The State Bank of India (SBI) on Wednesday announced it was hit by a cyberattack that exposed data from 3,897 of its customers to the “dark web,” including their names, phone numbers, addresses, and dates of birth.

The post State Bank of India Hacked, Customer Data Leaked to Dark Web appeared first on Breitbart.

A pair of critical PHP security flaws discovered by researchers with the help of AI forced an emergency patch and set off scattered attacks across the web. PHP is a programming language used to build up to 70 percent of the websites online today.

The post Tech Explainer: What You Need to Know About the PHP Flaw Threatening the Internet appeared first on Breitbart.

Major U.S. banks have discovered unauthorized third-party AI agents operating inside customer accounts, prompting an industry-wide push to contain the risk.

The post ‘Grave Concerns’: Banks Scramble to Block Rogue AI Agents from Customer Accounts appeared first on Breitbart.

The Nasdaq fell more than 2% on Thursday, its worst day since June, as Meta and Tesla led declines amid AI spending concerns and rising oil prices. Treasury yields also dropped sharply as investors sought safety.

"Ukraine needs secure, sovereign, and high-performance satellite communications systems that it controls," ICEYE CEO Rafal Modrzewski said in a press release announcing the deal with Kyiv.

Light therapy has grown in popularity, with plenty of people investing in SAD lamps and sunrise alarm clocks

© Kat Bayly/The Independent

Light therapy has grown in popularity, with plenty of people investing in SAD lamps and sunrise alarm clocks

© Kat Bayly/The Independent

• Cybersecurity researchers say the PHP vulnerability has repercussions for normal people, too.
• Even if you don't own a website, hackers could use the vulnerability to steal your information.
• One quick fix: diversify your passwords.

If you're still using the same password for everything, it might finally be time to get on that.

While the major cybersecurity vulnerabilities that OpenAI agents helped expose on Wednesday primarily impact the owners and operators of websites, it could also give hackers the opportunity to hijack your personal information, researchers said.

"Be extra careful visiting ANY web site in the next few days," Changpeng Zhao, the cofounder of cryptocurrency platform Binance, said on X.

OpenAI said on Wednesday that researchers using its AI models uncovered two "critical" flaws in the infrastructure of PHP, a popular open-source programming language used on about 70% of the world's websites.

Because digital commerce websites, for instance, can store personal shopper information in PHP systems, that information would be accessible to a bad actor exploiting the web provider's system if that provider hasn't updated it.

The National Security Administration warned that hackers using one of the PHP exploits could "steal sensitive data, disrupt services, or move deeper into a network."

"Even if you yourself are not building software and that's not where your core business is, a lot of your life does depend on companies that depend on those systems," Madeline Lawrence, cofounder of Aikido Security, an application security platform, told Business Insider on Thursday.

"And they could be deeply, deeply vulnerable," she added. She said that one day after the disclosure, cybersecurity platform Cloudflare reported millions of attempts to exploit the vulnerability.

If you do own a website, PHP has released updates it says will help shield websites from hackers. Instructions for applying those updates are available on PHP's homepage.

For everyone else, here are a few tips cybersecurity researchers say you can use to protect your info.

• Don't reuse passwords; use a password manager.
• Check for security advisories from your bank.
• Use two-factor authentication on your devices and accounts — especially for email, banking, and your password manager.
• If your data has been breached, expect more convincing scams and phishing emails.
• Turn auto-updates on and restart your computer weekly.

"You can ask your claude code to audit what on your laptop is out of date and needs updating," Peter Wildeford, head of policy at the AI Policy Network, a bipartisan nonprofit that advocates for safety guardrails and federal oversight, added in a post on X.

Though Lawrence called the vulnerability "very severe," she cautioned against people running to close their bank accounts to protect themselves.

"Assume that if you're getting a notification that your data has been leaked," she said. "Take action on that because you could have credentials or information floating around the dark web."

• Skydance is cutting tech and product leaders after closing its merger with Warner Bros. Discovery.
• Four WBD technology executives are out, per a memo from Skydance chief product officer Dane Glasgow.
• Its new team will mostly feature Paramount execs who worked on its recent tech transformation.

Consolidation is underway at David Ellison's Skydance just a few weeks after the company closed its $110 billion merger with Warner Bros. Discovery.

Skydance's chief product officer, Dane Glasgow, laid out the product and tech leadership structure of the combined entity in a memo viewed by Business Insider.

Four top WBD executives are leaving, according to the memo.

