Deep tech startups in sectors such as space, semiconductors, and biotech take far longer to mature than conventional ventures. Because of that India is adjusting its startup rules, and mobilizing public capital, hoping to help more of them make it to commercial products.
This week, the Indian government updated its startup framework, doubling the period for which deep tech companies are treated as startups to 20 years and raising the revenue threshold for startup-specific tax, grant, and regulatory benefits to ₹3 billion (about $33.12 million), from ₹1 billion (around $11.04 million) previously. The change aims to align policy timelines with the long development cycles typical of science- and engineering-led businesses.
The change also forms part of New Delhi’s effort to build a long-horizon deep tech ecosystem by combining regulatory reform with public capital, including the ₹1 trillion (around $11 billion) Research, Development and Innovation Fund (RDI), announced last year. That fund is intended to expand patient financing for science-led and R&D-driven companies. Against that backdrop, U.S. and Indian venture firms later came together to launch the India Deep Tech Alliance, $1 billion-plus private investor coalition that includes Accel, Blume Ventures, Celesta Capital, Premji Invest, Ideaspring Capital, Qualcomm Ventures, and Kalaari Capital, with chipmaker Nvidia acting as an adviser.
For founders, these changes may fix what some see as an artificial pressure point. Under the previous framework, companies often risked losing startup status while still pre-commercial, creating a “false failure signal” that judged science-led ventures on policy timelines rather than technological progress, said Vishesh Rajaram, founding partner at Speciale Invest, an Indian deep tech venture capital firm.
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“By formally recognizing deep tech as different, the policy reduces friction in fundraising, follow-on capital, and engagement with the state, which absolutely shows up in a founder’s operating reality over time,” Rajaram told TechCrunch.
Still, investors say access to capital remains a more binding constraint, particularly beyond the early stages. “The biggest gap has historically been funding depth at Series A and beyond, especially for capital-intensive deep tech companies,” Rajaram said. That is where the government’s earlier RDI fund is meant to play a complementary role.
“The real benefit of the RDI framework is to increase the funding available to deep tech companies at early and growth stages,” said Arun Kumar, managing partner at Celesta Capital. By routing public capital through venture funds with tenors similar to private capital, he said, the fund is designed to address chronic gaps in follow-on funding without altering the commercial criteria that govern private investment decisions.
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Siddarth Pai, founding partner at 3one4 Capital and co-chair of regulatory affairs at the Indian Venture and Alternate Capital Association, said India’s deep tech framework avoids a “graduation cliff” that has historically cut companies off from support just as they scale.
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These policy changes come as the RDI fund is beginning to take shape operationally, Pai said, with the first batch of fund managers identified and the process of selecting venture and private equity managers under way.
While private capital for deep tech already exists in India — particularly in areas such as biotech — Pai told TechCrunch the RDI Fund is intended to act as a nucleus around which greater capital formation can occur. Unlike a traditional fund-of-funds, he noted, the vehicle is also designed to take direct positions and provide credit and grants to deep tech startups.
India’s deep tech funding grows
In terms of scale, India remains an emerging rather than dominant deep tech market. Indian deep tech startups have raised $8.54 billion in total to date, but recent data point to renewed momentum. Indian deep tech startups raised $1.65 billion in 2025, a sharp rebound from $1.1 billion in each of the previous two years after funding peaked at $2 billion in 2022, per Tracxn. The recovery suggests growing investor confidence, particularly in areas aligned with national priorities such as advanced manufacturing, defence, climate technologies, and semiconductors.
“Overall, the pickup in funding suggests a gradual move toward longer-horizon investing,” said Neha Singh, co-founder of Tracxn.
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In comparison, U.S. deep tech startups raised about $147 billion in 2025, more than 80 times the amount deployed in India that year, while China accounted for roughly $81 billion, data from Tracxn shows.
The disparity highlights the challenge India faces in building capital-intensive technologies, even with its wealth of engineering talent. So the hope is that these moves by the Indian government will lead to more investor participation over the medium term.
