Scoop: Sergey Brin registered to vote in Nevada in December amid the frenzy over the CA billionaire tax, according to public records obtained by Forbes, where he lists his party affiliation as “nonpartisan.” w/ Matt Durot www.forbes.com/sites/mattdu...

He Spent More Than Anyone Opposing California’s Billionaire Tax. But He’ll Be Voting In His New Home State Of Nevada.

Brin changed his voter registration in December. His Google cofounder Larry Page still isn’t registered to vote in Florida, where he purchased the first of two properties that same month.

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I chatted with OpenAI head of chips Richard Ho, who led the development of its Jalapeno chip. He told me about choosing Broadcom as a partner over Nvidia and AMD, “competing among friends” with Nvidia, and Sam Altman urging the industry to build more fabs. www.forbes.com/sites/richar...

OpenAI Asked The Chip Industry To Build Faster. Then It Built Its Own Chip Team.

Richard Ho, who helped create Google’s first TPU chip, also built OpenAI’s semiconductor unit from scratch. Now he’s grappling with deploying the first chips, doomerism and “competing among friends” w...

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Snap investor Blue Duck Capital urges the company to raise outside capital for Specs. www.prnewswire.com/news-release... ICYMI, here’s my deep-dive on Specs from yesterday: www.forbes.com/sites/richar...

New: I spoke to current and former employees at Snap to try to make sense out of Specs, its $2,195 AR glasses, panned for being too chunky and expensive. I found Snap dealing with a familiar boogeyman: Meta and Mark Zuckerberg. www.forbes.com/sites/richar...

Evan Spiegel's Ill-Fated $3 Billion Plan To Put Snapchat On Your Face

The former tech wunderkind has poured billions into his quest to make technologically superior AR glasses and best nemesis Zuckerberg's Meta.

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New: Corgi has closed yet another round of funding, this time raising $64 million at a valuation of $5 billion — up from $4 billion in July. It comes as the startup deals with controversies including the temporary closure of one of its all-night cafes. www.forbes.com/sites/richar...

Corgi Is Worth $5 Billion, Nearly Quadruple Its Value Five Months Ago

AI insurance outfit Corgi has been on a nonstop funding spree since May — even as it deals with controversies and feuds.

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It’s never been a crazier time to be a CIO or C-suite digital exec at a company. @thealexknapp.bsky.social and I are putting together the annual Forbes CIO Next list. If you know anyone (including yourself) doing cool things, please apply. www.forbes.com/sites/richar...

Forbes CIO Next 2026: Nominations Are Open

Nominations for the annual list will be accepted through October 2.

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I profiled Applied Compute, started by three ex-OpenAI researchers, which builds custom models for enterprise customers. They are finalizing a fundraising round of $350 million at a valuation of $3.25 billion. www.forbes.com/sites/richar...

Ex-OpenAI Staffers Are Building A Cheaper, More Open Alternative

Just 15 months after it founding, Applied Compute is raising $350 million at a $3.25 billion valuation, nearly double its worth from four months ago.

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As Google DeepMind deals with a huge shakeup, I wrote about a quiet rivalry between folks in its London and Mountain View offices, stemming from the 2023 merger of Google Brain and DeepMind. One former employee called it the “America-fication” of DeepMind. www.forbes.com/sites/richar...

The Hidden Rivalry At Google DeepMind: London Versus Mountain View

Even before a massive shakeup in leadership at Google’s frontier AI lab, the org had faced quiet tensions between its offices across the Atlantic.

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Scoop: Flapping Airplanes, a startup that’s trying to develop ways to use less data to train AI models, is in talks to raise capital at a $5 billion valuation. With @iainmartin.bsky.social and @richardnieva.bsky.social. www.forbes.com/sites/rashis...

AI Startup Flapping Airplanes Is In Talks To Raise Funding At A $5 Billion Valuation

The data efficiency startup is researching a better way to train AI models using less data.

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Today we published the 12th edition of the Next Billion Dollar Startups list, a fun one because it spotlights up-and-comers working on everything from bone marrow transplants to thwarting biological threats. www.forbes.com/sites/richar...

Forbes Next Billion-Dollar Startups 2026 List

The Forbes Next Billion-Dollar Startups 2026 list highlights venture-backed companies likely to become unicorns. Learn more about these fast-growing startups.

