It’s a chilly March morning in the undisclosed mid-Atlantic hotel hosting Palantir’s developer conference. The defense contractors, military officers, and corporate executives in attendance are unprepared for the weather; they’d assumed the previous day’s mid-70s temperatures would hold. A cold rain turns to steady snowfall, and Palantir passes out heavy blankets. As people move between open-air pavilions, it looks like they were pulled from shipwrecks. Nonetheless, spirits are high. To this self-selecting crowd, Palantir is delivering on its promises. The company’s stock price is soaring. The gathering is infused with the giddy groupthink of a multilevel marketing event.

After securing an invite to the conference—a task made challenging by Palantir’s disapproval of WIRED’s recent coverage—I was eager to get an inside glimpse of the mysterious company. Founded in 2003 by Peter Thiel and his then obscure former Stanford classmate Alex Karp, the company has become part of the Pentagon’s AI-based combat transformation. In the past few years, though, its biggest growth has been in the commercial sector. “The commercial business is growing at 120 percent year over year. We’re very proud of the 60 percent growth in government, but they’re not even on the same glide slope,” says Palantir’s CTO, Shyam Sankar, who is also part of a four-person contingent of tech execs serving as lieutenant colonels in the Army Reserve.

Generative AI has helped fuel Palantir’s rise, supercharging the hands-on support the company provides to its customers. Early in its evolution, Palantir would embed “forward deployed engineers” into companies, helping them weave Palantir’s software into their operations. Large language models allowed Palantir to build products with more power, and now the engineers concentrate on helping customers build their own tools with Palantir’s technology. “Every time those models got better it seemed like they were tailor-made exactly for us,” says Ted Mabrey, an early employee who now heads the commercial business. Sankar elaborates: “Our whole thesis has been that we’re building Iron Man suits for cognition,” he says. “We were rate-limited by the number of people, the creativity of the questions, all those sorts of things. And then [with Gen AI] that rate limiter was eliminated, and that changed the rate of growth.”

The morning’s keynotes include a US Navy vice admiral, the officer in charge of the Maven AI battlefield project, and executives from Accenture, GE Aerospace, SAP, and the Freedom Mortgage Corporation. The range reflects the company’s trajectory from defense work to the commercial sector. During the breakfast hour I watch a demo from a family-run fashion business with 450 employees. CEO Jordan Edwards of Mixology Clothing says that he found Palantir through an Instagram ad, and that the AI-powered system has transformed his business. He uses Palantir’s software to help make buying decisions and then has it send emails to negotiate prices. For one line he sells, “it drove a 17-point margin swing—from losing $9 a unit to gaining $9 a unit,” he claims. Edwards now describes himself as a “forward deployed CEO.”

Even though Palantir’s major growth is in the commercial sector, its soul remains in defense contracting. During its long struggle to become part of the defense establishment (at one point, it sued the Army to be considered for a contract), it adopted a focus on outcomes. Palantir likes to think that this experience forced it to adopt a level of rigor that has allowed it to eclipse its rivals in the commercial arena. One chapter of Sankar’s just-published book, Mobilize: How to Reboot the American Industrial Base and Stop World War III, is called “The Factory Is the Weapon.” Both Sankar and CEO Alex Karp believe that American industry, especially in Silicon Valley, has shown insufficient patriotism. Their hope is that Palantir’s example will inspire other corporations to produce national defense products in addition to their consumer work.

Karp’s introductory remarks at the conference emphasized how defense work defines the company, especially now that America is at war. Atypically garbed in a blazer (“This is to convince my family I have a job,” he jokes), he says that normally, he would be talking to commercial customers about how to make them wealthier and happier and help them destroy their competitors. (He refers to rivals as “noncompetition” because in his mind, they don’t rank in Palantir’s class.) But with an active battlefield in Iran, the company’s sole priority is now supporting the troops. “At Palantir we were built to give our warfighters … an unfair advantage,” he says. “It was, ‘Yeah, we’re going to really F- our enemies.’ And I take great pride in that.”

