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Lawmakers on the Senate Judiciary Committee found rare alignment at a recent hearing about how Congress can help protect kids from online harms.

The hearing on Tuesday, which included a parent who lost a child to suicide after cyberbullying, representatives from the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children and the American Psychological Association, points to the importance the new Congress is putting on protecting kids on the internet.

They’re speaking out in support of the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA), which would require sites likely to be accessed by kids 16 or younger to maintain certain privacy and safety protections by default. The bill passed unanimously out of the Senate Commerce Committee last year and was reportedly considered as part of the year-end legislation, though it ultimately didn’t make the cut.

“We must and we will double down on the Kids Online Safety Act,” Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., who co-sponsored the bill with Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., said at the hearing.

Blackburn and Blumenthal both held up a newly released 2021 study on youth risks from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which showed that mental health is worsening. The survey found 20% of girls and 11% of boys reported being bullied online over the past year.

President Joe Biden is putting his voice behind the movement for change. Following remarks he made at last week’s State of the Union address, Biden said at an event on Tuesday that, “We have to pass legislation on the damaging technologies having an effect on our kids.”

The level of solidarity on the issue is a rarity in a deeply divided Congress. Though lawmakers have shared similar goals in other discussions around regulating tech, when it comes to protecting kids online, they’re more united in the types of action they want to see take place.

Even so, KOSA and similar measures at the state level have prompted criticism from outside groups, some arguing that the rules would be too difficult to implement in a fair and feasible way.

The groups said last year that vague language requiring platforms to prevent harm to minors could result in restricting too much content, cutting kids off from important information, especially for the LGBTQ community and others that may have limited places to turn. They also warn that some parental consent measures could endanger kids who are experiencing abuse at home.

Evan Greer, director of digital rights advocacy group Fight for the Future, tweeted her displeasure with the legislative efforts on Tuesday.

“I feel outraged that lawmakers like @SenBlumenthal continue to ignore overwhelming opposition from human rights groups and push the same problematic bills we’ve already explained will do more harm than good, and then blames# tech company lobbying when they don’t pass,” Greer wrote.

Blumenthal and Blackburn revised KOSA last year but failed to completely subdue critics.

Mitch Prinstein, chief science officer at the American Psychological Association, said it’s critical to protect kids without cutting them off from useful resources.

“It’s very important to recognize that online discrimination does have an effect on mental health directly,” Prinstein said. “It is important, however, to recognize that the online community also provides vital health information and does provide social support that can be beneficial to this community.”

All six witnesses at Tuesday’s hearing said they support KOSA and see it as an important step toward protecting children on the internet.

At the end of the hearing, Judiciary Committee Chair Dick Durbin, D-Ill., promised the panelists a markup of legislation on the topic, and said the committee would have to work out questions of jurisdiction with the Commerce Committee.

“That doesn’t sound like much but it is,” Durbin said. “It means that we’re going to come together as a Judiciary Committee and put on the table pieces of legislation to try to decide as a committee if we can agree on common goals.”

Durbin said, “I think we can do this, just sensing what I heard today.”

There’s no shortage of concern in Washington, D.C., and beyond surrounding kids on the internet. U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy recently said that 13, the current age allowed to own a social media account, is “too early” to join such platforms.

Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., introduced the MATURE Act (which stands for Making Age Verification Technology Uniform, Robust, and Effective) on Tuesday. The bill would make 16 the legal age to open a social media account and would put the onus on the platforms to stay compliant.

Legislators in Utah also sought to bar social media accounts under age 16. However, a bill that recently passed the state’s House of Representatives removed that provision, instead allowing for consumers to sue social media companies that knowingly cause harm.

The issue of an age limit and its potential effectiveness was a big topic on Tuesday.

Rose Bronstein, whose son Nate died by suicide last year at age 15 after being subject to cyberbullying, told CNBC in a phone interview after the hearing that raising the age limit would make it easier for parents to keep their kids off of social media. Their kids wouldn’t risk isolation because their peers also wouldn’t be allowed to join.