They include:

• Avi Saxena, Warner Bros. Discovery's chief technology officer
• Tyler Whitworth, chief product officer for WBD's streaming business
• Dave Duvall, WBD's chief information officer
• Trish Collins Weedon, WBD's chief information security officer (CISO)

Duvall, Saxena, and Whitworth will stay on in an "advisory capacity as we undergo this transition," Glasgow wrote.

The company is mostly keeping Paramount executives in charge of its combined tech and product organization.

These leaders include:

• Lakshman Nathan, Paramount's chief information officer
• Carlo Joseph, its chief information security officer
• Jim Harrison, its executive vice president of infrastructure, broadcast, and distribution
• Nick Lee, Paramount's executive vice president of media systems

A few WBD executives are staying on in Skydance's post-merger leadership, per Glasgow's memo.

They include Brinton Miller, formerly WBD's media technology and operations lead, who will serve as Skydance's executive vice president of production and studio technology, and James Crossland, formerly head of global content operations at WBD, who will serve as its EVP of global content operations.

Skydance has spent the past year revamping its tech and product team, often recruiting talent from tech companies.

Glasgow joined Paramount from Meta, while Lee joined from Microsoft's AI division. Other team leaders in its post-merger structure include head of design Suzanne Pellican, formerly a Google exec; Hugh Williams, a former Google, eBay, and Microsoft exec; and Barak Turovsky, who came to Paramount after serving as chief AI officer at General Motors and VP of AI at Cisco.

Bringing technical expertise to Paramount has been a priority for Ellison, who wants to turn the century-old media brand into a modern, tech-forward business like Netflix. The company revamped its data and insights strategy in January, and merged some engineering teams in March to bolster its streaming tech.

"We are building a product and tech organization that can compete with anybody coming out of Silicon Valley," Ellison told CNBC earlier this month.

In his memo, Glasgow expressed gratitude for the work of both Paramount and WBD staffers, writing that he was "encouraged by the early collaboration, the bold new ideas you're bringing forward, and your openness to exploring new ways of working with your colleagues."

He also acknowledged the structural changes could be disruptive.

"I know a change of this scale brings questions, especially as we get to know new teams and colleagues," Glasgow wrote. "Your leaders will share more about their organizations in the coming weeks and we'll bring our teams together soon to keep building with and learning from each other."

• O'Leary Digital's CEO says a Wall Street firm's analysis misses work happening before construction.
• Paul Palandjian, the CEO, said the company's two campuses will generate their own electricity.
• He outlined land deals, permitting, and early funding, saying delivery should be judged in phases.

Kevin O'Leary's data center company has a message for analysts who doubt its enormous AI ambitions: You're not seeing the whole picture.

Paul Palandjian, CEO of O'Leary Digital, pushed back on a Bernstein Research assessment that put the firm near the bottom of the data center industry's credibility rankings. In an emailed response to Business Insider, he detailed land agreements, water applications and licensing, engineering work, and funding that he said the analysis overlooks.

"Scrutiny during this cycle is fair," Palandjian wrote. He added, "A score built from announced-capacity data ranks every pre-construction project low on construction progress by definition, and it cannot see confidential work."

His response gets at a central question in the AI building boom: How much weight should investors give the work that happens before data center construction begins?

Bernstein examined thousands of data center projects using data from the tracking firm Aterio, assessing factors such as construction progress, electricity availability, and industry experience. Its analysis concluded that only about 35% of announced data center capacity in the US will get built.

O'Leary Digital received a credibility score of 0.35 out of 5. Bernstein estimated that 489 megawatts of its announced 15-gigawatt pipeline would materialize, roughly 3%. The analysts grouped it with ambitious newcomers described as "bragawatts."

Palandjian said the 15-gigawatt figure represents the full build-out of two campuses in Utah and Alberta over several years.

"We would rather be judged on milestones than on a model," he wrote.

Data center power without the queue

Palandjian's clearest distinction concerns electricity, one of the biggest obstacles facing data center developers.

"We are not in an interconnection queue," he wrote, referring to the waiting lists for connections to the electricity grid.

Instead, both campuses are designed to generate all their electricity on-site, he said, with direct access to natural gas pipelines and supplies. That's what the industry calls "behind the meter": producing power at the facility rather than relying on an electricity utility to supply it from the grid.

Data center land, water, and early money

In Utah, Palandjian said the Military Installation Development Authority had approved and executed a 30-year development agreement naming O'Leary Digital as master developer of the project area.

