Connect with us

Published

on

Ben Horowitz (right), Andreessen Horowitz partner talks about artificial intelligence and jobs at the TANIUM CONVERGE16 conference San Francisco.

Harriet Taylor | CNBC

Less than three months after announcing plans to contribute to political action committees supporting Donald Trump’s presidential campaign, venture capitalist Ben Horowitz says he’s donating to Vice President Kamala Harris‘ election bid, CNBC has confirmed.

In a letter to employees of venture firm Andreessen Horowitz, the tech investor said he and his wife, Felicia, have had a longtime friendship with Harris. Axios was first to report on the letter. A person close to the firm, who asked not to be named to speak freely on the matter, confirmed the contents of the letter.

“I wanted to give you an update on my political activity.” Horowitz wrote. “As I mentioned before, Felicia and I have known Vice President Harris for over 10 years and she has been a great friend to both of us during that time.”

“As a result of our friendship,” Horowitz continued, “Felicia and I will be making a significant donation to entities who support the Harris Walz campaign.”

Andreessen and Horowitz, who founded their firm in 2009, haven’t made formal endorsements ahead of the 2024 election. Their financial support of the Trump campaign was due to what they called a better “little tech agenda.”

“Our political efforts as a firm are entirely focused on defending Little Tech,” they wrote in a blog post on July 5. “We do not engage in political fights outside of issues directly relevant to Little Tech.”

Andreessen and Horowitz have been particularly critical of the Biden administration and its position towards startups and crypto. In his latest letter, Horowitz said he’s encouraged by his belief in Harris after conversations with her and her team, but “they have not yet stated what their tech policy will be, so the firm will not be updating its position in that regard.”

WATCH: Horowitz on AI regulation

Ben Horowitz: We have to make sure AI regulation doesn't slow down the tech industry

Continue Reading

Technology

Lambda, Microsoft agree to multibillion-dollar AI infrastructure deal with Nvidia chips

Published

on

By

Lambda, Microsoft agree to multibillion-dollar AI infrastructure deal with Nvidia chips

In this photo illustration, a person is holding a smartphone with the logo of US GPU hardware company Lambda Inc. (Lambda Labs) on screen in front of website.

Timon Schneider | SOPA Images | AP

Cloud computing startup Lambda announced on Monday a multibillion-dollar deal with Microsoft for artificial intelligence infrastructure powered by tens of thousands of Nvidia chips.

The agreement comes as Lambda benefits from surging consumer demand for AI-powered services, including AI chatbots and assistants, CEO Stephen Balaban told CNBC’s “Money Movers” on Monday.

“We’re in the middle of probably the largest technology buildout that we’ve ever seen,” Balaban said. “The industry is going really well right now, and there’s just a lot of people who are using ChatGPT and Claude and the different AI services that are out there.”

Balaban said the partnership will continue the two companies’ long-term relationship, which goes back to 2018.

A specific dollar amount was not disclosed in the deal announcement.

Read more CNBC tech news

Founded in 2012, Lambda provides cloud services and software for training and deploying AI models, servicing over 200 thousand developers, and also rents out servers powered by Nvidia’s graphics processing units.

The new infrastructure with Microsoft will include the NVIDIA GB300 NVL72 systems, which are also deployed by hyperscaler CoreWeave, according to a release.

“We love Nvidia’s product,” Balaban said. “They have the best accelerator product on the market.”

The company has dozens of data centers and is planning to continue not only leasing data centers but also constructing its own infrastructure as well, Balaban said.

Earlier in October, Lambda announced plans to open an AI factory in Kansas City in 2026. The site is expected to launch with 24 megawatts of capacity with the potential to scale up to over 100 MW.

OpenAI signs $38B deal with Amazon: Here's what to know

Continue Reading

Technology

Tesla faces widening federal probe into door handle safety issues

Published

on

By

Tesla faces widening federal probe into door handle safety issues

Tesla models Y and 3 are displayed at a Tesla showroom in Corte Madera, California, on Dec. 20, 2024.

Justin Sullivan | Getty Images

Tesla has been ordered to provide records to U.S. federal auto safety regulators to comply with a sweeping investigation into possible safety defects with the company’s flush-mounted, retractable door handles that can lead to people getting trapped.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said in a letter to Elon Musk‘s automaker that the agency continued to receive complaints from Tesla owners after the regulators initiated a probe in September.

Owners said they were unable to enter or exit their cars due to battery power loss and other situations impeding normal use of the doorhandles.

In some cases, owners’ children were trapped inside hot vehicles, requiring first responder interventions or breaking windows to open the doors.

NHTSA’s Office of Defects Investigations said they had “received 16 reports of exterior door handles becoming inoperative due to low 12VDC battery voltage in certain MY 2021 Tesla Model Y vehicles,” as of October 27, 2025.

Read more CNBC tech news

The agency began the electronic door handles investigation into Tesla following a Bloomberg report bringing incidents to light. The news agency reported that people were injured or died after becoming trapped in Tesla vehicles after collisions or battery power losses that prevented doors from opening normally.

Tesla design leader Franz Von Holzhausen has said in subsequent press interviews that the company would change the design of its door handles.

Tesla competitors, including Rivian, are also reconsidering flush-mounted, or retractable door handle designs.

Volkswagen CEO Thomas Schäfer recently said his company’s customers don’t even want the flush-mounted, electronic doorhandles and VW has no plans to adopt them.

Meanwhile, China is expected to implement new vehicle safety standards around door handles, including a requirement to have more clearly marked, accessible and easier-to-use emergency, interior door release mechanisms.

China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has released draft standards and comments are open through November 22.

The NHTSA Tesla probe seeks records concerning all model year, “2021 Tesla Model Y vehicles manufactured for sale or lease in the United States,” as well as “peer vehicles,” including Tesla Model 3 and Model Y vehicles from model years 2017 to 2022, and “systems related to opening doors including, door handles, door latches, 12VDC batteries, software,” and other components.

Tesla has until Dec. 10 to provide the records.

While Tesla can seek an extension on the deadline from NHTSA, it may face fines of “$27,874 per violation per day, with a maximum of $139,356,994” if the company either fails to or refuses to “respond completely, accurately, or in a timely manner” to NHTSA’s information requests, the agency cautioned in its letter.

Continue Reading

Technology

Cramer: Amazon-OpenAI cloud deal puts an exclamation point on a remarkable few days

Published

on

By

Cramer: Amazon-OpenAI cloud deal puts an exclamation point on a remarkable few days

Continue Reading

Trending