## Amazon and BuzzFeed Team Up for AI-Animated Series — But the Original Artist Didn't Get a Say

When news broke that Amazon Prime Video would be producing an animated series based on the beloved internet character Cuppy — the foul-mouthed, cheerfully optimistic cupcake known as "Good Advice Cupcake" — the reaction from her creator was anything but sweet.

Loryn Brantz, the illustrator and writer who brought Cuppy to life, took to Instagram with a sharp rebuke aimed squarely at BuzzFeed, her former employer, and Amazon. Her message was direct: this is an attack on artists everywhere.

## The Show, the Deal, and the Controversy

The upcoming series, titled *Cupcake & Friends*, is set to debut on Prime Video as part of a broader initiative called the **GenAI Creators' Fund** — a collaborative program between Amazon Web Services and Amazon MGM Studios. The fund has greenlit three AI-assisted animated projects in total, with the Cuppy-based show among them.

For Brantz, the announcement was a worst-case scenario made real. She publicly called Cuppy's transformation into what she described as a **"soulless AI puppet"** a betrayal of everything the character represents. On Instagram, she urged her followers — more than two million on the Good Advice Cupcake page alone — to boycott BuzzFeed and any animation produced with or influenced by AI technology.

## How Cuppy Was Born

Brantz first developed the Cuppy character for a children's book pitch. After a Disney publishing imprint passed on the concept, she folded the character into her online comics. In 2017, a strip featuring the deceptively cheerful cupcake offering unexpectedly aggressive life advice went viral across multiple platforms.

"The character is 100 percent based on my own personality as being someone who is aggressively optimistic and nearly pathologically positive," Brantz told WIRED. "It was a way for me to yell motivational advice at people in a cute and humorous way."

BuzzFeed quickly took notice. The company produced eight episodes of a *Good Advice Cupcake* web series in 2019, covering topics ranging from navigating a chaotic life to coming-out advice. Brantz was a central creative force throughout that process.

## Broken Promises and Legal Fine Print

Brantz says she was reassured by BuzzFeed leadership that the character would not be developed further without her creative involvement if she ever departed the company. She took those assurances at face value — a decision she now regrets.

"When this all happened, AI didn't even exist," she said. "I trusted them, though naively, when they said they had no interest in continuing Cuppy without me involved."

Brantz left BuzzFeed in 2023 to take on a role as executive creative director for YouTube educator Ms. Rachel, but continued licensing the Cuppy character from the company for her own content.

When rumors surfaced earlier this year about BuzzFeed's animation deal with Amazon, Brantz reached out to Jonah Peretti — now president of BuzzFeed AI and former CEO — for answers. She claims he agreed to share details only if she first signed a non-disclosure agreement. She refused.

"Contrary to their statement, they did not contact me about this project and only mentioned telling me more after it became clear I would make a scene," Brantz said. "Which I am."

## BuzzFeed and Amazon Respond

BuzzFeed has defended its position firmly. A company spokesperson confirmed to WIRED that the intellectual property rights to Cuppy belong to BuzzFeed, not Brantz.

"BuzzFeed Studios is excited to use new technology to bring a dormant library series off the shelf and to give it new life," the spokesperson said.

In his own statement, Peretti argued that the production would still rely heavily on human creativity, with AI serving as a supplementary tool rather than the driving force. He compared the use of AI in animation to Disney's adoption of Xerox technology decades ago to streamline its animation workflow.

He also acknowledged that Brantz had been informed of the project but chose not to participate. "Her personal opposition to AI cannot determine how BuzzFeed develops IP that it owns, or deny the many other talented creators involved in this project the opportunity to do their work," Peretti stated.

Brantz dismissed the Xerox comparison as misleading and challenged Peretti to a public debate on animation history and integrity.

## A Larger Battle for Creative Rights

The dispute has resonated far beyond one animated cupcake. For many working in creative industries, Brantz's situation reflects a growing and deeply unsettling pattern: content created by artists being repurposed or reimagined using AI without their meaningful consent.

Digital media companies — many of which have undergone repeated restructuring — appear especially positioned to pursue such deals. BuzzFeed itself recently welcomed media mogul Byron Allen as chairman and CEO following his acquisition of a majority stake in the brand for $120 million. Allen has spoken openly about using AI to reposition BuzzFeed as a YouTube-style content platform.

Brantz's supporters have flooded her comment sections with messages of solidarity, praising what many see as a principled stand against the unchecked use of AI in entertainment.

As for Brantz herself, she says she is currently exploring legal options — though for now, she admits she is "not feeling as optimistic as usual."

Loryn Brantz, creator of Good Advice Cupcake, slams BuzzFeed and Amazon after her beloved character Cuppy is licensed for an AI-assisted animated Prime Video se

Amazon's AI Cupcake Show Angers Original Character Creator

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Amazon's AI-Animated Cupcake Show Sparks Fury From the Character's Original Creator

## Blue Origin's New Glenn Rocket Destroyed in Ground Test Explosion

Jeff Bezos has vowed to press forward after his aerospace company, Blue Origin, suffered a devastating blow when its flagship New Glenn rocket was destroyed during a pre-launch engine test. The billionaire founder acknowledged the severity of the incident while remaining publicly committed to recovery.

"It's too early to know the root cause, but we're already working to find it," Bezos stated. "Very rough day, but we'll rebuild whatever needs rebuilding and get back to flying. It's worth it."

### What Is a Static-Fire Test?

The explosion occurred during what engineers call a hot-fire test — also referred to as a static-fire test. This is a routine but critical procedure in which a rocket's engines are briefly ignited while the vehicle remains firmly anchored to the launchpad. The test is designed to confirm that all systems are operating correctly before an actual flight takes place. It is considered a standard safety checkpoint in modern rocket development.

In this case, the vehicle involved — standing an impressive 98 meters tall, making it one of the largest rockets ever constructed — did not survive the procedure.

## Mission Details and What Was at Stake

Had it succeeded, this test would have paved the way for New Glenn's fourth mission, which was scheduled to lift off as soon as the following week. The rocket was set to deliver 48 satellites into orbit, where they would join Amazon's Leo satellite internet constellation — a direct competitor to SpaceX's Starlink network.

NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman responded swiftly to news of the incident, posting on X: "NASA is aware of the anomaly that occurred tonight at Launch Complex 36 involving Blue Origin's New Glenn rocket at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. Spaceflight is unforgiving, and developing new heavy-lift launch capability is extraordinarily difficult."

Isaacman confirmed that the agency would assess any potential effects on NASA's upcoming Artemis program and Moon Base missions, noting that both Blue Origin and SpaceX hold contracts with NASA as part of its lunar exploration strategy.