• Amnezia VPN Free is now officially available for users located in Brazil
• The free version only tunnels traffic for specific blocked websites and apps
• The launch comes as Brazil has enforced new mandatory age checks

Open-source privacy provider Amnezia VPN has announced that its free VPN service is now officially available to users in Brazil. The launch aims to provide an accessible, zero-cost workaround for citizens navigating changes in the country’s internet landscape.

Announced via the company’s official X account, the rollout is specifically tailored to the Brazilian market. Unlike the full-service Amnezia Premium, which encrypts all device traffic and allows users to spoof their location across 20 global locations, Amnezia Free utilizes a highly targeted approach. The free tier uses split-tunneling to route only specific, socially important websites and apps through the encrypted tunnel. All other internet traffic remains on the user’s regular connection, utilizing their actual IP address.

Ryan Gosling heads to space in Project Hail Mary, the big-budget sci-fi adventure movie from Oscar-winning directing duo Phil Lord and Christopher Miller that hit theaters this weekend. The film, adapted from Andy Weir’s best-selling novel of the same name, finds school teacher Ryland Grace immersed in a top-secret government operation. The sun is dying, and he’s enlisted to find out why and to stop it. 

If I didn’t mention the people involved in the movie, that description can easily be pegged to a variety of space disaster films that have come and gone. But this ain’t no Michael Bay movie. In fact, Project Hail Mary is unlike most titles of its kind in that the story avoids the bleak, hopeless tone that comes with galactic doom-and-gloom, race-against-time survival tales. And there’s an alien in there, to boot.

When I settled in for the IMAX press screening, the person introducing Project Hail Mary said it is ultimately a story about the power of friendship. I rolled my eyes at the notion, but I ate my words once the credits rolled. It is exactly that, and it shows how a simple emotional connection and a drive to solve a shared problem can bring together people from different backgrounds, including a rock-spider alien without a face.

“It’s a bromance,” Weir told me over Zoom. “It’s a story of two people who become friends and then work together. So collaboration, cooperation… I’m optimistic and have these positive views of humanity and stuff, and therefore I project those views onto imaginary aliens.” 

I had the opportunity to chat with Weir earlier this week about Project Hail Mary. I wanted to explore the story’s hopeful, fun vibe, and the celebrated sci-fi author taught me a few things he learned when he first brought the story to life.

“I believe humanity is pretty frickin’ awesome,” he began, “and I think we do great things, especially when we’re pushed. So, I think we’re an amazing species, and we do amazing things.”

That’s a perspective that makes Project Hail Mary such a breath of fresh air. I told him so, acknowledging the “science is cool” message the movie imparts early on, when Grace is seen teaching his students. In turn, he put on his proverbial teacher hat and schooled me on a deeper concept that underlies nearly all space exploration stories in science fiction.

“I wrote down a list of everything that I think an alien species would need to have to get up to the point where they can make a spaceship,” he said. “What do you need?”

(Insert my baffled blink and shoulder shrug, here.)

“You need information transfer, which means you need language,” he continued. “You need to be able to communicate with each other, which allows knowledge to live beyond a given individual member of the tribe. It’s like grandpa told me how to weave this rope, and now I’m going to tell my grandson how to weave the rope, and that knowledge stays with the tribe, right?” 

Yes. But so far, this all seemed pretty basic. What does this have to do with spacecraft? I did my best not to interrupt.

“And then I thought of another really important aspect: having a tribe,” he continued. “You have compassion and concern for other members of your tribe. You’re like, ‘I care about that guy even though, if he dies, it doesn’t affect me directly.’ That evolves so that the tribe as a whole cares about each other. So it’s almost like a single multi-family entity, right?” 

Right, so not like Star Trek: The Next Generation’s alien species, the Borg. I was pretty proud of this statement, which I actually said out loud. 

And, without skipping a beat, he corrected me: “The most compassionate thing the Borg can do is assimilate people. Because then they’re part of the Borg, which is the best thing you can be like.”

