the accuracy of its larger Nemotron 3 Ultra model while completing agentic tasks faster than rival models from Anthropic and OpenAI, and lists companies including Skydance, EY, Ramp, Crowdstrike, Perplexity and Salesforce as users.
Slate Auto has disclosed capacity details for its upcoming low-cost electric truck, due to ship by late 2026. The base model starts at $24,950, undercutting rivals like the Chevy Bolt and Ford F-150, while still offering meaningful cargo space, though its towing capacity is limited to around 2,000 pounds.
Glimpse has introduced a new software solution that significantly increases the speed of CT scanner inspections, enabling battery manufacturers to scan tens of thousands of cells daily instead of just a few. The company is also launching Explore, a product aimed at industries like aerospace, automotive, and medical devices, to enhance quality control processes. Currently serving over 100 clients including Lucid and the U.S. Navy, Glimpse's technology leverages deep learning to optimize image processing and inspection workflows.
ULTRALOQ has released the Bolt Mission, a smart lock that uses ultra-wideband combined with Bluetooth Low Energy and radar-based presence sensing to detect a user's precise approach to a door, rather than relying on GPS or simple Bluetooth proximity. The company simultaneously introduced the Bolt Pro and Latch 5 Pro, both certified under the Aliro standard for tap-to-unlock via Apple Wallet or Samsung Wallet.
Lucid and ridesharing firm Bolt have announced a partnership to bring at least 25,000 autonomous vehicles built on Lucid's midsize platform to European roads, with Bolt owning and operating the fleet. Bolt aims to have 100,000 autonomous vehicles on its platform by 2035, though no launch timeline was given for the Lucid-based robotaxis, which will likely use NVIDIA's Hyperion architecture for Level 4 autonomy.
Lucid Motors and European ride-hailing platform Bolt announced a partnership under which Bolt aims to deploy at least 25,000 fully autonomous vehicles built on Lucid's upcoming mid-size EV platform. The vehicles would use Nvidia's Hyperion compute and sensing system, though no autonomous driving software provider was named, and no orders or payments have been finalized yet.
Uber has ceased operations in both Nigeria and Uganda with immediate effect, ending its ride-hailing services in the two African markets. In Uganda, the shutdown removes a widely used transport option for commuters in Kampala.
Bolt CEO Ryan Breslow is raising as much as $27 million from existing investors in a convertible-note bridge round that carries a pay-to-play clause penalizing backers who don't participate. The financing is meant to bridge the checkout company toward a future Series E2 round, after its valuation collapsed from $11 billion in 2022 to roughly $300 million. Breslow says Bolt is nearing profitability but declined to disclose how much cash remains.
At an annual robotics showcase in Beijing, humanoid robots competed across events including sprints, standing high jump, kickboxing and dance routines. Several machines reportedly surpassed human world records, including in the 100-meter and 400-meter sprints, while others suffered dramatic falls during the competitions.
At the second World Humanoid Robot Games in Beijing (August 22-26), robots competing in a 100-meter sprint and standing high jump beat human world records set by Usain Bolt and others, marking a jump from last year's event where they trailed human performance. Some sprinting robots couldn't stop in time, crashing into barriers, falling, and in a few cases breaking apart with sparks or catching fire, while separate tasks like hanging laundry showed robots still moving far slower than humans.
Unitree Robotics released footage of its headless humanoid, Superman, jumping 6.5 feet and sprinting over 28 mph, both exceeding known human records. Two days later the Hangzhou company debuted on Shanghai's stock exchange, with shares spiking 629% above the offer price and pushing its intraday valuation near $66 billion before settling at $50.8 billion.