## A Pattern of Recent Setbacks

This latest incident is not an isolated event for Blue Origin. The company's difficulties began mounting earlier this year when, on April 19, the rocket's third flight encountered a significant failure that triggered a formal Federal Aviation Administration investigation.

During that mission, New Glenn's first stage performed successfully, completing an autonomous landing on a floating ocean platform. However, the second stage — responsible for delivering the payload to its intended orbit — malfunctioned, leaving AST SpaceMobile's BlueBird 7 satellite stranded outside a safe orbital path. The FAA concluded its investigation into that incident on May 22, just days before this latest explosion occurred.

As Blue Origin works to identify the root cause of the most recent failure, the broader space industry is watching closely. The company faces mounting pressure to demonstrate the reliability of New Glenn as it competes for commercial and government launch contracts in an increasingly crowded market.

Blue Origin's New Glenn rocket exploded during a static-fire test, threatening an upcoming satellite launch and raising fresh concerns about the vehicle's relia

Blue Origin New Glenn Rocket Explodes in Ground Test Failure

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Blue Origin's New Glenn Rocket Suffers Explosive Failure During Ground Test

## Groq Pursues $650 Million to Fuel Its AI Inference Ambitions

AI chip company Groq is actively seeking to raise $650 million from its existing investor base as it repositions itself to focus heavily on AI inference — the computational process that powers how AI models generate responses to user prompts. The fundraising plans were first reported by Axios.

## A Strategic Pivot Toward Inference Cloud

Rather than continuing to center its identity around hardware manufacturing, Groq is doubling down on what it calls its inference neocloud business. This cloud-based platform allows developers and enterprise clients to run inference-intensive applications using Groq's proprietary AI chips and custom-built systems.

Inference — the real-time processing that occurs after an AI model receives a prompt — has emerged as one of the most critical and in-demand capabilities in today's AI landscape, surpassing even model training in terms of immediate industry need.

## The Nvidia Deal That Changed Everything

The backdrop to this fundraise is a landmark agreement struck with Nvidia in December, valued at a reported $20 billion. While not a full acquisition, the deal involved the licensing of Groq's hardware technology to Nvidia and saw several senior Groq executives transition to the chip giant.

The arrangement proved highly lucrative for Groq's investors, who received substantial cash payouts — comparable to what they might have earned in a complete acquisition, which would have represented Nvidia's largest-ever purchase.

## Existing Investors Asked to Recommit

Having already benefited from the Nvidia agreement, Groq's investors are now being called upon once again — this time to fund the company's next chapter. The $650 million round is being drawn entirely from existing backers, with investors invited to exercise their pro-rata participation rights.

Security for the round appears solid. Axios reports that Groq's backers Disruptive and Infinitium have committed to covering the full round in the event that other existing investors choose not to participate, effectively guaranteeing the capital raise.

## New Leadership Steering the Ship

Groq's refreshed strategic direction is being guided by its current interim leadership team. Adam Winter serves as interim CEO, while Matt Eng holds the role of CFO, and together they are steering the company's transition toward becoming a dominant player in the AI inference cloud space.

With hundreds of millions in fresh capital on the horizon and a clearly defined market focus, Groq appears poised to carve out a significant position in the rapidly evolving AI infrastructure sector.

AI chip startup Groq is raising $650M from existing investors to grow its inference cloud platform after a major $20B technology licensing deal with Nvidia.

Groq Raises $650M to Expand AI Inference Cloud Business

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Groq Eyes $650M Funding Round to Double Down on AI Inference Cloud

## HP Omnibook 3 Review: Redefining What a Budget Laptop Can Be

At a price point of $599, HP is making a bold statement with its Omnibook 3 — a direct challenge to Apple's well-regarded MacBook Neo. While it comes with a few compromises, this machine delivers surprisingly strong performance and value for budget-conscious buyers who refuse to sacrifice too much.

### Quick Verdict

**Pros:**
- Outstanding battery life
- Solid everyday performance
- Double the RAM and storage compared to the MacBook Neo
- Vibrant OLED display option
- Exceptional value for the price

**Cons:**
- Plastic, thicker-than-average chassis
- Touchpad feels budget-grade
- Speakers are underwhelming in both quality and volume

---

## Design and Build Quality

The HP Omnibook 3 doesn't try to win any beauty contests. Its plastic body keeps things understated and functional, and while it lacks the premium feel of an all-aluminum rival, it doesn't feel flimsy either. The structure holds up reasonably well for a device in this price range.

That said, the thickness is hard to ignore. Measuring 0.7 inches deep, the Omnibook 3 feels noticeably chunkier than many competing laptops. For users coming from slimmer machines, the difference is immediately apparent. Another minor frustration: the lid doesn't magnetically seal shut. When held upside down, it partially swings open — a small but irritating design oversight that wasn't an issue on the Omnibook 5 tested previously.

On a more positive note, that extra thickness does contribute to a sense of structural rigidity that's somewhat impressive for a plastic laptop. It doesn't flex excessively, which is a relief.

---

## Keyboard and Touchpad Experience

HP claims the touchpad on this year's Omnibook 3 has been improved over its predecessor. Having tested the Omnibook 5 rather than the 2025 iteration of this model, the touchpad experience feels largely similar — functional, but clearly one of the cheaper-feeling components on the device. It gets the job done without being obnoxiously clicky, which is at least appreciated.

The keyboard, however, is a genuine highlight. Key presses feel precise and satisfying, with a tactile click that makes extended typing sessions comfortable. A built-in number pad sits on the right side, which pushes the touchpad off-center from the palm rest — a common trade-off with this layout. While centering the touchpad might seem like an easy fix, attempts by other manufacturers, such as the Acer Swift 16 AI, have shown that the workaround often creates more problems than it solves.

---

## Performance: Powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon X

The heart of the Omnibook 3 is the Qualcomm Snapdragon X processor, and it's what separates this laptop from the sea of forgettable budget Windows machines. This chip brings a level of performance efficiency that was previously difficult to find at this price point.

The Snapdragon X has been available since early 2025, and it remains one of the most compelling chips for affordable laptops. It handles everyday tasks smoothly without the sluggishness or battery drain that typically plagues budget Windows devices. During a light video-looping battery test, the Omnibook 3 came close to hitting a full 24 hours of runtime — an impressive achievement for any laptop, let alone one under $600. Heavier workloads will naturally reduce that figure, but battery endurance remains a standout strength.

In raw benchmarks, the Snapdragon X does fall short of the MacBook Neo in certain areas, particularly single-core CPU performance and graphics output. Gaming is also not this laptop's forte, largely due to the architectural limitations of ARM-based processors. However, where the Omnibook 3 genuinely pulls ahead is in multitasking capability. With 16 GB of RAM — twice what the MacBook Neo ships with — the Omnibook 3 handles heavy browser sessions, multiple open applications, and background tasks with far greater ease. Users are much less likely to hit a performance ceiling here compared to Apple's memory-constrained entry-level model.