I suppose if Weir didn’t make it as a writer, he, like Gosling’s Grace, could’ve carved out a solid career as a teacher. Anyway, back to the lesson…

“In order to get to the point where you’re making a spaceship, your species must have the concept of compassion and concern for each other,” he said, while watching my mind being blown in real time. “You would never have made a spaceship if you didn’t have that.”

What does this all have to do with the overall optimistic vibe of the movie? Well, as he told me, the film’s emotional foundation (which absolutely includes empathy, compassion and concern) is built on the friendship between Ryland and his new alien friend, whom he names Rocky. 

“When Rocky and Ryland meet in space on spaceships that their respective species built, they are both entities that, by definition, have to have this concept of compassion and concern for the other,” he said. “This concept of empathy and concern is a necessity to get where we are. It’s the best part of humanity. And I think any intelligent alien race we meet would also have to have it.”

I’ll be honest. I’ve been thinking about this conversation for days, putting this idea to the test against every science fiction movie I’ve seen involving space travel. Suddenly, I’m viewing the genre in a whole new, optimistic light. 

That led me to drill down into the movie’s good-feeling vibe, which is also in the book. Why did Weir decide to make this seemingly terrifying scenario feel, well, so joyful?

“It’s just an outcrop, an outgrowth of my worldview, I suppose,” he said. While there are themes of teamwork, friendship and hope throughout the movie, Weir added that he made Project Hail Mary without an agenda or clear-cut lesson. 

“All I want from any of my words is to entertain. There’s no messaging, there’s no moral. I’m not trying to change any of your beliefs or induce any beliefs. All I want when you leave the theater or when you put my book away is for you to think, ‘That was cool. I’m glad I experienced that.’”

Well, it was cool. And I am absolutely glad I experienced it. You win, Andy. You win.

Small asteroids occasionally come close enough to Earth to provide potentially significant resources such as water for rocket fuel and metals for construction panels. TransAstra, a Los Angeles-based startup, has developed a device to grab the rocks whole and draw them into a nearby orbit, where personnel can break them down into useful components.

Engineers equip a spacecraft with the company’s capture mechanism before sending it out to meet one of approximately 260 tiny asteroids, each measuring barely 20 meters wide and weighing around 100 tons. At the capture site, the bag unfolds from its folded condition and wraps completely around the tumbling boulder. Once it has a firm grip on the entire object, the edges pull in tight to keep everything secure for the lengthy journey back to their destination. The bag, or capture device, is the center of the entire operation. It is made of robust laminates used in aerospace operations, which have the advantage of remaining flexible even in the extreme cold of space. Last fall, a 1-meter test version made it to the International Space Station, where it was inflated, opened, and closed several times in a vacuum chamber. The same design is now three stories tall thanks to a $2.5 million NASA contract and matching private funds. The full-scale prototypes will be tested at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory just before the first genuine asteroid run can begin.

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TransAstra originally called the first significant effort the New Moon mission. An investor and customer paid for a research that detailed every process, from locating the correct rock to carefully parking it. Researchers from the University of Central Florida, Purdue University, and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory all arrived to assess the flight trajectories, potential spacecraft requirements, and costs. The investigation is expected to be completed by the end of May, paving the way for a possible launch this year or next, with the spacecraft meeting its target between 2028 and 2029.

Once that bagged asteroid has arrived in a stable location within the Earth-Moon system, the real work begins. At the New Moon processing facility, robotic arms and heaters separate the water ice first. The water is converted into rocket fuel, which can later be utilized to power other spacecraft. The metals that remain are stamped into solar arrays or radiation shields, leaving only simple building blocks or shielding material, all of which remains in orbit, ensuring that nothing heavy is lifted off Earth.

For now the company is keeping its focus tight. Over the next decade the plan is to send reusable robotic craft on multiple runs, gradually gathering material from dozens or even hundreds of asteroids at a single processing location. Each mission is expected to bring back around 100 tons of material at a cost of a few hundred million dollars, which is a dramatic improvement over previous sample return missions that spent well over a billion dollars to retrieve little more than a handful of space dust. With so many potential targets within reach and missions stacking up over time, TransAstra believes the total haul could eventually climb to around a million tons of usable material.
[Source]

Following discussions first reported on earlier this year, ByteDance has agreed to sell its games unit Moonton to Savvy Games Group for $6 billion. Moonton is known for mobile titles popular in Asia like Mobile Legends: Bang Bang, which has been downloaded 1.5 billion times. The transaction is set to be finalized in the “near future,” according to an internal memo from Moonton’s CEO seen by Bloomberg.

