Katharine Schwab

Napster Said It Raised $3 Billion From A Mystery Investor. Now That Investor Is Gone Forbes raised questions about a massive funding round metaverse-turned-AI firm Napster supposedly raised in January. The money is never coming, the company said Thursday.

Metaverse startup Napster earlier this year claimed to have raised a massive $3 billion round from one, unnamed investor, valuing it at $12 billion. Now it claims the money never landed and its working with law enforcement as a “victim of misconduct”.
www.forbes.com/sites/phoebe...

AI Founder Illegally Shipped Nvidia Chips To China, DOJ Alleges Prosecutors have accused Brian Raymond, founder of AI infrastructure and consulting company Bitworks, and three others of selling coveted Nvidia chips to unspecified Chinese companies.

🚨NEW🚨 A US AI founder and NVIDIA partner got caught trying to ship the most powerful of the chip maker's processors to China, the DOJ says.

He just got offered a job at another NVIDIA partner as CTO. The offer has been rescinded.

H/T @courtwatch.bsky.social

www.forbes.com/sites/thomas...

How AI Language Learning App Speak Is Taking On Duolingo Founded by former Thiel fellows, AI language tutoring app Speak started its journey in Seoul, South Korea. But as it enters the U.S. market, it’ll have to compete with popular apps like Duolingo.

AI language learning app Speak has crossed $100 million in annualized revenue. Founded by former Thiel fellows Connor Zwick and Andrew Hsu in 2016, the company is up against better-known rival Duolingo as it enters the U.S. market.
www.forbes.com/sites/rashis...

Here’s How Much Cash OpenAI Is Burning On AI Video App Sora. What It Means Some back-of-napkin math suggests OpenAI is spending more than a quarter of what it’s making to power the AI slop factory.

Have you been using #Sora? Some back-of-napkin math suggests OpenAI is spending more than a quarter of what it’s making to power its AI slop factory. There are also potential silver linings (more training data + future tax savings). My latest for @forbes.com:

www.forbes.com/sites/phoebe...

Here’s What Happens If OpenAI Can’t Pay For Its $1.4 Trillion AI Deals OpenAI has gone wild with compute deals this year, committing to spend far more than its balance sheet can currently sustain. So who takes the fall if it can’t pay? It won’t be Altman.

OpenAI has gone wild with compute deals this year, committing to spend far more than its balance sheet can currently sustain. So who takes the fall if it can’t pay?

Latest for @forbes.com with @pheebini.bsky.social and @richardnieva.bsky.social.

www.forbes.com/sites/rashis...

Elon Musk’s $1 Trillion Pay Plan: The Case For Magical Thinking Big funds, advisory firms and the Pope oppose the exorbitant plan. Approval means shareholders think the polarizing, distracted CEO can top past successes with an AI-powered strategy.

NEW: Elon Musk's $1 trillion plan: The case for magical thinking #Tesla www.forbes.com/sites/alanoh...

Inside OpenAI Chairman’s $10 Billion AI Customer Service Startup Sierra Bret Taylor and Clay Bavor had leadership roles at the world's biggest tech companies. Now they’re in the startup trenches, using AI agents to help companies interact with their customers.

New: I profiled Sierra, the $10B AI customer service startup from Bret Taylor and Clay Bavor, which wants to make AI agents the primary way businesses interact with customers. For the piece, I talked to their old bosses, Mark Zuckerberg and Sundar Pichai www.forbes.com/sites/richar...

xAI Researcher In Talks To Raise $1 Billion For New Frontier Lab Humans& Founded by former xAI staffer Eric Zelikman and early Googler Georges Harik, the new lab is building models that are better at interacting with humans.

NEW: Former xAI researcher Eric Zelikman is in talks to raise $1 billion at a $5 billion valuation to build AI models that are better at collaborating with humans. The startup is called Humans&. With Anna Tong and @iainmartin.bsky.social.

www.forbes.com/sites/annato...

TikTok Won’t Say If It’s Giving ICE Your Data Changes to TikTok's policies make it easier for the company to share users’ personal information with governments. TikTok did not respond to questions about the changes.

New from me: TikTok ignored repeated questions about whether and how they share data with ICE. Also, earlier this year, they quietly updated their policies about what happens when law enforcement asks for your data. 1/

www.forbes.com/sites/emilyb...

RJ Scaringe Is Betting His New Electric SUV Will Make Rivian The Next Tesla The Rivian founder and CEO expects its small SUV R2, priced from $45,000, to be fully competitive with Tesla’s top-selling Model Y when sales begin early next year.