---

## Display: OLED Brilliance With a Brightness Caveat

The 16-inch display on the Omnibook 3 offers rich, vivid visuals thanks to its OLED panel. Colors are accurate and vibrant, contrast is excellent, and the glossy finish adds to the visual depth. On a screen this size, the 1920 x 1200 resolution does begin to show its limits up close, though this is less of an issue on the 14-inch variant.

One notable limitation is brightness. In testing, the OLED panel peaked at around 290 nits — noticeably dimmer than the MacBook Neo, which nearly doubles that figure at maximum brightness. Users in bright environments may find this frustrating. It's also worth noting that the OLED configuration is exclusive to HP's own website, while Amazon, Walmart, and Best Buy stock the more affordable IPS version.

---

## How Does It Compare to the MacBook Neo?

The choice between the HP Omnibook 3 and Apple's MacBook Neo comes down to priorities. If premium build materials, a slimmer profile, and a brighter display are non-negotiable, the MacBook Neo is the stronger aesthetic choice. But for users who prioritize real-world performance, multitasking headroom, and battery longevity at a lower price, the Omnibook 3 makes a compelling case.

At $599, the Omnibook 3 doesn't just compete — it often outperforms its Apple rival in the areas that matter most for daily productivity.

---

## One Important Consideration: The Omnibook 5

Before making a final decision, savvy shoppers should keep the HP Omnibook 5 on their radar. The Omnibook 5 is superior in nearly every respect — it's significantly thinner, features the more powerful Snapdragon X Plus chip, and includes a larger touchpad. The catch is pricing volatility: the Omnibook 5 fluctuates wildly between $499 and $1,050 depending on the retailer and timing.

When the Omnibook 5 dips to competitive prices, it's the smarter buy without question. However, the Omnibook 3 appears to hold steadier at the $500–$600 range, making it the more reliable choice for budget shoppers who don't want to play the price-tracking game.

---

## Final Verdict

The HP Omnibook 3 is one of the most well-rounded budget laptops available today. It's not perfect — the plastic build, mediocre touchpad, and dim display hold it back from greatness. But at $599, it delivers performance, battery life, and memory capacity that far exceed expectations for the price. For users who need a dependable daily driver without breaking the bank, the Omnibook 3 is a worthy investment.

Is the HP Omnibook 3 worth $599? Our full review covers performance, battery life, display quality, and how it stacks up against the MacBook Neo.

HP Omnibook 3 Review: Best Budget Laptop Under $600

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HP Omnibook 3 Review: The Best Budget Laptop Under $600?

## My Backyard Just Got a Seriously Clever Upgrade

If the idea of cataloging bird species the way you'd collect Pokémon sounds appealing, the Kiwibit Bird Feeder Pro 4K AI Camera might be exactly what your outdoor space has been missing. After spending several weeks testing this smart feeder, it's safe to say it's become one of my most-used — and most-loved — backyard gadgets.

## Setup Is Simpler Than You'd Expect

Getting the Kiwibit up and running doesn't require any technical expertise. The feeder offers multiple mounting configurations, so whether you prefer attaching it to a pole, resting it on a window ledge, or securing it to a tree branch, you have options. Two separate seed compartments make refilling and cleaning a hassle-free process, and a built-in solar panel on top means battery anxiety is essentially a non-issue.

On the hardware side, the feeder holds up well in outdoor conditions. It supports 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi connectivity, offers cloud storage for your recordings, features built-in two-way audio complete with both a microphone and speaker, and captures footage through a wide 130-degree lens — all in 4K quality.

## The App Is Where the Magic Happens

Once installed, connecting the feeder to the Kiwibit companion app on your smartphone takes only a few minutes. From that point on, your phone becomes a live window into your backyard ecosystem. The app sends push notifications whenever a bird arrives, lets you browse through recorded footage, and maintains a running log of every visit.

After a couple of weeks, I genuinely started looking forward to those little buzzes on my phone. Even during heavy rain, visitors kept showing up — including a northern cardinal that has since become a daily regular I actually look forward to seeing each morning. By the time of writing, six distinct species had been recorded at the feeder.

### Tracking Birds Like a Backyard Scientist

The app's functionality goes well beyond simple notifications. Kiwibit's proprietary identification algorithm can recognize more than 10,000 bird species, ranging from blue jays and ravens to mourning doves. The Activity tab gives you a clear breakdown of total visits, videos recorded, and the number of unique species spotted, with a calendar view that lets you drill down into specific days.

For those who want to learn more about their feathered visitors, the Birds tab pulls in detailed species information sourced from Wikipedia — a nice touch that adds an educational dimension to what could otherwise just be a novelty gadget.

## A Few Quirks Worth Knowing

No smart device is without its limitations, and the Kiwibit is no exception. The visit-counting feature can occasionally be imprecise. If a single bird lingers at the feeder for an extended period without straying far from the camera's frame, the AI may log it as several separate visits rather than one continuous one. It's a minor flaw, but worth keeping in mind if you're tracking data closely.

On a more entertaining note, squirrels are persistent. The app dutifully flags their appearances with a "nuisance animal detected" alert — a notification that arrives far more frequently than most bird lovers would prefer.

## Final Verdict: A Surprisingly Addictive Nature Tech Gadget

The Kiwibit Bird Feeder Pro 4K delivers a genuinely engaging experience that blends wildlife observation with smart home technology. It's the kind of device that starts as a curiosity and quickly becomes part of your daily routine. Whether you're a seasoned birdwatcher or simply someone who enjoys a bit of nature from the comfort of your home, this feeder offers something worth exploring — just don't be surprised when the squirrels steal the show.

The Kiwibit Bird Feeder Pro 4K uses AI to identify 10,000+ bird species. Read our hands-on review of this smart backyard camera and companion app.

Kiwibit Bird Feeder Pro 4K Review: Smart AI Wildlife Camera

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This AI-Powered Bird Feeder Turned My Backyard Into a Wildlife Discovery Zone

## The Internet Is Quietly Undergoing a Machine-Driven Transformation

For decades, cloud infrastructure was engineered with one type of user in mind: humans. People who browse, click, stream, and scroll in relatively consistent and manageable patterns. But a new kind of user has entered the picture — one that operates faster, less predictably, and at a scale no individual person could ever match. That user is the AI agent, and its rise is forcing a fundamental rethinking of how the internet's backbone is built.

## AI Agents Break the Rules of Traditional Infrastructure

Unlike human users, AI agents don't browse casually. When activated, they can simultaneously launch dozens of sub-agents, query vast databases, retrieve documents, and ping external APIs — all within a matter of seconds. Then, just as suddenly, they go completely quiet. This erratic, burst-heavy behavior is fundamentally incompatible with infrastructure that was designed to handle steady, human-paced activity.

