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Elizabeth Holmes, founder of Theranos Inc., exits federal court in San Jose, California, on Tuesday, Aug. 31, 2021.
David Paul Morris | Bloomberg | Getty Images

SAN JOSE, CALIF. — A hedge fund manager who put $96 million into Theranos said he thoroughly investigated the company but was still misled by CEO Elizabeth Holmes about its blood-testing technology.

Brian Grossman, chief investment officer at PFM Health Sciences, told jurors in Holmes’ criminal trial on Tuesday that in 2014, as part of his due diligence, he got his own blood drawn from a Theranos machine at a Walgreens pharmacy.

“I had my blood drawn with a venous draw, not a finger stick,” said Grossman, adding that the experience undermined what he’d been told about Theranos.

Grossman said he met with Holmes and her top executive, Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani, at their office in Palo Alto, California, in December 2013. He said Holmes did most of the talking, and that he and his colleagues were told Theranos could run 1,000 blood tests on its proprietary technology.

“Ms. Holmes was actually very clear that they could match any test on a Labcorp and Quest menu of tests,” Grossman said. He told jurors that “was a really big statement about how much they had accomplished, where the technology was at that time.”

Earlier witnesses, including lab associate Erika Cheung, have testified that Theranos devices couldn’t run more than 12 different tests, contradicting the company’s public pronouncements.

Grossman said that in the meeting he was told Theranos was working with the military and that its technology was being used on medivacs in the battlefield.

“What better application for a technology like this than in a military setting under harsh conditions like one would expect in a place like Afghanistan or Iraq?” Grossman said. Theranos indicated that it had “something over $200 million in revenue from the Department of Defense,” he said.

Daniel Edlin, a former Theranos employee, told jurors last month that, to his knowledge, the blood-testing devices were never used in the Middle East.

‘No ambiguity and no confusion’

Grossman said that following his initial meeting with Holmes and Balwani, he sent them an e-mail in January 2014, with the subject: “Due Diligence Questions.”

His questions from PFM fell into seven categories. He wanted more details on issues like the accuracy and speed of the tests compared to those from traditional vendors, the limitations of the technology and whether the Walgreens relationship was exclusive.

“We as a group came up with questions that we wanted to better understand the business,” Grossman said. “We wanted to ask the same questions in as many ways as we could so there was no ambiguity and no confusion as to what the technology was doing.

PFM then met with Holmes and Balwani a second time. Grossman testified that Holmes left about halfway through the meeting. Theranos executives told him at the time that it could get test results back in under four hours in retail stores and within one hour in hospitals.

Grossman told the jury that Holmes never told him the company was using third-party machines to run the blood tests. About his own experience at Walgreens, Grossman said he was surprised to find out that the blood was drawn from his arm and said his test results took longer than four hours.

“I asked [Balwani] why I didn’t receive a finger stick and why it was a venous draw,” Grossman said. “I also asked him why it took longer than four hours to get my test results back.”

Balwani assured him it was because his doctor ordered an unusual test, Grossman said.

Still, PFM invested $96.1 million in Theranos in February 2014. That investment included $2.2 million from a friends and family fund, which Grossman said had money in it from low-income people.

PFM eventually settled its lawsuit against Theranos after accusing the company of securities fraud.

Holmes has pleaded not guilty to 12 counts of wire fraud and conspiracy to commit wire fraud. As a witness to the prosecution, Grossman’s testimony underpins one of the wire fraud counts.

For 11 weeks, Holmes has sat at the defense table as government witnesses have testified. A key question remaining is whether the defense will present a case after the prosecution rests.

“We don’t even know if there is a defense case and if there is what it might be,” Lance Wade, an attorney for Holmes, said before the jury entered the courtroom. “We’re still in the government’s case.”

Last week Holmes’ defense team provided the government a list of potential witnesses. However, Wade said, “we’re not saying we’re presenting a defense case by giving them a sense of the witnesses.”

WATCH: The deposition tapes from the Elizabeth Holmes trial

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Huawei launches second trifold smartphone at $2,500 as it looks to cement comeback

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Huawei launches second trifold smartphone at ,500 as it looks to cement comeback

Huawei launched its second generation trifold phone called the Mate XTs on September 4, 2025.

Huawei

Huawei on Thursday launched the second generation of its trifold smartphone, as the Chinese tech giant looks to cement its comeback in its home market and dip its toe back overseas.

The Shenzhen-headquartered tech firm took the wraps off of the Huawei Mate XTs, which starts at 17,999 Chinese yuan ($2,520) and goes up to 21,999 yuan for the model with the largest memory.

Foldable smartphones typically have one hinge that allows a user to fold the device in half. Huawei’s Mate XTs is dubbed a trifold — meaning it has two hinges that allow it to be folded at two points. The phone turns into a tablet-like device when opened up.

Huawei pioneered the concept last year when it launched the Mate XT, which was the first device of its kind. The product initially debuted in China, before hitting select overseas markets earlier this year.

The company will be hoping the Mate XTs will help it sustain the momentum it has rekindled in the Chinese smartphone market since late 2023.

