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Artificial Intelligence

Meta's Accelerated AI Ambitions: Tents and Hyperion Data Center

Meta is rapidly expanding its AI infrastructure, evidenced by the construction of temporary data centers using tents and the development of a 5-gigawatt data center named Hyperion in Louisiana. This urgency is driven by the desire to catch up with AI leaders like OpenAI, xAI, and Google. Hyperion is expected to have a 2-gigawatt capacity by 2030. The focus is on speed and getting compute power online quickly, prioritizing efficiency over redundancy.

Venture Capital

Matt Miller's Evantic Secures $355M, Backed by Sequoia, for European and Transatlantic B2B Investments

Matt Miller, ex-Sequoia partner, has secured $355 million for his new VC firm, Evantic, with backing from Sequoia.

Evantic will focus on Series B and growth-stage B2B companies in both Europe and the U.S., operating from London.

Miller's departure from Sequoia followed a reported power play at Klarna and internal tensions, but he maintains good relations with the firm.

Evantic's size is similar to the Norrsken Foundation's investment in European AI startups, joining other cross-Atlantic venture firms.

Technology

Malaysia Tightens Controls on Export of U.S. AI Chips to Prevent Circumvention of Restrictions

Malaysia has announced new restrictions on exporting U.S.-origin AI chips to prevent them from ending up in China. Individuals and companies exporting or transshipping these chips must now notify Malaysian authorities 30 days in advance. The Malaysian Ministry of Investment, Trade and Industry emphasized that it will take strict legal action against anyone attempting to circumvent export controls or engage in illicit trade activities.
These measures follow allegations of chip smuggling into China, with reports suggesting smugglers were using extreme methods to bring AI chips into the country. The Trump administration is reportedly planning further restrictions on AI chip exports to Malaysia and Thailand to prevent China from accessing them through alternative routes.
The U.S. Department of Commerce is also developing its own set of AI chip export restrictions.

Social Media

Meta Enhances Efforts Against Unoriginal Content on Facebook

Meta is intensifying its fight against unoriginal content on Facebook, targeting accounts that repeatedly share content from others. The company has already removed 10 million profiles impersonating content creators and taken action against 500,000 accounts for spam and fake engagement.

Similar to YouTube's recent policy clarification, Meta will penalize accounts that abuse the system by reusing content, potentially leading to loss of monetization and reduced distribution. The platform will also prioritize original content by linking duplicate videos back to the source.

The changes address concerns over AI-generated content, advising creators to focus on authentic storytelling rather than low-value, AI-narrated videos. Meta will roll out these changes gradually and provide creators with insights via the Professional Dashboard to monitor their content's distribution.

Technology

Exploring Innovative Browser Alternatives in 2025: AI, Privacy, and Mindfulness

The web browser market is dominated by Google Chrome and Apple Safari, but several alternative browsers offer unique features and benefits.

AI-Powered Browsers

  • Perplexity's Comet: A chatbot-based search engine that can summarize emails, browse web pages, and perform tasks.
  • The Browser Company's Dia: An AI-centric browser that helps users navigate the web more easily, providing information and summarizing files.
  • Opera's Neon: An AI agentic browser with contextual awareness that can research, shop, and write code.
  • OpenAI's Rumored Browser: A browser reported to operate inside ChatGPT, allowing users to browse websites within the chatbot.

Privacy-Focused Browsers

  • Brave: Known for built-in ad and tracker blocking, rewarding users with Basic Attention Token (BAT) for viewing ads.
  • DuckDuckGo: Features a scam blocker, prevents trackers and ads, and doesn’t track user data.
  • Ladybird: An open-source browser built from scratch, offering features to minimize data collection.
  • Vivaldi: A Chromium-based browser with a customizable user interface, ad blocking, password manager, and no user data tracking.

Niche Browsers

  • Opera Air: A mindfulness-themed browser with break reminders, breathing exercises, and binaural beats.
  • SigmaOS: A Mac-only browser with a workspace-style interface emphasizing productivity and AI features.
  • Zen Browser: Aims to create a “calmer internet” with features like Workspaces and Split View, enhanced with community-made plugins and themes.

Artificial Intelligence

Cognition Acquires Windsurf to Enhance Devin's AI Coding Capabilities

Cognition, the company behind the AI coding agent Devin, has acquired Windsurf, an AI coding startup, after Google hired away Windsurf's CEO and research leaders. The acquisition includes Windsurf's IP, AI-powered IDE, and remaining employees.

Windsurf had reached $82 million in annualized recurring revenue (ARR) and served 350 enterprise customers with hundreds of thousands of daily active users. The Windsurf team will focus on enhancing Devin, with plans to integrate Windsurf's technology into Cognition's products.

Cognition emphasized that all Windsurf employees will financially benefit from the deal, with vesting cliffs waived.

Geopolitics & Technology

Malaysia Tightens Control on Export of U.S. AI Chips to Prevent China Access

Malaysia is increasing its efforts to prevent advanced AI chips from the U.S. reaching China. The Ministry of Investment, Trade and Industry has announced new restrictions requiring individuals and companies to notify Malaysian authorities 30 days in advance when exporting or transshipping U.S. AI chips.

These measures are effective immediately, and the Malaysian government has stated it will take strict legal action against anyone attempting to circumvent export controls or engage in illicit trade activities.

This action comes amid growing concerns about chip smuggling, with reports suggesting sophisticated networks are already in place to move AI chips into China. The U.S. is also considering further restrictions on AI chip exports to Malaysia and Thailand to prevent China from accessing these chips through alternative routes.

Business & Finance

RJ Scaringe's Rivian Voting Power Diluted After Divorce Settlement

Rivian CEO RJ Scaringe transferred shares and options to his ex-wife as part of a divorce settlement, reducing his voting power from 7.6% to around 4%. The settlement, involving approximately $130 million worth of shares and options, does not impact Rivian's operations. Despite the shift, Scaringe retains control over a mix of shares, options, and RSUs. The change comes as Rivian focuses on cost reduction and the upcoming R2 SUV launch.