Issue #50

Greenland not for sale, Nvidia claims they’re beating Moore’s Law, Kraken emerges from Octopus, and more.

News from January 2 - January 9, 2025

Greenland Not For Sale

Former President Trump has revived his interest in acquiring Greenland, coinciding with Donald Trump Jr.'s announced visit to the Arctic territory. Trump stated on Truth Social that Greenland would "benefit tremendously" as part of the United States.

Denmark, which provides Greenland with an annual $550mn grant, faces a diplomatic challenge as the territory approaches April elections. Prime Minister Muté Egede advocates for independence while maintaining Greenland is "not for sale."

Musk: "The people of Greenland should decide their future and I think they want to be part of America!"

Source 

Zuck Ends Fact Checking 

Facebook owner Meta will end its third-party fact-checking program, shifting to user-led content moderation as it prepares for Trump's presidency. The $1.59tn company announced plans to "allow more speech" and reduce automated content filtering, particularly around topics like immigration and gender.

The move follows Zuckerberg's recent Mar-a-Lago visit and Meta's appointment of UFC founder Dana White, a prominent Trump supporter, to its board. In response, Telegram founder Pavel Durov challenged Meta's motives.

Durov: "Our values don't depend on US electoral cycles... the real test will come once the political winds change again"

Source

Nvidia Claims They’re Beating Moore’s Law 

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang declares the company's AI chips are advancing faster than Moore's Law, the long-standing benchmark for computing progress. Huang claims they can "move faster than Moore's Law" by innovating across the entire technology stack simultaneously.

The bold statement comes as Nvidia, now Earth's most valuable company, rides the AI boom to record profits. Their latest data center superchip reportedly performs 30x faster for AI tasks than its previous generation, with Huang claiming their chips are 1,000x more powerful than a decade ago – far outpacing Moore's Law's prediction of doubling performance every two years.

Source 

Bulletin Board

• Europe Can Still Win the AI Race. Skype co-founder Niklas Zennström says European tech companies can succeed by building AI tools on top of US platforms like OpenAI, rather than competing directly. US companies spent $48bn on AI in 2023-24, dwarfing European investment, but Zennström remains optimistic. Zennström: "It's not like everyone needs to be a large language model... You can create value as an application provider." Source 
• Dell Rebrands. Dell Technologies is abandoning decades-old product names like XPS and Inspiron, replacing them with three simple tiers: Dell, Dell Pro, and Dell Pro Max. The shift mirrors Apple's iPhone naming strategy, drawing criticism at CES for lack of originality. Audience Member: "I am wondering why you guys didn't choose something original, because you essentially have Apple's branding here." Source 
• Doctor Performs Long Distance Surgery. A Spanish surgeon performed the world's first Europe-to-Asia robotic kidney surgery, operating from Bordeaux, France on a patient in Beijing, 8,264 km away. Dr. Alberto Breda successfully completed the transcontinental nephrectomy with only 132 milliseconds of delay. The 37-year-old patient was discharged the day after the tumor removal and is recovering without complications. The milestone operation, conducted at ERUS 2024, signals the emergence of global "tele-surgery" capabilities for future remote procedures and training. Source 
• Kraken Emerges from Octopus. Octopus Energy's software platform Kraken, initially developed for internal use, now manages over 60mn energy accounts worldwide. The system, which Octopus licenses to other utilities including EDF and Tokyo Gas, helps manage complex renewable energy systems and customer billing, with founder Greg Jackson suggesting their 100mn accounts target by 2027 is "embarrassingly unambitious." Source 
• Londoners Having Babies Late. London women aged 40-44 are having babies at double the rate of other regions, with 20.9 births per 1,000 women. The trend reflects the capital's unique pressures, where residents spend 12 times their annual salary on housing and prioritize career establishment. Ann Berrington, demography professor: "It is not surprising that London has a very late pattern of childbearing.” Source  

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