About 11,000 acres are under binding agreements, he said. Master planning, ground studies, and laser-based land surveying have finished at both sites, and the company filed an engineered Utah water application in late September, he added.

In Alberta, about 13,000 acres are under a binding agreement, and a water license for 6 million cubic meters a year has been granted, Palandjian said. He also said that both sites are away from densely populated residential communities.

On money, Palandjian said his firm has capital for both pre-development and advancing the project toward key milestones. He did not specify a funding amount or say the entire build-out was financed.

He said that the engineering, power, and construction firms working with the company, and the global banks advising it, provide evidence of its ability to deliver.

"With that team, every critical part of the project is being worked through, gaps are identified early, and we are closing them to raise our probability of success," he wrote.

Palandjian said that while O'Leary Digital is young, its team has decades of experience in real estate, power, and infrastructure.

Bernstein's skepticism does not mean every newcomer will fail.

"It's not that all of these guys are sort of terrible and not going to deliver, but we just have lower confidence because we don't know them," analyst Madison Rezaei said.

With Palandjian's update, now we know a bit more.

Sign up for the AI Insider newsletter here. Reach out to me via email at abarr@businessinsider.com

This week on “Uncanny Valley,” we go behind the scenes of our Nathan Fielder cover story, unpack tech billionaires’ generous promises, and discuss the suspicious letters sent to US election offices.

Several Google DeepMind employees have resigned in recent weeks over the company's Pentagon contract signed earlier this year that allows its AI technology to be used in classified settings.

The post Google Deepmind Employees Resign in Protest over AI Deal with Trump’s Pentagon appeared first on Breitbart.

Contactar os serviços de emergência pode ser mais simples do que abrir a aplicação de chamadas e marcar o 112. Os utilizadores de iPhone têm à disposição uma funcionalidade que permite pedir ajuda através dos botões físicos do equipamento, sem necessidade de introduzir o número de telefone ou sequer desbloquear o dispositivo.

Trata-se da função SOS Emergência, disponibilizada pela Apple, que permite iniciar uma chamada para os serviços de socorro através de uma combinação de botões. De acordo com a empresa tecnológica, esta ferramenta também pode enviar informações sobre a localização do utilizador aos contactos de emergência previamente definidos, desde que estejam reunidas as condições necessárias.

Como ligar para o 112 sem marcar o número?

Para utilizar a funcionalidade, é necessário manter premidos simultaneamente o botão lateral do iPhone e um dos botões de volume. No ecrã surgem os controlos de emergência e, mantendo os botões pressionados, inicia-se uma contagem decrescente que permite estabelecer a chamada para os serviços de socorro.

Segundo a Apple, os botões devem ser libertados depois de terminar a contagem decrescente. Desta forma, o equipamento pode contactar automaticamente os serviços de emergência, sem que seja necessário abrir a aplicação Telefone. O procedimento permite iniciar um pedido de ajuda quando o utilizador tem dificuldade em interagir com o ecrã.

Existe outra forma de ativar a chamada de emergência

Além da combinação dos botões lateral e de volume, o iPhone disponibiliza um segundo método que pode ser configurado nas definições. Para o ativar, basta aceder à aplicação Definições, selecionar SOS Emergência e ativar a opção “Premir 5 vezes para ligar”. A partir desse momento, o equipamento poderá iniciar o procedimento de emergência através de cinco pressões rápidas no botão lateral.

Conforme explica a mesma fonte, esta opção desencadeia uma contagem decrescente antes de efetuar a chamada. O utilizador pode consultar o mesmo menu para ativar ou desativar os diferentes métodos de contacto. Contudo, a Apple alerta que, se uma chamada for efetuada por engano, não se deve desligar antes de explicar ao operador que não é necessária assistência.

Telemóvel também pode avisar familiares e partilhar a localização

A função SOS Emergência não se limita ao contacto com o 112. Depois de terminada uma chamada de emergência, o iPhone pode enviar automaticamente uma mensagem aos contactos previamente escolhidos pelo utilizador, informando-os da situação. Este aviso é enviado por mensagem de texto, a menos que a pessoa opte por cancelar o procedimento.

A Apple explica ainda que a mensagem pode incluir a localização atual do equipamento, quando esta informação estiver disponível. Durante algum tempo, os contactos também poderão receber atualizações caso a localização se altere. Para configurar os destinatários destes avisos, é necessário aceder à aplicação Saúde e selecionar a opção de configuração ou edição dos contactos de emergência.

