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Elon Musk‘s startup Neuralink on Wednesday said part of its brain implant malfunctioned after it put the system in a human patient for the first time.

Neuralink has built a brain-computer interface, or a BCI, that could eventually help patients with paralysis control external technology using only their minds. The company’s system, called the Link, records neural signals using 1,024 electrodes across 64 “threads” that are thinner than a human hair, according to its website.

In January, Neuralink implanted the device in a 29-year-old patient named Noland Arbaugh as part of a study to test its safety. The company streamed a live video with Arbaugh as he used the BCI in March, and Neuralink said in an April blog post that the surgery went “extremely well.”

But in the weeks afterward, a number of threads have retracted from Arbaugh’s brain, Neuralink said in a blog post Wednesday. This meant there were fewer effective electrodes, which inhibited the company’s ability to measure the Link’s speed and accuracy.

Neuralink did not disclose how many threads retracted from the tissue. The company did not immediately respond to CNBC’s request for comment.

As a workaround, Neuralink said it modified the recording algorithm, enhanced the user interface and worked to improve techniques for translating signals into cursor movements, the blog post said. Neuralink reportedly considered removing the implant, but the problem hasn’t posed a direct risk to Arbaugh’s safety, according to The Wall Street Journal, who earlier reported on the problem. Neuralink shared its blog post after the Journal asked the company about the issue, according to the report.

Though some threads retracted from Arbaugh’s brain tissue, Neuralink said he is using the company’s BCI system for around eight hours a day during the week, and often as many as 10 hours a day on the weekends.

Arbaugh said the Link is like a “luxury overload,” and it has helped him to “reconnect with the world,” according to the blog post.

Neuralink is not the only company that is building a BCI system, and the technology has been explored in academic settings for decades.

Neuralink has a long road of safety and efficacy testing ahead before it can be eligible for approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to commercialize the technology.

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Startup backed by Altman, JPMorgan announces capital lending partnership with Amazon

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December 16, 2025

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Startup backed by Altman, JPMorgan announces capital lending partnership with Amazon

Slope, a lending startup that uses artificial intelligence to vet businesses, is partnering with Amazon starting Tuesday to provide a reusable line of credit to Amazon sellers, backed by a JPMorgan Chase credit facility, the company told CNBC exclusively.

The new relationship means eligible U.S. Amazon vendors can apply for and access capital directly through their Amazon Seller accounts with real-time approvals.

Slope was co-founded by CEO Lawrence Lin Murata, who said said he saw the ups and downs of running a small business while he was growing up in São Paulo.

Lin Murata helped his parents at their family’s toy shop, which they’ve been running for more than three decades. As he gained more insight into the finances of the business, he said he realized that cash flow was a large pain point for his parents and other small businesses.

That led him to start Slope, an AI-powered lending platform backed by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and JPMorgan Chase, with co-founder Alice Deng.

“Leveraging AI, we’re able to underwrite these businesses, and we’re able to handle all the complexity of assessing the risk for a business,” Lin Murata said. “At the same time, [we’re] providing a very easy, real-time experience to them.”

The lines of credit will start at an 8.99% APR, according to Slope, and require vendors to be in business for at least one year with more than $100,000 in annual revenue. Once approved, Amazon sellers can draw from the line as needed and choose a term ranging from three months to a year to align repayment with their inventory cycle. Scope did not disclose the financial aspects of its deal with Amazon.

“Most people don’t realize that sellers, independent sellers, are kind of the backbone of Amazon and e-commerce in general,” Deng told CNBC. “More than 60% of Amazon’s sales are driven by independent sellers.”

Deng said Slope is filling a gap with the new partnership. Currently, Amazon sellers can use some third parties to access capital, though Deng said those initiatives are more focused on smaller sellers, while Slope is focused on mature sellers, some of whom reach hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue and require bank-grade financing.

Deng said when Amazon did its own lending around four years ago, the total addressable market was between $1 billion and $2 billion. With Slope taking over the program, the company expects that number to grow.

“We’re excited about our work with Slope, which expands the financing tools available to Amazon selling partners,” an Amazon spokesperson told CNBC. “Whether they are just starting out or looking to grow, access to sufficient capital is a critical need for small business owners, and we’re always evaluating new ways to empower sellers to thrive in the Amazon store.”

With Slope’s new deal, sellers can take a few minutes directly on Amazon Seller Central to apply for capital and get approved almost instantly, using proprietary Amazon performance data and Slope’s in-house large language model, Lin Murata said.

“That is one of the reasons why we’re able to give a more compelling offer than if you were outside of the Amazon dashboard,” Lin Murata said. “And then we give real-time decisions, so we analyze Amazon performance, data, and cash flow in real time.”

