In 2011, Jeremy Schroeder was driving a four-wheeler near Sherwood, Ohio, when he crashed into a stop sign he hadn’t seen as the stone path suddenly turned to asphalt. The sign left a deep gash in Schroeder’s arm; he was rapidly losing blood.
Shroeder, who was 30 at the time, waited more than an hour for emergency medical services to arrive before he was finally airlifted to a nearby hospital.
When he woke up in a room across from his anxious wife, Schroeder was missing a hand.
“She goes, ‘I got bad news,'” he told CNBC in an interview, recalling the conversation.
Schroeder’s left arm was amputated around five inches below his elbow. He has four kids and manages a small farm where he drives tractors, harvests crops and cares for animals, so he was determined not to let his accident slow him down.
Now, 12 years later, Schroeder wears a bionic hand designed by the startup Aether Biomedical, and it’s business as usual for him. Aether’s hand, called the Zeus, can lift up to 77 pounds and switch between 12 different customizable grip patterns in real time. Schroeder, who is now an ambassador for the company, said he uses it for “everything,” whether it’s carrying groceries, driving his truck or caring for his kids.
Founded in 2018, Aether is based in Poland with U.S. headquarters in Chicago. Aether works with upper limb amputees, and anyone with an amputation level between the wrist and the shoulder can use its Zeus hand. Once patients are fitted with a prosthetic socket for their arm by a doctor, Aether’s device can fasten on the end.
More than 200 patients are using Aether’s Zeus hand, and like other bionic hands, it works by translating the electrical signals in the arm muscles. When a patient thinks of a grip like holding a bottle or pinching a needle, Aether’s sensors detect these electrical signals and its software converts them into actions.
“Just about anything you can think, you can do,” Schroeder said. “It’s really neat what some people can do with it.”
Jeremy Schroeder with the Zeus hand.
Courtesy of Aether Biomedical
Aether CEO Dhruv Agrawal said the Zeus hand is the strongest bionic hand on the market, and it’s also the only hand that can be remotely configured through an app, which is a big selling point for users.
It’s common for patients to need adjustments to their bionic devices, especially as they are first learning to use them, and it usually requires an in-person visit to a doctor’s office. But patients who use Aether’s device can have their clinician log on to the company’s cloud-based platform and reconfigure grip patterns and make other adjustments remotely.
Schroeder said this feature often saves him more than two hours of driving.
Aether also takes a unique approach to larger repairs.
The Zeus hand is made up of seven modules that can be easily replaced at a doctor’s office, said Sarra Mullen, head of U.S. operations at Aether. She said other bionic hands have to be sent back to the manufacturers to be repaired, which can leave patients stuck without their devices for extended periods.
“Imagine not having your hand for weeks, months at a time,” Mullen told CNBC in an interview. “We have this ability now to keep the device on the patient at all times, and that truly is remarkable.”
Aether’s Zeus hand is approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, and it’s covered by all major insurance payers. Aether said the cost of the Zeus hand will vary depending on the person. The company generates revenue, Mullen said, so its main focus is on scaling access to its technology.
On Monday, Aether announced it closed a $5.8 million funding round led by J2 Ventures and Story Ventures. Agrawal said the funding will mainly be used to improve the company’s manufacturing process. Aether currently has a backlog of devices it needs to ship out, he added.
In the U.S. alone, there are between 800,000 and 1 million estimated upper limb amputees, so there is plenty of room for Aether to grow. The challenge, Agrawal said, is winning over patients who have never wanted a bionic hand or who have been discouraged by past devices they’ve tried.
“If you used a device many years ago and didn’t like it, that doesn’t mean that you have to give up on it today,” he told CNBC in an interview. “Technology is improving.”
Given Aether’s presence in Poland, Agrawal said the company is also working to get its devices to people who have been injured because of the war in Ukraine. He said Aether is sending its first team to the region in a few weeks, and the company is expecting to fit between 300 to 500 people with the Zeus hand over the next year and a half.
Patients need to practice
The Zeus hand.
Courtesy of Aether Biomedical
If patients have never used a bionic hand before, Mullen said, it usually takes between four to six weeks to learn how to use Aether’s comfortably. She said patients first generally see a prosthetist, which is the kind of doctor that fits patients with artificial limbs. They get set up with the hand, and then go to occupational therapy to learn to use it.
It takes time and practice to understand how to operate the different grip patterns, Mullen said. But Andrew Hitz, a 61-year-old who lives about 40 miles south of Dallas, mastered the Zeus hand in just 10 minutes.
Hitz had an elective amputation below the elbow of his left arm in February of 2019 after suffering a serious accident on a side-by-side vehicle years earlier. He had tried to save his hand through a number of different procedures, and his surgeon eventually told him that he was out of options.
