⚔️ AMD takes on Nvidia with its Helios AI rack scale system

Chipmaker AMD is taking aim at competitor Nvidia with its latest hardware release: a rack-scale system designed to power computing needs of the world’s largest AI labs. At the company’s sold-out Advancing AI conference in San Francisco on Thursday, AMD Chair and CEO Dr. Lisa Su promoted the new AI rack system known as Helios — as the company prepares to ship it later this year.

Su called Helios the tech industry’s “highest performance AI rack,” adding that it was “built to train and run the most demanding frontier models in the world at massive scale.” The system will be deployed by leading AI companies at gigawatt-scale.

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⚡️🇺🇸US hits 60 countries with new duties as Donald Trump rebuilds tariff wall

The Trump administration on Thursday finalized new double-digit tariffs on dozens of U.S. trading partners as it seeks to reconstitute sweeping duties struck down by the Supreme Court in February.

The new duties, which range from 10 to 12.5%, follow a five-month investigation into trading partners’ efforts to root out products made with forced labor from their supply chains and are set to take effect just as a temporary global 10 percent tariff expires.

“It encourages stronger labor rights enforcement abroad, it will restore fairness in the global market for American workers, and it incentivizes our trading partners to join the United States in eliminating forced labor from global supply chains.” said a senior administration official.

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🤑 Ripple Unveils Ripple Mint. Available to existing RLUSD users today.

🔹 Ripple Mint is a unified platform for institutions to access, mint, redeem, and manage RLUSD.

Built for scale with both UI and API access, Ripple Mint gives institutions the flexibility to automate stablecoin operations, integrate RLUSD into existing systems, and manage digital dollar liquidity across chains.

⬇️ Why Ripple Mint?

Designed for institutional use, RLUSD is issued by Standard Custody & Trust Company, LLC, a New York Department of Financial Services (NYDFS) chartered trust company, providing the regulatory oversight and transparency that institutional adoption requires. For institutions operating at scale, that foundation matters. So does what's built on top of it.

❗️Ripple Mint expands how institutions access RLUSD by supporting both:

🟠User interface access for operational control and oversight
🟠Programmatic access for automation and system-level integration

This allows institutions to choose how they interact with RLUSD based on their workflows: whether managing activity manually through a web console or integrating RLUSD directly into their own infrastructure.

⚡️ With Ripple Mint, institutions can:

→ Mint and redeem RLUSD directly from the source
→ Bridge RLUSD across chains
→ Track funds across the full lifecycle of a transaction
→ Integrate RLUSD operations into internal systems or workflows

🧱 Built for Programmatic and Operational Workflows

Ripple Mint is designed to support both operational and programmatic workflows, giving institutions flexibility in how they access and manage RLUSD.

🔜 Through new APIs and webhook notifications, customers can now integrate RLUSD workflows directly into their own systems, enabling automation, operational visibility, and easier reconciliation.

📌 Institutions can now:

⚪️Initiate redemption workflows through the user interface or API, with support for both fiat settlement and movement of RLUSD across supported blockchains
⚪️Query transaction status across the mint and redemption lifecycle
⚪️Access account balance information programmatically
⚪️Receive real-time webhook notifications for key lifecycle events, including fiat receipt, mint processing, onchain settlement, and payout completion.

A Foundation for the Next Phase of Stablecoins 🚀

✅ Ripple Mint delivers what this next phase requires: flexible access, programmatic integration, multichain availability, and trusted, regulated issuance.

Stablecoins are evolving into core financial infrastructure — and the institutions leading that shift need access that's flexible, programmable, multichain, and regulated. Ripple Mint is built for that moment, enabling institutions to operate with digital dollars in a way that fits their systems, workflows, and scale.

#Stellar

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🤖 IBM to Acquire HRL Laboratories to Power the Future of Quantum

IBM has signed a definitive agreement to acquire HRL Laboratories, LLC (HRL), a flagship research and development institution. HRL is a private company jointly owned by Boeing and General Motors. Both Boeing and GM will continue to partner with IBM on quantum applications and advanced technology development following the transaction.

