TechCapsules

Allbirds has pivoted to AI, selling its shoe business for $43 million and raising $100 million from the stock market, rebranding as Smartbird. Nadia Carlsten, a former AWS executive, has been appointed as Smartbird's CEO, tasked with recruiting a new team and establishing an office. Smartbird aims to provide AI infrastructure, targeting customers who require direct control over servers and value data sovereignty. The company will focus on managed deployments, competing with internal company projects rather than [...]

Elon Musk exercised 303,960,630 Tesla stock options, generating $115.9 billion in paper gains, and increased his direct Tesla voting power to approximately 20%. The transaction was made possible by an Implementation Agreement signed on April 21, 2026, and comes after SpaceX completed its IPO, giving it a public market valuation and share currency. Musk's move has fueled speculation about a potential Tesla and SpaceX merger, with the timing and structure of the stock option exercise carrying significant [...]

Enphase co-founder Raghu Belur discusses the company's solid-state transformer technology, which can ease power problems in data centres. The technology consolidates the power conversion process, eliminating multiple conversion steps and traditional uninterruptible power supply systems. Enphase has been developing this technology for AI data centres over the past nine months, leveraging its power electronics expertise. The company's SST approach converts medium voltage to 800 volts DC in a single stage, ideal for data centres with high power [...]

Carl Pei, founder of Nothing, has declared his intention to steal Apple's customers in a social media stunt. Pei believes the smartphone market has become stagnant and that Apple has lost its creative spark. Nothing aims to offer an alternative with its unique transparent hardware designs and customized software. The company plans to expand its US retail presence through Best Buy, posing a tangible threat to Apple's dominance. Pei's goal is to attract bored iPhone users, but [...]

Elon Musk has announced that xAI's model, Grok, will be capable of creating full movies by the end of 2026. A trailer for Homer's The Odyssey, created using Grok Imagine Video 1.5, showcases the AI's rapid strides in video generation. The 2-minute-plus trailer features 36 consistent shots, realistic special effects, and emotional depth, demonstrating Grok's capabilities in scale, physics, and cinematic workflow. Musk believes Grok will be "watchable" by the end of 2026 and "really good" by

Industrialist Anand Mahindra has recalled a 2018 message he shared with Elon Musk, in which he encouraged the Tesla and SpaceX founder to "hang in there" amidst production challenges and doubts over his ambitious plans. Mahindra's message gained new relevance after Musk became the world's first trillionaire following SpaceX's record-breaking market debut. Mahindra reflected on Musk's resilience and ability to turn "tomorrow's impossibility into today's reality." Musk's net worth jumped to over $1 trillion after SpaceX's valuation [...]

Amazon AI executive Peter DeSantis predicts the first commercially useful small-scale quantum computers will be available in five-to-seven years. DeSantis leads a new Amazon organization focused on AI models, chips, and quantum computing. Quantum computing proponents claim the technology will solve problems current computers cannot. DeSantis' prediction suggests significant advancements in the field. The technology is expected to grow similarly to semiconductor capabilities. Amazon's investment in quantum computing indicates a strong commitment to the technology's potential. DeSantis' [...]

Elon Musk has suggested that conventional money may lose relevance in a future where artificial intelligence (AI) gains access to enormous amounts of energy and surpasses human intelligence. According to Musk, harnessing just 1 millionth of the Sun's power for AI systems would result in computational capabilities far beyond human capabilities. This feat would require the construction of an extensive industrial infrastructure beyond Earth, including manufacturing solar panels and radiators on the Moon and launching them into [...]