In a week filled with major tech announcements, Google wowed the world by announcing the Pixel 9a, featuring a game-changing Actua display. This new model features a much larger, higher-res 6.3 inch screen. Compared to its predecessor, the Pixel 8a, it’s got a 35% boost in brightness tossed in for good measure. Google is marketing the Actua display as a major selling point of the Pixel 9a. They talk about all of the great cutting edge stuff happening in mobile.
At the same time, Wayve, a vehicle tech company founded in 2017, has been developing interesting innovations in the autonomous vehicle space. The 12-member firm’s future business model involves licensing its self-driving software to partners among automotive companies and fleets and that includes Uber. In the last four years, Wayve has raised more than $1.3 billion. This is no small accomplishment and speaks to its increasing popularity and power within the industry.
In a major development, Hotshot has been acquired by xAI, the artificial intelligence startup founded by Elon Musk. This new startup is focused entirely on AI-driven video-creation software. This acquisition could indicate xAI's ambition to develop its own video-generation models, aiming to rival established names like OpenAI's Sora and Google's Veo 2.
Google’s recent $32 billion acquisition of Wiz has taken cloud by storm. This acquisition marks Google's largest to date and positions Wiz as a "multicloud" offering, indicating it will serve beyond just Google's ecosystem. This move follows last year's $23 billion offer for Wiz, highlighting Google's continued interest in expanding its cloud capabilities.
Hackers have absconded with curiously sensitive personal information for over half of the organization’s members. The data that has been compromised includes member account numbers, PINs, passwords and security codes. With such a breach, the implications for data protection and privacy are profound.
Legal battles have emerged as Rippling has countered with a lawsuit against Deel. These allegations are very serious. These range from racketeering, misappropriation of trade secrets, tortious interference, unfair competition and aiding and abetting a breach of fiduciary duty. This epic legal showdown is poised to shake out in a manner that will carry major consequences for both tech leviathans.
Karyne Levy is deputy managing editor of TechCrunch. She follows breaking stories as they develop and makes sure we’re covering all the bases on the ever-evolving tech front.