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New: Corgi, the AI insurance company that works 7 days a week and operates an all-night cafe in SF, has raised money for the third time in three months. This time at a $4 billion valuation. With @annatonger.bsky.social www.forbes.com/sites/annato...

AI Startup Corgi Of Seven-Day Work Week Fame Raises Yet Again At $4 Billion Valuation

AI Startup Corgi Fundraises Yet Again, At $4 Billion Valuation

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New: AI data labeler Mercor is in talks to raise $500 million in a round expected to close later this month. (Bloomberg earlier reported they were raising at a $20B valuation) www.forbes.com/sites/richar...

AI Data Labeler Mercor In Talks To Raise $500 Million At $20 Billion Valuation

If the round closes as expected later this month, the startup’s three 23-year-old cofounders would be worth an estimated $4.3 billion apiece.

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I chatted with YouTube CEO Neal Mohan about how AI could transform the site. The balance is combatting AI slop while allowing AI to supercharge growth for creators. It’s “not a trivial problem,” he says. www.forbes.com/sites/richar...

AI Slop Is Transforming YouTube. Its CEO Wants To Keep It Human

How YouTube’s CEO Is Trying To Combat AI Slop

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Anthropic disabled Fable 5 on Friday. In an interview hours before Anthropic received the directive, Chief Commercial Officer Paul Smith told me about the “tradeoffs” of releasing such a powerful tool www.forbes.com/sites/richar...

Anthropic’s Fable 5 Safeguards Were Always A ‘Judgement Call’

In an interview hours before the U.S. government issued a directive to disable Anthropic’s newest AI model, the company’s Chief Commercial Officer told Forbes about the tradeoffs of releasing such a p...

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New: Cursor hit $4 billion in annualized revenue, up from $3 billion in late April. The new figure comes ahead of an expected acquisition by SpaceX after its IPO. With @annatonger.bsky.social www.forbes.com/sites/richar...

Cursor Hits $4 Billion Annualized Revenue Ahead Of SpaceX IPO

Elon Musk’s rocket and AI company is expected to acquire the buzzy AI coding startup shortly after it goes public.

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New: AI insurance company Corgi has doubled its valuation to $2.6 billion with a $106 million fundraise, just weeks after raising $160 million and becoming a unicorn. www.forbes.com/sites/richar...

AI Insurance Startup Corgi Doubles Valuation To $2.6 Billion In Weeks

Welcome to the frenzied world of AI, where a two-year-old startup founded by a 26-year-old can have a company-owned dog, run a 24-hour cafe and raise $106 million about a month after becoming a unicor...

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New: I chatted with Alexandr Wang and new Scale CEO Jason Droege about the company post-Meta deal. Scale says revenue last year was just shy of $1B, and expects it to top $1B this year. (But Meta will account for nearly half of annual revenue) www.forbes.com/sites/richar...

Inside Scale AI’s Business After Meta’s Bombshell $14 Billion Deal

How Scale AI Is Adapting Post Meta Deal And Founder’s Departure

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After Cerebras’ long-awaited IPO, CEO Andrew Feldman is now a billionaire worth an estimated $3.4 billion. Check out my story, which involves a secret dance floor and Halloween candy from a Nobel Prize winner. www.forbes.com/sites/richar...

AI Chipmaker Cerebras’ CEO Is Now Worth $3.4 Billion After Long-Awaited IPO

The next-gen chipmaker first filed for its IPO in September 2024. Now, after snags that held up its debut, it’s a public company.

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Corgi, an AI insurance startup, just raised $160 million at a $1.3 billion valuation. Its employees work 7 days a week, it owns and operates a 24/7 cafe and has a company-owned Corgi named Trudy, which employees walk and feed with the help of an AI bot. www.forbes.com/sites/richar...

This AI Insurance Company With An All-Night Cafe And Cheeky Corgi Is Now A Unicorn

Named after the company-owned dog, Corgi embodies the sometimes-absurd San Francisco startup scene. And it just raised $160 million at a $1.3 billion valuation.

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New for @forbes.com with @richardnieva.bsky.social: www.forbes.com/sites/phoebe...

CoreWeave's Business Depends On OpenAI. What If The AI Company Can't Pay Up?

