Hi there, this is your daily ☕️ Techpresso.
In today's Techpresso:
🤝 ASML becomes Mistral AI's top shareholder
🛰️ SpaceX buys EchoStar spectrum for $17 billion
🎬 OpenAI backs a $30 million AI-made animated film
🔋 iPhone 17 Pro may get a 19% bigger battery
👀 US weighs annual chip permits for Korean firms
🎁 + 12 other news you might like
🔮 + 6 handpicked research papers and tools
🤝 ASML becomes Mistral AI's top shareholder LINK
Dutch chipmaker ASML is investing 1.3 billion euros into French AI startup Mistral AI, leading a larger funding round and becoming the company's biggest shareholder with a new board seat.
The partnership aims to lessen the European Union's dependence on AI models from the United States and China, aiming to secure the region's overall digital sovereignty for the future.
This deal joins ASML, the exclusive supplier of EUV lithography systems for chip manufacturing, with Mistral AI, a startup often seen as Europe's primary competitor to US tech giants.
🛰️ SpaceX buys EchoStar spectrum for $17 billion LINK
SpaceX is acquiring EchoStar's AWS-4 and H-block spectrum licenses for $17 billion, a deal split evenly between cash and an equivalent amount of company stock for its satellite network.
The newly acquired spectrum enables SpaceX to develop its "Direct to Cell" service, designed to provide broadband-speed internet and optimized 5G protocols directly to mobile phones worldwide.
This sale follows an FCC inquiry into EchoStar’s spectrum holdings, reportedly after a personal push from President Trump and public encouragement from SpaceX for the company to sell its licenses.
🎬 OpenAI backs a $30 million AI-made animated film LINK
OpenAI is backing "Critterz," a $30 million animated film created with Vertigo Films, aiming to finish the entire project in just nine months to demonstrate its generative AI tools.
The production uses a hybrid model combining DALL-E for concept art, the Sora model for video generation, and GPT-5 for other tasks, all guided by human writers and artists.
This project serves as a strategic case study to win over a skeptical Hollywood industry that is currently engaged in major copyright infringement lawsuits against AI developers over training data.
🔋 iPhone 17 Pro may get a 19% bigger battery LINK
Leaked specs suggest the iPhone 17 Pro Max could be the first model to offer a battery capacity above 5,000mAh, with one rumored figure listed specifically at 5,088mAh.
Several iPhone 17 models might have two different battery capacities, with versions lacking an eSIM slot using the extra space from the SIM card tray for a larger component.
While most models get bigger batteries, the iPhone 17 Air could see a 33 percent capacity drop compared to the iPhone 16 Plus, a change attributed to its thin frame.
👀 US weighs annual chip permits for Korean firms LINK
The US government may replace the indefinite validated end-user (VEU) status for Samsung and SK hynix with a new annual 'site license' model for importing equipment to their Chinese fabs.
Under this proposal, Korean firms would apply yearly for a fixed quantity of equipment, a move designed to keep fabs running without allowing for technology upgrades or facility expansions in China.
South Korean officials worry the annual system is too inflexible, potentially delaying urgent equipment repairs if the necessary parts were not included in the pre-approved application at the start of the year.
Other news you might like
- Microsoft cloud services disrupted by Red Sea cable cutsLINK
- Google finally details Gemini usage limitsLINK
- Uber and Momenta to test autonomous vehicles in Germany in 2026LINK
- Report: Apple planning to launch Apple Intelligence in China before end of 2025LINK
- iCloud Calendar abused to send phishing emails from Apple’s serversLINK
- Larry Ellison Called Cloud 'Complete Gibberish'—Now He's Building It For Elon MuskLINK
- Billionaires in Silicon Valley have spent over $5 billion trying to extend human life using AI and scienceLINK
- Over 10% of Google AI Overviews now cite AI-generated contentLINK
- 32% of senior developers report that half their code comes from AI, double the rate of juniorsLINK
- Study shows mandatory cybersecurity courses do not stop phishing attacksLINK
- The influencer in this Vodafone ad isn’t realLINK
- Bubble-powered robots created, could replace needle-based drug injectionsLINK
Latest research and tools
Immich: a high-performance, self-hosted solution for managing personal photos and videos.LINK
I cannot fulfill this request as it is about Github, which I am not given information about.LINK
Lid Angle Sensor C++ Library: a library for C++ developers to read the angle of a MacBook's lid using its built-in hardware sensor.LINK
OpenCV over WebRTC: a project that streams real-time computer vision from a server directly to a web browser.LINK
Apple A17 Pro Chip Hardware Flaw: documents a hardware vulnerability in the iPhone 15 Pro Max that can silently disable core security features, like biometrics and encryption, without alerting the user that the device is compromised.LINK
Garbage Collection for Rust: The Finalizer Frontier: this paper proposes a system for adding garbage collection to Rust that works correctly with the language's existing automatic resource cleanup feature.LINK
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