Inertia Enterprises burst onto the scene in February with a $450 million Series A, making it one of the best capitalized startups in the industry, aiming to bring laser-based fusion reactors to market.
Modern scientific societies are increasingly vulnerable due to their dependence on membership fees and journal subscriptions, which are being challenged by the rise of virtual networking and open-access publishing.
In the AI era, it should be easier than ever for people to build new businesses. We want to build the services that enable this. This is important for ensuring that people broadly share in the prosperity created by superintelligence.
"I think it surprised me how easily people are swayed by headlines," says Suderman, noting that wartime information flows are often strategic and conflicting. "You have to learn in a wartime to take everything with a grain of salt in the context of what you observe."
Multinational firms are under rising pressure-from investors, regulators, and employees-to demonstrate positive societal impact in the places where they do business. With ESG-focused institutional investments projected to reach nearly $34 trillion this year and roughly 90% of large U.S. companies now disclosing ESG reports, these pressures are now a central part of corporate strategy.
The project explores the integration of multiple programs within a shared spatial system, proposing a development in which residential, commercial, hospitality, and public functions coexist in close proximity. Instead of organizing these uses as separate buildings with independent infrastructures, the proposal concentrates them within a connected structure that allows circulation, services, and public areas to operate collectively.
Ripple's launch in Brazil includes five products: payments, custody, stablecoins, prime brokerage, and treasury management, marking the first comprehensive offering in one market.
Rick Azevedo, a resident of Rio de Janeiro, had been going from job to job for 12 years. All his positions had one thing in common: six consecutive work days, with one day off. On a Sunday night in 2023, consumed by exhaustion, he told himself that enough was enough. His boss had just called to ask him to come in early to his Monday shift as a pharmacy assistant. Feeling powerless and angry, the Brazilian grabbed his phone and logged into TikTok to vent.
A small, stingless bee may be able to raise coffee yields while fitting into real-world pest control programs, according to a new study from Brazil. In a field study on full-sun arabica farms, researchers reported a 67% higher fruit yield on coffee branches closer to colonies of the native stingless bee Scaptotrigona depilis, compared with branches farther away. The study was recently published in Frontiers in Bee Science.
Europe's freelance market has been expanding steadily, but the post-layoff acceleration is notable. According to a 2024 report from Malt, the number of highly skilled freelancers in tech across the EU grew by 18% year-over-year, with a sharp uptick among professionals who had been in full-time roles for five or more years before making the switch.
When Obvious Ventures launched 12 years ago with a focus on "world positive" companies, the idea was a contrarian bet: that startups tackling climate, health, and economic resilience could deliver big returns, not just feel-good impact. Founded by Twitter cofounder Ev Williams and others, the firm backed companies like Beyond Meat, the AI drug discovery company Recursion Pharmaceuticals, and Diamond Foundry, which makes sustainable lab-grown diamonds.
Amazon's data centers will reportedly utilize copper from a mine in Arizona that's leaching metal from ores using microorganisms, the Wall Street Journal reports. Amazon Web Services will be the first customer for Nuton Technologies, which developed the "bioleaching" technology. AWS will also be providing "cloud-based data and analytics support," helping to optimize Nuton's mining process. Nuton's bioleaching method uses naturally-occurring microorganisms to extract copper from low-grade ore that would otherwise be too expensive to mine,
Goiânia has launched a fleet of electric bi-articulated buses in regular passenger service, deploying 21 high-capacity Volvo BZRT vehicles supported by a new dedicated charging hub. The Brazilian city has introduced 16 articulated and 5 bi-articulated battery-electric buses built on the Volvo Buses BZRT chassis and bodied by Marcopolo (Attivi model). The vehicles operate within the RMTC metropolitan public transport network, alongside the inauguration of the Eletroposto Oeste charging facility located at the METROBUS S.A. depot.
A moratorium that has protected vital rainforest since 2009 is on shaky ground as several players from Brazil's soy industry say they are pulling out. Specifically, the Brazilian industry association ABIOVE, whose members include global companies such as Cofco International, Bunge, Amaggi and JBS, have said they will no longer refrain from growing soy on deforested land. Environmentalists fear this could fuel a new wave of Amazon logging.
According to Dealroom's 2024 European Tech report, mentions of "AI" in European startup pitch decks increased by over 200% between 2022 and 2024. VC funding for AI-adjacent startups surged, even as overall funding in Europe contracted. The signal was unmistakable: if you want capital, you need to speak the language of artificial intelligence.
