Activity

SpaceX deployed Starlink for disaster relief during Hurricanes Helene and Milton in October 2024, delivering more than 10,000 Starlink kits to affected areas. Initial offer required $349 equipment purchase with only one month free service, drawing criticism. SpaceX subsequently extended free service through end of 2024. The company also activated direct-to-cell emergency texting via T-Mobile partnership after FCC granted emergency authorization.

Meta faces a lawsuit from Ferras Hamad, a Palestinian-American engineer who claims he was fired for attempting to fix bugs that suppressed Palestinian posts on Instagram. Hamad found content by Palestinian photojournalist Motaz Azaiza was misclassified as pornographic. The lawsuit alleges Meta deleted internal employee communications mentioning relatives killed in Gaza and investigated employees for using the Palestinian flag emoji.

Unlike many tech companies rolling back DEI initiatives in 2024-2025, Nvidia maintained its 'Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging' programs and released its 2024 Sustainability Report with a dedicated section on diversity. However, the company has faced internal criticism, with a former employee noting that Black employees represented only 0.08% of the workforce (about 90 out of 11,000+ employees) and that three Black employee resource group presidents left within six months after being 'passed up for promotion.'

In October 2024, Patrick Collison donated $200,000 to Republican PACs including $83,000 to the National Republican Congressional Committee and $58,300 each to PACs for congressmen Andy Barr and French Hill (pro-crypto House Financial Services Committee leaders). This marked a dramatic shift - since 2016, Collison had regularly backed Democrats including Hillary Clinton and Nancy Pelosi.

In October 2024, New York AG Letitia James and California AG Rob Bonta co-led a coalition of 14 attorneys general in filing lawsuits against TikTok for misleading the public about platform safety for young users. Internal documents revealed TikTok's own 60-minute time limit tool only reduced usage by 1.5 minutes (from 108.5 to 107 minutes/day) and the company measured its success by media coverage rather than actual harm reduction. The lawsuits alleged TikTok violated state consumer protection laws and that dangerous 'challenges' on the platform led to injuries, hospitalizations, and deaths.

Reid Hoffman donated more than $10 million to Future Forward USA PAC supporting Kamala Harris's presidential campaign. He has given more than $55 million to Democrats over the past four years and nearly $9 million to the Wisconsin Democratic Party since 2020.

Oracle CEO Safra Catz donated $1 million to Preserve America PAC in 2024, a super PAC that spent over $112 million to support Trump and oppose Kamala Harris. She also donated tens of thousands to Republican committees including the NRCC and NRSC.

In October 2024, Micron received $6.1 billion in grants from the US CHIPS and Science Act to support construction of semiconductor fabrication facilities in Clay, New York and Boise, Idaho. The New York facility represents up to $100 billion in investment over 20+ years and is expected to create over 70,000 jobs. The investment supports domestic semiconductor manufacturing and reduces dependence on foreign chip production.

Under Jassy's leadership, Amazon conducted multiple rounds of corporate layoffs totaling over 27,000 employees, including 14,000 in October 2024 and 16,000 in January 2026. Jassy publicly attributed layoffs to culture and bureaucracy reduction, setting a goal to increase the contributor-to-manager ratio by 15%. However, he also stated in June 2024 that AI efficiency gains would cause the corporate workforce to shrink. Employee groups reported the messaging made them feel expendable.

Bill Gates donated $50 million to Future Forward, a nonprofit Democratic-aligned PAC supporting Kamala Harris's presidential campaign. The donation was intended to remain private but was reported by the New York Times. Gates had previously stated in 2019 that he chose not to participate in large political donations, making this a notable departure.

GyroGear's GyroGlove, a hand-stabilizing device for people with Parkinson's disease and hand tremors, was recognized by TIME Magazine as one of the Best Inventions of 2024. The device uses gyroscopic technology to reduce hand tremors, helping people with Parkinson's disease perform daily tasks more easily.

The Financial Conduct Authority fined Starling Bank £28,959,426 for systemic failures in anti-money laundering and sanctions screening controls. Since 2017, Starling's automated screening system had only checked customers against a fraction of the UK sanctions list. Despite agreeing to FCA restrictions, Starling opened over 54,000 accounts for 49,000 high-risk customers between September 2021 and November 2023. The FCA said controls 'did not keep pace' with growth from 43,000 to 3.6 million customers.

Qualcomm agreed to pay $75 million in 2024 to settle shareholder lawsuit alleging the company defrauded investors by hiding its anticompetitive sales and licensing practices from February 2012 to January 2017. Shareholders accused Qualcomm of artificially inflating share price by describing chip sales and licensing as separate when it bundled them to stifle competition. Former CEOs Paul Jacobs and Steven Mollenkopf were named defendants but denied wrongdoing.

In 2024, the Tails privacy-focused operating system merged its operations with the Tor Project. Tails, which routes all internet traffic through Tor by default, had been a standalone project since 2009. The merger consolidated two key privacy infrastructure projects under one organizational umbrella, strengthening both.

In early 2024, Mozilla updated Firefox's privacy policy with language that some privacy advocates found concerning, including broader terms around data usage. While Mozilla clarified the changes were about transparency rather than new data collection, noyb filed a GDPR complaint against Mozilla over Firefox's 'Privacy Preserving Attribution' feature, arguing it turned Firefox into a tracking tool.