The gap between what today's cloud systems were built for and what AI agents actually demand is becoming impossible to ignore.

## AWS Launches a New Generation of OpenSearch Serverless

Amazon Web Services has taken a significant step toward closing that gap. The company recently unveiled the next generation of its OpenSearch Serverless platform — a fully managed search and vector database system engineered specifically for agentic workloads.

The most critical upgrade is a technical one: compute and storage have been decoupled. This means the system can now scale up computing power within seconds when an AI agent triggers a task, and then scale all the way back down to zero when that agent goes idle. Customers pay nothing during downtime.

### Why the Old Model Fell Short

Under the previous architecture, even AWS's earlier serverless version required at least one instance to remain active at all times, because compute and storage were tightly linked. Businesses were essentially forced to reserve computing capacity around the clock — whether their agents were running or not.

"You always had idle compute reserved for your workload, whether you were using it or not," explained Tia White, General Manager for Amazon OpenSearch Service.

A simple analogy captures the difference: the old model was like renting a permanent parking space you may rarely use. The new model is more like a metered spot — you only pay for the time you actually occupy it.

### Built for Developers From Day One

At launch, the upgraded OpenSearch Serverless will offer native integrations with popular AI development platforms, including Vercel and Kiro. This allows developers to deploy fully production-ready search and vector backends for their agents without having to manage complex infrastructure manually.

## Machine Traffic Is Already Reshaping the Web

While AI agents may still represent a fraction of total internet activity, the direction is clear. According to Cloudflare, bots already accounted for 31% of all HTTP traffic over a recent six-month period. AI crawlers, virtual assistants, and automated search tools made up roughly a quarter of that bot traffic alone.

Perhaps more striking is Cloudflare's forward-looking forecast. Lai Yi Ohlsen, a senior product manager at the company, has stated that non-human traffic is expected to surpass human-generated traffic sometime in the first half of 2027.

## The Industry-Wide Push to Adapt

AWS is far from alone in recognizing this shift. Across the technology sector, major players are repositioning their platforms to accommodate the rise of machine-generated workloads.

- **Microsoft** has rolled out Azure updates specifically designed to handle traffic spikes caused by AI agents and to enable shared memory across multiple agent instances.
- **Cloudflare** recently introduced infrastructure tools that provide agents with persistent operating environments and instant scalability.
- **Databricks and Snowflake** are both repositioning themselves as AI memory and data retrieval systems tailored for enterprise use.

At Google's I/O developer conference, the company also signaled its direction, announcing plans for users to delegate real-world tasks — such as researching purchases or booking travel — to AI systems that will interact autonomously with apps and the broader web.

## A Self-Reinforcing Cycle of Growth

There is a compounding dynamic at play here. As more enterprises deploy AI agents — both internally and for their customers — the demand for machine-optimized infrastructure will only intensify. And as that infrastructure improves, deploying agents at scale will become cheaper and more accessible, encouraging even wider adoption.

"Agents are moving from experimentation into production, and they create traffic patterns that previous infrastructure simply wasn't designed for," said White. "They spike without warning, they go idle without notice, and enterprises need search that keeps up without paying for empty or idle compute."

The internet as we know it was built for people. What comes next is being built for the machines working on their behalf.

AWS, Cloudflare, and others are redesigning cloud infrastructure for AI agents as machine-generated traffic prepares to surpass human activity by 2027.

How the Internet Is Being Rebuilt for AI Machines

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How the Internet Is Being Rebuilt to Serve AI Machines, Not Humans

## Slate Auto Prepares for a Major Milestone on June 24

Slate Auto, the electric vehicle startup backed by billionaire Jeff Bezos and Los Angeles Dodgers owner Mark Walter, is set to make a significant announcement on June 24. On that date, the company will publicly reveal the final pricing for its highly anticipated low-cost EV and begin accepting non-refundable preorders, as it pushes toward delivering its first vehicles before the close of 2025.

## Early Reservation Holders Get a Head Start

Ahead of the official preorder launch, Slate Auto reached out to prospective buyers via email this past Thursday, encouraging them to lock in a $50 refundable reservation now. Those who reserve early will reportedly receive a preferred delivery window compared to customers who wait until preorders officially open next month. Once preorders go live, the commitment rises to a non-refundable $300 deposit — a meaningful step up that signals the company is moving from hype to hard sales.

Details from an FAQ section on the newly activated preorder page confirm the June 24 pricing announcement, though the company has not officially commented on the matter.

## From Stealth Startup to Center Stage

Slate Auto operated largely in secret for nearly four years before emerging from stealth mode in April 2025, after early reporting exposed its plans to develop an affordable, stripped-down, and highly customizable electric vehicle. The concept quickly captured public attention: a no-frills EV featuring hand-crank windows and an unpainted exterior that can transform from a two-seat pickup truck into a five-seat SUV through an optional upgrade.

Initially, the company promoted a starting price of under $20,000, made possible in part by a $7,500 federal tax credit. However, that credit was eliminated by the Trump administration and Congress late last year, forcing Slate to recalibrate its messaging. The company now indicates its base model will start somewhere in the mid-$20,000 range, though exact figures have been withheld until the upcoming announcement.

## Strong Consumer Interest, But the Hard Work Begins Now

Despite the pricing uncertainty, consumer enthusiasm for Slate's EV has been remarkably strong. Since unveiling the vehicle, the startup has collected more than 160,000 refundable $50 reservations — a number that reflects genuine curiosity and excitement around the product's value proposition.

That said, the electric vehicle industry has repeatedly demonstrated that reservation numbers don't always translate into actual sales. Converting interest into committed buyers remains one of the steepest challenges any EV startup faces.

### New Leadership to Drive Execution

To strengthen its ability to execute on this front, Slate brought in new leadership earlier this year. In March, the company appointed Peter Faricy — a former vice president at Amazon Marketplace — as its new CEO. His appointment is part of a broader trend within Slate, where many key leadership roles have been filled by alumni of Amazon.

## Substantial Funding Backs the Road Ahead

Building and shipping an electric vehicle at scale requires enormous capital, and Slate has secured serious financial backing to support that effort. In April, the company announced the successful close of a $650 million Series C funding round, bringing its total capital raised to approximately $1.4 billion.

A significant portion of that funding appears to have originated from TWG Global, the financial firm led by co-backer Mark Walter. Jeff Bezos was involved in the company's earliest funding stages, though the extent of his participation in later rounds has remained unclear. Adding to that ambiguity, it was recently reported that his family office manager resigned from her seat on Slate's board of directors in May.