📌 HRL's advanced expertise in silicon-spin qubit engineering will complement and extend IBM’s long-term mission to scale increasingly powerful quantum computers and accelerate its quantum vision. Superconducting qubits and spin qubits both leverage state-of-the art silicon fabrication.

“The HRL team will help IBM push even farther forward toward the frontiers of quantum innovation,” said Jay Gambetta, IBM’s Director of Research and IBM Fellow.

🔜 HRL will also enable IBM to innovate in and industrialize promising technologies such as quantum sensing and drive new research into quantum materials. This includes ultra precise quantum sensors capable of detecting subtle physical phenomena and capturing finely tuned measurements for life sciences, navigation, defense, and scientific applications.

Combined with additional capabilities in cryogenics, control electronics, qubit interconnects, and packaging, IBM anticipates that HRL’s technical breakthroughs will help fuel its quantum program for decades to come. 🚀

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🤖 NVIDIA commits $1.5 billion to expand US capacity for next-gen advanced chip packaging

NVIDIA is partnering with semiconductor packaging company Amkor Technology to develop advanced packaging and testing technologies for next-generation AI and accelerated computing systems, while helping expand Amkor’s US capacity in Arizona.

The multi-year partnership will align the companies’ technology roadmaps around advanced packaging methods, including high-density interconnects and heterogeneous integration. NVIDIA will also provide a prepayment to support the expansion of Amkor’s US advanced packaging capacity.

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🤖 OpenAI’s new voice mode makes it to the ChatGPT desktop app

OpenAI has updated its ChatGPT desktop app to add support for ChatGPT Voice, allowing users to talk to the app to control AI agents and perform tasks on their computer. ChatGPT Voice works with both ChatGPT Work and Codex, and can also tap computer use skills to look up websites and apps. On macOS, with Appshots, users can let the app access what’s on their screen, including alt-text.

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🧠 Neuralink clinical trial participants can control powered wheelchairs with their minds

The Neuralink implant has over 1,000 electrodes sitting across over 100 threads, each thinner than a human hair and inserted into the motor cortex by our surgical robot. The electrodes record the activity of neurons that fire as a participant intends to move.

A machine learning model maps that neural activity to a computer cursor moving up, down, left, and right. The result is a decoding algorithm that enables the participant to control the cursor with their thoughts. As they move the cursor with their thoughts, they can drive forward, reverse, steer, and even adjust seating positions.

“There’s more to do, but this provides a glimpse into how Neuralink can help restore independent mobility for people with paralysis,” — Neuralink wrote.

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🇧🇷👨🏻‍🌾 Brazilian farmers tokenized dairy cows to get loans, bypassing bank lending limits

Farmers in Parana, Brazil, struggling to get banks to loan them cash, became the first to tokenize livestock and place 10 dairy milk cows’ tokens for trade on the country’s B3 national stock exchange. They generated nearly $20,000 in credit backed by their cattle, signaling the potential of tokenizing RWAs as a financing tool. Brazil's dairy cow tokenization is a world first, testing the technology as small farmers face tighter bank lending limits.

"We take the cow, which is a real and tangible asset, and transform it into a digital asset backed by a unique code monitored in real time,” — Thiago Martins of Cowmed, a Brazilian Agtec company, said. “This digitization allows for formal registration with B3 as a movable asset.”

To turn cattle into trusted financial guarantees or collateral without requiring inspectors to visit the property, Cowmed equips cows with an AI-powered Smarty Collar. These collars constantly monitor health, behavior, and location. The raw data is then converted into an encrypted digital identity tied directly to the B3 credit agreement.

#BRICS

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⚡️🇺🇸 Trump says US will investigate EU trade practices, claiming the bloc unfairly fined tech giants

The United States will open a formal investigation into the European Union’s trade practices, President Donald Trump said, claiming the bloc has unfairly levied billions of dollars of fines against Google, Apple and other U.S. tech giants.

