Tech industry

Article URL: https://www.cnbc.com/2026/10/21/meta-new-mexico-cambridge-analytica-penalty.html Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50184820 Points: 175 # Comments: 59

The social media giant is planning a new stock strategy to help power its broad investments in AI models and services.

A rush of new data centers could bring air pollution roaring back to levels not seen since the 2000s in Texas, which has become ground zero for the physical infrastructure behind generative AI. New and proposed data centers are demanding a tremendous amount of electricity. How developers and utilities meet that demand - with gas turbines or renewable energy - will determine just how dirty things will get. So far, though, things are looking grim. Tech companies and data center developers are devising new ways to get enough electricity, including building out their own power sources. But if all planned data center projects were to plug into … Read the full story at The Verge.

Meta had to shell out $9.89 billion to pay for a chunk of the child safety settlement it reached with US attorneys general. That's according to the company's third-quarter earnings report released on Wednesday, which says Meta's income from operations would have been $22.89 billion without the settlement. In August, Meta agreed to pay $17.1 billion to settle a massive nationwide lawsuit that claimed the company harmed children by making its social media platforms "addictive" by design. It will also only pay $5.3 billion of this amount if YouTube and TikTok implement stricter settings and safeguards for kids, which Meta also agreed to as par … Read the full story at The Verge.

As the smoke clears from its outrageous Roadster demo, Tesla reported Q3 earnings on Wednesday - and the cold reality is that revenue has flatlined. Tesla said it earned $1.7 billion in net income on $28.0 billion in revenue in the quarter that ended in September 2026. Revenues were flat, while profits dropped 4 percent compared to the third quarter of 2025, when the company earned $1.4 billion in net income on $28.1 billion in revenue. Tesla's revenue came in above Wall Street expectations of $27.9 billion, according to data compiled by LSEG. Tesla's own company-compiled expectations predicted Q3 revenues of $28.3 billion. The earnings … Read the full story at The Verge.

To compete with Tesla, Rivian, and a host of Chinese automakers, GM’s fourth-gen EV platform will roll out a new central computer and electrical architecture that will debut in 2028 in the Cadillac Escalade IQ.

As Amazon blocks AI agents from shopping on its site, Walmart is taking the opposite approach, introducing new technology that lets AI agents make purchases on customers' behalf, with controls over spending and transaction approvals.

Legal AI startup Legora announced Wednesday that it raised a $550 million Series E round, valuing it at $8.8 billion.

Musk and Trump both denied ordering Starlink slowdown. WSJ reports it was Musk.

OS operators throwing out that data is "unlikely," research author tells Ars.

A TP-Link Wi-Fi 8 router. | Image: TP-Link TP-Link, one of the world's leading manufacturers of consumer Wi-Fi routers, is in a precarious position in the US. The company just launched its first Wi-Fi 8 routers, but can't bring them here because of President Donald Trump's foreign router ban. Even though competitors Netgear and Asus make their routers in Asia, they've mysteriously obtained blanket waivers for all their new gear; perhaps because of alleged ties to China, TP-Link hasn't managed to get such a waiver yet. But TP-Link is willing to do something those companies weren't - to invest nearly $1 billion to make routers in the United States, creating "hundreds of high-paying re … Read the full story at The Verge.

BioWare, the legendary studio behind RPGs like Mass Effect, Dragon Age, and Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, is shutting down, the company confirmed in a statement. Alongside the closure, Electronic Arts has chosen not to continue development on the next Mass Effect game that was in the works, according to an announcement sent to EA staff. The company is also laying off around 400 staffers, Bloomberg reports, including around 50 at BioWare. The changes follow EA being taken private by an investor group led by Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund, Silver Lake, and Affinity Partners in a $55 billion deal that closed in August. Other m … Read the full story at The Verge.

Pickups and dropoffs will happen at dedicated "autonomous vehicle zones" at Terminal 1 and Terminal 3.

"We have had significant constructive engagement with the FAA."

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Apple says it will have "limited" iPhone Duo models for sale in stores, according to a report from Reuters. The iPhone Duo launches on Friday, October 23rd, but online preorders quickly sold out, with some delivery estimates extending into next year. "On Friday morning, our teams look forward ​to welcoming customers at Apple Stores to experience iPhone Duo ​and the incredible iPhone line-up for themselves," Apple said in a statement to Reuters. "Apple Stores will ‌have ⁠limited iPhone Duo available for walk-in customers, and we're working hard to get this revolutionary new product into customers' hands as quickly as possible." The iPhone … Read the full story at The Verge.

Cloudflare's web application firewall can now correlate an HTTP request with its response. Full transaction detection helps every customer find successful exploits, data exposure, and risky misconfigurations that request-only inspection can miss.