## What to Watch For on June 24

With pricing finally set to be disclosed and preorders opening to the public, June 24 represents a pivotal moment for Slate Auto. The company must now turn its considerable buzz and reservation list into real revenue — a test that has humbled many EV startups before it. Whether Slate's combination of affordability, quirky appeal, strong funding, and seasoned leadership will be enough to succeed where others have stumbled remains to be seen.

Slate Auto will announce final pricing and open non-refundable preorders for its affordable electric vehicle on June 24, ahead of late 2025 deliveries.

Slate Auto to Reveal EV Pricing and Preorders on June 24

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Slate Auto Sets June 24 for Pricing Reveal and Preorder Launch of Its Affordable EV

## The Startup Betting That Hands Are the Future of Robotics

When most people think about humanoid robots, they picture sleek legs striding across a stage or a mechanical figure running a marathon. But according to one Chinese entrepreneur, the real technological battleground is far more nuanced — it's the hands.

Zhou Yong, the 40-year-old founder and chief technology officer of LinkerBot, has built his company around a single, focused conviction: that the hand is the hardest engineering problem in all of robotics. His startup, founded in 2023, already claims to have captured 80 percent of global demand for dexterous robotic hands, shipping 10,000 units last year alone.

## What LinkerBot Actually Builds

LinkerBot manufactures humanoid robotic hands equipped with five fingers and a minimum of 11 joints. These aren't crude grippers — they can play piano, thread a needle, fasten screws, and assemble delicate electronics. Prices currently start at just $600 in China, with more advanced models reaching up to $15,000 depending on complexity and range of motion.

Zhou believes those prices will fall dramatically. Within three to five years, he expects a robotic hand to retail for around $200. His long-term vision is even more sweeping: a world where the average person owns roughly ten robots.

Elon Musk echoed the significance of this challenge at an event last fall, stating that hands represent "the majority of the engineering difficulty of the entire robot." LinkerBot's clients already span research institutions, manufacturing companies, and other humanoid robot developers.

## A Venture Capital Phenomenon

LinkerBot's rise has been nothing short of meteoric in investment circles. The company completed six separate funding rounds within just 13 months, drawing backing from high-profile investors including the Chinese government, Alibaba's Ant Group, and HongShan Capital — the Chinese spinoff of Sequoia Capital.

The startup is now pursuing an additional round of financing at a staggering $6 billion valuation, which is double its self-reported value from just a few months prior. Reports from Bloomberg also suggest LinkerBot is exploring a public listing on the Hong Kong stock exchange, though Zhou declined to comment on those plans during an exclusive interview.

## The 'Selling Shovels' Strategy

Rather than attempting to build an entire humanoid robot from scratch — a move that would put it in direct competition with giants like Tesla or Unitree — LinkerBot has deliberately narrowed its focus to hands alone.

"When the humanoid robot industry size is so massive, specializing in making hands is like selling water or shovels during the gold rush," said Hong Shangguan, a veteran technology investor and former partner at Beijing-based Legend Capital.

This focused approach gives LinkerBot a meaningful pricing edge. Industry analyst Rui Ma, founder of independent research firm Tech Buzz China, recently concluded that LinkerBot is the startup best positioned to become the short-term industry standard. "A lot of companies can show impressive demos," Ma noted. "Fewer can ship hands that factories can actually afford to install."

## China's Manufacturing Edge

Zhou is openly confident about China's industrial advantages. He points to solar panels and electric vehicles as examples of sectors where China started on equal footing with global competitors and ultimately emerged as the dominant force.

To counter persistent skepticism about the quality of Chinese-manufactured goods in international markets, LinkerBot is offering overseas buyers an exchange window of up to one year — an unusually generous guarantee in the hardware industry.

"We are helping global robotics manufacturers lower their costs and accelerate wider adoption," Zhou argues, framing China's manufacturing strength as a benefit to the broader global robotics ecosystem rather than a competitive threat.

The company is also practicing what it preaches: LinkerBot now uses its own robotic hands on its assembly lines to manufacture additional robotic hands, providing a live demonstration of their industrial viability.

## A Three-Stage Roadmap for Humanoid Robots

Zhou outlines a clear progression for how humanoid robots will integrate into society:

### Stage One: Entertainment and Interaction
Robots will initially take on roles in dancing, guest greeting, and emotional or entertainment contexts — capabilities that Chinese companies have already demonstrated extensively.

### Stage Two: Defined Task Environments
Next, robots will move into repetitive, clearly defined jobs such as preparing beverages, cooking meals, and sorting packages in logistics settings.

### Stage Three: The Domestic Frontier
The most complex challenge will be deploying robots inside people's homes, where layouts, furniture arrangements, and everyday objects vary enormously from one household to the next. Navigating this unpredictability will demand robots that can fluidly combine multiple skill sets to complete even simple tasks.

## Robots Replacing Workers — and Zhou's Unsentimental View

China has long leveraged its large, affordable labor pool as a manufacturing advantage. But that dynamic is shifting. Investor Hong Shangguan notes that even Chinese EV factory managers report difficulty filling production roles, as younger generations show less interest in factory work.

"For jobs where we can't find workers, we also have to get robots," she said.

Zhou's long-term outlook goes further still. He envisions robots eventually becoming "100 times" more capable than any human and ultimately replacing the human workforce entirely. When asked about unemployment concerns, his response was characteristically pragmatic: "People don't really care whether they are unemployed; what they care about is whether they receive relief payments or welfare benefits."

His belief is that by the time full automation arrives, AI and robotics will have generated such abundance that traditional employment will simply become unnecessary. Even so, he acknowledges inequality won't disappear. "Someone might see online that rich people are traveling to the moon," he said, "while they themselves can only travel to Italy."

## The Doraemon Dream

Behind all the valuations, funding rounds, and factory automation lies a surprisingly personal motivation. Zhou says his lifelong ambition is to create a real-world version of Doraemon — the beloved Japanese anime character famous for producing magical gadgets from a pocket dimension. His WeChat profile photo is, fittingly, an image of the iconic blue robot cat.

For Zhou, building the world's most capable robotic hand isn't just a business venture. It's the first step toward making that childhood dream a reality.

LinkerBot is racing to put dexterous robotic hands on every humanoid. Meet the $6 billion Chinese startup reshaping the future of robotics and automation.

LinkerBot: The $6B Startup Building Robotic Hands

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Meet the $6 Billion Startup Putting Dexterous Hands on Every Robot

## Returning to a Job That No Longer Exists

When Danielle stepped away from her career as a software developer at a Portland, Oregon automotive company in mid-2024, the idea of using artificial intelligence to write code was little more than a novelty. By the time she was ready to re-enter the workforce roughly a year later, it had become a baseline expectation.