Christine McComas said age limits would have a limited impact.

“Kids are always three steps ahead of us with any kind of tech,” said McComas, whose daughter Grace died by suicide at age 15 in 2012 after experiencing cyberbullying. “We need to really keep talking about all of it and think about it as a societal shift.”

Bronstein and McComas have been pushing their state legislatures in Illinois and Maryland, respectively, to pass statewide protections. California has already instituted its Age-Appropriate Design Code, which shares similar goals as KOSA. On Monday, Maryland introduced its own version of the bill.

“I think people are more aware now than they’ve ever been before,” McComas said. “And certainly, it’s not all talk. We heard congressional members on both sides of the aisle, from ultra conservative to liberal liberal, who see the problem and feel like something needs to be done.”

But other advocates say it’s time for more action.

Kristin Bride, who testified at the hearing, lost her son Carson at age 16 to suicide in 2020 after cyberbullying. Bride said she and other parents are sick of seeing legislation on the issue fail to advance.

“It is so difficult to tell our stories of the very worst day of our lives over and over and over again and then not see change,” Bride told lawmakers. “We’re done with the hearings, we’re done with the stories. We are looking to you all for action and I am confident that you can all come together and do this for us and for America’s children.”

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Google hires Windsurf CEO Varun Mohan, others in latest AI talent deal

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Google hires Windsurf CEO Varun Mohan, others in latest AI talent deal

Chief executive officer of Google Sundar Pichai.

Marek Antoni Iwanczuk | Sopa Images | Lightrocket | Getty Images

Google on Friday made the latest a splash in the AI talent wars, announcing an agreement to bring in Varun Mohan, co-founder and CEO of artificial intelligence coding startup Windsurf.

As part of the deal, Google will also hire other senior Windsurf research and development employees. Google is not investing in Windsurf, but the search giant will take a nonexclusive license to certain Windsurf technology, according to a person familiar with the matter. Windsurf remains free to license its technology to others.

“We’re excited to welcome some top AI coding talent from Windsurf’s team to Google DeepMind to advance our work in agentic coding,” a Google spokesperson wrote in an email. “We’re excited to continue bringing the benefits of Gemini to software developers everywhere.”

The deal between Google and Windsurf comes after the AI coding startup had been in talks with OpenAI for a $3 billion acquisition deal, CNBC reported in April. OpenAI did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The move ratchets up the talent war in AI particularly among prominent companies. Meta has made lucrative job offers to several employees at OpenAI in recent weeks. Most notably, the Facebook parent added Scale AI founder Alexandr Wang to lead its AI strategy as part of a $14.3 billion investment into his startup. 

Douglas Chen, another Windsurf co-founder, will be among those joining Google in the deal, Jeff Wang, the startup’s new interim CEO and its head of business for the past two years, wrote in a post on X.

“Most of Windsurf’s world-class team will continue to build the Windsurf product with the goal of maximizing its impact in the enterprise,” Wang wrote.

Windsurf has become more popular this year as an option for so-called vibe coding, which is the process of using new age AI tools to write code. Developers and non-developers have embraced the concept, leading to more revenue for Windsurf and competitors, such as Cursor, which OpenAI also looked at buying. All the interest has led investors to assign higher valuations to the startups.

This isn’t the first time Google has hired select people out of a startup. It did the same with Character.AI last summer. Amazon and Microsoft have also absorbed AI talent in this fashion, with the Adept and Inflection deals, respectively.

Microsoft is pushing an agent mode in its Visual Studio Code editor for vibe coding. In April, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said AI is composing as much of 30% of his company’s code.

The Verge reported the Google-Windsurf deal earlier on Friday.