ByteDance has been winding down its gaming arm and shopping Moonton since 2023, just two years after it first acquired the developer. Around that same period, the TikTok parent was shuttering its Nuverse gaming arm, which published notable titles like Marvel Snap and Ragnarok X: Next Generation. The company has since shifted its focus to AI, competing with Chinese rivals to develop chatbots and foundational models.

Savvy Games, which is owned by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF), has been going in the opposite direction. Last year the company (via its subsidiary Scopely) acquired Pokémon Go developer Niantic for $3.5 billion. PIF was also among the key investors that purchased Electronic Arts in a blockbuster $55 billion deal last year. The Saudi fund holds a 7.5 percent stake in Nintendo as well.

The sale is the latest chapter in the recent gaming industry consolidation that saw around 45,000 jobs lost in a brutal three-year period between 2022 and 2025. According to a recent GDC study, one-third of US video game industry workers were laid off over the last two years.

Xiaomi unveiled its facelifted SU7 electric sedan today, with three trim levels that provide more range while keeping the price cheap. The base Standard model costs 219,900 yuan, or approximately $31,870. The Pro model starts at 249,900 yuan, while the top-of-the-line Max model costs 303,900. This puts them below the entry-level pricing of a Tesla Model 3 in China.

Buyers can now choose from three different ranges, the maximum of which being 902 kilometers on the Chinese test cycle for the Pro trim. The Standard trim has a reasonable 720-kilometer range, while the Max has 835 kilometers. The battery packs’ capacity is also increased to 73 kilowatts for the Standard, 96.3 for the Pro, and 101.7 for the Max, and there’s rapid charging, which truly shines on the Max model, where 15 minutes at a fast charger adds a remarkable 670 kilometers of range.

The powertrain options have been given a meaningful boost. The Standard and Pro variants each run a single rear motor producing 315 horsepower, hitting 100 kilometers per hour in 5.3 and 5.7 seconds respectively. The Max steps things up considerably with dual motors combining for 681 horsepower and a 0 to 100 kilometer per hour time of just 3.1 seconds.

Xiaomi refers to this new platform as the Dragon chassis, and it is built on an improved steel framework capable of supporting up to 2,200 megapascals. The Pro and Max models benefit from double-chamber air suspension and continuous damping control for a smoother ride. To top it off, there’s a new staggered tyre layout with smaller 245 millimeter tyres up front and larger 265 millimeter tires in back, and four-piston brake calipers are standard on all models, so you can rely on them to stop you quickly.

The exterior gets a refresh too, headlined by a new Capri Blue paint option and a set of 20 inch blade wheels making their debut on the SU7. The door handles have been swapped out for a more conventional mechanical design that is simply easier to grab in everyday use. The body itself is marginally lower than before, sitting between 1,445 and 1,460 millimeters in height on a 4,997 millimeter long body that carries over the same 3,000 millimeter wheelbase as its predecessor.

Inside the car, the seats now have extra padding, and the steering wheel has a sophisticated new dual-tone finish. When it comes to illumination, things get more dynamic, with ambient lights changing colours to match your mood. Oh, and there’s a new fridge, which has its own small compressor to chill your drinks even faster. The center console has been updated, and the interior design has shifted to a more gloomy Dark Night Black tone.

Driver assistance hardware is standard on all models, which includes a LiDAR unit, a 4D millimeter-wave radar, and an NVIDIA Thor CPU capable of 700 trillion operations per second. The car’s software is based on a new XLA language model that handles a variety of driving and vehicle functions. There are eleven airbags to keep you safe, two more than the previous generation, and a separate backup power supply to meet the even higher safety standards that will be introduced next year.