Danielle, who asked to be identified only by her first name to protect her employment prospects, had originally chosen software development for its stability. That sense of security has since evaporated. "The skills that I had learned — rote development skills — we are now expected to outsource to AI," she says. "The kind of work I was doing before, I would like to do again. I think I was good at it. But I recognize that job will never exist again."

Her situation is far from unique. Across the software industry, new mothers who happened to be on maternity leave during one of the most disruptive periods in tech history are now facing a steep and unwelcome climb back to relevance.

## The AI Takeover of Software Engineering

The speed at which artificial intelligence has reshaped software development is staggering. In April 2025, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg predicted that AI would be responsible for writing the majority of his company's code within the next 18 months. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman told WIRED he believes AI-driven coding will become "one of these rare multitrillion-dollar markets."

With the launch of advanced coding automation tools from Anthropic and OpenAI in May 2025, the professional landscape shifted dramatically. Software engineering — once defined by composition, problem-solving, and technical craftsmanship — began to resemble something closer to quality control. Engineers are increasingly expected to supervise and correct AI-generated code rather than write it themselves.

This transformation has rippled across the entire tech sector. But for women who were away from their desks during the pivot, the disruption has been especially disorienting.

## Maternity Leave Becomes a Skills Gap

A UK-based project manager currently on maternity leave described feeling deeply unsettled after her manager encouraged her to spend her time off brushing up on AI tools. "It made me feel very vulnerable," she told WIRED, asking to remain anonymous over concerns about employer retaliation. Before her leave began, AI at her development agency was used occasionally for minor tasks such as auto-completing code. Now, the agency is pushing for a far more prominent role for the technology.

"The likelihood of me spending my statutory maternity pay on an AI course is slim to none," she says. "This is not something I should be spending my maternity leave doing." Yet she remains anxious that failing to keep pace could make her a target when layoffs come.

### Returning Workers Adapt — With Mixed Results

Not every returning mother has had a negative experience with AI integration. Mary McCreary, a data engineer at a US health tech company, says her employer provided support when she came back, helping her get comfortable with new tools. Despite early skepticism, she grew to appreciate how AI could break down and explain colleagues' code. "The thing that I hate most about being an engineer is having to review other people's code," she admits.

However, the shift has reshaped her daily experience in unexpected ways. "The downside is that I don't get any time to do tedious tasks that would be not a lot of effort for my brain," says McCreary. "I'm always looking at hard problems, because I've offloaded all of the tedium."

A software engineer based in Minnesota, who works for a marketing software company, found that AI tools actually helped her navigate the postpartum haze when she returned in September 2024. "I definitely was not ready to return," she says, speaking anonymously to discuss her company's internal practices candidly. "Your body is filled with all these hormones and your brain changes to the point that all you can fixate on is that child." Delegating mentally taxing work like debugging to AI, she says, "was incredibly helpful."

## When Helpful Becomes Threatening

Over time, however, the Minnesota engineer watched AI's role expand from useful assistant to dominant force. Her company began tracking and ranking employees by how heavily they used AI tools — a shift she describes with unease. "It's like, instead of being a software engineer, I'm more like a puppet master," she says.

By November 2025, with the release of Claude Opus 4.5 — the latest version of Anthropic's flagship model — the technology had leaped forward again. "Opus was, like, holy shit," she recalls. "I did a quarter's worth of work just by myself. It was quick and dirty, but it got the job done." That capability, once thrilling, now feels like a threat to her livelihood.

## A Job Market Rewired by AI

For mothers actively searching for new roles, the job hunt itself has become a maze. Three months before giving birth, Danielle was laid off. When she began applying for software engineering positions, she found that most listings referenced AI competency as a requirement — but rarely explained what that meant in practice. "The ambiguity was nerve-wracking," she says. "I didn't know how to investigate what skill I was missing."

Of the 40 applications Danielle submitted, only one led to an interview.

Experts say women returning after extended maternity leave already face significant structural headwinds: employer skepticism about their commitment, inflexibility around caregiving responsibilities, and systemic biases. AI has added another layer to these challenges. "The system treats it as an exit, not a pause. It's a design failure," says Daniela Gulie, who heads the German branch of the nonprofit Bring Women Back to Work.

Rachel Grocott, CEO of UK-based think tank Pregnant Then Screwed, is blunter in her assessment. "It's yet another way in which women are being screwed over. You're layering disadvantage on inequality."

The Minnesota engineer echoes that sentiment, describing a saturated job market where highly skilled candidates are competing for entry and mid-level positions. "There's this huge, huge pool of incredibly smart and talented people that you don't want to be a part of."

## Rethinking the Future — Careers, Families, and What Comes Next

For some women, the anxiety extends beyond their current jobs and into decisions about their futures. The Minnesota engineer says she is wrestling with whether to have a second child, torn between her career ambitions and her desire to be fully present as a parent. "I'm scared to have one," she admits. "It's very complicated."

Danielle, meanwhile, is trying to stay competitive by working on small personal coding projects that incorporate AI. But she is uncertain whether the investment is worth it. "Every day, I am getting even further removed," she says. "It's really a terrifying moment to feel like I don't understand the future of this industry."

Having entered tech for its job security, she is now contemplating a complete career change. Landscape architecture has caught her attention — a field that keeps her away from screens and further from automation. "I don't derive meaning from training artificial intelligence, or just fixing code generated by artificial intelligence," she says. "If that is the future of this industry, is that a job I want?"

New mothers returning to tech jobs are finding an industry transformed by AI — facing skills gaps, a brutal job market, and deep uncertainty about the future.

AI Is Pushing New Mothers Out of Software Careers

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How AI Is Blindsiding Mothers Returning to Careers in Software Development

## Amazon's Secret Networking Revolution Is Already Running Inside Its Data Centers

Amazon has announced a significant breakthrough in data center networking technology — and the company has already been rolling it out quietly since late 2024. The innovation promises to dramatically accelerate data speeds while cutting energy consumption, potentially positioning Amazon Web Services ahead of competitors in the increasingly fierce race to power the cloud.

## The Problem With How Data Centers Have Always Been Built

Since the mid-1980s, communications networks — spanning everything from telecommunications infrastructure to modern data centers — have relied on what engineers call a "fat-tree" topology. Picture a hierarchical structure with two or three vertical layers of switches and routers, with wider, more powerful connections at the top narrowing toward the bottom. Data travels up and down this layered stack, with the heavier bandwidth at the top helping to prevent bottlenecks.