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Nvidia’s Jensen Huang sells more than $36 million in stock, catches Warren Buffett in net worth

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Nvidia's Jensen Huang sells more than  million in stock, catches Warren Buffett in net worth

Jensen Huang, CEO of Nvidia, holds a motherboard as he speaks during the Viva Technology conference dedicated to innovation and startups at Porte de Versailles exhibition center in Paris, France, on June 11, 2025.

Gonzalo Fuentes | Reuters

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang unloaded roughly $36.4 million worth of stock in the leading artificial intelligence chipmaker, according to a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filing.

The sale, which totals 225,000 shares, comes as part of Huang’s previously adopted plan in March to unload up to 6 million shares of Nvidia through the end of the year. He sold his first batch of stock from the agreement in June, equaling about $15 million.

Last year, the tech executive sold about $700 million worth of shares as part of a prearranged plan. Nvidia stock climbed about 1% Friday.

Huang’s net worth has skyrocketed as investors bet on Nvidia’s AI dominance and graphics processing units powering large language models.

The 62-year-old’s wealth has grown by more than a quarter, or about $29 billion, since the start of 2025 alone, based on Bloomberg’s Billionaires Index. His net worth last stood at $143 billion in the index, putting him neck-and-neck with Berkshire Hathaway‘s Warren Buffett at $144 billion.

Shortly after the market opened Friday, Fortune‘s analysis of net worth had Huang ahead of Buffett, with the Nvidia CEO at $143.7 billion and the Oracle of Omaha at $142.1 billion.

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The company has also achieved its own notable milestones this year, as it prospers off the AI boom.

On Wednesday, the Santa Clara, California-based chipmaker became the first company to top a $4 trillion market capitalization, beating out both Microsoft and Apple. The chipmaker closed above that milestone Thursday as CNBC reported that the technology titan met with President Donald Trump.

Brooke Seawell, venture partner at New Enterprise Associates, sold about $24 million worth of Nvidia shares, according to an SEC filing. Seawell has been on the company’s board since 1997, according to the company.

Huang still holds more than 858 million shares of Nvidia, both directly and indirectly, in different partnerships and trusts.

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Tesla to officially launch in India with planned showroom opening

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Tesla to officially launch in India with planned showroom opening

Elon Musk meets with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi at Blair House in Washington DC, USA on February 13, 2025.

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Tesla will open a showroom in Mumbai, India next week, marking the U.S. electric carmakers first official foray into the country.

The one and a half hour launch event for the Tesla “Experience Center” will take place on July 15 at the Maker Maxity Mall in Bandra Kurla Complex in Mumbai, according to an event invitation seen by CNBC.

Along with the showroom display, which will feature the company’s cars, Tesla is also likely to officially launch direct sales to Indian customers.

The automaker has had its eye on India for a while and now appears to have stepped up efforts to launch locally.

In April, Tesla boss Elon Musk spoke with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to discuss collaboration in areas including technology and innovation. That same month, the EV-maker’s finance chief said the company has been “very careful” in trying to figure out when to enter the market.

Tesla has no manufacturing operations in India, even though the country’s government is likely keen for the company to establish a factory. Instead the cars sold in India will need to be imported from Tesla’s other manufacturing locations in places like Shanghai, China, and Berlin, Germany.

As Tesla begins sales in India, it will come up against challenges from long-time Chinese rival BYD, as well as local player Tata Motors.

One potential challenge for Tesla comes by way of India’s import duties on electric vehicles, which stand at around 70%. India has tried to entice investment in the country by offering companies a reduced duty of 15% if they commit to invest $500 million and set up manufacturing locally.

HD Kumaraswamy, India’s minister for heavy industries, told reporters in June that Tesla is “not interested” in manufacturing in the country, according to a Reuters report.

Tesla is looking to recruit roles in Mumbai, job listings posted on LinkedIn . These include advisors working in showrooms, security, vehicle operators to collect data for its Autopilot feature and service technicians.

There are also roles being advertised in the Indian capital of New Delhi, including for store managers. It’s unclear if Tesla is planning to launch a showroom in the city.

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