Sandbar, a startup by former Meta employees Mina Fahmi and Kirak Hong, attracted much attention last year when it showed off its note-taking wearable, the Stream ring. The company has now raised $23 million in a Series A funding round led by Adjacent and Kindred Ventures.The company’s smart ring is focused on note-taking, similar to products by Plaud or Omi, and not health-tracking like Oura’s products. The ring has a microphone that’s off by default, but can be activated using a flat, touch-sensitive panel at the top. You can hold this t...

AI, according to Kevin Warsh, could be one of the most significant changes in the US economy in his lifetime. He argues that AI will increase productivity, strengthen competitiveness and eventually raise real wages.But after roughly $725 billion in AI infrastructure investment, there is still little evidence of a transformative economic return.US structural productivity has recently reached the high-2 per cent range, which Warsh views as encouraging. However, Barclays economists argue that the improvement is more likely related to post-pande...

EPFL researchers have discovered that a soft material originally optimized for 3D printing may solve a longstanding challenge in materials science: make 3D printable elastomers both tough and durable.In 2024, researchers from the Soft Materials Laboratory (SMaL) in EPFL’s School of Engineering introduced double network granular elastomers (DNGEs): rubber-like materials made of microscopic elastomer particles connected by a softer elastomer network. DNGEs were designed as 3D printing ‘inks’ for structures with finely tuned mechanical prope...

Marketers have spent the past year trying to understand how to get their brands mentioned in AI search results. Now, they’re putting dollars and organizing teams around their AI visibility efforts.Key Takeaways82% of consumers say AI-generated content makes it harder to tell what is genuine online, and over half (51%) have already replaced traditional research with AI tools at least once.Nearly two-thirds (65%) of consumers agree that brands overuse the word "authentic" without backing it up, and 76% say marketing today feels more performat...

Ketchup people are serious people. Not in an uptight way, but in the way that they know exactly what they want: a precise drizzle over scrambled eggs, a controlled zigzag down a hot dog, or the kind of generous pour that basically constitutes a second course. Ketchup rituals are personal, and Heinz, after 157 years of watching people argue silently over the bottle, has finally decided to do something about it.The Heinz Love Lid is a customizable ketchup lid, and yes, that is exactly as delightful as it sounds. It replaces the standard cap on...

1. 월가를 뒤흔든 25세 AI 천재 레오폴드의 포트폴리오 : 반도체 숏과 AI 인프라 집중 투자 반도체 숏 포지션 및 헤징 전략: Situational Awareness LP가 NVIDIA, AMD, Broadcom, TSMC 등 주요 반도체 기업 및 SMH ETF에 대한 대규모 Put 옵션 포지션을 공시하며 단기 밸류에이션 과열에 대비한 숏 포지션 구축.병목 레이어 대상 Long 포지션 재배치: 반도체 숏 포지션과 달리 CoreWeave, SanDisk 등 AI 클라우드 컴퓨팅 및 메모리/스토리지 병목 레이어 기업의 Long 포지션을 신규 매수하며 선택적 자본 집적 달성.AI 장기 신념과 단기 밸류에이션의 분리: 슈퍼지능에 대한 장기적 신념과...

Ex-OpenAI Researcher’s Fund Shorts Major Semis While Doubling Down on Selected AI Infrastructure.Leopold Aschenbrenner, a former OpenAI researcher and founder of Situational Awareness LP, revealed a striking portfolio reallocation in his fund's Q1 2026 filing. Despite being one of the industry's most vocal AI bulls, Aschenbrenner’s fund disclosed substantial put (short) positions against major semiconductor leaders while selectively accumulating long positions in specific AI infrastructure players such as CoreWeave and SanDisk.Bearish / Pu...

AI agents are moving from centralized systems toward a decentralized network of trillions of personal and organizational agents.The real business opportunity isn’t building agents for specific tasks — it’s building the marketplaces, protocols, and services that agents will need.A new MIT research initiative called Project NANDA is working to keep the agentic web open before corporate consolidation makes that impossible.MIT’s Ramesh Raskar offers a compelling vision of the future. Suppose a 70-year-old pre-diabetic woman from rural India...

Finding organic growth in today's volatile business landscape has become more challenging than ever, prompting global corporate leaders to elevate venture building into a central growth strategy.A July 2026 report published in McKinsey Quarterly, titled The CEO's Critical Role in Building New Businesses, reveals that despite mounting cost pressures and economic uncertainty, approximately 40 percent of global chief executive officers continue to rank new-business building as one of their top three strategic priorities. In fact, when surveyed...