In September 2024, Mullenweg publicly attacked WP Engine as a 'cancer to WordPress' and demanded 8% of revenue ($32M) as trademark licensing. When WP Engine declined, he blocked their access to WordPress.org, disrupting over a million websites. He then seized WP Engine's ACF plugin without review. WP Engine sued for extortion, unfair competition, and defamation. A court granted a preliminary injunction restoring WP Engine's access. 159 Automattic employees (8.4%) took buyout packages to leave.

Mira Murati resigned as OpenAI CTO in September 2024, announcing her departure via a memo to staff. She had served as interim CEO during the November 2023 board crisis. Her departure was part of a broader executive exodus that included co-founders and senior researchers leaving OpenAI throughout 2024.

Despite laying off 15,000+ employees in 2024, Intel maintained its DEI commitments. The company has set goals to achieve full representation of underrepresented minorities and women in its US workforce by 2030. Intel achieved its 2020 diversity goal two years ahead of schedule and reached 100% gender pay equity globally in 2019. Intel Capital has invested over $830 million in companies with diverse leadership teams. Intel won the Phoenix Business Journal's Corporate Inclusion Award in September 2024.

Khosla repeatedly stated that AI will be able to do 80% of 80% of all jobs by 2030, affecting roles from doctors to farm workers. Rather than dismissing the disruption, he advocated for Universal Basic Income and proposed the U.S. government take a 10% stake in all public corporations to redistribute wealth. He published 'AI: Dystopia or Utopia?' arguing that policy choices around UBI and wealth redistribution will determine whether AI benefits humanity. He acknowledged the 10-25 year transition 'could be very messy.'

In September 2024, Automattic CEO Matt Mullenweg escalated a trademark dispute with WP Engine by publicly calling them a 'cancer to WordPress,' blocking WP Engine's access to WordPress.org resources, and demanding they pay trademark licensing fees. WP Engine sued Automattic. The dispute disrupted the WordPress ecosystem and drew widespread criticism for using control of WordPress.org infrastructure as leverage in a commercial dispute.

Uber expanded 'Record My Ride' feature to drivers in all 50 states on September 18, 2024, following successful pilot program. Feature allows drivers to use front-facing camera on their smartphone to record video and audio during trips without need to invest in separate dashcam. Every recording is encrypted and stored directly on drivers' devices - nobody including Uber, riders, or other drivers can access recordings unless driver chooses to send it in for review. Feature provides drivers with evidence protection tool in case of disputes or safety incidents while protecting rider privacy through encryption and local-only storage.

Uber launched nationwide rider verification system on September 18, 2024, allowing drivers to see 'Verified' badge for riders who underwent additional verification steps. System reviews rider account details such as names and phone numbers and cross-references them with trusted third-party databases. Majority of riders are verified automatically without additional action. Riders can also upload government-issued identification along with selfie for verification. Feature aims to improve driver safety and confidence in accepting trip requests. Announced at 'Only on Uber' event in Washington, DC.

In September 2024, the EU General Court upheld a €238.7 million ($265.5M) fine against Qualcomm for predatory pricing below cost during 2009-2011. Qualcomm sold UMTS chipsets to Huawei and ZTE below cost to eliminate UK competitor Icera (later acquired by Nvidia). The court found Qualcomm abused its dominant position through pricing strategy designed to exclude competitors.

In September 2024, ARM published its Sustainable Business Report covering April 2023-March 2024 'with reference to' Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) 2021 Universal Standards. The report addresses emissions and resource use throughout operations, reflecting commitment to cut emissions and longstanding partnerships for environmental progress. ARM aims to reduce environmental impact and enable the ecosystem to do more with less through its power-efficient compute platform. In 2025, ARM reduced Scope 1 and 2 emissions despite business growth.

All seven independent board members of 23andMe resigned in September 2024, citing concerns about CEO Anne Wojcicki's plan to take the company private, leaving her as the sole remaining board member.

Meta unveiled Instagram Teen Accounts which defaults users aged 13-18 to private accounts, limits sensitive content, turns off notifications at night, and prevents messaging from unconnected adults. Represents significant policy shift amid ongoing litigation.

Cisco laid off over 9,000 workers in 2024: ~4,000 in February (5%) and another 5,600 in September (7%). Total cost was nearly $2 billion. Employees reported the company refused to say who was affected until September 16, over a month after the August announcement. Meanwhile, CEO Robbins' compensation rose to $38.2 million in 2024, with a 267-to-1 pay ratio.

Andy Jassy announced a mandatory 5-day-per-week return-to-office policy for all Amazon corporate employees, effective January 2, 2025. This reversed earlier flexible work commitments. Surveys showed 91% employee dissatisfaction, and 73% considered quitting. Experts noted the mandate may have been intended to reduce headcount through attrition. Jassy claimed the decision was about culture, not cost-cutting.

In September 2024, Dahl launched a petition to cancel Oracle's trademark on 'JavaScript', gathering over 14,000 signatures. In November 2024, the Deno team filed a formal petition with the USPTO for cancellation, arguing Oracle has not used the trademark in commerce and its control harms the JavaScript community.

OpenAI President Greg Brockman made a $12.5 million donation to MAGA Inc. super PAC in September 2024, making him one of the top donors to the Trump-aligned super PAC. His wife Anna also donated $12.5 million the same day. Brockman stated the donations reflected 'support for policies that advance American innovation and constructive dialogue between government and the technology sector.'