Good morning. In honor of spooky season, five things that frighten me right now:
1. TikTok’s engagement tentacles
2. Blake Snell’s curveball (Go Phils)
3. Sora’s cultural biases
4. The state of the First Amendment
5. Humanoid robot hands
What’s on your list? Reply to this email and LMK.
Today’s tech news below. —Andrew Nusca
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SoftBank will acquire ABB's robotics business
They say physical AI is the wave that will succeed agentic AI, and Masa Son isn’t one to dwell on the past.
His Japanese conglomerate SoftBank, on an acquisition spree for all things hardware and AI, said this week that it would buy the robotics business of the Swiss engineering group ABB for a hefty $5.4 billion.
It’s not SoftBank’s first foray into robotics. Pepper, the company’s adorable “robot for the people,” arrived in 2014 with the promise of reading human emotions. But as a commercial enterprise, it didn’t stick.
Buying ABB’s robotics unit—focused on industrial automation—is quite a different way into the category. (A deal also spares ABB from spinning it out.) Think factories, not families: Picking and packing, cutting and assembling, painting and palletizing, etc.
About 7,000 employees (and annual revenues of $2.3 billion) come with the transaction, which would close in the second half of next year. And, of course, a whole lotta ‘bots. —AN
Verizon taps AST SpaceMobile for satellite-to-phone service
We finally have an answer to the question, “Who will take on Elon Musk’s Starlink?”
Verizon said Wednesday that it would partner with Texas’ AST SpaceMobile to provide direct-to-cellular service for its customers starting next year.
The idea: Keep Verizon customers connected in cellular dead zones by using AST’s orbiting satellites instead.
It’s not the first time the two companies have come to the negotiation table.
The pair last year announced a partnership wherein Verizon would invest $100 million in the satellite firm and give it access to a portion of its radio spectrum to enable satellite-to-phone services.
This latest news commercializes the arrangement.
There’s much upside to catching up to SpaceX’s Starlink. Quite a few entities—militaries, industrial and agricultural corporations, consumers in emerging markets, etc.—require connectivity in places where terrestrial infrastructure doesn’t currently reach.
Verizon isn’t the only large organization in the mix. Amazon’s Project Kuiper is the highest profile Starlink rival, but competition can be found from France’s Eutelsat, Canada’s Telesat, and China’s Qianfan, a.k.a. SpaceSail. —AN
Discord breach affects 70,000 users
Discord, the company behind the popular communication service of the same name, said last week that one of its customer service vendors was compromised.
Caught in the middle: The personal information for about 70,000 Discord users who communicated with customer support teams during the period in question.
The users “may have had government-ID photos exposed, which our vendor used to review age-related appeals,” the company said. “No messages or activities were accessed beyond what users may have discussed with Customer Support or Trust & Safety agents.”
Discord says it’s still investigating the issue with law enforcement and has emailed affected users.
As of yesterday, the situation has yet to be resolved. Discord spokesperson Nu Wexler told The Verge that “incorrect” figures regarding the amount of data stolen are circulating “as part of an attempt to extort a payment.”
“We will not reward those responsible for their illegal actions,” he added. —AN
More tech
—When isn’t screen time? 68% of U.S. parents say their age-12-or-under kids use a tablet, per Pew.
—Google Pixel 10 Pro Fold reviewed: Beautiful, intelligent, but a lightweight in the all-important camera department.
—Musk settles Twitter execs lawsuit. Closure from 2024’s withheld severance situation.
—Germany investigates Temu over concerns about price fixing.
—NYC sues Meta, Alphabet, Snap, ByteDance. Addicting children + mental health crisis = gross negligence, the city claims.
—Paramount Skydance may join Warner Bros. Discovery bid. A potential $60 billion deal.
—AstraZeneca does AI drug deal. OK, not that kind: SF’s Algen will help the pharma giant use gene-editing to develop new drugs.