It’s a process that the Slope co-founders said is easier, faster and more integrated than having to apply for loans at banks as a small business. With the granular data that Amazon provides, like a breakdown of sales by product, they said the AI model is able to make a more informed decision on financing than a bank would based on overall financial documents.

With the new deal, Amazon joins a growing slate of Slope’s customers, which already include Samsung, Alibaba, Ikea and more.

Deng and Lin Murata said the company has trialed the new Amazon integration, and though the trial has been live for just a few weeks, the pair said it’s seen significant demand and applications growing 300% week over week.

“Going back to the initial inspiration of my parents, I think we want to be the credit intelligence layer for these businesses,” Lin Murata said. “Ultimately, what we’re really doing is helping these businesses grow by giving them fair, affordable, fast and very easy access to different forms of financing.”

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U.S. halts UK tech trade deal negotiations, FT reports

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December 16, 2025

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U.S. halts UK tech trade deal negotiations, FT reports

The U.S. has halted a technology trade deal with the U.K., after officials in Washington became frustrated with the pace of progress, the Financial Times reported on Tuesday.

Announced in September during President Donald Trump’s state visit to the U.K., the “technology prosperity deal” is a sweeping agreement aimed at encouraging collaboration between the countries on tech like artificial intelligence, nuclear fusion, and quantum computing.

At the time, Trump said that the deal would “ensure our countries lead the next great technological revolution side by side.” U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer said that the agreement was a “generational step change in our relationship with the U.S.” that would deliver “growth, security and opportunity up and down the country.”

Talks were suspended by the U.S. last week, the FT reported, quoting unnamed British officials.

When asked to comment on the report, a U.K. government spokesperson told CNBC: “Our special relationship with the US remains strong and the UK is firmly committed to ensuring the Tech Prosperity Deal delivers opportunity for hardworking people in both countries.”

Trump in the UK: What’s at stake

The agreement would establish AI-enabled research programs in areas including the development of models and datasets in mutual priorities such as AI for biotechnology, precision medicine for cancer and rare and chronic diseases, and fusion energy, the two countries said in September.

It came as the U.K. signed deals totalling £31 billion ($41 billion) with U.S. tech firms like Microsoft, Nvidia, Google, OpenAI, and CoreWeave to build out the country’s AI infrastructure. The U.S. is the U.K.’s largest trading partner.

The U.S. Department of Commerce has been approached for comment.

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The AI chip shortage could raise smartphone prices — new research spells out by how much

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December 16, 2025

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The AI chip shortage could raise smartphone prices — new research spells out by how much

The logo of an Apple Store is seen reflected on the glass exterior of a Samsung flagship store in Shanghai, China Monday, Oct. 20, 2025.

Wang Gang | Feature China | Future Publishing | Getty Images

A shortage of memory chips fueled by artificial intelligence players is likely to cause a price rise in smartphones in 2026 and a drop in shipments, Counterpoint Research said in a note on Tuesday.

Smartphone shipments could fall 2.1% in 2026, according to Counterpoint, versus a previous outlook of flat-to-positive growth.

Shipments do not equate to sales but are a measure of demand as they track the number of devices being sent to sales channels like stores.

Meanwhile, the average selling price of smartphones could jump 6.9% year-on-year in 2026, Counterpoint said, in comparison to a previous forecast of a 3.6% rise.

This is being driven by specific chip shortages and bottlenecks in the semiconductor supply chain, which are pushing up component prices.

The continued build-out of data centres globally has hiked demand for systems developed by Nvidia, which in turn uses components designed by SK Hynix and Samsung — the two biggest suppliers of so-called memory chips.

The winners and losers from the surge in memory chip prices

However, a specific component called dynamic random-access memory or DRAM, which is used in AI data centers, is also critical for smartphones. DRAM prices have surged this year as demand outstrips supply.

For low-end smartphones priced below $200, the bill of materials cost has increased 20% to 30% since the beginning of the year, Counterpoint said. The bill of materials is the cost of producing a single smartphone.

The mid and high-end smartphone segment has seen material costs rise 10% to 15%.

“Memory prices could rise another 40% through Q2 2026, resulting in BoM costs increasing anywhere between 8% and over 15% above current elevated levels,” Counterpoint said.

The rising price of components could be passed on to consumers and that will in turn, drive the rise in the average selling price.

“Apple and Samsung are best positioned to weather the next few quarters,” MS Hwang, research director at Counterpoint, said in the note. “But it will be tough for others that don’t have as much wiggle room to manage market share versus profit margins.”

Hwang said this will “play out especially” with Chinese smartphone makers who are in the mid-to-lower end of the market.

Counterpoint said some companies may downgrade components like camera modules, displays and even audio, as well as reusing old components. Smartphone players are likely to try to incentivize consumers to buy their higher-priced devices too.

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