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A man wearing Abbott’s Lingo biosensor.

Courtesy of Abbott

Abbott Laboratories announced Thursday its over-the-counter continuous glucose monitor Lingo is available in the U.S. starting at $49. 

Lingo is part of an emerging class of consumer-friendly biosensors that people can use to learn how their bodies respond to food, exercise, sleep and stress. These devices, called continuous glucose monitors, are small sensors that stick through the skin to measure real-time glucose levels. Glucose is a sugar molecule that comes from food, and it’s the body’s main energy source.

Continuous glucose monitors have served as tools for patients with diabetes, but Lingo is not intended for diabetes management. Instead, it’s designed for adults who do not take insulin and want to “improve their overall health and wellness,” according to a release. 

Everyone’s glucose levels fluctuate, but consistently high levels can cause more serious health problems like metabolic disease, insulin resistance and heart disease, Abbott said. The company argues Lingo can educate users about existing habits and help them learn to manage their glucose in healthier ways.

“That’s really the goal, is to not only see and understand what’s happening inside your body, but to be able to improve on that, to be able to build these healthy habits that drive those changes,” Ben Fohner, the director of Abbott’s Lingo app, told CNBC in an interview. 

Abbott already offers continuous glucose monitors for diabetes patients in the U.S., so the company is looking to break into an entirely new market with Lingo. About 1 in 3 Americans have prediabetes, for instance, but these patients typically don’t qualify for prescriptions or insurance coverage for the monitors. 

Now, they can pay for the sensors out of pocket without a prescription. Users can buy one sensor online for $49, two sensors for $89 or six sensors for $249, Abbott said. Each sensor is worn on the upper arm for up to 14 days. 

Olivier Ropars, Abbott’s divisional vice president of Lingo, said the company decided to offer three different pricing options so curious consumers won’t feel intimidated by a lengthy commitment. A customer can opt to buy just one sensor to try for a couple of weeks.

“We want to make it as accessible and affordable as possible,” Ropars told CNBC in an interview. 

Abbott’s competitor, Dexcom, is also eyeing the prediabetes market. The company released its over-the-counter continuous glucose monitor geared toward this demographic in late August. Dexcom’s device is called Stelo, and is available in the U.S. for $89 a month. Patients with Type 2 diabetes who do not take insulin can also use it, the company said.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved Dexcom’s Stelo in March, and it cleared two over-the-counter continuous glucose monitoring systems from Abbott in June. One of Abbott’s systems was Lingo, and the second system, called Libre Rio, is intended for patients with Type 2 diabetes who do not take insulin.

Though Type 2 patients who are not taking insulin could technically use Lingo, Ropars said Abbott’s recommendation is to primarily use Libre Rio since it is specifically designed for them. The company declined to share when Libre Rio will be available.

The Lingo app

Abbott’s Lingo app.

Courtesy of Abbott

Like many continuous glucose monitors, Lingo transmits data wirelessly to an app. When users open it, they’ll see a real-time reading of their glucose data that’s updated every minute. 

Those glucose readings are plotted on a graph, which includes a shaded area to indicate a “healthy range.” Fohner said Abbott’s clinical team defines this range as 140 milligrams per deciliter to 70 milligrams per deciliter.

One of Abbott’s primary goals is to help Lingo users learn about glucose spikes, which occur when the amount of sugar present in the bloodstream rapidly increases and then decreases. Glucose spikes commonly occur after eating. 

Spikes can push a user’s glucose reading above the healthy range, but they can also occur within the healthy range. Limiting spikes and improving glucose management overall can help users improve their sleep and mood, manage their weight, and be proactive about their future health, Abbott said.

To help users conceptualize the impact of their spikes, Abbott created a metric called the “Lingo Count.” It’s an algorithm that assigns a numeric value to each glucose spike, and it’s supposed to represent how significant the impact is. Over each day, users have a target Lingo Count that they want to aim to stay below. 

Abbott’s Lingo app.

Courtesy of Abbott

Users can see this data represented on a second, more interactive glucose graph when they scroll down Lingo’s home page. A number will appear in the shaded area beneath a spike, which represents the Lingo Count for that spike. 