While fat-tree architecture has proven reliable over the decades, it comes with significant drawbacks. The design is inherently rigid, operationally inefficient, and demands increasingly complex physical cabling systems. Anyone who has ever stepped inside a data center has likely seen the tangled nests of colorful fiber-optic cables snaking out of metal server racks. According to Matt Rehder, Vice President of AWS Network Engineering, cabling represents one of the largest costs in networking. Amazon's global data center infrastructure alone is currently threaded together with approximately 20 million kilometers of fiber-optic cable — enough to travel between Earth and the moon and back roughly 25 times.

## A Decades-Old Idea That Nobody Could Scale

Researchers have long theorized that random network architectures could outperform the structured fat-tree model. In 2012, a team at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign introduced a concept called Jellyfish — a randomly connected network topology designed to scale naturally with growing demand. The idea was elegant: by connecting routers and switches in a fluid, randomized pool, the network could be more efficient and adaptable than any fixed design.

"We named it Jellyfish because it's fluid," explains Brighten Godfrey, a computer science professor at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign who co-authored the original 2012 paper. "You can connect the routers and switches randomly and it becomes this flexible pool of network capacity, which is very efficient."

However, random networks introduced their own complications. Routing data becomes significantly more complex when there are countless possible paths between any two points. Physical cabling also becomes harder to manage when cable endpoints are selected randomly rather than following a predictable pattern. Despite theoretical promise, nobody had managed to deploy random network architecture at a meaningful real-world scale — until now.

Around the same time, Google began experimenting with optical circuit switching, which uses microscopic mirrors to redirect light signals and reconfigure optical connections in real time. While innovative, this approach added considerable engineering complexity and cost.

## How Amazon Finally Cracked the Code

A dedicated team of engineers and researchers at Amazon Web Services — including several recruited directly from academia — began tackling the random networking challenge in 2023. Their goal was ambitious: design a data network that was flat, highly efficient, resilient to hardware failures, and capable of scaling without becoming unmanageable, all while simplifying the cabling nightmare that has long plagued traditional architectures.

Giacomo Bernardi, one of the lead researchers on the project, initially drew inspiration from an unexpected source: Penrose tiling, a mathematically complex, non-repeating geometric pattern named after British physicist Roger Penrose. Bernardi wondered whether a similar structured-yet-irregular pattern could serve as the blueprint for a new kind of network mesh.

Simulations, however, told a different story. The Penrose-inspired design proved unreliable and failed to deliver the efficiency improvements the team was hoping for. The breakthrough came when researchers leaned into randomness rather than fighting it.

"We embraced the chaos and adopted a quasi-random approach," Bernardi explains.

The result is what Amazon calls Resilient Network Graphs, or RNG — a hybrid architecture that blends the organizational benefits of structured networks with the performance advantages of random topology. The team published their findings in a paper titled *RNG: Flat Datacenter Networks at Scale*.

## Meet the ShuffleBox: Amazon's Custom-Built Networking Hardware

A critical piece of the RNG puzzle is a new optical device Amazon engineered specifically for this purpose: the ShuffleBox. This compact piece of hardware automatically shuffles and manages the cable connections between routers internally, bringing order to what would otherwise be an unruly web of random connections.

During a demonstration at one of Amazon's networking labs in Cupertino, engineers showed side-by-side comparisons of traditional fat-tree cabling — a chaotic tangle of wires — versus the clean, organized cable runs flowing through ShuffleBoxes in the new RNG design. The visual difference alone was striking.

## The Results Speak for Themselves

According to Rehder, the performance gains delivered by RNG are substantial. Compared to conventional network architectures, the new design:

- **Uses 69% fewer routers and switches**
- **Delivers 33% higher data throughput**
- **Cuts network power consumption by 40%**
- **Reduces operating costs by 27%**

"By essentially flattening the network, we eliminated the bottlenecks that come with traditional networking designs," Rehder told WIRED in an exclusive interview. "We think we're the only ones who have done this at scale."

Outside experts are equally impressed. Godfrey, who was not involved in Amazon's research, called the real-world deployment of this technology "remarkable," noting that random network graphs represent a "mind-bending problem to solve, in general."

## Where RNG Is Being Deployed — And What It's Not For

Amazon first activated RNG technology in a Dublin data center in 2024, subsequently expanding the rollout to facilities in Germany and Spain. The company reports that most newly constructed data centers are now being built with RNG networking as the standard.

Interestingly, Amazon is not positioning RNG as an AI training solution. Rehder is clear on this point: generative AI workloads involve highly coordinated, centrally orchestrated data patterns that don't align well with random graph architectures. Instead, RNG is designed to make Amazon's core, everyday data center operations faster, cheaper, and more resilient.

This distinction matters. While much of the tech industry's attention is currently focused on AI infrastructure, Amazon's networking breakthrough targets the foundational efficiency of cloud computing itself — the backbone upon which virtually everything else depends.

## A New Era for Data Center Design

Amazon's RNG achievement represents more than an incremental improvement in networking technology. It signals a potential paradigm shift in how large-scale data centers are architected — moving away from decades-old hierarchical designs toward flatter, smarter, and more adaptable systems. As demand for cloud services continues to grow, the ability to do more with less power and fewer components could prove to be one of the most consequential engineering advances in modern infrastructure.

Amazon has cracked a decades-old networking challenge, deploying RNG technology that cuts power use by 40% and uses 69% fewer routers in its global data centers

Amazon's RNG Networking Breakthrough Reshapes Data Centers

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How Amazon Quietly Revolutionized Data Center Networking With a Breakthrough No One Saw Coming

## SpaceX's Starship Faces an Uncertain Road to Full Reusability

Two recent developments from SpaceX — its initial public offering filing and the latest Starship test flight — have painted a far more sobering picture of the company's near-term future than either its most passionate supporters or harshest critics might have anticipated.

Stripped away from the headline-grabbing promises of AI-powered profits and lunar outposts lies a less glamorous truth: an expendable Starship rocket could sustain SpaceX as a business, but it would fall critically short of delivering the dramatic cost savings and revolutionary business models that CEO Elon Musk has staked so much on.

## Starlink Is the Real Money-Maker — But It Comes at a Price

SpaceX operates across multiple business lines, yet only one is generating meaningful revenue today. Starlink, the company's satellite internet network, serves as the financial backbone of its public offering. The numbers are striking — Starlink pulled in $11.4 billion in revenue last year, representing the majority of SpaceX's total earnings.

However, beneath that impressive top line lies a capital-intensive reality that has historically driven entrepreneurs away from the satellite communications industry. SpaceX must replace roughly 20% of its satellite constellation annually just to maintain existing service levels. Notably, the company has poured more capital into its satellite operations — $11.4 billion since early 2023 — than it has into developing Starship and all associated launch infrastructure combined, which totaled $8.4 billion over the same period.

SpaceX's S-1 filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission acknowledges that costs will continue rising, though the company anticipates that technological advances will help shrink those expenses as a proportion of total revenue over time.

