What happens when a chemical engineer, who’s previously built a hydrogen-powered drone, becomes a venture capitalist? Energy Revolution Ventures (ERV), that’s what. The VC has now closed an $18 million seed and Series A fund to invest in deep tech, such as energy storage, carbon capture, and, yes, hydrogen technologies. Marcus Clover, co-founder and partner […]
The No. 1 nuisance with smartphones and smartwatches is that we need to charge them every day. As warm-blooded creatures, however, we generate heat all the time, and that heat can be converted into electricity for some of the electronic gadgetry we carry.
Flexible thermoelectric devices, or F-TEDs, can convert thermal energy into electric power. The problem is that F-TEDs weren’t actually flexible enough to comfortably wear or efficient enough to power even a smartwatch. They were also very expensive to make.
But now, a team of Australian researchers thinks they finally achieved a breakthrough that might take F-TEDs off the ground.
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said he will not lower the conscription age.
Viktor Kovalchuk/Global Images Ukraine via Getty Images
Zelenskyy rejected US pressure to lower the draft age from 25 to 18.
The US had suggested the reduction to address manpower shortages in the conflict.
Zelenskyy emphasized the need for military aid instead.
Ukraine's President, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, has rejected US calls to lower its military recruitment age to 18 to help increase the number of soldiers fighting against Russia.
"We must not compensate the lack of equipment and training with the youth of soldiers," Zelenskyy said in a post on X on Monday.
"The priority should be providing missiles and lowering Russia's military potential, not Ukraine's draft age," continued the post.
"The goal should be to preserve as many lives as possible, not to preserve weapons in storages."
The post was in response to US State Department Spokesperson Matthew Miller's comment on Monday that the US was ready to train and arm new soldiers if Ukraine changed its conscription policy. The current minimum conscription age is 25.
"What we have made clear is that if they produce additional forces to join the fight, we and our allies will be ready to equip those forces and train those forces to enter battle," said Miller in a press briefing.
Zelenskyy previously resisted the idea in November when an anonymous US administration official told reporters that reducing the draft age would help Ukraine keep up with Russia's military.
"The simple truth is that Ukraine is not currently mobilizing or training enough soldiers to replace their battlefield losses while keeping pace with Russia's growing military," the senior official had said, according to The Financial Times.
In a speech to the parliament, Zelenskyy said: "Let there be no speculation — our state is not preparing to lower the mobilization age."
However, manpower shortages on the battlefield remain a key problem for the Ukrainians.
War analyst Michael Kofman told BI earlier this year that Ukraine's "manning situation is the kind of thing that's probably going to get worse before it gets better."
Earlier this year, a Ukrainian service member told The Washington Post that the companies in his battalion were staffed at 35% of normal levels.
Meta is looking for nuclear energy developers to power its AI ambitions.
Fabrice COFFRINI/AFP/Getty Images
Meta is seeking nuclear energy developers to power its AI and sustainability goals.
The company said in a blog post it's targeting delivery of the project in the early 2030s.
Meta is not alone in turning to nuclear power, with Microsoft and Google making investments.
Meta is looking for nuclear energy developers to power its AI ambitions.
On Tuesday, Meta said in a blog post that it's targeting 1 to 4 gigawatts of new nuclear generation capacity to be delivered starting in the early 2030s.
The move is the latest push from Big Tech to use nuclear power to meet the rapidly growing energy demands from the AI boom.
Meta said it's releasing a request for proposals to identify nuclear energy developers with skills in permitting and community engagement who could help the company meet its AI and sustainability objectives.
The company added that it was planning for its data center energy needs while "simultaneously contributing to a reliable grid and advancing our sustainability commitments."
"As new innovations bring impactful technological advancements across sectors and support economic growth, we believe that nuclear energy can help provide firm, baseload power to support the growth needs of the electric grids that power both our data centers," the company said in the blog post shared on its website.
Nuclear energy provides clean, constant power to fuel data centers, the infrastructure that supports the training and running of AI models.
In September, energy supplier Constellation Energy struck a deal with Microsoft to provide the tech giant with nuclear power for the next two decades by resurrecting part of the Three Mile Island nuclear plant in Pennsylvania.
Google announced in Ocotber it was purchasing nuclear energy from Kairos Power, a California-based company developing small modular reactors.
Representatives for Meta did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider, made outside normal working hours.
The Department of Energy (DOE) is on a loan-approval spree in the lead-up to President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration, and the winners are all companies manufacturing clean energy solutions on U.S. soil. Companies like Stellantis and Samsung, Rivian, and most recently, EVgo. Trump has promised to cancel any unspent federal dollars under President Joe Biden’s Inflation […]
Tesla CEO Elon Musk has been spending a lot of time with Donald Trump following his election win.
Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC
Maye Musk commented on her son's friendship with Donald Trump in a Fox Business interview.
Elon Musk and the president-elect are having "a lot of fun," she said.
Maye Musk called her son "the genius of the world" and backed him to slash government waste.
Elon Musk and Donald Trump are two of the world's wealthiest and most powerful men. Musk helped Trump regain the White House and now wants to shake up the federal government.
Musk's mother, Maye, commented on their budding bromance in an interview on Fox Business this week: "They just seem to be having fun, a lot of fun, and that's nice for both of them to have fun."
Elon Musk, 53, is the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX and the richest man on the planet with a net worth close to $350 billion, per the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
Trump, 78, is the president-elect of the world's biggest economy, a real-estate tycoon, reality TV star — and a convicted felon.
Elon "really respects him a lot and is really happy that there's a future for America now," Maye said.
The model and dietitian said she's only briefly seen the two men together as she lives in New York. The pair have been hanging out at Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida where Musk has joined calls with other world leaders and weighed in on cabinet picks. They also attended a SpaceX launch in Texas this month.
So proud of @elonmusk Being appreciated for his contribution to the USA. His goal is to prevent American bankruptcy. Vote! ❤️🇺🇸
By the way, I posted this on Instagram and expected an avalanche of hate. Instead, I only got 20% hate. However, the negative comments are very… pic.twitter.com/lWLiG1mqfs
Many mothers champion their children and sing their praises, and Maye is no exception. She echoed her son's scathing criticism of the "dishonest Democrat media," and said they would be "trying to break up the relationship" between him and the incoming president.
Maye said that calling Elon "wealthy" or a "billionaire" was "degrading," and she thinks of him as "the genius of the world."
She also predicted that, as the co-chief of a new Department of Government Efficiency, he would easily eliminate government waste. Just as he did at Twitter, now X, he would mandate workers return to the office and fire employees who fail to point out anything worthwhile they've done in the past week, May added.
Elon is clearly close to his mother. He's posted pictures of them, sent her heart emojis on X, taken her to several high-profile events, and brought her on during his opening monologue when hosting "Saturday Night Live" in 2021.
Similarly, Maye has shared childhood photos of Musk and repeatedly said how proud she is of him.
Billionaire Gautam Adani and several executives at his company, the Indian conglomerate Adani Group, have been indicted over an alleged scheme to pay more than $250 million in bribes to Indian officials in exchange for contracts to a 12 gigawatt solar power project. The indictment, unsealed Wednesday in federal court in Brooklyn, charges Adani, his […]
