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Tech News
Google has rolled out new infrastructure aimed at supporting agentic commerce, where AI agents complete purchases on behalf of users. A payments infrastructure veteran notes that the underlying payment systems for this technology remain unresolved, echoing a recurring pattern where new commerce tech launches on rails not built for it.
New York City is rolling out 17 high-tech, self-cleaning public restrooms across the city under an initiative championed by Mayor Zohran Mamdani. The units are designed to automatically limit each visit to 10 minutes, after which the door reportedly opens or users are prompted to leave regardless of whether they're finished.
In a discussion moderated by Fast Company's Harry McCracken, CoreWeave cofounder and CEO Mike Intrator explained why traditional cloud computing, built to handle diverse general-purpose workloads, is insufficient for AI's demands. He outlined how CoreWeave has approached infrastructure and software design from scratch to meet AI's unique computational and physical requirements.
A commentary argues that municipal governments should establish formal music offices, similar to film or tech commissions, to systematically support and grow their local music industries. The piece contends that while cities pour resources into entertainment districts, business recruitment, and branding efforts, they largely ignore music as a distinct economic sector deserving dedicated oversight and investment.
Bain Capital Ventures has closed a new $1.6 billion fund, up 14% from its prior $1.4 billion vehicle raised three years ago. The firm plans to deploy the capital mainly into AI-focused startups, targeting infrastructure, healthcare, physical AI, and security as key sectors it believes will define what it calls the 'post-AGI era'.
Langdock, a Berlin-based enterprise AI platform serving roughly 13,000 organisations, has dismantled its US holding company and reorganised into a Societas Europaea registered in Germany. The switch, which began in early 2026 and cost several million euros, reverses the common practice among European startups of setting up US parent entities to attract investors.
A new report from the nonprofit Basel Action Network estimates that AI infrastructure will generate far more electronic waste than previously projected, potentially amounting to enough discarded material to fill 23 million shipping containers by 2050. Unlike earlier estimates that only counted servers and GPUs, this analysis includes power supplies, cooling systems, backup power, and networking equipment tied to data centers, plus a category BAN calls 'AI Waste Contagion.' The group attributes 15-20 percent of the world's projected 211 million metric tons of annual e-waste by 2050 to AI-related infrastructure.
In an interview, a Syensqo executive described a 'performance pyramid' framework, where commodity materials sit at the bottom and high-performance specialty materials sit at the top. He explained that AI's rapid advancement is piling on technical requirements—heat tolerance, purity, electrical performance, chemical and plasma resistance, long-term stability—that push semiconductor and data center materials toward the top of that pyramid, an area where Syensqo focuses its work.
Oracle began a fresh round of layoffs, notifying affected employees by email early this morning. The company is trimming its workforce to help cover the enormous costs of building out AI infrastructure.
Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison adopted a trading plan on June 22 permitting him to sell as many as 50 million shares, worth roughly $7.5 billion at current prices, through October 24. Even after a full sale, Ellison would retain about 1.1 billion shares and remain Oracle's largest shareholder with over 40% ownership.
Oracle reported fiscal first-quarter revenue of $19.35 billion, topping analyst expectations, with net income climbing 60% to $4.7 billion. The gains were driven by a 62% jump in cloud revenue, including a 121% surge in cloud infrastructure sales, prompting shares to rise more than 6% in premarket trading.
The U.S. Department of Defense is reportedly negotiating a $5 billion loan to Fluidstack, a company that builds AI computing infrastructure. The deal is being advised by a bank founded by Palmer Luckey, a prominent early backer of Donald Trump.