## Why Full Reusability Is Critical to SpaceX's Survival

Musk has consistently argued that Starship is the linchpin of Starlink's long-term financial health, going so far as to suggest the company could face bankruptcy without the rocket's ability to deploy replacement satellites at dramatically lower cost. Against that backdrop, a particularly telling admission buried in SpaceX's S-1 filing stands out: the company acknowledged for the first time that full Starship reusability is not strictly required to launch its next-generation Starlink satellites.

The catch, of course, is that without full reusability, launch costs rise sharply — eroding the business case considerably.

### What the Analysts Are Saying

Satellite market analyst Tim Farrar highlighted the financial implications in a recent note to clients. "If this reusability is not achieved, then the cost of launch on Starship may not be much lower than Falcon 9, even if the full 100-ton payload capability is realized — which is by no means a foregone conclusion," Farrar wrote. He estimated per-launch costs could reach as high as $100 million, or roughly $1,000 per kilogram, while production rates remain limited by how quickly second stages can be built and first stages refurbished.

## Latest Test Flight Raises Fresh Doubts

The third version of Starship's maiden flight last week did little to ease those concerns. While the vehicle successfully deployed a set of dummy satellites and two test payloads into space — a meaningful milestone — it encountered significant problems with engine re-ignition, a capability fundamental to controlled booster and spacecraft recovery. Without reliable engine relighting, achieving the full reusability SpaceX depends on remains an open question.

This context reframes SpaceX's stated plan to begin launching 60 next-generation Starlink satellites per Starship mission later this year — a twentyfold capacity increase over a standard Falcon 9 flight. What initially sounds like classic Musk-style optimism may actually reflect an expectation that early Starship launches will be expendable. If that is the case, the economics deteriorate: less free cash flow from satellite operations, and ambitious plans to launch space-based data centers become unrealistic until true reusability is achieved.

## Slowing Growth Compounds the Challenge

SpaceX's S-1 also reveals that Starlink's growth trajectory is decelerating. This matters enormously because newer subscribers are paying considerably less than those who signed up earlier. Average revenue per user has declined from $99 in 2023 to $66 in the first quarter of 2026, driven largely by expansion into international markets where pricing power is weaker than in developed economies. A slowing user base combined with shrinking per-user revenue means each newly launched satellite is generating less return on investment.

Competitive pressure is intensifying as well. Amazon's Project Kuiper broadband constellation is approaching the operational scale necessary to mount a genuine challenge to Starlink's dominance, pending a regulatory decision from the Federal Communications Commission on a deadline requiring Amazon to deploy 1,600 satellites by July.

### Is the Space Broadband Market Smaller Than Expected?

Perhaps most striking is what the SpaceX data implies for the broader industry. Farrar suggests that if SpaceX — the furthest-ahead player by a wide margin — is already experiencing slowing demand, it may be an early signal that the total addressable market for space-based broadband is considerably smaller than the industry had projected. That would be unwelcome news not just for SpaceX, but for rivals including Blue Origin and any other company banking on satellite internet as a high-growth market.

For SpaceX, the path forward hinges on cracking the reusability challenge it has long promised to solve. Until then, the gap between Musk's transformative ambitions and commercial reality remains wider than the company's most enthusiastic backers might prefer to admit.

SpaceX's IPO filing and Starship test flight reveal serious reusability hurdles that could undermine Starlink's economics and Musk's long-term space ambitions.

SpaceX Starship Reusability Challenges and What's at Stake

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SpaceX's Starship Reusability Dream Faces a Harsh Reality Check

## Netherlands Shuts Down American Tech Giant's Cloud Acquisition Deal

In a significant move underscoring Europe's growing determination to protect its digital infrastructure, the Dutch government has officially blocked American IT corporation Kyndryl from acquiring Solvinity, a Dutch cloud services provider that plays a critical role in the country's digital identity ecosystem.

### The Deal That Raised Alarm Bells

The proposed acquisition would have seen Kyndryl — one of the largest IT infrastructure companies in the United States — purchase Solvinity for an undisclosed amount. At the heart of the controversy is DigiD, a government-managed digital identity platform hosted by Solvinity that millions of Dutch residents rely on to verify their identity when accessing public services online.

The prospect of this sensitive infrastructure falling under foreign — specifically American — corporate control triggered immediate concerns among Dutch officials and privacy advocates alike.

### Government Issues Complete Prohibition

Dutch Minister for the Digital Economy Willemijn Aerdts formally announced the government's decision in an official letter published on Monday. The minister described the action as a "complete prohibition" on the transaction, citing a potential "risk to the public interest" as the primary justification.

Although the government stopped short of spelling out its precise reasoning in detail, the implications were clear: allowing a U.S. company to control infrastructure tied to the national identity verification system posed unacceptable risks to Dutch citizens and state sovereignty.

### The Shadow of U.S. Data Laws

A major concern driving the decision relates to the reach of American law over data held by U.S.-based corporations. Under existing U.S. legislation, federal authorities — including law enforcement and intelligence agencies — retain the legal right to compel American companies to hand over data stored in overseas facilities, even when those facilities operate under the stricter data protection frameworks common across Europe.

This legal reality means that had Kyndryl completed the acquisition, DigiD user data could theoretically have become accessible to U.S. government agencies, bypassing Dutch and European Union privacy protections entirely.

### Europe's Broader Push for Digital Independence

The Netherlands' decision does not exist in isolation. Across the European continent, governments are accelerating efforts to reduce dependency on American technology providers at a time when the relationship between Europe and the United States has become increasingly strained. The unpredictable posture of the current U.S. administration has prompted European policymakers to take a harder look at where critical digital infrastructure is housed and who ultimately controls it.

From cloud computing and artificial intelligence to telecommunications and cybersecurity, European nations are actively working to build and support homegrown alternatives that keep sensitive data within jurisdictions subject to European law.

### Kyndryl Responds With Disappointment

Following the announcement, Kyndryl publicly expressed its dissatisfaction with the outcome. The company told Politico, which was first to report the story, that it was "extremely disappointed" by the Dutch government's ruling. The firm has not yet indicated whether it intends to challenge the decision or pursue alternative strategies in the Dutch market.

### What This Means Going Forward

The blocking of this acquisition serves as a clear signal that European governments are willing to intervene directly in commercial transactions when they believe national security or public interest is at stake. For U.S. technology companies eyeing expansion into European markets — particularly those involving sensitive public infrastructure — this decision may set a meaningful precedent.

As digital sovereignty becomes an increasingly urgent political priority across Europe, deals of this nature are likely to face far greater scrutiny in the months and years ahead.

The Netherlands has banned Kyndryl from acquiring Dutch cloud firm Solvinity, citing public interest risks tied to the country's DigiD identity platform.

Technology