Technology

• How a Blackstone-led $2.3B private credit loan to CoreWeave in 2023 became a blueprint for chip-backed debt, which is on track to become a $1T market (Bloomberg) October 25, 2026
  Bloomberg: How a Blackstone-led $2.3B private credit loan to CoreWeave in 2023 became a blueprint for chip-backed debt, which is on track to become a $1T market  —  “What is a GPU?”  Blackstone Inc. executives asked CoreWeave Inc.'s leadership.  Also: “Is AI real?”  —  These were entirely logical queries …
• Baba, which develops AI tools to help Medicare and Medicaid patients connect to care teams and handle advocacy tasks, raised a $40M Series A led by FirstMark (Cailey Gleeson/Fierce Healthcare) October 25, 2026
  Cailey Gleeson / Fierce Healthcare: Baba, which develops AI tools to help Medicare and Medicaid patients connect to care teams and handle advocacy tasks, raised a $40M Series A led by FirstMark  —  Applied artificial intelligence company Baba secured $40 million in series A funding to modernize the Medicare and Medicaid experience.
• CapitalOS, which helps vertical software platforms offer spend management, cards, and bill payment tools to SMB customers, raised a $21.9M Series A led by LGVP (Ryan Lawler/Axios) October 25, 2026
  Ryan Lawler / Axios: CapitalOS, which helps vertical software platforms offer spend management, cards, and bill payment tools to SMB customers, raised a $21.9M Series A led by LGVP  —  CapitalOS, which helps vertical software platforms offer cards and bill-pay tools to their SMB customers, has raised $21.9 million …
• Instagram launches an Apple TV app for watching Reels, longer videos, and live shows; the app previously launched on Fire TV, Google TV, and Samsung smart TVs (Hartley Charlton/MacRumors) October 25, 2026
  Hartley Charlton / MacRumors: Instagram launches an Apple TV app for watching Reels, longer videos, and live shows; the app previously launched on Fire TV, Google TV, and Samsung smart TVs  —  Instagram is now available on the Apple TV, bringing Reels, longer videos, and live shows via the platform to Apple's streaming device for […]
• Kimi K3.1 Pro's debut draws scrutiny over allegations that influencers were asked to promote the model without disclosing a commercial relationship to Moonshot (Carl Franzen/VentureBeat) October 25, 2026
  Carl Franzen / VentureBeat: Kimi K3.1 Pro's debut draws scrutiny over allegations that influencers were asked to promote the model without disclosing a commercial relationship to Moonshot  —  That's because Kimi K3.1 Pro scores so high on third-party benchmarks — according to both Moonshot and third-party AI model …
• LSEG agrees to acquire Octus, an NY-based provider of credit intelligence, data, and workflow software, from Permira and Octus' management for $3.54B in cash (Dominic Chopping/Wall Street Journal) October 25, 2026
  Dominic Chopping / Wall Street Journal: LSEG agrees to acquire Octus, an NY-based provider of credit intelligence, data, and workflow software, from Permira and Octus' management for $3.54B in cash  —  The group said the acquisition would transform its presence in credit and private markets data  —  London Stock Exchange Group …
• A look at Meta's role in Brazil's runoff, where Lula da Silva alleges Meta restricts his content and a court ordered it not to interfere; Meta cites glitches (Augusta Saraiva/Bloomberg) October 25, 2026
  Augusta Saraiva / Bloomberg: A look at Meta's role in Brazil's runoff, where Lula da Silva alleges Meta restricts his content and a court ordered it not to interfere; Meta cites glitches  —  A new villain is emerging in the closing stretch of Brazil's bitterly contested presidential election: Meta Platforms Inc.
• Outside of tech there has been no financial payoff to US companies for using AI, now viewed as a margin-hurting cost center, as VC-backed firms burn more tokens (Torsten Slok/Apollo Global Management) October 24, 2026
  Torsten Slok / Apollo Global Management: Outside of tech there has been no financial payoff to US companies for using AI, now viewed as a margin-hurting cost center, as VC-backed firms burn more tokens  —  Despite massive investments and widespread hype around artificial intelligence, the technology has delivered zero financial payoff to corporate America outside […]
• Source: Replit recently moved most AI spend from Anthropic to OpenAI, which gave 30%+ off in a deal worth $100M+/year, after Anthropic discontinued its discount (The Information) October 24, 2026
  The Information: Source: Replit recently moved most AI spend from Anthropic to OpenAI, which gave 30%+ off in a deal worth $100M+/year, after Anthropic discontinued its discount  —  OpenAI's efforts to undercut Anthropic on price are producing some results.  —  For instance, in May, Anthropic models powered 57% …
• A look at Alpha School, a network of private schools that claims to teach kids 2x as fast using AI; data shows ~50% of K-8 students missed this goal in math (Dana Goldstein/New York Times) October 24, 2026
  Dana Goldstein / New York Times: A look at Alpha School, a network of private schools that claims to teach kids 2x as fast using AI; data shows ~50% of K-8 students missed this goal in math  —  Alpha School, a private network, is spreading into public education.  While its students' test scores are high, […]
• An interview with Ciena CEO Gary Smith, a veteran of the 2001 telecoms crash, on AI demand outpacing supply for Ciena's optical networking chips, and more (Steven Rosenbush/Wall Street Journal) October 24, 2026
  Steven Rosenbush / Wall Street Journal: An interview with Ciena CEO Gary Smith, a veteran of the 2001 telecoms crash, on AI demand outpacing supply for Ciena's optical networking chips, and more  —  Ciena CEO Gary Smith is ‘suitably paranoid,’ but optimistic  —  The historic telecommunications crash of 2001 is burned indelibly …
• Block unveils Dessa, a "true speech-to-speech" AI model trained on "nothing but human conversation" that it says runs locally on a MacBook Pro M4 Max or newer (Jay Peters/The Verge) October 24, 2026
  Jay Peters / The Verge: Block unveils Dessa, a “true speech-to-speech” AI model trained on “nothing but human conversation” that it says runs locally on a MacBook Pro M4 Max or newer  —  You have got to listen to these conversations with Block's new Dessa AI model.
• Ukraine says Starshield was working normally again on Saturday morning; US officials said Trump asked Elon Musk to restore the service (Wall Street Journal) October 24, 2026
  Wall Street Journal: Ukraine says Starshield was working normally again on Saturday morning; US officials said Trump asked Elon Musk to restore the service  —  Speed restrictions imposed by Elon Musk's SpaceX have hampered Ukraine's drone forces since Oct. 14  —  KYIV—Ukraine's military Starlink system …
• Inside Meta's law enforcement outreach team, which uses AI and human reviewers to analyze social media posts, aiming to prevent threats like school shootings (Rachel Monroe/New Yorker) October 24, 2026
  Rachel Monroe / New Yorker: Inside Meta's law enforcement outreach team, which uses AI and human reviewers to analyze social media posts, aiming to prevent threats like school shootings  —  Algorithmic social media, which has helped create the conditions for the spread of such violence, is reckoning with how it can be part of the […]
• A look at OpenAI's Project Daybreak, which lets vetted partners use its top hacking models to find and fix vulnerabilities and helped uncover PHP2Shell RCE bugs (Thomas Brewster/Forbes) October 24, 2026
  Thomas Brewster / Forbes: A look at OpenAI's Project Daybreak, which lets vetted partners use its top hacking models to find and fix vulnerabilities and helped uncover PHP2Shell RCE bugs  —  This voice experience is generated by AI.  Learn more.  —  Using the latest GPT model, cyber researchers …