“Actually, it was the best thing that I ever did,” Hitz told CNBC in an interview. “I wish I would have jumped to the conclusion of having it taken off years prior, saving me some of the agony and pain of all the surgeries that I went through.”
Hitz has used other bionic hands before, and he said many of them are sitting on his shelf and collecting dust. He happened to stumble across Aether at a trade show in Dallas this year where tried out the Zeus hand. He said using it for the first time was like a “ray of bright sunshine.”
“Literally in 10 minutes I was picking up little blocks that this previous hand that I had for almost a year and a half I just never mastered,” he said.
Aether gave Hitz a hand for free, and he is now an ambassador for the company.
Like Schroeder, Hitz lives a very hands-on lifestyle and manages a small farm with his wife. He cares for chickens, sheep, goats, donkeys and more. He said the Zeus hand works great for holding rakes and shovels, driving his tractor, carrying feed and gathering hay.
Hitz said the Zeus hand also has a soft grip feature, which means he can use it to pick up eggs from his chicken coop.
“If I would have tried that with my other two, it would have smushed all over the place, egg everywhere,” Hitz said. “So that just blew my mind when I went up to the chicken coop, and I did not crush that egg.”
Out of Aether’s 50 employees, Agrawal said around 75% are dedicated to research and development, so the company is always looking ahead to what is next. He said Aether is already working on next generation devices, as well as better machine learning systems and digital training platforms.
He said ultimately, Aether’s goal is to help make bionic devices more accessible and easier to use.
“The amount of mental taxation that a user has to put in to use these devices has decreased a lot with our product,” he said. “And I think that is really key to ensuring that these devices don’t sit in a boardroom, but are actually used by patients.”
Anne Wojcicki, co-founder and chief executive officer of 23andme Inc., during the South by Southwest (SXSW) festival in Austin, Texas, US, on Friday, March 10, 2023.
Jordan Vonderhaar | Bloomberg | Getty Images
23andMe‘s special committee of independent directors on Monday rejected CEO Anne Wojcicki’s proposal to take the distressed genetic testing company private.
Wojcicki submitted a proposal to the committee on Sunday, offering to acquire all of the company’s outstanding shares for 41 cents each, according to a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
The stock plunged 33% on Monday to close at $1.47, down more than 99% from its peak in 2021.
Wojcicki and New Mountain Capital submitted a prior bid in February to take the company private for $2.53 per share. Days later, New Mountain told Wojcicki it was no longer interested in participating in a potential acquisition and would discontinue discussions, the filing said.
23andMe’s special committee said that Wojcicki’s proposal represented an 84% decrease from the prior offer and determined not to go forward, according to a release on Monday.
“The Special Committee has reviewed Ms. Wojcicki’s acquisition proposal in consultation with its financial and legal advisors, and has unanimously determined to reject the proposal,” the directors said.
23andMe didn’t immediately respond to CNBC’s request for comment.
Following a turbulent 2024, 23andMe announced plans in January to explore strategic alternatives, which could include a sale of the company or its assets, a restructuring or a business combination.
Wojcicki previously submitted a proposal to take the company private for 40 cents per share in July, but it was rejected by the special committee, in part because the members said it lacked committed financing and did not provide a premium to the closing price at the time.
The Huawei booth at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, 2025.
Arjun Kharpal | CNBC
BARCELONA — Huawei is dipping its toes back into the international smartphone market, but analysts warn the lingering effects of U.S. sanctions is likely to hamper the Chinese company’s ability to compete with leaders Apple and Samsung.
Over the past few months, Huawei has launched two key devices outside of China. The first in December was the Mate X6, a foldable smartphone, followed by the Mate XT, Huawei’s 3,499 euros ($3,660) trifold phone.
Huawei was looking to stand out from the crowd of similar-looking smartphones at the Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona, the world’s biggest telecoms trade show. The Chinese firm had a large stand showing off its wares, including the Mate XT.
These expensive devices and Huawei’s presence at a global tech show, underscore the tech giant’s targeted approach, attempting to maintain its brand image as an innovative company while selling high-end smartphones.
“Huawei is still very cautious and conservative with what it believes it can achieve outside China with its smartphone business,” Runar Bjørhovde, an analyst at Canalys told CNBC.
“Bringing Mate XT and X6 abroad is no sign that it will make an international comeback with its smartphone business in the next years. Both of these are priced exceptionally and is instead to maintain its desired brand perception of being a cutting-edge innovator with smartphones and still sell devices to its most wealthy super-fans.”
Signage shows the Huawei Mate X6 at Huawei’s booth at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, 2025.
While Huawei has scaled back some of the glitzier aspects of its attendance, its stand remains very large as it shows off other parts of its business, in particular its telecommunications equipment which helped turn it into one of the world’s biggest tech companies.
In the consumer space, Huawei has maintained some presence outside of China with devices such as smartwatches but its smartphone business remains very limited. The firm is using 2025’s MWC to show off the Mate XT, the first of its kind device with a screen that folds twice.