Image Credits:Jagmeet Singh / TechCrunch
A longer-term signal
For global investors, New Delhi’s framework change is being read as a signal of longer-term policy intent rather than a trigger for immediate shifts in allocation. “Deep tech companies operate on seven- to twelve-year horizons, so regulatory recognition that stretches the lifecycle gives investors greater confidence that the policy environment will not change mid-journey,” said Pratik Agarwal, a partner at Accel. While he said the change would not alter allocation models overnight or eliminate policy risk entirely, it increased investor comfort that India is thinking about deep tech on longer time horizons.
“The change shows that India is learning from the U.S. and Europe on how to create patient frameworks for frontier building,” Agarwal told TechCrunch.
Whether the move will reduce the tendency of Indian startups to shift their headquarters overseas as they scale remains an open question.
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The extended runway strengthens the case for building and staying in India, Agarwal said, though access to capital and customers still matters. Over the past five years, he added, India’s public markets have shown a growing appetite for venture-backed tech companies, making domestic listings a more credible option than in the past. That, in turn, could ease some of the pressure on deep tech founders to incorporate overseas, even if access to procurement and late-stage capital will continue to shape where companies ultimately scale.
For investors backing long-horizon technologies, the ultimate test will be whether India can deliver globally competitive outcomes. The real signal, Kumar of Celesta Capital said, would be the emergence of a critical mass of Indian deep tech companies succeeding on the world stage.
“It would be great to see ten globally competitive deep tech companies from India achieve sustained success over the next decade,” he said, describing that as the benchmark he would look for in assessing whether India’s deep tech ecosystem is maturing.
Off-roading is a beloved pastime for many in the United States, and some off-road trails have become legendary among enthusiasts. Off-roaders in the Mojave Desert, however, will have to contend with shorter trails, as a judicial decision has prohibited off-roading on roughly 2,200 miles of trail in the desert. This leaves avid off-roaders in the area with approximately 3,800 miles of legal trails to traverse. Behind this decision is a long legal struggle over the defense of the endangered tortoise population in the area.
As reported by publications such as the Los Angeles Times, Judge Susan Illston of California ordered the Bureau of Land Management to close down these thousands of miles of trail in January 2026. Illston’s ruling also gives the Bureau until 2029 to revise its off-road routes in the Mojave area. Estimates suggest that the Mojave Desert tortoise population has declined by about 90% since the mid-1980s, with the hope being that restricting vehicle access will help the population bounce back. Despite this, some note that drivers tend to go off-trail anyway, potentially leading to the destruction of tortoise habitats regardless.
As mentioned, debate and legal contests over the Mojave and how the land should be utilized have extended for years. As far as those in the off-roading community, they maintain that their hobby hasn’t led to decreases in the tortoise population.
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Off-roaders deny being the cause of the tortoise’s decline
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In response to Judge Susan Illston’s ruling, off-roading enthusiasts have come forward to contest it. The prevailing sentiment is that off-roading as a whole doesn’t negatively impact the Mojave tortoise population and that the ruling unfairly punishes those involved in such recreational activities. Speaking to the Los Angeles Times, Ben Burr, executive director of off-roading nonprofit the Blue Ribbon Coalition, claimed that off-roaders “think [the ruling is] an overreach and this judge went a little too far.” The group has turned to the U.S. Department of Justice to appeal Judge Illston’s decision, even circulating a petition to prevent this perceived overreach.
While conflict endures over how much off-roading has impacted the Mojave Desert tortoise’s population, research has found that it’s a multifaceted issue. Cameron Barrows, a desert researcher at the University of California, Riverside, explained to NPR that the tortoises’ natural predators, nearby military bases, and drought have all played a role throughout the years. Climate change is arguably the biggest roadblock to getting tortoises on the right track. Hotter climates and extended droughts negatively impact tortoise health and reproduction, making population growth a serious challenge.
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Regardless of the exact reason or reasons for tortoise numbers dropping in the Mojave Desert, the fact remains that, for the time being at least, off-roading trails in the region have been significantly reduced. At least there are multiple apps to find new off-roading trails for drivers whose favorite areas are no longer accessible after this ruling.
