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...

New: With Mercor’s new fundraise and $10 billion valuation, its founders become the world’s youngest self-made billionaires at age 22, younger than Mark Zuckerberg was when he hit that status at age 23 two decades ago. www.forbes.com/sites/richar...

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...

New: We interviewed elderly people who are chatting with AI bots in nursing homes and at home to combat loneliness. “[The calls are] not about anything that's really important, but it gives me something to do,” one senior said. With @rashis.bsky.social www.forbes.com/sites/rashis...

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...

This was all found in hundreds of emails obtained via public records requests for comms between various police departments and Amazon's law enforcement and school safety lead, an ex-cop himself. Yes, Amazon has also been pushing AI surveillance at schools.

New: Grafana Labs, which helps companies monitor their data and internal systems, has hit $400 million in ARR and closed a tender offer of up to $150 million. www.forbes.com/sites/richar...

My TikTok book is out in stores today! Why should you read it? Because 1 in 5 Americans now get their news from this thing. We should all understand how it works. It was inevitable that strongmen would seek to control a tool this powerful. The book is the story of what happened when they did.

Just checkin in about the fate of CapCut and a bunch of other apps that millions of Americans use www.forbes.com/sites/emilyb...

We chatted with European startup founders who think Trump’s $100,000 H-1B visa fee could be a boon for the region: “We almost say thank you to Trump, in a way. He’s really helping us keep our talent.” With @rashis.bsky.social www.forbes.com/sites/richar...

New: Databricks is launching a startup accelerator for seed and pre-seed companies, offering up to $250,000 to startups in the form of funding and credits www.forbes.com/sites/richar...

Friends, let me introduce you to a new, truly wild genre of YouTube vids www.forbes.com/sites/emilyb...

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...

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...

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...

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...

NEW: For nearly a decade Elon Musk has claimed Teslas can truly drive themselves. They can’t. Now California regulators, a Miami jury and a new class action suit are calling him on it #autonomousvehicles #tesla www.forbes.com/sites/alanoh...

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...

Google is working with longtime pollster Scott Rasmussen and his Napolitan Institute on a project to use AI to survey Americans from every congressional district. It could be “revolutionary” for political polling, Rasmussen says. www.forbes.com/sites/richar...

Meta has seen a significant brain drain among its AI talent in recent years, largely due to a chaotic culture and lack of vision, ex Meta AI employees told Forbes. Even amid a hiring spree, Meta continues to lose AI researchers. With @richardnieva.bsky.social. www.forbes.com/sites/rashis...

New: Meta has been on a spending spree, but its talent pool has become an afterthought for some of its biggest rivals. Google has hired less than 2 dozen AI people from Meta since last fall, compared to the hundreds it hired overall. With @rashis.bsky.social www.forbes.com/sites/rashis...

New: When OpenAI announced GPT-4o was being discontinued (before reversing course today) power users were devastated. “It was very sudden. I cried,” a user who created a Change.org petition told me. www.forbes.com/sites/richar...

AGI might come soon. I talked to students who have dropped out of college now because of it: www.forbes.com/sites/victor...

Scoop: Cognition is in talks to raise north of $300M at a valuation of $10B, more than doubling its value from March. The startup had just announced its acquisition of Windsurf after its founders joined Google. With @RashiShrivast18 and @_IainMartin www.forbes.com/sites/richar...

I wrote about layoffs due to AI and automation. Fiverr’s CEO, who sent a memo to employees about AI coming for jobs, told me he wrote it after hearing chatter around the office. "I felt like this needed validation from me — that they aren’t imagining stuff." www.forbes.com/sites/richar...

New: After Scale’s deal with Meta, Uber is making a push by expanding the services of the data labeling unit it launched late last year. “We do see an opportunity to build this into a meaningful business line for Uber,” the unit’s GM told Forbes. www.forbes.com/sites/richar...

Over the past 48 hours, TikTokers — and BlueSkiers, Threaders, and even Twitterers —  took a cue from 2020 K-Pop stans and reserved tickets to a trump rally they weren't gonna use. www.forbes.com/sites/emilyb...

Scoop: Dalton Caldwell and Paul Buchheit, two long-tenured Y combinator partners, are leaving the firm to start their own Series A fund. www.forbes.com/sites/richar...

New: As Scale and Meta finalize their deal, OpenAI, one of Scale’s most prominent customers, has already been working for months to wind down its business with Scale and is vetting new partners, sources told Forbes. www.forbes.com/sites/richar...