“It’s unique to Lingo, but really that number is an indicator and a function of, how high did your spike go, how long did it last, and what was the impact that that spike had on your body,” Fohner said. 

Users can analyze Lingo Count data and see how they are doing over time, as well as what time of day they tend to experience the most dramatic spikes. They can also participate in challenges and access educational resources to learn how to reduce those spikes.  

Ropars said metabolism doesn’t change overnight, and everyone’s bodies work differently. He said Lingo can serve as a window into how and why a user’s glucose levels vary. But the real value of Lingo, Ropars said, is the support it can offer users as they try to establish healthy habits.

“A lot of our products today are geared toward helping people that are experiencing a chronic disease or sickness and trying to get back on track,” he said. “Here, this is the first time we’re doing a product that is helping people, improving their daily life, taking control of their health before they get sick”

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Nintendo’s Switch 2 has powered a $39 billion rally this year

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June 18, 2025

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Nintendo's Switch 2 has powered a billion rally this year

Nintendo Co. Switch 2 game consoles at a Bic Camera Inc. electronics store in Tokyo, Japan, on Thursday, June 5, 2025. Nintendo Co. fans from Tokyo to Manhattan stood in line for hours to be among the first to get a Switch 2, fueling one of the biggest global gadget debuts since the iPhone launches of yesteryear.

Kiyoshi Ota | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Nintendo shares hit a fresh record high on Wednesday, continuing this year’s massive rally that has been fueled by hype around the company’s newly released Switch 2 console.

Shares of the Japanese gaming giant have jumped 46% this year, adding roughly $39 billion to the stock’s value, according to a CNBC calculation of data from S&P Capital IQ.

The Switch 2 is the successor of the original Switch console, which was released in 2017. Nintendo unveiled details of the Switch 2 in January, and the device went on sale this month, leading to shortages of the console in some markets and even to stores operating special opening hours.

Nintendo this month said it sold 3.5 million units of the Switch 2 in the four days following its launch. The company has previously forecast sales of 15 million units in its fiscal year ending March 2026, though many analysts say that is a modest estimate and expect Nintendo to achieve higher numbers.

Nintendo’s original Switch is its second-most successful console in history, selling over 152 million units since its launch to the quarter ended March this year. Its appeal lies in its hybrid nature — users can play the console on a TV, but can also detach it to use it on the go.

Investors are hoping the Switch 2 will replicate the success of its predecessor.

Nintendo has boosted the the success of its consoles through games involving strong franchises with characters and brands like Super Mario, Zelda and Pokemon. And the company has used its recognizable intellectual property and licensed it to movies and theme parks, boosting the success of its core video game product.

For Nintendo investors, that strategy has paid off. Since March 2017, when the original Switch was released, Nintendo shares have surged nearly 470%, according to S&P Capital IQ data. More than $81 billion has been added to the company’s market capitalization over that period.

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Sam Altman says Meta offered OpenAI staff $100 million bonuses, as Mark Zuckerberg ramps up AI poaching efforts

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June 18, 2025

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Sam Altman says Meta offered OpenAI staff 0 million bonuses, as Mark Zuckerberg ramps up AI poaching efforts

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

Justin Sullivan | Getty Images News | Getty Images

Meta Platforms tried to poach OpenAI employees by offering signing bonuses as high as $100 million, with even larger annual compensation packages, OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman said.

While Meta had sought to hire “a lot of people” from OpenAI, “so far none of our best people have decided to take them up on that,” Altman said, speaking on the “Uncapped” podcast, which is hosted by his brother.

“I’ve heard that Meta thinks of us as their biggest competitor,” he said. “Their current AI efforts have not worked as well as they have hoped and I respect being aggressive and continuing to try new things.”

Meta did not immediately respond to a request for comment from CNBC.

The Meta CEO is personally trying to assemble a top artificial intelligence team for its “superintelligence” AI lab and has invested heavily in AI through its Meta AI research division, which also oversees its Llama series of open-source large language models.