Photo credit: Android Headlines | OnLeaks The Pixel 11 Pro Fold enters familiar ground, with new CAD renders providing the best look yet at what Google has in mind for its next book-style foldable. These photographs, leaked by a reputable source, OnLeaks, in partnership with Android Headlines, reveal a smartphone that moves forward quietly rather than trying to shake things up with crazy innovation.
Measurements reveal a considerable but mild slimming, with the phone measuring 10.1mm when folded, down from 10.8mm on the Pixel 10 Pro Fold, and 4.8mm when unfurled (down from 5.2mm the previous time out), but the height remains constant at 155.2mm and the unfolded width remains at 150.4mm. When folded, the width is approximately 76mm. These little changes improve the phone’s feel in the hand, but it still falls short of the elusive sub-9mm zone claimed by some of its competitors.
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The design remains largely unchanged, with the cover screen featuring a centered hole-punch camera and rounded corners, while the inside display has a top-right hole-punch selfie cam and uniform bezels that help keep things safe when closed. A shiny metal frame replaces the previous models’ matte finish, giving it a cleaner overall appearance. The buttons are in their typical positions, with the power and lock buttons above the volume rocker.
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The changes on the back are really catch your eye, as the camera island has been reworked to accommodate the LED flash and microphone in a pill-shaped cutout alongside one lens, giving it a more integrated and modern appearance. The lenses now protrude out in a tiered arrangement rather than lying flat, and the module as a whole appears bigger and sleeker, similar to camera enhancements seen on previous flagships. The backplate remains completely flat, with the Google logo staying securely centered.
The panels are quite similar to last year, with an 8-inch LTPO OLED panel handling the primary unfolding surface with a refresh rate of 1-120Hz, and a 6.4-inch outside OLED running at 120Hz. Don’t expect any size increases or significant panel enhancements.
Performance is a different story, as the Tensor G6 chipset is now in control, developed on a 3nm process that should make it more efficient and snappy, and we may see a transition to a MediaTek modem from the previous Samsung component. RAM is anticipated to remain at 16GB, while storage options range from 256GB to 1TB; the battery is still around 5,000mAh and does not appear to have increased in size. IP68 protection, Qi2 wireless charging, and all of that remains on the table.
The camera hardware is likely to receive the most significant boost; while we don’t know what’s changed beneath the hood just yet, we anticipate a few tweaks borrowed from the non-foldable Pixel siblings, which may help close some of the gaps in areas such as ultrawide performance.
Google often releases its August flagships in late summer, so we can expect the Pixel 11 Pro Fold to follow suit later this year. As for the price, that’s where things get tough, but predictions are that it will cost slightly more than the Pixel 10 Pro Fold, given all of the tariffs and component costs. [Source]
Gordon Murray’s goal was to create a race car for the track that prioritizes driver connection above all else. This culminated in the GMA T.50s Niki Lauda, a beast of a car that recently demonstrated its capabilities at the Bahrain International Circuit by lapping it faster than any other GT3 race car has ever done.
Dario Franchitti, a development driver and racing veteran with multiple championship victories, set a lap time of 1:53.03 in the closing rounds of testing. This not only broke the GT3 standard by more than seven seconds, but production approval followed immediately, with all 25 examples sold and deliveries expected by mid-2026.
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The engine is a 3.9-liter V12 designed by Cosworth. It’s basically a well made work of art. They experimented with the cylinder heads, camshafts, and intake to see what worked best. They even managed to fit a ram air scoop onto the roof. This yields a whopping 761 horsepower at 11,500 rpm, with 367 lb-ft of torque available around 8,000 rpm. This beast is both a screamer and a lightweight, weighing only 166 kg.
When wet, this beauty weighs just under 900 kilograms. The monocoque, body panels, and the majority of other important pieces are made of carbon fiber. The suspension is equipped with adjustable R53 dampers for compression and rebound, as well as carbon-ceramic brakes and magnesium wheels, to reduce unsprung mass. They were able to get the most out of it by employing slick Michelins specifically designed for circuit work.
They replaced the road car’s manual transmission with an Xtrac six-speed sequential gearbox. It’s not that the road car’s manual was horrible, but the paddles on the new one deliver quick, positive changes, and the entire transmission is lighter by about 5 kilograms. It all adds up to shifts that feel F1-like, keeping the driver completely focused on the road ahead.
