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The Samsung Galaxy Ring has various sensors to track things like heart rate.

Samsung

BARCELONA — Samsung’s Galaxy Ring, its latest wearable, is launching with health-tracking features including heart rate and sleep monitoring while also giving users a score of their readiness for the day, a top executive told CNBC.

In a wide-ranging interview, Hon Pak, the head of the digital health team at Samsung Electronics, discussed the company’s first foray into the product category of rings, considerations for a subscription model for the Samsung Health app, and his vision for an artificial intelligence “coach.”

Samsung teased the Galaxy Ring in January during the press conference when it launched the S24 smartphone. The South Korean tech giant is putting it on display for the first time at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, which kicks off on Monday.

Samsung Galaxy Ring features

Pak said the ring, which is fitted with sensors, will be able to give readings on heart rate, respiratory rate, the amount of movement made during sleep, and the time it takes a person to fall asleep once in bed.

He also said the ring will be able to give a user a “vitality score” which “collects data about physical and mental readiness to see how productive you can be.”

All of that will be accessible through the Samsung Health app.

The ring is set to go on sale this year, but Pak did not give a timeline or the pricing.

Pak also said the company is considering adding a feature that would allow the Galaxy Ring to do contactless payments, as with smartphones.

“We have a whole … team that is looking at that. But I think clearly looking at multiple different use cases for the Ring beyond just health, for sure,” Pak said.

The Samsung executive also said the company is working on non-invasive glucose monitoring as well as a blood pressure sensing through its wearable devices.

“I think we have some ways to go,” Pak said of non-invasive glucose monitoring. Currently, people use devices that pierce the skin to check glucose levels. A non-invasive way to do that would be a huge step.

Samsung ecosystem play

Samsung is hoping that various devices will boost its positioning in health, an area it has been working on for several years.

Samsung has its smartphones and smartwatches. The Galaxy Ring is the newest product category in health. Samsung said the decision to launch a “smart ring” was driven by its customers.

“Our own customers told us, I want choice. I want the ability to have other forms of wearables to measure health,” Pak said. “And some want to wear the watch, some want to wear the watch and the ring and get benefit from both. Some just want more simplicity.”

The Samsung Galaxy Ring will work in conjunction with Samsung’s smartwatches.

Samsung

Pak confirmed that when the smartwatch and Ring are worn together, users will be able to get different health insights.

Samsung is not the first company to launch smart rings. There are a handful of other players such as Oura.

Previous generations of Samsung’s flagship smartphone, such as the S7, have sensors that track things like heart rate. Users could put their finger on the sensor and it would give a reading. Samsung has done away with those sensors on its phones, especially since it has smartwatches that offer these features.

However, Pak did not rule out the possibility that future smartphones would have health sensors on them.

“Mobile is still very pervasive and so I think there are reasons why we may want to put a sensor on a mobile versus having it on a wearable,” Pak said.

AI ‘coach’

Pak discussed how artificial intelligence will play a role in Samsung’s health services. AI can help make sense of all of the data these devices are collecting. And ultimately, Pak’s goal is to get the AI to give deeper insights into a person’s health.

He said large language models, which are AI models trained on huge amounts of data and that underpin applications like chatbots, can help to give greater insights.

“Imagine that large language model, acting as my digital assistant, while looking at the context of my medical records, my physiological data, my engagement with a mobile device, the wearables during all of that … begins to bring greater insights and personalization opportunities,” Pak said.

“There’s a digital assistant coach in the future, because we think that’s absolutely needed,” the Samsung executive said.

Pak described a scenario in which a digital assistant offers health advice in the right tone and context, saying “our ability to change our behavior becomes much greater.”

Bixby, Samsung’s digital assistant, could have a part to play, Pak said.

“So we are exploring various different ways in which the human computer interface will change over time … And so we think Bixby with speech represents a significant part of that option. But we don’t think it’s the only option. But Bixby potentially combined with large language models can be a phenomenal game changer. And we’re obviously having that conversation,” Pak said.

The executive also said the company is “considering” a subscription service for its Samsung Health app, but that the capabilities and insights it offers need to be improved before that can happen. AI assistants can help.

“If you’re gonna really make me pay for something, you better give me something that’s more end to end that’s more comprehensive” in terms of health insights, Pak said.

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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.

WATCH: Google pushes “AI Mode” on homepage

Google pushes "AI Mode" on homepage

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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.

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

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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.

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.

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