However, its success in China is unlikely to be replicated with the biggest challenge being Huawei’s lack of access to Google’s Android software, analysts said.
“I don’t think they will be able to return to international markets without the full Google services,” Francisco Jeronimo, vice president for data and analytics at International Data Corporation, told CNBC.
A Huawei Technologies Mate XT smartphone arranged in Hong Kong on Sep. 24, 2024.
Lam Yik | Bloomberg | Getty Images
“They haven’t managed to grow market share in the international markets,” he said.
Google’s Android operating system is run by 80% of the world’s smartphones, according to Counterpoint Research. Outside of China, Android device users rely on the Google Play Store, which is Google’s app store, as well as the various apps from the Chrome browser to Gmail.
While Huawei has its own operating system called HarmonyOS, it still does not have the ability to offer Google apps, which the majority of users rely on.
“Expanding the smartphone business outside China will be a huge challenge,” Canalys’ Bjørhovde said.
“Not only because Harmony barely has any active users outside China, limiting its user feedback and app availability, but also because it needs the right device portfolio, operations team, marketing resources, etc. This will take years to rebuild, even with strong success in other device categories.”
CoreWeave, a provider of cloud-based Nvidia processors to companies including Meta and Microsoft, is headed for the public market.
In its IPO prospectus on Monday, CoreWeave said revenue in 2024 soared more than 700% to $1.92 billion. The company recorded a net loss of $863.4 million. In 2024, around 77% of revenue came from two customers, with 62% the total flowing from Microsoft. CoreWeave had over $15 billion in contracts that had not been fulfilled.
In the fourth quarter, it generated $747.4 million of revenue, with a gross margin, or the revenue left after accounting for the cost of goods sold, of about 76%. The company recorded operating income of $112.7 million, but a net loss of $51.4 million, due to interest expenses. Debt at the end of the year approached $8 billion.
CoreWeave filed to trade on the Nasdaq under ticker symbol “CRWV.”
Originally known as Atlantic Crypto, the company got its start in 2017 by offering infrastructure for mining the ethereum cryptocurrency. After digital currency prices fell, the company bought up additional graphics processing units (GPUs) and changed its name to CoreWeave, with an increasing focus on graphics rendering and artificial intelligence.
“We quickly started getting inundated with introductions to businesses dependent upon GPU acceleration with a common pain point: legacy cloud providers make it extremely difficult to scale because they offer a limited variety of compute options at monopolistic prices,” co-founder and CEO Michael Intrator wrote in a 2021 blog post.
Intrator controls about 38% of the company’s voting power before the offering. Hedge fund Magnetar controls 7%, while Nvidia has 1%, the filing showed.
At the end of 2024, CoreWeave’s fleet included over 250,000 Nvidia GPUs, with a majority using the previous-generation Hopper architecture, according to the filing. Nvidia’s Blackwell GPUs were in full production as November. Last year, Elon Musk startup xAI quickly wired up a data center cluster in Tennessee housing 100,000 Nvidia GPUs.
Running data centers full of GPUs requires considerable energy. CoreWeave had 360 megawatts in active power, and a total of 1.3 gigawatts had been contracted, the filing said.
CoreWeave will be attempting to enter the public market during a historically slow stretch for tech offerings.
When cloud software vendor ServiceTitan hit the market in December, it market the first significant venture-backed tech IPO since Rubrik’s debut in April. A month before that, Reddit started trading on the New York Stock Exchange.
There haven’t been many other tech IPOs of note in the U.S. since late 2021, when rising interest rates and soaring inflation pushed investors out of risky assets.
Within the AI infrastructure market, one other name of interest is Cerebras. The chipmaker filed to go public in September, but the process slowed down due to a review by the Treasury Department’s Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S., or CFIUS.
CoreWeave gained popularity after OpenAI released ChatGPT in late 2022, because the company could quickly provide GPUs to businesses in need. Microsoft, whose Azure cloud unit has supplied computing power to OpenAI, started working with CoreWeave in 2023 to meet OpenAI demand.
“What happened In November of ’22, like, that was just a bolt from the blue, right?” Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said on a podcast released in November with investors Brad Gerstner and Bill Gurley. “So therefore, we had to catch up. So we said, Hey, we’re not going to in fact worry about too much inefficiency.”
Nadella described the GPU cloud leasing as a one-time event, saying Microsoft was no longer short on chips. But on a more recent podcast, the Microsoft chief said the company builds and rents heavily and will still be leasing in 2027 and 2028.
In addition to being CoreWeave’s top client, Microsoft is also a competitor, along with Amazon, Google, Oracle, and some smaller providers such as Crusoe and Lambda.
Nvidia relies on Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. for GPU fabrication, and military conflict involving China and Taiwan could pose issues for CoreWeave, the company said in Monday’s filing.