Good morning. Talk about buyer’s remorse. Four years after relocating Palantir’s headquarters from Palo Alto, Calif. to Denver, Colo., the AI data analysis company is moving homes again—and heading to Florida.
Palantir announced the move Tuesday in a terse one-line tweet—”We have moved our headquarters to Miami, Florida”—apparently without even giving the Colorado governor a heads up and leaving local officials wondering what prompted the state’s largest public company to pack up.
Was it the recent revelation that Denver does not in fact get 300 days of annual sunshine? More likely, the political climate may be behind CEO Alex Karp’s decision. When Palantir moved to Denver in 2020, Karp decried the Silicon Valley “intolerance and monoculture” and the regular protests the company faced for its work with ICE and the military. But the protests did not go away in Denver, especially with the recent backlash against ICE activities. Let’s hope Miami works out better for Palantir, because it can’t go any further East.
Today’s tech news below.
Alexei Oreskovic
@lexnfx
alexei.oreskovic@fortune.com
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Apple spreads it bets on AI wearables
Do you want to wear an AI gadget around your neck, in front of your eyes, or in your ears?
Apple thinks the answer will depend on who you are. The iPhone maker is spreading its bets by developing a trio of AI wearable gadgets, according to a new report by Bloomberg.
Apple's efforts developing glasses that compete with Meta's Ray-Ban smartglasses are already well known, though Bloomberg provides some new details. The glasses will feature two cameras, one for users to capture high quality photos and the other to serve as the AI's "eyes," helping it see the world around it. Apple also intends to create its own frames, rather than partnering with an established eyewear company, with plans to begin production in December and launch in early 2027.
The necklace, or "pendant," is a different beast entirely. It's more of an electronic bobble that would connect to the user's iPhone and serve as the "eyes and ears" for the phone's AI. The pendant, which would clip onto a user's clothing or be worn as a necklace, sounds very similar to the ill-fated Humane Pin that was launched by a pair of Apple alumni a few years ago. But Apple, being Apple, may believe it has that special je-ne-sais-quoi to make it work. Look for the pendant, if it makes it out of the lab, to be released in 2027, Bloomberg said.
Option number three is simply Apple AirPods, enhanced with cameras. As with the pendant, these cameras would primarily feed data to the AI system. One advantage that the earbuds may have over the Apple pendant and the glasses is that users are already accustomed to wearing AirPods. Of course, the biggest challenge for Apple may be that all three of these devices will need a capable new version of Siri to act as the AI "brain" inside the product. And as Fortune Tech readers are well aware, that is not a given.—AO
Netflix gives Warner 7 days to talk to Paramount
Warner Bros. will reopen takeover talks with Paramount Skydance after receiving a seven-day waiver to do so from its preferred bidder, Netflix.
Warner Bros. said in a regulatory filing Tuesday that the waiver will allow it to discuss unresolved “deficiencies” in Paramount’s previous offers. Paramount wants to acquire Warner’s entire company — including networks like CNN and Discovery — and went straight to shareholders with all cash, $77.9 billion offer.
Netflix agreed in December to buy Warner’s studio and streaming business for $72 billion. Warner Bros. said its board still recommends unanimously that shareholders vote for the Netflix buyout.
“While we are confident that our transaction provides superior value and certainty, we recognize the ongoing distraction for WBD stockholders and the broader entertainment industry caused by PSKY’s antics,” Netflix said in a statement. “Accordingly, we granted WBD a narrow seven-day waiver of certain obligations under our merger agreement to allow them to engage with PSKY to fully and finally resolve this matter.”—The Associated Press
AI leaders converge in India
India’s AI infrastructure is getting a boost from American investors and tech firms just as the world’s leading technology executives converge on New Delhi for one of the largest artificial intelligence summits in the world.
Blackstone announced on Monday it was leading a $600 million equity investment in Indian AI cloud startup Neysa, while chip giant AMD announced an expanded partnership with Mumbai-based Tata Consultancy Services to deploy up to 200 megawatts of AI infrastructure capacity in India.
The investments coincide with the five-day India AI Impact Summit that kicked off on Monday. The event features global AI leaders, including OpenAI’s Sam Altman, Anthropic’s Dario Amodei, Google’s Sundar Pichai, and Meta’s Alexandr Wang, alongside political leaders such as French President Emmanuel Macron. More than 20 heads of state and government, along with representatives from over 60 countries, are expected to attend the gathering, including notable European AI figures like Arthur Mensch, the French computer scientist who founded Mistral AI.—Beatrice Nolan
More tech
—Meta to use millions of Nvidia chips. Jensen Huang scores first piece of Zuck's $135B capex.
—What OpenAI’s OpenClaw hire says about the future of AI agents.
—Anthropic launches Claude Sonnet 4.6. A 'seismic repricing event' for the AI industry.
—Snapchat testing creator subscriptions in U.S. New revenue option for creators and for Snap.
—Big Tech's ‘red flag’ moment: Could hyperscalers could go cash-flow negative?
—Crypto VC Dragonfly closes $650 million fund. Defying industry 'mass extinction'.
