Author: precious

IonQ, a leading quantum computing company, has announced its agreement to acquire Oxford Ionics for $1.075 billion. The deal is structured primarily as a stock-based transaction, with $1.065 billion in IonQ common stock and approximately $10 million in cash. This acquisition, marking the largest deal in the quantum computing sector to date, also positions IonQ as the company at the forefront of the race to develop commercially viable quantum computers. The merging of IonQ’s established quantum infrastructure with Oxford Ionics’ high performance quantum computing technology aims to accelerate the development and commercialization of quantum computers. Being a UK-based company founded…

Meta’s aggressive spending spree in its bid to develop artificial intelligence (AI) has sent shockwaves through Silicon Valley, as Mark Zuckerberg unleashes what industry insiders are calling “Zuck Bucks” to dominate the AI landscape. The social media giant’s combination of massive infrastructure investments and eye-watering talent acquisition offers is reshaping how tech companies who are already at the forefront of AI development further compete for AI supremacy. At the heart of Meta’s AI strategy is a staggering financial commitment. Earlier in the year, the company announced plans to spend between $64 billion and $72 billion on AI infrastructure in 2025,…

The U.S. Department of Defense, also known as the Pentagon, has awarded OpenAI a one-year contract to “develop prototype frontier AI.” This contract, which will be managed through the Department of Defense’s Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Office (CDAO), aims to develop advanced AI prototypes to address critical national security challenges. It is also the first awarded contract under OpenAI’s newly launched “OpenAI for Government” initiative. This initiative is designed to provide federal, state, and local agencies with secure and customized AI solutions. According to the company’s blog post, it will consolidate the tech giant’s other government-focused efforts, such as…

In a move set to reshape Africa’s food technology landscape, Nigeria’s food delivery platform, Chowdeck, has acquired Mira, a fast-growing point-of-sale (POS) startup. This strategic acquisition signifies Chowdeck’s transition from a pure delivery service to a comprehensive provider of merchant operations technology, aiming to become the operational backbone for food businesses in Nigeria, and across the African continent. Founded in October 2021, Chowdeck has quickly established itself as a dominant force in Nigeria’s on-demand delivery sector. The company boasts over 1.5 million users and more than 20,000 active riders operating in 11 cities across Nigeria and in Ghana’s capital, Accra.…

The United States has taken its toughest stance yet against Chinese technology, by rolling out sweeping restrictions that affect everything from artificial intelligence (AI) to advanced computer chips. This crackdown, starting out from trade and economics, has now shifted to the U.S. doing every possible thing to secure its security, global influence, and the country’s future innovation. The relationship between the U.S. and China has always been complex. In recent years, however, it has shifted from cooperation, albeit a subtle one, to sordid competition, especially in the technology sector. The Trump-led U.S. government sees China’s rapid progress in fields like…

Two years after the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) reported and touted the great potential of generative AI in the corporate world, the institute’s researchers are now back with another study that reveals a complex picture of ChatGPT’s impact on human cognition. According to the research, there was a pattern of cognitive decline amongst ChatGPT/Generative AI users who were in the study. ChatGPT, developed by OpenAI, has quickly become one of the most widely used AI assistants in the world. People use it to write emails, summarize documents, generate ideas, and even help with school assignments. But as its use…

After more than a decade of promising an ad-free experience, WhatsApp has officially announced that it’ll be introducing advertisements into its popular messaging platform that has long prided itself on keeping users’ conversations free from commercial interruptions. Home to these ads is the Updates tab, a space dedicated to Status updates and the Channels feature. Since the launch of WhatsApp in 2009, the company has stood out among messaging apps for its commitment to privacy and simplicity. The company’s founders, Brian Acton and Jan Koum, famously adopted a strict “No ads! No games! No gimmicks!” policy. This policy was so…

LemFi, a London-based fintech company known for its cross-border payment services, has announced the acquisition of UK credit startup Pillar. Signaling a strategic move as the company is expanding beyond remittances and introducing new credit solutions tailored specifically for immigrants, the acquisition is expected to address a long-standing challenge for millions of immigrants who want to build credit in a new country. For many immigrants, moving to a new country often means starting from scratch financially, even if they had strong credit histories in their home countries. Due to the fact that these records rarely transfer internationally or across borders,…

A well-known ransomware group, Qilin, has claimed responsibility for a cyberattack on one of New York City’s most iconic office towers, 550 Madison Avenue, with the hackers alleging that they have stolen hundreds of gigabytes of sensitive data from the building’s operator. The Qilin ransomware gang, a group of cybercriminals that has rapidly risen to prominence in the cybercrime world, recently took responsibility on its dark website that it breached the systems of OAC 550 Owner LLC, the company that manages 550 Madison Avenue. According to the hackers, they made off with 700 gigabytes of confidential data, including personal documents,…

The world’s leading AI chipmaker, Nvidia, has secured strong support from European governments for its “Sovereign AI” initiative following a high-profile tour by CEO Jensen Huang across the continent’s major capitals. The tour, which included stops in London, Paris, and Berlin, marked a noticeable shift in Europe’s approach to artificial intelligence (AI), where independence, local control of AI and technological leadership were all re-emphasized. The concept of Sovereign AI embodies that each nation or region should have the ability to develop, manage, and operate its own artificial intelligence systems using local infrastructure, talent, and data. The goal is to ensure…