The Next Web

A dozen states have sued to block Paramount Skydance’s takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery. The suit, led by California attorney general Rob Bonta, was filed in federal court in California’s Northern District, CNBC reports. The timing is pointed. The Justice Department approved the roughly $110bn dea

Tesla’s Cybercab drove across a car park, and the real news happened two days earlier

Tesla has said Cybercab employee rides are starting soon at its Texas factory. The announcement came with a clip of a gold Cybercab, butterfly doors up and no steering wheel or pedals, driving itself across the outbound lot, Mashable reports. Note the tense. Tesla said the rides are “starting soon”,

Google’s big Waze AI update includes a button that makes the app shut up

Google has given Waze a batch of new features, most of them powered by Gemini. The headline additions are a motorcycle mode, personalised routing, conversational map editing, and Gemini-powered destination search, The Verge reports. The most interesting one does the opposite of what you would expect

Intel is putting 5 billion euros into Ireland, and Europe just got one of the few EUV fabs on the continent

Intel is committing 5 billion euros, around $5.7bn, to expand its campus at Leixlip in Ireland. The money is aimed at data-centre processors for AI and high-performance computing, Bloomberg reports. It is a serious share of the company’s budget. The sum represents roughly 30% of Intel’s $17bn capita

Nadella says you pay for AI twice, and Microsoft helped build the trap

Microsoft’s Satya Nadella says every firm using AI is paying for it twice, once in cash, and once in the secrets it hands over to make the thing useful. He calls it the Reverse Information Paradox. He also runs the company that helped build the trap. Satya Nadella has a warning for everyone buying A

AI is ending older workers’ careers early, and it is coming for the well-paid ones first

The debate about AI and jobs has focused on graduates. New research suggests it should also be looking at people in their late fifties, CNBC reports. Workers aged 55 and over in AI-exposed occupations are now exiting work at higher rates than before ChatGPT launched. The finding comes from Geoffrey

The web is now mostly bots. Cloudflare is rebuilding its defences around that

For the first time, bots generate more than half of all web traffic. Cloudflare Precursor, the company’s new tool, stops checking IDs at the door and starts watching how visitors behave once they are inside. The internet just passed a strange milestone. Bots now generate more web requests than peopl

Valarian raised $50m to help governments use US cloud without losing control of it

A London startup co-founded by a former Palantir executive has raised $50m to help governments and companies use American cloud and AI without letting America reach inside. The fear driving it stopped being hypothetical this year. Valarian, a London-based sovereignty startup, has raised a $50m (£37m

The EU has stopped sanctioning Russian hackers and started sanctioning the machine that makes them

The European Union and the United Kingdom have jointly sanctioned Russia’s cyber apparatus for the first time. The EU listed nine individuals and four entities, while the UK went further with 24, Politico reports. The language is what matters here. The EU’s High Representative Kaja Kallas denounced

Helsing raises $1.8bn at an $18bn valuation, and its cap table tells a story

Munich’s Helsing has raised $1.8bn at an $18bn valuation, making it Europe’s largest defence startup. The round is a bet on sovereign AI. A lot of the money paying for it is American. Europe’s biggest defence startup just got a lot bigger. On Monday Helsing said it had closed a $1.8bn Series E that

6 biggest tech nightmares to avoid next time you travel abroad

Drop me on a Balinese coastline with a decent paperback and my smartphone, and I’ll luxuriate for two weeks straight. But fly me out to the same spot with a Nokia 3310 and a physical map, like the one my dad used to carry, and I’ll probably have a nervous breakdown. Most of us can agree that we’re h

Meet the finalists of the TNW València startup pitch battle

Some of Europe’s hottest startups arrived at TNW València last week to develop ideas, expand networks, create new leads, and — and most importantly of all — fight. Not in the physical sense, of course, but in a fiercely-contested TNW València pitch battle. After surviving a series of fiery knockout

TNW València has arrived! Here are some highlights from Day 1

TNW València is finally here! Founders, investors, business leaders, and tech enthusiasts descended on València’s marina this morning to discover the next in tech, now. Before long, the venue — nestled between the historic inner city and the crystal clear waters of the Mediterranean — was bustling w

Stockholm is a world-class tech hub: 6 startups and scaleups to watch

Once predominantly known for IKEA, Ericsson, and Volvo, in the past decade, Sweden has emerged as one the most valued tech ecosystems in Europe, with Stockholm ranking as the fifth top performer in 2021. The success of Swedish startups such as Tink and Spotify has turned the capital city into a worl

Opinion: The AI pope coat is the shape of hyperreality to come

By now, you’ll have seen it. Pope Francis walks across the frame, his focus on the mid-distance. He’s brightly lit as though it’s early morning. A silver cross hangs from his neck, dangling over his snow-white, Balenciaga-inspired puffer jacket. It’s the baller bishop, the steezy father, his holy dr

Why third-party app stores are good for Apple’s users — and the company

With the passage of the European Union’s Digital Markets Act (DMA) in 2022, online platforms, including Apple, with EU revenues of 75 billion euros or more and at least 45 million active monthly end users must open up their devices to third party app stores. The DMA aims to end unfair practices by l

Award-winning economist has tapped AI to close the gender equity gap

The gender equity gap in the tech sector is well-documented. Research has found that women occupy only 22% of all tech roles across European companies, while the proportion of funding raised by female-only teams has dropped from 3% to 1% since 2018. The issue is prevalent at every level of the indus

3 things you can do to stand out in a job interview

Congratulations! You’ve just landed an interview for a position you really want… although now comes the hard part. Generally considered to be the most daunting stage of the entire job hunt, the interview experience can be overwhelming, nerve-wracking and wholly unpleasant, quite frankly, especially

Swedish startup takes commuting by boat to new heights — literally

Is it a boat or is it a plane? Put your glasses on! This is clearly an electrically-powered hydrofoil passenger ferry. The brainchild of Swedish startup Candela, the P-12 Shuttle is set to become the fastest and longest-range electric passenger vessel in the world when it launches this summer. Fou

How an outsider’s freedom can make a successful startup founder

Building a startup in a sector you’ve never worked in might seem a risky move, but it can actually provide a competitive advantage. That’s certainly proven true for Vivino. Founded in 2010 in Copenhagen, the scaleup has raised $221 million in funding, and become the world’s most downloaded wine app

The world’s first self-driving bus fleet will soon hit Scotland’s streets

Next time you board a bus in Scotland and it’s driving itself, don’t freak out — this is all part of a government plan to bring self-driving tech into the mainstream. Five fully autonomous buses will be taking to the streets near Edinburgh next month, announced Stagecoach, the UK’s largest bus and c

Digital twins could save your life. Here’s how

Digital twins — virtual replicas of real-world things — are already commonplace in manufacturing, industry, and aerospace. There are highly complex digital models of cities, ports, and power stations — but what about people? The idea of digital doppelgängers has long been confined to the realm of s

TNW València 2023 was a blast — here are our favourite moments

For 16 memorable years, TNW Conference has been at the center of Amsterdam’s tech ecosystem, but on March 30 and 31, TNW València brought — for the very first time — the heart of tech to Spain’s east coast. But we didn’t choose Valencia simply for its bright blue sea, delicious paellas, or sunny wea

Mammoth meatball beef exposes foodtech’s patent problem

A bitter feud has erupted over who first resurrected the woolly mammoth — as a meatball. The de-extinct delicacy was unveiled last week at Nemo Science Museum in the Netherlands. Naturally, no mammoths were harmed in the making of this product — and nor were any other animals. In lieu of dead flesh,

Everything you need to know about building a career in the gaming industry