NEW: Rivian's had a tough few years in the volatile, but CEO RJ Scaringe is betting its new R2 electric SUV will mark a big growth phase.
“I'm very, very biased, but I think R2 is going to drive a step-change in overall EV adoption” #electricvehicles #Rivian www.forbes.com/sites/alanoh...

Lonely Seniors Are Turning To AI Bots For Companionship The AI boom has brought with it a new crop of startups looking to build a business on an urgent but vaguely dystopian idea: solving loneliness among the elderly.

Older adults across the country are turning to AI companions to help deal with loneliness. We visited a senior care facility in the Bronx and spoke with residents about their experience speaking to AI bots. With @richardnieva.bsky.social.
www.forbes.com/sites/rashis...

How A High-Tech Chair Could Revolutionize Cancer Radiation Therapy Startup Leo Cancer Care is transforming proton radiation treatment with a simple idea: having patients sit up instead of lying down. Now hospitals that include Stanford and McLaren are lining up to bu...

My latest @forbes.com daily cover profiles startup Leo Cancer Care, which is transforming cancer radiation treatment with a simple idea: having patients sit up instead of lying down. Now hospitals are buying dozens of its chairs.

www.forbes.com/sites/amyfel...

How AMD’s AI Software Helped It Score The Multi-Billion Dollar OpenAI Deal Chips aren’t the only star of the massive agreement. AMD’s software efforts have slowly turned it into a more formidable competitor to Nvidia.

I chatted with AMD’s senior vice president of AI about the company’s massive deal with OpenAI, and how AMD’s software efforts played a part in scoring the agreement.
www.forbes.com/sites/richar...

Vaccines Are A Hard Business. RFK Jr.’s CDC Is Making It Even Harder This week's key CDC meeting—packed with RFK Jr.'s hand-picked advisors—seems poised to put further restrictions on key vaccines, harming both public health and vaccine makers.

This week’s key CDC immunization advisory meeting—packed with RFK Jr.’s hand-picked advisors—seems poised to put further restrictions on key vaccines.

@thealexknapp.bsky.social and I look at the risks to public health and vaccine makers for @forbes.com

www.forbes.com/sites/alexkn...

ICE Preps For New ‘Hiring Surge’ With AI Drones, Armor And Weapons Contract records show ICE is arming its new agents with military-grade gear, from Silicon Valley’s autonomous drones to Glock handguns.

🚨NEW🚨 ICE is preparing for an "upcoming agent hiring surge," contract records show.

It's ordered armor, Glocks, and AI surveillance drones from Skydio.

The $2.2bn Silicon Valley drone maker sold 20 drones to CBP too.

Its AI can latch onto a target and follow.

www.forbes.com/sites/thomas...

Meet Jared Kushner’s New AI Startup, Brain Co Kushner teamed up with prolific solo investor Elad Gil and Luis Videgaray, the former Mexican foreign minister, to launch Brain Co., which helps businesses and governments apply AI to their operations...

Jared Kushner has cofounded an AI startup, Brain Co, with VC Elad Gil and Luis Videgaray, the former Mexican foreign minister, to help corporates and government deploy AI www.forbes.com/sites/giacom...

SpaceX's $17 Billion EchoStar Deal Won’t Work Without Starship The spectrum SpaceX is buying could let it beam full 5G service from space to cell phones. But that depends on it launching more powerful satellites with a rocket still in development.

Elon Musk's mammoth $17 billion purchase of spectrum from EchoStar will only pay off if SpaceX can launch a new generation of satellites on its mega-rocket Starship.
www.forbes.com/sites/jeremy...

How ICE Is Using Fake Cell Towers To Spy On People’s Phones ICE is using a controversial spy tool to locate smartphones, court records show.

ICE is using a controversial spy tool to locate smartphones, court records show.

Sam Altman Is Selling His Most Valuable Known Property The listing comes as OpenAI gears up for an astronomical employee share sale that could make many in OpenAI’s ranks rich enough to afford the mansion.

The listing comes as #OpenAI gears up for an astronomical employee share sale that could make many in OpenAI’s ranks rich enough to afford the mansion.

Scoop for @forbes.com:

www.forbes.com/sites/phoebe...

ICE To Pay $10 Million For Clearview Facial Recognition To Investigate Agent Assaults ICE handed the controversial facial recognition company its biggest federal contract to date as it continues its illegal immigration crackdown.