Then there’s the aerodynamics, with the rear fan reaching 7,000 rpm even at low speeds, pulling air through the underbody and producing a remarkable 2,645 pounds of downforce. Combine that with an aggressive front splitter, dive planes, a rear diffuser, and a fixed wing, and you have a rocket that stays planted at high speeds no matter how soon the driver decides to push the throttle after a corner.
Apple released the PowerBook Duo 230 in October 1992 at a hefty $2,610 ($6,050 today), and what a powerhouse it was. This small laptop, weighing only 4.2 pounds and measuring 1.4 inches by 10.9 by 8.5 inches, fits neatly into a briefcase or bag, eliminating the bulk that made other portables of the time difficult to transport. The reason for its slim appearance is that the internal floppy drive had just been removed totally, and engineers went to town on reducing weight wherever possible, a move that reflected what they had done previously with the PowerBook 100, but on a whole new level.
The real genius was in how it dealt with expansion. Apple included a convenient 156-pin docking connector on the back of the Duo 230. Put it in the full-sized Duo Dock, and it instantly transforms into a full-fledged desktop machine with all the bells and whistles. The dock itself included a 1.4 MB disk drive, additional serial ports, a sound output, an ADB port for keyboards and mice, a DB-15 video connector for connecting to an external monitor, and even NuBus expansion slots. You could add a floating-point unit for faster calculations, extra video RAM, a second internal hard drive, or pretty much anything else you needed to complete the job. This configuration allowed the Duo 230 to act as both a lightweight travel companion on the road and a full-fledged workstation when connected at home or in the workplace.
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Without the dock, the laptop remained light on its feet. You had a single mini-DIN-8 serial port to perform printer or modem chores, and the internal slot accepted a proprietary modem card up to 57.6 kbps (but some variants reached as fast as 14.4 kbps). The base unit did not have any built-in SCSI, ADB, or video interfaces, so docking was required for any real work. The trackball was slightly smaller than on full-size PowerBooks, and the keyboard was roughly 88 percent of a regular desktop layout, but with little effort, you could get used to it.
A 33 MHz Motorola 68030 processor powered the system, with 4 MB of RAM that could be expanded to 24 MB via a single dedicated card slot. Storage comes via an 80 MB or 120 MB hard drive, which was quite generous for 1992. The 9.1-inch Supertwist passive-matrix screen displayed 640 by 400 pixels in four-bit grayscale with 16 shades, which was quite impressive given the limitations of passive displays at the time. The battery life of the nickel-metal hydride pack ranged between two and four hours, which was reasonable for the period.
People who owned this machine frequently used it with the Duo Dock for everyday desk work before removing the laptop and transporting it. Honestly, the design of this thing was extremely ahead of its time; it even predated current docking stations by years, but it all relied on an old-school mechanical connection that provided that reassuring click as you secured it firmly into place. To get the most out of their hardware, some eager owners went so far as to overclock it or add more memory. The support extended from System 7.1 to Mac OS 8.1, therefore the Duo 230 lasted far longer than many expected.
Although Apple discontinued this model in July 1994, its concepts had a long-lasting impact on subsequent laptops. The PowerBook Duo 230 demonstrated how a compact laptop might shrink drastically while still providing desktop-style flexibility, owing to some innovative expansion concepts.
Most Americans spend much of their income on necessities: housing is typically their biggest monthly expenditure, followed by transportation, and then food. On average, a roof over our heads, a way to get to work or school, and groceries take up almost half of our income. We spend what’s left on a variety of things, from insurance to entertainment, and hopefully have enough left over for a vacation. Those that are lucky enough to have a budget for luxury items typically focus on small items like footwear or watches, not high-end cars or yachts. While many Americans own a boat, about 95% of those are considered small craft at less than 26 feet long. Larger, luxurious yachts are out of reach for most of us, but a Chinese company hopes to change that, at least in China.
