Author: IQ TIMES MEDIA
Micron crossed $1 trillion in market value this week, a milestone that would have sounded absurd to most investors even a few years ago. The memory-chip business has long been one of the cruelest corners of tech: brutal booms followed by catastrophic busts.I’ve covered this story before. Back in 2017, I wrote about Sun Microsystems co-founder Bill Joy arguing that the DRAM market had finally changed for good. His thesis was that fewer suppliers and rising demand from cloud computing and AI would reduce the industry’s historic tendency to destroy itself through overproduction.That argument turned out to be early, not…
Reid Hoffman is accusing President Donald Trump of retaliation.The LinkedIn cofounder and Democratic donor responded on Friday to reports that the Justice Department is investigating issues tied to his financial support for E. Jean Carroll’s litigation against Trump, calling the scrutiny “absurdly false” and accusing the president of using the federal government to punish his critics.”Trump cannot be allowed to use the full weight and power of the US Government to come after women who speak up, or anyone who supports them in doing so,” Hoffman wrote in a five-part thread on X.1/ Trump was found liable for sexually assaulting…
Groq is looking to raise $650 million in new funding from existing investors, sources tell Axios, as it leans into its inference neocloud business that relies on its homegrown AI chip and systems. In December, Groq struck one of those not-an-acquisition agreements with Nvidia for a reported $20 billion which involved the departure of some top-level senior Groq employees to the chip giant and the licensing of Groq’s hardware technology to Nvidia. That deal was good news for the startup’s investors who got paid out in cash with what would have been Nvidia’s largest purchase, if the deal was a…
Groq is looking to raise $650 million in new funding from existing investors, sources tell Axios, as it leans into its inference neocloud business that relies on its homegrown AI chip and systems. In December, Groq struck one of those not-an-acquisition agreements with Nvidia for a reported $20 billion, which involved the departure of some top-level senior Groq employees to the chip giant and the licensing of Groq’s hardware technology to Nvidia. That deal was good news for the startup’s investors, who got paid out in cash with what would have been Nvidia’s largest purchase, if the deal was a…
Zig has put its foot down: No AI code allowed.The open-source programming language is maintained by a 501(c)(3) and a network of contributors. Any programmer can submit code to its repository — so long as they follow a code of conduct.One of Zig’s rules bans the submission of AI-assisted code. The policy is clear: They will accept no LLM-generated content, nothing paraphrased from an LLM, and nothing edited, brainstormed, or debugged by an LLM. In short: Keep AI out of it.On the JetBrains podcast, Zig President Andrew Kelley called AI-assisted contributions “invariably garbage.””People are sending us contributions that have no…
Jackson State University’s new president will receive a year of outside leadership training as she transitions into the job, which has been tumultuous for her predecessors.Denise Jones Gregory took the permanent role of president on May 1 after holding the interim role for a year. She is entering a position that has been held by four people in six years. And she will be in charge of leading an institution dealing with a number of challenges, including a student housing shortage and frayed relationships with alumni because of the constant leadership turnover and skepticism of the presidential hiring process.The coaching…
Cognition CEO Scott Wu made headlines again this week when his two-year-old AI coding agent startup raised $1 billion at a $26 billion valuation. Cognition is the maker of Devin, one of the first and, arguably, most successful AI coding agents. Devin, the CEO says, “naturally owns tasks end to end.” In fact, in the blog post announcing that raise, Cognition laid out a vision where “we are shifting to a world of self-driving software development.” So, could Devin replace, say, a mid-level L4 programmer? Yes, and no, Wu told TechCrunch. “We’ve never thought about it as replacing humans. I…
Amazon is looking to minimize “tokenmaxxing.”The company is shutting down an employee-made leaderboard that tracked AI token use because it encouraged some staff to perform tasks that didn’t necessarily solve problems, just so they could climb the ranks.”Please don’t use AI just for the sake of using AI,” Dave Treadwell, an Amazon senior vice president, told staff earlier this week. “Use AI to help you solve customer problems, to help you solve business problems, to innovate.”The move, first reported by the Financial Times, is the latest sign that big companies are pivoting from a culture of free-wheeling AI spending amid concerns about…
TechCrunch Disrupt 2026 returns October 13–15 to Moscone West in San Francisco — and applications to speak are open for just a few more hours. We’re inviting founders, investors, operators, and technology experts to apply for a chance to take the stage at one of the most influential tech events of the year. More than 10,000 startup and VC leaders will gather at Disrupt 2026 to explore what’s next in AI, scaling, fintech, infrastructure, robotics, and the future of innovation. Applications close tonight at 11:59 p.m. PT. Apply now to share your expertise and help shape the conversations defining the tech industry. Pick your session format We’re looking for high-impact speakers…
People have vibe-coded apps for all sorts of tasks, from nutrition planning to babysitting gigs to grocery shopping. Soon, you may be able to vibe-code your home design.That’s the idea behind Drafted, a nine-month-old startup that uses AI to turn home-design ideas into floor plans and 3D layouts. Founded by Nick Donahue, Drafted has raised a $16 million seed round from investors including Buckley Ventures, Y Combinator, Pinterest cofounder Ben Silbermann, and OneRepublic front man Ryan Tedder. Donahue, the CEO, declined to share the company’s valuation.Instead of using expensive professional design software, users can enter details such as lot size,…