New: Last week, Anduril's mega $30B funding round underscored how hungry investors are for military startups. It also minted a new defense tech billionaire: Trae Stephens. www.forbes.com/sites/davidj...

For our Midas Seed list, I profiled Satya Patel of Homebrew. Chris Britt, CEO of IPO-bound Chime, says he walks the “fine line” of knowing when to push and let founders “do our thing.” www.forbes.com/sites/richar...

For this year’s Midas List, we profiled Hemant Taneja and General Catalyst, which has been stretching the scope of its VC firm so far that it’s buying a hospital and cofounding AI companies. With @iainmartin.bsky.social www.forbes.com/sites/iainma...

New: I chatted with Niantic CEO John Hanke and other company brass about the bombshell decision to sell off Pokemon Go and the rest of the games business and pivot to enterprise AI.  “It was like two bodies running a three-legged race,” one investor said. www.forbes.com/sites/richar...

ICYMI: We wrote about AI startups requiring 6- and 7-day work weeks. “Why is a week seven days? If you think about it, there's no logical reason,” one founder said. “There might be historical reasons, but why is it five days working and two days off?” www.forbes.com/sites/richar...

New: Hustle culture has always been ingrained in Silicon Valley’s DNA. Now as AI booms, some startups are requiring 6 or 7 day work weeks. One of them is Mercor, a $2 billion recruitment unicorn founded by Thiel Fellows. With @iainmartin.bsky.social www.forbes.com/sites/richar...

MP Materials, operator of the only U.S. rare earth minerals mine, is ramping up supplies of the critical ingredients and magnets used in autos, electronics and military hardware as China tightens exports #rareearth #electricvehicles www.forbes.com/sites/alanoh...

New: I wrote about Neo, the VC firm founded by early Facebook investor Ali Partovi, which just raised $320 million. On the firm’s rivalry with YC, Partovi says: “Neo is the highly selective program for top technical teams that Y Combinator once was.” www.forbes.com/sites/richar...

Paging through cancelled HHS grants a few weeks ago, I noticed an alarming trend: 'DOGE' was shuttering maternal and child healthcare programs, despite what Musk and Trump were saying about 'The Birth Rate.' New from me, on the human costs of DOGE: www.forbes.com/sites/emilyb...

As part of our AI50 package, we took a look at Chinese AI companies worth paying attention to, after DeepSeek made huge waves months ago. They range from upstarts like Agibot and Manus to giants like Alibaba and Tencent. With @rashis.bsky.social www.forbes.com/sites/richar...

The U.S. is among the cheapest places to build data centers, but Trump's tariffs could upend that, putting a damper on the country's leadership in AI. With @richardnieva.bsky.social www.forbes.com/sites/richar...

Trump’s tariffs so far exempt semiconductors, but they could still hobble the U.S. in the AI race with their impact on data center costs. With @rashis.bsky.social www.forbes.com/sites/richar...

Palantir sues Y Combinator startup Guardian AI over alleged trade secret theft. My latest for @forbes.com www.forbes.com/sites/amyfel...

Will Trump finally start following the TikTok law? Here’s what to watch to find out. www.forbes.com/sites/emilyb...

Anthropic is bringing its Claude models to Databricks’ corporate customers. It’s a moment where “the rubber hits the road” for Anthropic’s plans for the enterprise and developing AI agents, Anthropic CPO Mike Krieger tells Forbes. www.forbes.com/sites/richar...

NEW - Staff inside CISA, the government's premier cybersecurity agency, have been left flabbergasted at the use of Signal by senior defense and intelligence officials. Some amazed no one has been fired. The Trump admin, meanwhile, is playing down the leak. www.forbes.com/sites/thomas...

Just updated the article to include a comment from Greene's spox-- "It’s about domestic terrorist attacks, Zach. You are nothing more than a Democrat troll. Enough out of you."

NEW: Scale AI says that over the past year, the largest growing hub of its Outlier program for clickworkers is the US. I talked to contractors and Scale execs, as the program also faces criticism about working conditions. www.forbes.com/sites/richar...

New from @rashis.bsky.social and me: AI-powered search engines from companies like OpenAI and Perplexity send 96% less referral traffic to publishers than traditional web search, according to a new report. www.forbes.com/sites/rashis...

Oops-- "It Took Two Tries For The DOJ To Convince Apple And Google To Restore TikTok" @richardnieva.bsky.social for @forbes.com

NEW: Apple and Google reinstated TikTok to their app stores last week after receiving a letter from the DOJ. But sources tell Forbes it took two letters to convince them they wouldn’t be liable, because they found the first version not legally sufficient. www.forbes.com/sites/richar...