Richard Liu, the founder of online Chinese retailer JD.com, recently launched a new brand called Sea Expandary in the hopes of opening up the country’s leisure vehicle industry to consumers that many not otherwise be able to afford luxury boats, planning to sell yachts for what Americans may pay for a used car. He will invest about $723 million in the venture and is strategizing with two coastal cities in the province of Guangdong for research and development, manufacturing, sales, and after-sales services. At a signing event for the new company, Liu told reporters, “Yachts should be affordable for ordinary salaried workers and everyday consumers.”
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Are accessible yachts a reality?
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The word yacht brings to mind wealth and a lavish lifestyle most of us can only dream about. In fact, according to U.S. News & World Report, the average cost of a yacht in 2023 ranged from $500,000 to $10 million or more, with super yachts like those owned by billionaires ranging in the hundreds of millions. It’s hard to imagine the words “yacht” and “affordable” existing in the same sentence, but Liu hopes to build yachts that will sell in the same price point as inexpensive cars, for about $14,500 in U.S. dollars.
The yacht industry is booming in China, increasing from around 4,500 to nearly 10,000 over the past three years, and is expected to continue growing for the foreseeable future. That number may sound small, but the middle class is a rapidly growing sector in China, and is a demographic that Liu clearly hopes to tap into.
The manufacturing of pleasure vehicles lags behind commercial shipbuilding, however — more than half of global shipbuilding is done in China. The country hopes to see growth in tourist industry beyond making yachts more affordable for the average joe, with plans to expand yacht tourism routes and programs. What does this mean for Americans? Not much for now, especially with the Trump administration’s sky-high tariffs on Chinese imports, but if affordable yachting takes off in China, it has the potential to boost industry growth elsewhere.
German publishers hope that Apple will be hit with fines and forced to change App Tracking Transparency rules after an antitrust investigation. The feature allegedly favors Apple’s apps.
App Tracking Transparency
The German Association of the Branded Goods Industry and various other groups are appealing to the German antitrust regulators. In December, the Bundeskartellamt, Germany’s federal antitrust authority, announced a review of Apple’s App Tracking Transparency features. According to a report from Reuters, the various German groups say Apple’s proposed changes to App Tracking Transparency don’t address the issues in the mobile advertising market. Apple had proposed more neutral language for its prompts and an easier process for developers requesting permission to use advertising data. Continue Reading on AppleInsider | Discuss on our Forums
Within the first 24 hours of my daughter’s life, I put a screen in her face.
I know. That’s the opposite of all the research I had highlighted and annotated while my wife was pregnant. But it wasn’t by choice. That screen was the only way my wife could meet our newborn.
As soon as our daughter was born, she was rushed to the NICU, tubes and cords draped across her swaddle while clinicians moved quickly around her. My wife was rolled out of the operating room in the opposite direction to receive intravenous magnesium for suspected preeclampsia.
She couldn’t hold our baby for the first 24 hours of her life. So I held up a phone.
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Through FaceTime, my wife met the tiny fighter she had just brought into the world. I still have the screenshot from that moment. When we finally brought our baby home, we tried to avoid screens altogether. We had read the guidance: infants should have little to no screen exposure. But screens were everywhere.
We became parents at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, when every new virus variant seemed to appear just as we were finally ready to walk into a grocery store again. So our daughter met grandparents, cousins and friends through screens.
As parents of a premature baby, we watched her like hawks. Every eye movement. Every babble. Every head lift. Our developmental pediatrician warned us about possible delays, so we studied every tiny milestone. Ironically, it was a screen that gave us one of our most reassuring moments.
During the 2020 Summer Olympics, our barely 60-day-old preemie tracked a ping-pong rally across the television. Her head moved side to side, and her tiny eyes followed that tiny ball. Another time, she would instantly stop crying or giggle when the catchy theme song from the ’90s sitcom Smart Guy came on. (Yes, we are those nostalgic millennials rewatching childhood shows.)
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Because we weren’t around many other people during lockdown, the sounds and visuals in our home became strange little markers of development.
When our daughter grew into toddlerhood, we cautiously experimented with a few children’s programs.
Our rotation included Ms. Monica’s Circle Time and Ada Twist, Scientist for culturally relevant and playful introductions to phonics, object identification, and scientific thinking. Word Party was great for reinforcing vocabulary and early language exposure.