NEW - ICE has given Clearview AI its biggest federal deal to date, with a contract worth up to $10 million.

It'll be used for investigating assaults on agents as well as CSAM.

Meanwhile, ICE has just bought a bunch of Greykey tools for searching Android and iPhones.

www.forbes.com/sites/thomas...

AI’s Next Job? Recruiting People To Train More AI Mercor, debuting on the Forbes Cloud 100 list, built an AI recruiter to interview job candidates. Then it discovered a cash cow: finding humans to train AI models.

I profiled Mercor, which is gunning to make a move in AI data training, especially after Meta’s deal with Scale AI. “It just doesn't happen too often in startups where your biggest competitor gets torpedoed overnight,” Mercor’s cofounder says. www.forbes.com/sites/richar...

Forbes Cloud 100 2025 List - Largest Cloud Computing Companies Ranked The tenth annual Forbes Cloud 100 list ranks the top private cloud computing companies — this year dominated by AI.

For our 10th annual Cloud 100, AI is unsurprisingly dominant. OpenAI and Anthropic took the top two spots, and Cursor parent Anysphere made a strong debut in the top 10. www.forbes.com/lists/cloud1...

NEW - Here's my magazine profile on Flock Safety, the $7.5bn surveillance juggernaut that local and federal cops have been using to monitor Americans.

I got a look at its car surveillance tech in action, as well as its new drones, and Nova, its police intelligence platform that's caused a stir.

ChatGPT-Powered AI Notetaking Startup Plaud Is Already Profitable Nathan Xu’s Plaud has sold more than 1 million AI recording devices that transcribe and summarize the busy days of doctors, lawyers and business people.

Nathan Xu's AI-powered note-taking gadgets have found a fast growing audience. Since launching in 2023, Xu has sold over 1 million such devices to doctors, lawyers, and other overworked folks with long days and short memories.
www.forbes.com/sites/iainma...

Esri Founder Jack Dangermond's 'Secrets' To Building A Legendary Business The 80-year-old software billionaire shares startup and life lessons that have kept him "all in" while running a high-impact global business for 50+ years.

Tech legend Jack Dangermond founded Esri in 1969. Now 80 years young and with a net worth of $10B+, he's still "all in" on his company and global mission.

@upstarts.bsky.social spent an hour with Jack this week for one of our best interviews yet, full of lessons on startup-building and life.

Intel Worked With Chinese Firms Sanctioned For Enabling Human Rights Abuses As the U.S. government takes a 10% stake in Intel, Forbes has learned the tech company partnered with sanctioned Chinese surveillance firms Uniview, Hikvision and Cloudwalk.

Intel has been touting partnerships with sanctioned Chinese surveillance firms as Trump announces that the USG is taking a stake in the company:

www.forbes.com/sites/emilyb...

Scoop: Meta Held Talks With Midjourney As Part Of Video AI Talent Search Meta has talked deals with Midjourney and video AI startups including HeyGen and Krea as part of its researcher talent hunt, sources tell Upstarts, while Midjourney has pursued other partnerships.

Scoop: Meta has held talks with Midjourney about a partnership including a potential acquisition, among several previously-unreported AI video startups it's met recently, sources tell me at @upstarts.bsky.social.

Midjourney's been busy, too, pitching an API.

www.upstartsmedia.com/p/meta-talks...

Anthropic Is Letting Social Workers From Hundreds Of Government Agencies Use Its AI For Paperwork The AI juggernaut is working with Founders Fund-backed startup Binti in its first foray into government social work.

New: Anthropic is making its first foray into government social work, partnering with a Founders Fund-backed startup called Binti to provide social workers with AI tools for paperwork. www.forbes.com/sites/richar...

TCV’s Top European Investor John Doran Relocates To Silicon Valley John Doran, who led TCV's European investments, has relocated to the Bay Area to bolster the $22 billion growth equity fund’s team.

John Doran, who led TCV’s European investments, has relocated to the Bay Area to bolster the Spotify, Netflix, and Zillow investor team there
www.forbes.com/sites/iainma...

Why China Is Dunking On The Trump Administration's New TikTok Account In a scathing editorial, the CCP reiterated that it will not let TikTok’s parent company sell its signature algorithm. What would a TikTok without that algorithm be?

China Daily is out with a scathing editorial gloating about the Trump Admin joining TikTok — and saying the CCP isn't gonna let ByteDance sell the For You algorithm go anytime soon.

www.forbes.com/sites/emilyb...