Musk’s ThornyQ
A court case set for April 27 will determine whether it was fraudulent for Elon Musk to invest $38 million in OpenAI under the premise that it was a not‑for‑profit entity, only to later benefit from its for‑profit arm that owns 26 % of the ChatGPT company. OpenAI remains a nonprofit but profits from its stake in the for‑profit subsidiary. If Musk prevails, the ruling could devalue OpenAI’s $820 billion market estimate and deter future investors ahead of a potential IPO. Musk has pledged any awarded damages to OpenAI’s nonprofit side.
Rise In China Rare Earth Exports
China’s rare‑earth shipments rose to 62.6 thousand metric tons in 2026, up from 55.4 thousand tons in 2024 and well above the pandemic low of 35.4 thousand tons in 2020. The surge includes the highest monthly export volume since 2009, reflecting robust demand...
Patients’ Pops
In May 1961 a Hull community club sought permission to launch a half‑hour radio program on alternate Sunday nights, targeting hospital patients. The club secured free use of recordings from major record labels and copyright clearance, then pursued landline access...
Credibility
Sam Altman and Jensen Huang, two of AI’s most visible leaders, are drawing criticism for inconsistent messaging. At the HumanX conference, Huang told potential buyers to ignore ROI and focus on investment, while Nvidia’s sales have surged ten‑fold in two years...
Ed Looks To Bring AI To Whitehall
UK’s Department of the Civil Service is trialing AI programmes donated by US partners, yet senior officials argue that the nuanced, rule‑based decisions affecting citizens cannot be fully automated. The Permanent Secretary stressed that bias, hallucinations, and misalignment with public...
Where $1bn Is Entry-Level
ADD Partners’ Rupesh Chatwani is urging UK integrated‑circuit startups to aim for billion‑dollar IPOs rather than modest $100 million exits. He argues that semiconductor ventures now require roughly $30 million of seed funding, and only a handful need to achieve $1 bn valuations...
Far Away Objects
Artemis II has set a new record for the farthest distance traveled by a crewed spacecraft, reaching a peak of 406,771 km from Earth. The mission demonstrates NASA’s progress toward deep‑space crewed flights beyond low‑Earth orbit. By contrast, the most distant human‑made...
Not Everyone’s Gone To The Moon
The United States has completed 45 lunar missions—the most of any nation—culminating with the Artemis II launch on April 1, 2026. The former USSR conducted 22 missions between 1959 and 1976, while China has logged ten, including a serendipitous 1997 Hong Kong satellite...
Changing Tack
OpenAI has acquired the online technology talk show TBPN to steer the conversation around artificial intelligence. The purchase follows a pattern of strategic pivots, from non‑profit to for‑profit models, ad‑free to ad‑supported content, and building its own datacenters to renting...
Top Ten (Less 5) Companies Granted Patents Last Year
In 2025, U.S. patent offices granted a record 323,272 patents, with Samsung Electronics topping the list at 7,054 approvals. TSMC followed with 4,194 patents, Qualcomm with 3,749, Huawei with 3,952, and Samsung Display secured 2,859. Asian firms dominated the landscape,...
Apple’s Quest For The NBT
Apple continues its hunt for the next big thing, a pattern that has produced game‑changing products such as the Macintosh, iPod, iPhone and iPad. Its latest effort, the Vision Pro mixed‑reality headset introduced in 2023, has struggled to gain traction...
AEI’s First Computer Installed
In January 1961 AEI’s Apparatus Division opened a dedicated computer centre in Sale, Cheshire, installing the AEI 1010 data‑processing system for demonstration, training and programming services. The move marked the division’s transition from purely mechanical apparatus to electronic data handling, coinciding...
The Ten Most Valuable Companies
Apple, once the world’s most valuable company, saw its market cap climb to $3.5 trillion by 2024. However, the AI‑driven surge in semiconductor demand propelled Nvidia past Apple, making it the most valuable firm in 2024. The shift underscores the growing...
Ed Goes Extra-Terrestrial
Amazon and Tesla are planning massive low‑earth‑orbit (LEO) data‑centre satellite constellations, each targeting up to a million satellites. The UK boasts over a hundred firms capable of building satellite components, with expertise in radiation‑hard ICs, laser communications and thermal control....
Phones & Tumours
In 2004 the UK National Radiological Protection Board cited a Swedish Karolinska Institute study that linked more than ten years of analogue mobile phone use to a doubled risk of acoustic neuroma, a rare benign tumour. The case‑control analysis involved...
