A new Frontier for startups: A handful of startups just got funding to remove CO2 from the atmosphere. Using carbon as a raw material could help them reach market viability.
Alphabet’s health dominion may come at a hefty legal cost: The tech giant dwarfs its Big Tech peers with health investments, but regulatory scrutiny may heat up in the post-Roe reality.
Retailers experiment with the role of the store: Gap, Jonathan Adler, and others are testing new retail concepts and tech to determine the best way to leverage their physical presences.
Brands are bullish on ecommerce: More than half of companies are ramping up investment for ecommerce initiatives, per a survey by Yottaa.
Energy independence undermined: A group is using propaganda to keep other countries dependent on rare-earth minerals from China. As more disinformation looms, social media companies could help stop it.
Urbanites in the digital dark: A Seattle couple’s Comcast saga illustrates how many city dwellers are still struggling to get connected. Treating the internet as a public utility could help.
Silicon Valley goes global: The Great Resignation and remote work have pushed tech companies to hire international software developers. It could significantly change Silicon Valley and emerging tech hubs worldwide.
A mighty cure for weakness: A wearable exomuscle device could help improve strength in those recovering from injuries or with other limitations. But only if it's easy to wear and affordable.
Big Tech post-Roe: As tech giants like Google respond to abortion rights loss, they face a quagmire of choices about strengthening digital privacy, censorship, and where to do business.
Walmart’s hybrid cloud: In building its hybrid cloud infrastructure, the retailer heads a movement to an era of cloud independence. It could also spark a new type of cloud business.
The more bots the better? Deploying more robots at Amazon warehouses could close the labor gap. Happier employees working alongside bots with the latest software could also help.
Gigafactories = ‘gigantic money furnaces’: Supply chain disruptions grind Tesla’s new factories to a near halt. Even when things come back online, the mineral shortage will still be a scourge.
5G and satellite internet at war: SpaceX, DISH, and RS Access fight over who can use the 12GHz spectrum. The FCC could arbitrate the issue.
Haptic suits beat bobble-headed avatars in VR: Technologies like MetaTouch could be the gateway to all sorts of sensory delights in VR and kick-start a trend for remote medical diagnostics.
Tech’s labor tug of war: Big Tech is raising pay and discouraging union efforts, but an increasing number of workers are banking on unions to give them a voice in negotiating working conditions and benefits.
Microsoft dials down facial-analysis AI: The technology can infer people’s emotional state, gender, and other attributes, but the algorithm’s inherent bias makes it prone to inaccuracies that could lead to misuse.
AVs have surveillance potential: Chinese officials’ recent restrictions on Teslas are just a fraction of more widespread concerns about vehicle digital privacy. Regulators and automakers should preemptively take action.
Earth gets a checkup from microsatellites: Startup Pixxel’s digital twin of Earth could yield unprecedented environmental intelligence. But the tech’s benefit will depend on who’s using it.
Cloudflare sneezes and takes down half the internet: A server policy change downed apps, websites, and crypto services for hours, exposing the fragility of relying on a centralized network infrastructure.
Tech is burning: After the tech industry’s long heyday, it’s undergoing a painful inflection point marked by economic uncertainty and friction between workers and bosses. Innovation is at risk.