Connect with us

Published

on

Amazon Web Services logo at the Web Summit in Lisbon.

Henrique Casinhas | Sopa Images | Lightrocket | Getty Images

Just as the periodic table is foundational to chemistry and the Human Genome Project revolutionized modern genetics, researchers at the Allen Institute for Brain Science have teamed up with Amazon Web Services to create what could become a “transformative” new resource for the field of neuroscience. 

AWS on Wednesday announced its technology will support the Allen Institute as it builds a map of the human brain, called the Brain Knowledge Platform. This platform, the first of its kind, is designed to be a complete reference of individual cells in the brain, and should eventually serve as the world’s largest open source brain cell database. 

To build the new platform, the Allen Institute is using single cell genomics technologies. Researchers measure the genes used by individual brain cells to create a “cell fingerprint,” and cells with similar fingerprints will be grouped into “cell types,” resulting in a high-resolution map of the entire brain. 

Once the reference is complete, scientists should better understand links between genetics and different cognitive functions. Researchers believe the platform could provide insights into why diseases like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s occur. 

“This really is like the periodic table for the brain,” Dr. Ed Lein, senior investigator at the Allen Institute for Brain Science, said Wednesday during a presentation about the platform in Washington, D.C. “It’s revealed in dramatically higher complexity than we’ve ever had access to before.”

The Allen Institute is a nonprofit research institute based in Seattle, Washington. It’s made up of a number of different institutes, including one that focuses on neuroscience, and is perhaps best known for creating a number of different large-scale data resources.  

But even though the Allen Institute is no stranger to data, there are hundreds of billions of cells in the brain — so creating a reference like the Brain Knowledge Platform means researchers will have to contend with massive amounts of data. 

“We’re just running into these enormous, enormous problems of data size,” Lein said during a briefing with reporters Wednesday. “The scale of data just keeps getting bigger and bigger.”

As such, the Allen Institute is leveraging AWS’ cloud computing and machine learning to standardize and consolidate complex brain data into one place. 

When carrying out research involving genetics and imaging, scientists are often working with petabytes and even exabytes of data. Dr. Rowland Illing, director of international public sector health at AWS, said at the briefing that consuming 40 petabytes of data would require someone to watch 4k video for 24 hours a day, seven days a week, for 100 years. 

The amount of data available to researchers is expected to keep growing in coming years, but Lein said there is also a lot of existing brain data in the neuroscience field. The problem, he said, is that much of it is disorganized and decentralized, which makes it difficult for researchers to access. 

The Allen Institute plans to use AWS’ technology to successfully interpret this disparate data even if it’s stored across different formats and locations, which Lein said will hopefully further democratize access to knowledge and bring parts of the neuroscience community together. 

“While this is really in its early phases now, the goal of the Brain Knowledge Platform is to transform this fragmented landscape of neuroscience information into a unified ecosystem,” he said.

The Allen Institute will work to build the Brain Knowledge Platform over the next five years. Lein said it is still in its early phases, but the potential for the tech is immense. 

“If we can do this, imagine the impact on the field,” he said. “We can unify the disparate parts of the field that can’t talk to one another at the moment. We can accelerate our understanding of brain function, as well as new approaches for treating diseases.”

Continue Reading

Technology

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

Published

on

By

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.

WATCH: Google pushes “AI Mode” on homepage

Google pushes "AI Mode" on homepage

Continue Reading

Technology

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

Published

on

By

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.

Read more CNBC tech news

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.

WATCH: Nvidia hits $4 trillion in market cap milestone despite curbs on chip exports

Nvidia hits $4 trillion in market cap milestone despite curbs on chip exports

Continue Reading

Technology

Tesla to officially launch in India with planned showroom opening

Published

on

By

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.

Anadolu | Anadolu | Getty Images

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.

Continue Reading

Trending