OpenAI is one of the former crypto miner’s largest contracted customers. Here are the risks and how CoreWeave is thinking about them.

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Here’s a fun one: The next big AI dataset is…Google’s garbage. The company is partnering with Mill, which makes a smart trash bin, to train the startup’s AI on food waste from Google’s campus. www.forbes.com/sites/richar...

Google’s Weirdest AI Dataset Yet: Its Own Garbage

The search giant had previously created a machine learning data set out of food scraps from its kitchens. Now it’s partnering with Mill, which makes a high-tech trash bin, to use that data to train it...

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I chatted with AWS CEO Matt Garman, who says the company is “bullish” on the Middle East, despite recent drone strikes that have damaged data centers. He also touched on the OpenAI deal, hoping it will improve Amazon’s Trainium chips www.forbes.com/sites/richar...

This year I’m taking over our Next Billion-Dollar Startups list. We want to highlight the best up-and-comers. If your company’s valuation is under $1B, apply here! www.forbes.com/sites/richar...

Next Billion-Dollar Startups 2026: Nominations Are Open

For the 12th annual Forbes Next Billion-Dollar Startups list, we’re on the hunt for 25 fast-growing companies most likely to become unicorns — and thrive well beyond that.

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Vercel, the web hosting and deployment company, hit run rate revenue of $340 million at the end of February. And its $300 million funding round in September has made founder Guillermo Rauch a billionaire, worth an estimated $2.1 billion. www.forbes.com/sites/richar...

This Argentine Billionaire’s Startup Vercel Is One Of Claude Code’s Go-To Web Hosting Tools

One of the most popular ways to view the Epstein Files, an interface called Jmail that mimics a Gmail inbox, is hosted on Guillermo Rauch’s $9 billion unicorn Vercel.

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Three months after a blockbuster $20 billion deal, Nvidia announced its plans for Groq’s inference-speed tech. Here's how it came together and what's next. My latest for @forbes.com, with @iainmartin.bsky.social, @richardnieva.bsky.social and Anna Tong: www.forbes.com/sites/phoebe...

“We Almost Didn’t Do It”: Jonathan Ross On The $20 Billion Deal With Nvidia

The Christmas Eve agreement—billed as Nvidia’s biggest deal in its three-decade history—landed at a precarious moment for Groq. Now Nvidia is betting on Groq’s inference-speed tech inside a newly anno...

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New: Replit has raised $400 million at a $9 billion valuation, and is releasing its new coding agent. The goal is to make vibe coding more like you’re doodling on a white board. Paul Graham, an early investor, thinks it will “redefine” the term. www.forbes.com/sites/richar...

Replit’s Jordanian Immigrant Billionaire Founder Shakes Up Vibe Coding

Amjad Masad’s Replit allows users to work together like they’re doodling on a white board. It also made him a billionaire along the way.

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For our cover story on Sam Altman, we sat down with him for two wide-ranging interviews. We couldn’t fit everything into the final profile. Here’s some of what we discussed, from Elon and Trump to robotics and vaccines. w/ Anna Tong www.forbes.com/sites/richar...

Sam Altman On Elon Musk, Donald Trump, Robotics, Fatherhood And More

Across two wide-ranging interviews with Forbes, Altman covered more ground than could fit in our profile. Here are his remarks on everything from vaccine research to critics who argue he backs compani...

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NEW: We profiled Sam Altman for the cover of Forbes Magazine. For the story, we talked to Bob Iger, Masa Son, Satya Nadella, Brian Chesky, Paul Graham and more. Graham’s take was resonant: “He’s good at getting people to do what he wants.” w/ Anna Tong www.forbes.com/sites/richar...

New: OpenAI wanted GPT-5 to be less warm and agreeable than its predecessor GPT-4o, but a group of users says the change was disruptive, particularly for people with autism, ADHD and special needs. www.forbes.com/sites/richar...

I chatted with Anthropic’s Mike Krieger about the company’s enterprise strategy. He said Claude usage is sticky: 60% of business customers are using more than one Claude product. www.forbes.com/sites/richar...

How Instagram’s Cofounder-Turned-Anthropic Product Chief Is Cracking The Enterprise AI Code

Claude Code Is Anthropic’s Gateway Drug To The Enterprise

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