But we rarely just pressed play. Most of the time, we were watching with her, singing along, repeating sounds and asking questions.
In other words, the screen isn’t doing the teaching by itself. Much of the learning happens in the conversation around it.
But I’ll be clear: we have not figured this out. Parenting and technology evolve at about the same pace, and that pace is quick.
We’ve had our share of “Here, take the tablet and sit still while I finish this” moments. And we learned quickly how counterproductive that can be. Because when screen time stretches too long, the cognitive overload monster shows up.
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Young children’s brains are still developing the executive functions that regulate attention, emotion and self-control. These skills rely heavily on the prefrontal cortex and develop gradually throughout childhood. Highly stimulating digital media that includes features like fast pacing, constant motion, bright colors, and rapid scene changes can overwhelm children’s brains. Experimental studies have found that exposure to fast-paced media can temporarily disrupt executive function in preschool children.
In other words, the same design features that capture children’s attention can also overstimulate their developing brains. That complexity is part of why pediatric guidance around screen time is evolving.
For years, the conversation focused on how many minutes children spent in front of screens. But newer research suggests the question isn’t just how much screen time children get. A major update in science shows that what also matters is what kind of digital environment surrounds them.
The American Academy of Pediatrics’ updated guidance reflects this shift. Instead of focusing only on minutes, the organization encourages adults to think about children’s digital ecosystems, which are the broader environment of devices, content, digital algorithms, and interactions shaping how children experience media.
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Their recommendations still include familiar guidance:
avoid screen exposure for children under 18 months, except for video calls
ensure media does not interfere with sleep, physical activity or social interaction
prioritize high-quality programming
co-view whenever possible
The updated framework recognizes what many families already know: screens are not disappearing from children’s lives. In fact, they’re becoming ubiquitous earlier in children’s lives. The goal is not to pretend they don’t exist. Guidance from pediatricians suggests we carefully curate how the environments surrounding them influence children’s development.
For my family, that realization started with a phone screen glowing in a hospital room. That moment reminds me that screens themselves are not inherently problematic. What matters is the environment we build around them.
In my next column, I’ll look at how this research is shaping debates over screen use in schools and what educators should consider as states begin regulating instructional technology. In the meantime, let me know what you think about screens in schools.
The new deal ties Google’s CEO to the future of its most ambitious bets, and signals that the board has finally decided they’re bets worth making.
Sundar Pichai has run Google since 2015 and Alphabet since 2019. In that time, the company’s market value has grown from roughly $535 billion to approximately $3.6 trillion. On Friday, Alphabet’s board decided what that performance is worth going forward: a three-year pay package that could reach $692 million, but only if Pichai actually earns it.
The deal was disclosed in an SEC filing and first reported by the Financial Times. Its structure is telling. The headline figure assumes maximum performance across every component.
Most of the value is tied not to Alphabet’s core search and advertising business, but to two subsidiaries that have spent years consuming capital without generating it: Waymo, the autonomous vehicle unit, and Wing, the drone delivery arm.
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The base components are relatively standard for a CEO at Pichai’s level. His salary remains $2 million a year, unchanged since 2020. He will receive $84 million in restricted stock units that vest monthly over three years, contingent on his remaining at the company.
A tranche of performance stock units, with a target value of $126 million, is tied to Alphabet’s total shareholder return relative to companies in the S&P 100; if Alphabet significantly outperforms, that component could reach $252 million. If it underperforms, it pays nothing.
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The genuinely new element is the Waymo and Wing incentives. For the first time, Pichai’s pay is directly linked to the per-unit valuation of both subsidiaries. The Waymo component carries a target value of $130 million, with a ceiling of $260 million if the business grows strongly.
The Wing component has a target of $45 million, rising to $90 million at maximum performance. Both awards vest between zero and 200% of their targets, depending on how Alphabet’s compensation committee values each unit over the three years.
In Alphabet’s filing, the board described both subsidiaries as “tackling enormous challenges in autonomous driving and delivery” while making “strong progress.” Waymo, which began as a Google research project in 2009, now operates commercial robotaxi services across ten US markets and has logged more than 200 million autonomous miles. Wing, launched in 2012, has announced plans to expand drone delivery to hundreds of Walmart stores by 2027. Neither is yet profitable.
