Telegram CEO Pavel Durov was charged with a litany of offenses by French authorities this week but what raised hackles in Silicon Valley was a line on encryption charges now, some at these companies are worried that Telegram could become the poster child of encrypted messaging

AI coding startup Codeium has raised $150 million, reaching a unicorn status. We called it earlier this month. The startup was featured on Forbes Next Billion Dollar Startup List, edited by Amy Feldman. forbes.com/sites/amyfeldm…

Harrowing story from Thomas Brewster today on "perhaps the grimmest example yet of AI image manipulation." Stable Diffusion used to turn thousands of GoPro’d photos of children visiting Disney World into child sexual abuse material that was traded online. forbes.com/sites/thomasbr…

"One veteran investor told me that a founder had refused to talk to him even after he explained that he had been a naturalized citizen for decades." nytimes.com/2024/08/29/bus…

Everyone from Hawaii parks like this. I don't even think we know why. civilbeat.org/2015/03/why-do…

Scoop! Bolt is threatening legal action against the lead investor in its wild $450m fundraising round, per email from CEO Justin Grooms. Silverbear Capital said it was wrongly named as investor. Bolt says it's ready to "enforce our rights vigorously." forbes.com/sites/iainmart…

“We believe there was some internal miscommunication at Silverbear Capital, one of our lead investors, which has caused unnecessary confusion. The fact is, they signed a binding term sheet committing $200 million,” Bolt CEO Justin Grooms told investors forbes.com/sites/iainmart…

Elon confirms that’s xAI’s supercomputer is called Colossus, which we first reported back in July

SCOOP: We got our hands on the white paper for Trump's new crypto project. It looks a whole lot like a platform that was hacked over the summer, and it shares some of the same team.

A new AI startup trade group is trying to push the industry towards an *opt-in* policy for training data. My story: wired.com/story/dataset-…

Scoop: Ilya Sutskever’s three-month old AI lab Safe Superintelligence has raised $1B. Valuation is $5B, sources tell Krystal Hu, Anna Tong, and me. We have the exclusive interview with the former OpenAI cofounder Ilya Sutskever and his SSI cofounders: reuters.com/technology/art…

News: Nichole Wischoff and her VC firm Wischoff Ventures have raised $50 million for her third fund. I spoke to the Nashville investor about her difficult childhood, going viral on social media and how she's backing the "new supply chain" for Forbes. forbes.com/sites/alexkonr…

Scoop: In an email to shareholders, Bolt founder Ryan Breslow thanked a dozen investors for supporting him and the $450 million deal. Only, some of them told Forbes they actually hadn't. Meanwhile, BlackRock & others have filed a restraining order in court to block the round.

The letter also hints at some concessions for investors (but also a nasty surprise that could see preferred investors stripped of shareholder rights even the Series F fails). Full story from sarah emerson and Iain Martin here. forbes.com/sites/iainmart…

I need to unallergic myself to my mom’s cat before going home. How does one do this……..

With great access comes great responsibility to bring you the best San Francisco views imaginable.