Daily Tech News 16 August 2026

• Every fusion power startup that has raised over $100 million. (Tech Crunch)
  
  Your weekly reminder that it is the 21st century, and not everything is poop-flavoured ice cream.
  
  In a truly 21st century maneuver, one of the companies on the list announced plans to merge with a group owned by the sitting US president last December in a $6 billion deal.
  
  
  
• Speaking of the sitting US president and deals Nvidia's latest financial reports show that the company has made a $25 billion on-paper profit from its $5 billion investment in Intel. (Tom's Hardware)
  
  President Trump rewrote former President Biden's original grant of $10 billion to Intel - which had strings attached that the company couldn't meet - into $10 billion in non-voting stock, netting the public a neat $50 billion paper profit.

• Meanwhile SpaceX has completed its acquisition of AI coding startup Cursor for $60 billion. (Tech Crunch)
  
  I'm old enough to remember Compaq's acquisition of Digital being a big deal (I'm old enough to remember Compaq and Digital, for that matter). That was valued at around $9 billion.
  
  
  
• How Larry Ellison slid from being the world's second richest man to eighth place in just two months. (Forbes)
  
  All at once at first, and then slowly.
  
  Oracle's valuation skyrocket through massive deals for AI datacenter operations, and then people started to run the numbers through their abaci as raise questions.
  
  
  
• Speak of Intel, "It's not just Intel", says Intel. (Tom's Hardware)
  
  Specifically referring to a diverging industry with a booming commercial computing market and a consumer market that has had its throat slit and its entrails torn out and been left to die alone in the snow while the wolves gather in the distance.
  
  
  
• An interview with Intel VP Robert Hallock about the company's plans to go through the corpse's pockets for loose change. (Tom's Hardware) (archive site)
  
  Well, that's a little unkind. It's not Intel that killed the consumer market, and they are offering us five year old technology in exchange for our magic beans.
  
  
  
• Speaking of which, if you were hoping for an SSD replacement under warrant from SK Hynix, best hope instead that your SSD doesn't fail. (Tom's Hardware)
  
  They're out of stock. They are still manufacturing them, of course, but you can't have one. You'll get a refund... At the old price.
  
  I suspect - hope, actually - that lawyers are going to get rich off this behaviour.
  
  
  
• CEOs of AI companies say their creations will lead to a shorter work week. (BBC)
  
  Workers at AI companies are putting in 12 hour days and 7 day weeks.
  
  
  
• Why tech CEOs keep posting manifestos trying to sell the world on AI. (BBC)
  
  Because they'd prefer not to be lynched, if it's all the same to you.
  
  
  
• When and how different AI models lie to you. (Just Facts)
  
  Not surprisingly, Grok has the least distinct left-wing bias, but the difference isn't as large as you might hope.
  
  The writers tested for both left-wing and right-wing bias across a sample of a hundred multiple-choice questions, and also for citations of web pages that don't exist. Hallucinated links were a major issue even when the AI models got the answer right.
  
  Oh, and don't trust ChatGPT or Gemini for anything that touches on present-day politics, but I'm sure you already knew that.
  
  
  

posted by Pixy Misa at 04:30 AM

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