Huawei’s market share in China jumped to 18% in the second quarter versus 15% in the same period last year, and the company is now the biggest smartphone vendor in China, Counterpoint Research data showed. In the Chinese foldable phone category, Huawei dominates with a 75% share of the market, according to the International Data Corporation (IDC).

Huawei sold 470,000 units of the Mate XT device since launch to the end of the second quarter of this year, generating over $1.3 billion of revenue, IDC added.

“The performance is quite strong considering it’s one of the most expensive smartphones available and this shows there is a demand for something innovative,” Francisco Jeronimo, a vice president covering devices at IDC, told CNBC.

Huawei is looking to show it can still innovate, after its smartphone business was crippled in 2020 by U.S. sanctions that cut the company off from key software and chips. Since then, Huawei has developed its own operating system and managed to get some less-advanced chips manufactured in China for its more recent devices, allowing it to make a comeback.

Still, Huawei’s market share remains tiny outside of China, as it faces a number of challenges.

Huawei Mate XTs details

Huawei’s Mate XTs will run HarmonyOS 5.1, the latest version of the company’s own operating system.

The company is positioning the handset as a productivity-focused device and will bring PC-grade apps that are optimized for the smartphone’s trifold screen.

Just as with a PC, users can stack, resize and move different windows around on the phone’s large screen.

The phone will come in four colors and pack a so-called 5600 milliampere-hour (mAh) battery, which is comparatively large relative to current devices on the market.

To entice buyers, Huawei is offering at least 50% off screen replacements, as well as two free appointments to service the phone at home or at a preferred location.

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Trump to host tech CEOs over dinner for inaugural event in renovated Rose Garden

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Trump to host tech CEOs over dinner for inaugural event in renovated Rose Garden

U.S. President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump walk to the Rose Garden of the White House to hold a signing ceremony for the Take it Down Act, in Washington, D.C., U.S., May 19, 2025.

Kevin Lamarque | Reuters

U.S. President Trump will host two dozen high-profile tech and business leaders for an inaugural event in the White House’s renovated Rose Garden on Thursday. 

Invitees include Meta founder Mark Zuckerberg, Apple CEO Tim Cook, Microsoft founder Bill Gates and OpenAI founder Sam Altman, according to a list confirmed by a White House official. 

The meeting is expected to be held over dinner after a separate White House event on artificial intelligence hosted by first lady Melania Trump.

The gathering underscores what has been a close but complicated relationship between Trump and the Big Tech sector in his second administration. 

Many of the aforementioned executives have sought friendlier ties with Trump, often appearing at events alongside the president to announce moves that align with the administration’s goals on emerging technologies and American reshoring. 

Invitees to the event also include other tech leaders, such as OpenAI president Greg Brockman; Google co-founder Sergey Brin; Palantir chief technology officer Shyam Sankar; and co-founder of Scale AI and head of a superintelligence team at Meta, Alexandr Wang.

CEOs such as Google’s Sundar Pichai, Microsoft’s Satya Nadella, Oracle‘s Safra Catz, and Micron Technology‘s David Limp have also been invited. 

Unsurprisingly, David Sacks, a venture capitalist serving as the White House’s crypto and AI czar, is expected to be at the event. Jared Isaacman, founder of Shift4, is also expected to attend despite Trump withdrawing his nomination to run NASA in June.

Notably, Tesla CEO and SpaceX founder Elon Musk, who previously served as a special government employee in the first few months of the latest Trump administration and later had a public falling out with the president, was not on the invitation list.

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C3 AI reports declining revenue, announces new CEO to replace Siebel

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C3 AI reports declining revenue, announces new CEO to replace Siebel

The C3.ai logo is seen near a computer motherboard in this illustration taken on Jan. 8, 2024.

Dado Ruvic | Reuters

Shares of the enterprise artificial intelligence company C3 AI fell 14% in extended trading on Wednesday after it announced fiscal first-quarter results and the appointment of Stephen Ehikian as its new CEO.

C3 AI reported $70.3 million in revenue for the quarter, down from $87.2 million during the same period last year. The company’s GAAP net loss widened to an 86-cent loss from a 50-cent loss a year ago.

Ehikian is a long-time tech executive who built two companies that were both acquired by Salesforce, C3 AI said. C3 AI said Ehikian assumed the new role on Sept. 1.

C3 AI kicked off a search for a new chief executive in July after its former CEO, Thomas Siebel revealed that he was diagnosed with an autoimmune disease earlier this year that resulted in “significant visual impairment.”

Read more CNBC tech news

“C3 AI is one of the most important companies in the AI landscape and enterprise software, with a platform and applications that are unmatched,” Ehikian said. “I am confident that we will be able to capture an increasing share of the immense market opportunity in Enterprise AI.”

The company has had a rocky few months since Siebel’s diagnosis.

Shares plunged in August after C3 AI announced disappointing preliminary financial results and a restructuring of its global sales and services organization.

Siebel said in an August statement that sales results during the quarter were “completely unacceptable.” He attributed the performance to the “disruptive effect” of the reorganization, as well as his ongoing health issues.

C3.ai shares plummet 14% after withdrawing previous guidance and new CEO announcement

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