This issue covers tech, business, and fun. We couldn't find enough verifiable natural-disaster material for this period, so that category is skipped; everything else is sourced.
Alphabet's stock kept climbing on AI-related progress, with its market cap closing in on Nvidia's, driven by AI advances spanning search, cloud, and consumer product lines.
Verification note: Market-cap comparisons are from a tech-news roundup; for live figures, check real-time market data.SpaceX struck a compute deal with Anthropic, renting out more than 300 megawatts of capacity at a Tennessee data center.
Verification note: Deal scale is from a tech-news roundup; for official terms, check both companies' announcements.Google's open-weight Gemma 4 models run up to 3x faster using speculative decoding techniques, maintaining output quality while cutting inference costs.
Verification note: Technical details are from a tech-news roundup; for official performance figures, check Google's own announcement.French startup Genesis AI unveiled its new GENE-26.5 robotics AI model and a dexterous robotic hand, having raised $105 million to target European industrial applications.
Verification note: Product and funding details are from a tech-news roundup; for official specs, check Genesis AI's own announcement.Blackstone and Halliburton jointly invested $1 billion in Houston-based VoltaGrid, funding gas-powered microgrids to enable rapid data center deployment.
Verification note: Investment figures are from a tech-news roundup; for official deal terms, check VoltaGrid's own announcement.SoftBank began large-scale battery-cell manufacturing at its Sakai, Osaka plant, launching "AX Factory" (AI data center operations) and "GX Factory" (batteries, solar, and related products), targeting several GWh of capacity with global expansion plans.
Verification note: Capacity targets are from a tech-news roundup; for the official plan, check SoftBank's own announcement.Samsung, Hyundai, and LG jointly backed robotics startup Config Robotics, which positions itself as the "TSMC of robot data," building AI systems for manufacturing robots.
Verification note: Investment scale is from a tech-news roundup; for official deal terms, check Config Robotics' own announcement.Chewy Bark Park, a dog park inside The Underline linear park in Coral Gables near Miami, hosted a pool party with as many as 277 dogs in an attempt at a Guinness World Record.
Verification note: From an international odd-news roundup site; for certification results, check the original report via the source link.