The maximum figure of $692 million, if achieved, would place Pichai among the highest-paid executives in corporate history. Whether it is achieved depends on outcomes that remain genuinely uncertain: autonomous vehicle regulation, drone airspace policy, competitive pressure from rivals including Tesla’s robotaxi programme, and whether Wing can scale its delivery network at the pace its targets imply. The board’s bet is that the person best positioned to navigate all of that is the one already running the company.
The iOS 26 Liquid Glass update has been one of the most troublesome iOS releases ever. It is marred by inconsistencies and design choices that cause several UI and readability issues.
One of the issues that was more noticeable on older Apple devices with SDR screens, including the iPad mini, iPhone SE, iPhone 11, and earlier models, was the liquid glow effect that caused text and certain UI elements to become unreadable when you interacted with them.
Apple adds a new fix in iOS 26.4 developer beta 4
After the release of iOS 26, Apple has been listening to user feedback and providing options to reduce the Liquid Glass effect. One of the most prominent options was introduced with the iOS 26.1 update, which let users switch from the default “Clear” design to a “Tinted” look.
In the latest iOS 26.4 developer beta 4, Apple has added another setting called “Reduce Bright Effects” that minimizes highlighting and flashing when interacting with onscreen elements, such as buttons or the keyboard.
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These flashing effects were particularly prominent on Apple devices with SDR screens, as shown by an X user in his post.
If this effect has been bothering you, you can finally turn it off using the new setting.
How to enable the Reduce Bright Effects setting on iPhone
The new setting has been released as part of Apple’s developer beta program. To get it, you need to be on the latest iOS 26.4 developer beta 4 version. Once you have updated your device, go to Settings → Accessibility ⇾ Display & Text Size, and turn on the toggle for “Reduce Bright Effects” settings.
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If you are not running the developer beta on your iPhone, which I do not recommend installing on your primary device, you have to wait for the public beta or the stable release, which should arrive in about two weeks.
The latest funding round gives the start-up a valuation of $3.5bn, despite having only been established less than three months ago.
Advanced Machine Intelligence (AMI), which is an artificial intelligence (AI) start-up founded by former Meta AI chief Yann LeCun, has announced the raising of more than $1bn in seed funding. The round was co-led by Cathay Innovation, Greycroft, Hiro Capital, HV Capital and Bezos Expeditions.
AMI was also supported by long-term global investors and strategic backers such as Toyota Ventures, New Legacy Ventures, Temasek, SBVA, NVIDIA, Mark Cuban, Association Familiale Mulliez, Groupe industriel Marcel Dassault, Sea, and Alpha Intelligence Capital. Samsung and Bpifrance Digital Venture were also among the significant participants.
The funds raised are being used to develop AMI and according to the organisation, the building of a new “breed of AI systems that understand the world, have persistent memory, can reason and plan and are controllable and safe”. AMI has also stated that the platform is growing its team of researchers and builders, in Paris, New York, Montreal and Singapore.
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Established earlier this year and based in Paris, France, AMI explained that the company is developing ‘world models’ that learn abstract representations of real-world sensor data, ignore unpredictable details and make predictions in representation space. According to AMI, world models allow agentic systems to predict the consequences of their actions and plan action sequences that accomplish tasks.
Despite being a young start-up, AMI has already reached a valuation of $3.5bn, which is perhaps indicative of a marketplace that is moving towards greater recognition of nascent projects that explore physical space. In January of this year, Fei-Fei Li, the ‘godmother of AI’, was reported to be in talks to raise a major investment that would value her start-up World Labs at $5bn.
World Labs describes itself as a “spatial intelligence company, building frontier models that can perceive, generate, reason and interact with the 3D world”. It describes its AI products as “large world models”.
Commenting on the potential of world models, Alexandre LeBrun, the AMI Labs CEO, told TechCrunch, “My prediction is that ‘world models’ will be the next buzzword. In six months, every company will call itself a world model to raise funding.”
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