The moves come after Meta had once again delayed the release of its latest flagship AI model due to concerns about its capabilities, according to a report from the Wall Street Journal.

Meanwhile, sources have previously told CNBC that Zuckerberg has become so frustrated with Meta’s standing in AI that he’s willing to invest billions in top talent. 

Last week Alexandr Wang, founder of Scale AI, announced he was leaving for Meta as part of a deal that saw the Facebook parent dish out $14.3 billion for a 49% stake in the AI startup. Wang added that a small number of Scale AI employees would also join Meta as part of the agreement. 

What Meta's Scale AI deal reveals about the battle for top AI talent

The Times had previously reported that Wang would head a research lab pursuing “superintelligence,” an AI system that surpasses human intelligence.

The company has also recently poached other top talent, including Jack Rae, a principal researcher at Google’s AI research laboratory DeepMind, according to a report from Bloomberg. The report added that Zuckerberg had been directly involved with the recruitment efforts. 

Speaking on the podcast, which was released on Tuesday, Altman said that Meta’s strategy of offering a large, upfront, guaranteed compensation would detract from the actual work and not set up a winning culture.

“I think that there’s a lot of people, and Meta will be a new one, that are saying ‘we’re just going to try to copy OpenAI,'” he added. “That basically never works. You’re always going to where your competitor was, and you don’t build up a culture of learning what it’s like to innovate.”

However, spending big on startups and their talent is nothing new to the AI space. Former Apple chief design officer Jony Ive joined OpenAI after the company acquired Ive’s AI devices startup io through a $6.4 billion all-equity deal last month.

Some tech analysts have also pushed back against the notion that Meta has been missing the mark on AI.

“They basically built the rails for open source AI development, and so much of what is happening in AI is being built on Meta,” Daniel Newman, CEO at Futurum Group, told CNBC’s “Power Lunch” last week. 

Open-source generally refers to software in which the source code is made freely available on the web for possible modification and redistribution. Llama’s open-source characteristics have allowed many third-party applications to be built on top of it.  

Newman added that Meta’s massive investments, such as in ScaleAI, will continue to push it forward in training its behemoth models.

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Trump to extend TikTok deadline for third time, pushing decision out another 90 days

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13 hours ago

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June 17, 2025

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Trump to extend TikTok deadline for third time, pushing decision out another 90 days

Muhammed Selim Korkutata | Anadolu | Getty Images

For a third time since taking office in January, President Donald Trump plans to extend a deadline that would require China’s ByteDance to divest TikTok’s U.S. business.

“President Trump will sign an additional Executive Order this week to keep TikTok up and running,” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement. “As he has said many times, President Trump does not want TikTok to go dark. This extension will last 90 days, which the Administration will spend working to ensure this deal is closed so that the American people can continue to use TikTok with the assurance that their data is safe and secure.”

ByteDance was nearing the deadline of June 19, to sell TikTok’s U.S. operations in order to satisfy a national security law that the Supreme Court upheld just a few days before Trump’s second presidential inauguration. Under the law, app store operators like Apple and Google and internet service providers would be penalized for supporting TikTok.

ByteDance originally faced a Jan. 19 deadline to comply with the national security law, but Trump signed an executive order when he first took office that pushed the deadline to April 5. Trump extended the deadline for the second time a day before that April mark.

Trump told NBC News in May that he would extend the TikTok deadline again if no deal was reached, and he reiterated his plans on Thursday.

Prior to Trump signing the first executive order, TikTok briefly went offline in the U.S. for a day, only to return after the president’s announcement. Apple and Google also removed TikTok from the Apple App Store and Google Play during TikTok’s initial U.S. shut down, but then reinstated the app to their respective app stores in February.

Multiple parties including Oracle, AppLovin, and Billionaire Frank McCourt’s Project Liberty consortium have expressed interest in buying TikTok’s U.S. operations. It’s unclear whether the Chinese government would approve a deal.

— CNBC’s Kevin Breuninger contributed to this report

WATCH: Project Liberty’s bid for TikTok is aligned with U.S. national security priorities.

Frank McCourt: Project Liberty's bid for TikTok is aligned with U.S. national security priorities

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