The EU hit Google with a fine of 890 million euros, or $1 billion, after it said the technology behemoth broke digital antitrust regulations by setting up Google Play and its ubiquitous search engine to corral consumers toward its own services and apps to the detriment of competitors.

In the post, Trump asserted that the penalties against the companies “will be entirely reversed” and predicted “a substantial TARIFF” would be placed on the EU “at the earliest possible moment.”

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🤖 Elon Musk: AI Will Exceed the Sum of Human Intelligence in Around 5 Years

I think AI may exceed the sum of human intelligence in around five years. In five years — roughly five years — is my guess.

So there really won't be anything that AI can't do better than humans, apart from being human, perhaps.

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🧑‍⚖️🇰🇿 Kazakhstan uses digital mining to replenish its National Cryptocurrency Reserve

The Government of Kazakhstan has approved the "Rules for Implementing Strategic Digital Mining," granting companies electricity quotas at ceiling tariffs from energy-producing organizations for 10 years.

In exchange for receiving these quotas, companies should transfer a portion of their mined cryptocurrency to the autonomous cluster fund Astana Hub. The assets will then be transferred into the trust management of the National Investment Corporation under the National Bank to replenish the National Strategic Crypto Reserve.

To engage in strategic digital mining, operators must submit an application through the E-licensing database. A dedicated commission will review approval requests. In the event of a positive decision, the digital miner must execute an agreement with the Astana Hub autonomous cluster fund within five working days, as well as conclude an electricity purchase and sale contract with an energy-producing organization.

The rules will take effect on August 1, 2026. 🚀

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🇻🇳 Vietnam proposes banning under-16s from posting on social media

Vietnam is planning to force social media platforms to ban users under 16 from posting content, commenting or reacting to posts, according to a draft decree. The proposed rules would require social media accounts belonging to children under 16 to be registered using the information of a parent or legal guardian, who would ​be responsible for supervising the content viewed and the amount of time ​spent on the platforms.

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⚡️🚀 SpaceX launches the 13th test flight of its Starship rocket from the Starbase launch site in Boca Chica, Texas

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🔥 Bitcoin Policy Institute, Palantir and Anduril join US State Department's Freedom Tech Excellence Program

The U.S. Department of State has launched a new initiative called the Freedom Tech Excellence Program (FTEP), naming the Bitcoin Policy Institute as a founding partner alongside companies including Palantir Technologies and Anduril Industries, and the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation. FTEP is structured as a talent-exchange program at the State Department.

"FTEP brings private sector experts like BPI into the State Department to advance diplomatic efforts on key issues including online freedom of expression, privacy-enhancing technologies, countering digital surveillance, and responsible AI governance," — the Bitcoin Policy Institute said.

These assignments could include efforts aimed at protecting First Amendment principles online, countering digital surveillance and online scams, advancing privacy-enhancing technologies and working on responsible AI governance, among other goals.

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🇺🇸 Oregon for first time considers charging use fees for undersea cables

The Oregon Department of State Lands is proposing for the first time to charge multinational telecommunications and tech companies for using the seafloor off the state’s Pacific Coast for fiber-optic cables used to transmit internet data and international calls. Oregon is now considering joining California and Washington by also requiring compensation fees.

The Oregon lands department is proposing tripling new application fees from $5,000 to $15,000, increasing application renewals from $5,000 to $7,500 while extending the renewal period from 20 years to 25 years and charging a one-time compensation fee of $3 per foot of fiber optic cable laid within the 3 miles of coastal, “territorial seas” that the state has jurisdiction over.

That could bring in more than $1 million per new cable laid, according to Dana Hicks, a planning and policy manager at the department.

The application fees would help the agency cover the costs of technical reviews, surveys, inspections, public outreach and other coordination and administrative work while the compensation fees would flow to the Common School Fund and Oregon’s public K-12 schools.

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