In related news, the first-generation SU7 has been discontinued, with over 381,000 units sold before production was halted in February. Xiaomi was right back on track, with manufacture of the new models beginning immediately and plans to get them out the door as quickly as possible. The new car has received a great response, with thousands of orders coming in within the first 30 minutes of its debut.

Schiit Audio doesn’t do nostalgia for the sake of it, but it does know when to keep a good thing alive and sharpen the edges based on what the market actually needs right now. At $799, the new Lyr 5 is the latest stop on a line that started with the Lyr 3, got more serious with the Schiit Lyr+, and now lands somewhere between old-school tube romance and app-controlled reality. Same idea, cleaner execution.

The formula hasn’t changed for those in the Head-Fi crowd who might be looking through its tube stash at this exact moment; it’s still a hybrid headphone amp that lets you run a real tube or ditch it entirely for MOSFET gain. The Lyr 5 adds Schiit’s Forkbeard control system, which means this thing actually tells you what it’s doing instead of leaving you to trust your ears and your mood.

Class A, Class A/B, output levels; it’s all visible, adjustable, and perfect for those within the headphone community who change headphones more frequently than they change their clothes; based on CanJam NYC 2026 last weekend, not often enough.

Power isn’t the problem. With up to 6000mW on tap from both balanced 4.4mm and single-ended outputs, Lyr 5 will drive pretty much anything short of a small refrigerator. The relay ladder volume control keeps channel balance tight, the linear power supply keeps things stable, and the Fusion setup lets you flip between tube and solid state without committing to either lifestyle full time. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.

Schiit Lyr 5 Specs That Actually Matter: Power, Noise, and Why It Drives Anything

On paper, the Lyr 5 is overbuilt in all the right ways. It delivers up to 6 watts per channel into 32 ohms, which is more than enough for demanding planar magnetics, while still offering 900mW into 300 ohms and 450mW into 600 ohms—right in the wheelhouse for high-impedance models from Beyerdynamic and Sennheiser. In other words, it’s not running out of gas no matter what you plug into it, short of electrostatics. This is not that kind of party.

Noise is essentially a non-issue. In low gain, the amp is quiet enough for most IEMs, with a signal-to-noise ratio above 110dB, and distortion levels so low (as little as 0.002% or lower) that your headphones will introduce far more character than the amp ever will. Output impedance stays low; around 0.4 to 0.6 ohms—which means better control and consistent performance across different headphones.

The hybrid design gives you flexibility. You can run tube mode for a bit of harmonic texture or switch to solid state MOSFET gain for cleaner, more linear output, and when you do, the tube shuts off completely to extend its lifespan. Gain is switchable between low and high, so it works with everything from sensitive IEMs to power-hungry over-ears.

Connectivity is straightforward but useful. You get two single-ended inputs and a preamp output, so yes, this can pull double duty as a preamp in an active speaker system or with an external power amplifer, not just a headphone amp sitting on your desk.

Under the hood, Schiit leans into a fully discrete design with a relay-based volume control, which keeps channel balance tight even at low listening levels. The dual-transformer linear power supply and substantial internal filtering keep things stable, while built-in protection monitors temperature, current, and tube status so nothing goes sideways.

Physically, it’s compact enough for a desk at 9 x 6 x 2 inches and about 6 pounds, though it does run moderately warm—no surprise given the power on tap. Add in full remote control and Forkbeard app integration, and you’ve got an amp that’s not just powerful, but actually tells you what it’s doing while it does it.

The Bottom Line

The Lyr 5 offers a practical choice between tube and solid state operation in one amp, with the ability to switch between them without changing your setup. It combines strong output power, relay based volume control, a linear power supply, and Forkbeard system monitoring in a single design.

It does not include balanced inputs, a built in DAC, or support for electrostatic headphones, so it is not intended for fully balanced systems or all in one use.

It is best suited for listeners using a range of headphones, including high impedance models from Beyerdynamic and Sennheiser, who want one amplifier that can handle different use cases without needing multiple components.

Where to buy: $799 at Schiit

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