Author: MNK News

Topline Elon Musk’s xAI announced Monday it raised $6 billion in a Series C funding round, putting the company’s value at more than $40 billion as it continues to strengthen its AI products and infrastructure. The funding round was announced Monday. (Photo by Muhammed Selim Korkutata/Anadolu via Getty Images)Anadolu via Getty Images Key Facts The company closed the $6 billion round and said the funding would be allocated toward products and infrastructure, likely referring to its Grok AI model and the multibillion-dollar supercomputer site in Memphis, Tennessee, used to train its AI models. Investors included Blackrock, A16Z, Saudi conglomerate holding…

Broad Fit Financial ahead of the game in the fitness industry and clients interested in wellness are there to benefitAs the industry continues to embrace emerging trends in fitness, health and wellness, Broad Fit Financial, the equipment finance lender for the industry, has actively evolved and embraced these trends.   “Broad Fit Financial was born from our desire to support the evolving health and wellness industry,” said Broad Fit President and Co-Founder Stephanie Taylor. “We maintain a strong pulse on the trends, needs and future of this space. By understanding consumer shifts towards more holistic offerings such as women’s health and fitness…

The Federal Reserve did what many thought it couldn’t achieve in 2024, and yet in one respect it still ended the year the way it started — worried about stubborn price pressures. What it pulled off was a rare economic soft landing, using elevated interest rates to nudge inflation lower without triggering a US recession. Unemployment rose but never got out of control. The economy remained surprisingly strong. And policymakers felt good enough about their progress to start cutting rates for the first time in more than four years. Read more: What the Fed rate cut means for bank accounts,…

Android phones have been the first to feature a bunch of notable standards. They were the first to support 4G, 5G, USB-C (way back in 2015 no less) and in-screen fingerprint sensors. And when it comes to wireless charging, you can trace that lineage all the way back to the Samsung Galaxy S3 from 2012 (though the webOS-poweered Palm Pre and its Touchstone charger is the true OG). Unfortunately, when it came to adding support for the Qi2 wireless charging standard to devices in 2024, it feels like Android phone makers were stuck on outdated patch notes.The Qi2 standard was…

A court in Argentina has ordered the seizure of a crypto wallet containing $3.5 million in Tether’s USDT stablecoin. The Argentine Justice Department has taken control of a $3.5 million (USDT) wallet, which is part of a larger investigation into Rainbowex, a trading Ponzi scheme. As part of the crackdown, authorities have frozen not only the USDT wallet but also the cryptocurrency wallets and bank accounts of those involved in the alleged fraud, according to a report by iProUp. While details remain unclear, the report reads that the investigation has received crucial help from experts at Lemon, the second-largest digital…

The Russian government has banned crypto mining in ten regions for a period of six years, according to reporting by the state-owned news agency Tass. Russia has cited the industry’s high power consumption rates as the primary reason behind the ban. Crypto is particularly power-hungry, as mining operations already account for nearly 2.5 percent of US energy use.This ban takes effect on January 1 and lasts until March 15, 2031. The country’s Council of Ministers has also stated that additional bans may be required in other regions during periods of peak energy demand. It could also go the other way.…

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos is denying claims that he will marry his fiancé, former news anchor Lauren Sanchez, this weekend in Aspen, Colorado. The cost estimate of the post-Christmas wedding had come in at a lofty $600 million. After the Daily Mail reported that three sources told the newspaper Bezos and Sanchez’s wedding would take place on Saturday in the Colorado ski town, the Washington Post owner took to X to call the claims “completely false,” adding that the old adage “don’t believe everything you read” is truer today than ever before. “This whole thing is completely false — none of this is happening,”…

MIAMI BEACH, FLORIDA – MAY 19: Michael Saylor speaks on stage during Bitcoin Conference 2023 at … [+] Miami Beach Convention Center on May 19, 2023 in Miami Beach, Florida. (Photo by Jason Koerner/Getty Images for Bitcoin Magazine)Getty Images for Bitcoin Magazine Aiming to channel MicroStrategy money into buying more Bitcoin, Michael Saylor and MicroStrategy (MSTR) has revealed ambitious financial plans to raise its share count by an eye-watering $10 Billion shares. This is an exponential increase rather than a simple change; the suggested shares exceed the current float by more than thirty times. The stakes are great and bring…

Today’s NYT Strands hints and answersCredit: New York Times Looking for Monday’s Strands hints, spangram and answers? You can find them here: ForbesNYT ‘Strands’ Today: Hints, Spangram And Answers For Monday, December 23rdBy Erik Kain Merry Christmas Eve, Strandistas! I hope you’re all having a lovely holiday. Like all of you, I’m busy with all the madness of the season so I will keep this preamble brief. We have a Strands to solve before our festive merrymaking. Let’s solve it! Strands is the newest game in the New York Times’ stable of puzzle games. It’s a fun twist on classic…

By Gursimran Mehar and Bipasha Dey (Reuters) -A strike at Starbucks (SBUX) will expand to over 300 U.S. stores on Tuesday, with more than 5,000 workers expected to walk off the job before the five-day work stoppage ends later on Christmas Eve, the workers’ union said. Starbucks Workers United, representing employees at 525 stores nationwide, said more than 60 U.S. stores across 12 major cities, including New York, Los Angeles, Boston and Seattle, were shut on Monday. Talks between Starbucks and the union had hit an impasse with unresolved issues over wages, staffing and schedules, leading to the strike that…