Connect with us

Published

on

Jaque Silva | SOPA Images | Lightrocket | Getty Images

Brazil’s supreme court on Friday ordered a nationwide suspension of Elon Musk’s social network X after the company vowed to defy earlier court orders concerning content moderation and the appointment of a legal representative in Brazil.

The court’s top judge, Alexandre de Moraes, has also ordered daily fines for people or businesses in Brazil that use VPNs or other methods to access X while the site is banned in the country, G1 Globo reported.

The court issued a statement via its government website in Brazil on Friday, saying that it had ordered “the immediate and complete suspension of the operation of X, formerly Twitter, throughout the national territory until the Court’s judicial decisions are complied with and the fines applied are paid.” The statement also said that the order will be valid “until a representative of the company in the country is appointed.”

Brazil’s supreme court had announced on Wednesday that Musk and X Corp. had 24 hours to either appoint a legal representative for their business in Brazil or face a “penalty of suspension of activities” there. The deadline passed on Thursday evening.

X said in a statement on Thursday evening that it was expecting the de Moraes shutdown “soon,” because the company “would not comply” with his orders.

Brazil, a major non-NATO ally of the U.S., is now preparing for October municipal elections. Under Brazil’s laws, social media companies operating in the country must employ someone to handle government takedown notices, including about political misinformation and incitements to violence.

X has no such representative in Brazil, and it said earlier this month that it would remove all its employees from the country rather than face any possible arrests over non-compliance with court orders.

A suspension of X in Brazil could cause serious business problems for Musk’s already embattled social network. Brazil has a population of more than 171 million active social media users, according to market research by Oosga.

Musk and his co-investors paid $44 billion to acquire the company then known as Twitter in late 2022. After he implemented sweeping changes to the social network, then reinstated previously banned and suspended accounts, many major advertisers fled or opted to spend far less on campaigns there than they did in prior years.

Most recently, the World Bank stopped paying for campaigns on X after a CBS News investigation found ads from the organization appeared under a racist post from an X account that regularly posted “pro-Nazi and white nationalist content.”

One major X investor, Fidelity, has revealed in financial statements this year that it believes the company’s value had fallen by more than 70% since the buyout.

Musk lashed out at de Moraes in a series of livid posts after the court had frozen the finances of Starlink — the satellite internet service provided by Musk’s aerospace venture, SpaceX — in Brazil. After the court fined X for alleged violations of Brazilian law, it froze Starlink finances in the country to ensure those fines would be paid.

On Friday, Musk compared de Moraes to a movie villain, Voldemort, in social media posts.

This story is developing. Please check back for updates.

Continue Reading

Technology

Amazon extends Prime Day to four days, starting July 8

Published

on

By

Amazon extends Prime Day to four days, starting July 8

An Amazon worker moves boxes on Amazon Prime Day in the East Village of New York City, July 11, 2023.

Spencer Platt | Getty Images

Amazon is extending its Prime Day discount bonanza, announcing that the annual sale will run four days this year.

The 96-hour event will start at 12:01 a.m. PT on July 8, and continue through July 11, Amazon said in a release.

For the first time, the company will roll out themed “deal drops” that change daily and are available “while supplies last.” Amazon has in recent years toyed with adding more limited-run and invite-only deals during Prime Day events to create a feeling of urgency or scarcity.

Amazon launched Prime Day in 2015 as a way to secure new members for its $139-a-year loyalty program, and to promote its own products and services while providing a sales boost in the middle of the year. In 2019, the company made Prime Day a 48-hour event, and it’s since added a second Prime Day-like event in the fall.

Prime Day is also a significant revenue driver for other retailers, which often host competing discount events.

WATCH: How Amazon is using AI to revolutionize robotics

How Amazon is using AI to revolutionize robotics

Continue Reading

Technology

SK Hynix shares extend gains to over 2-decade highs as parent group reportedly plans AI data center

Published

on

By

SK Hynix shares extend gains to over 2-decade highs as parent group reportedly plans AI data center

Illustration of the SK Hynix company logo seen displayed on a smartphone screen.

Sopa Images | Lightrocket | Getty Images

Shares in South Korea’s SK Hynix extended gains to hit a more than 2-decade high on Tuesday, following reports over the weekend that SK Group plans to build the country’s largest AI data center.

SK Hynix shares, which have surged almost 50% so far this year on the back of an AI boom, were up nearly 3%, following gains on Monday. 

The company’s parent, SK Group, plans to build the AI data center in partnership with Amazon Web Services in Ulsan, according to domestic media. SK Telecom and SK Broadband are reportedly leading the initiative, with support from other affiliates, including SK Hynix. 

SK Hynix is a leading supplier of dynamic random access memory or DRAM — a type of semiconductor memory found in PCs, workstations and servers that is used to store data and program code.

The company’s DRAM rival, Samsung, was also trading up 4% on Tuesday. However, it’s growth has fallen behind that of SK Hynix.

On Friday, Samsung Electronics’ market cap reportedly slid to a 9-year low of 345.1 trillion won ($252 billion) as the chipmaker struggles to capitalize on AI-led demand. 

SK Hynix, on the other hand, has become a leader in high bandwidth memory — a type of DRAM used in artificial intelligence servers — supplying to clients such as AI behemoth Nvidia. 

A report from Counterpoint Research in April said that SK Hynix had captured 70% of the HBM market by revenue share in the first quarter.

This HBM strength helped it overtake Samsung in the overall DRAM market for the first time ever, with a 36% global market share as compared to Samsung’s 34%. 

Continue Reading

Technology

OpenAI wins $200 million U.S. defense contract

Published

on

By

OpenAI wins 0 million U.S. defense contract

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman speaks during the Snowflake Summit in San Francisco on June 2, 2025.

Justin Sullivan | Getty Images News | Getty Images

OpenAI has been awarded a $200 million contract to provide the U.S. Defense Department with artificial intelligence tools.

The department announced the one-year contract on Monday, months after OpenAI said it would collaborate with defense technology startup Anduril to deploy advanced AI systems for “national security missions.”

“Under this award, the performer will develop prototype frontier AI capabilities to address critical national security challenges in both warfighting and enterprise domains,” the Defense Department said. It’s the first contract with OpenAI listed on the Department of Defense’s website.

Anduril received a $100 million defense contract in December. Weeks earlier, OpenAI rival Anthropic said it would work with Palantir and Amazon to supply its AI models to U.S. defense and intelligence agencies.

Sam Altman, OpenAI’s co-founder and CEO, said in a discussion with OpenAI board member and former National Security Agency leader Paul Nakasone at a Vanderbilt University event in April that “we have to and are proud to and really want to engage in national security areas.”

OpenAI did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The Defense Department specified that the contract is with OpenAI Public Sector LLC, and that the work will mostly occur in the National Capital Region, which encompasses Washington, D.C., and several nearby counties in Maryland and Virginia.

Meanwhile, OpenAI is working to build additional computing power in the U.S. In January, Altman appeared alongside President Donald Trump at the White House to announce the $500 billion Stargate project to build AI infrastructure in the U.S.

The new contract will represent a small portion of revenue at OpenAI, which is generating over $10 billion in annualized sales. In March, the company announced a $40 billion financing round at a $300 billion valuation.

In April, Microsoft, which supplies cloud infrastructure to OpenAI, said the U.S. Defense Information Systems Agency has authorized the use of the Azure OpenAI service with secret classified information. 

WATCH: OpenAI hits $10 billion in annual recurring revenue

OpenAI hits $10 billion in annual recurring revenue

Continue Reading

Trending