E se o iPhone estiver bloqueado ou não tiver rede?

Mesmo com o ecrã bloqueado, continua a ser possível contactar os serviços de emergência. Neste caso, o utilizador pode tocar na opção “Emergência”, disponível no ecrã de introdução do código, e marcar o 112. Se a rede da operadora habitual não estiver disponível, o equipamento pode apresentar a indicação “Só SOS” e tentar estabelecer a chamada através de outra rede móvel existente na zona.

Em determinados modelos, nomeadamente a partir do iPhone 14, também existe a possibilidade de contactar os serviços de emergência por satélite quando não há cobertura móvel nem Wi-Fi, desde que a funcionalidade esteja disponível no país e sejam cumpridos os requisitos técnicos. No entanto, a Apple esclarece que algumas opções de emergência dependem do modelo, da região e das condições de ligação, pelo que o seu funcionamento não é garantido em todas as circunstâncias.

Leia também: Tem telemóvel da MEO, NOS ou Vodafone? Nova ferramenta vai permitir aos bancos detetar estas burlas

Your home address, phone number and relatives' names may be sitting on people-search websites you've never visited. Anyone who finds those listings could learn more about you than you're comfortable sharing. A data broker opt-out can help reduce that exposure, especially during retirement, when protecting your finances, family and home becomes a priority.

And a tragic case in Minnesota shows why publicly available personal information deserves a closer look. Here's what happened in Minnesota and the steps you can take to make your personal information harder to find online.

Join our upcoming CyberGuy LIVE class: 5 Ways to Travel Smarter and Save Money

In this free live online class, Kurt "CyberGuy" Knutsson will share five practical ways to protect your trip and your wallet this holiday travel season. You'll learn how to secure your phone and personal information, find better travel deals, avoid common scams, save money on bookings and use technology to make your travels easier and less stressful. No technical experience is needed.

Join us Saturday, October 31, at 11 AM ET / 8 AM PT. Register for free now at CyberGuyLive.com.

WHAT A SCAMMER SEES THE MOMENT THEY GOOGLE YOUR NAME

Minnesota attacks expose a troubling privacy risk

In June 2025, Minnesota lawmaker Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark, were murdered in a targeted attack. State Sen. John Hoffman and his wife, Yvette, were seriously injured in a separate shooting. Investigators discovered notebooks containing the names of public officials and a handwritten list of 11 people-search websites in the suspect's vehicle. The list included TruePeopleSearch, Spokeo, Pipl, PeopleFinders, BeenVerified, Whitepages, TruthFinder, Intelius, Ownerly, USSearch and PeopleLooker. The notes described which services were free and what information someone could find through them.

However, the discovery alone did not establish whether the websites supplied the victims' addresses. On June 11, Vance Boelter pleaded guilty to federal charges involving the murders, shootings and stalking of the victims. He was sentenced on July 23 to two consecutive life terms plus 40 years in federal prison. Separate state charges remain pending. The case raised an unsettling question: How easily could someone find your home address and information about your family?

What data brokers know about you

Data brokers collect information from public records, online activity, commercial databases and other sources. They then combine those details into profiles that businesses and individuals may be able to purchase or access. Some companies specialize in marketing information. Others operate people-search websites that make personal details available through free searches or paid reports.

Depending on the company and the available records, those profiles may include:

• Your current and previous home addresses
• Phone numbers and email addresses
• Age, birth date and marital status
• Names of relatives and possible associates
• Property ownership and estimated home values
• Employment and education history
• Purchasing interests and other consumer information
• Financial, health-related or political inferences

Not every broker collects or sells all this information. Credit reporting agencies also operate under different legal requirements than many people-search services. Still, these records can reveal details you never intended to share with strangers. For a closer look at how criminals assemble this information, read our CyberGuy report on how scammers build a profile on you using data brokers.

Want to see how much of your personal information may already be exposed? Get a free scan to find out if your personal information is already out on the web: Cyberguy.com

Why exposed personal information is risky for retirees

Scammers can use publicly available details to make their stories more convincing. As a result, a suspicious call or message may sound surprisingly personal.

Here are some of the potential risks.

• Financial scams: Someone who knows your age, address and family relationships may use those details to impersonate a financial institution, government agency or relative. That familiarity can make a fraudulent request sound credible.
• Home and personal safety: People-search listings may expose where you live, where you previously lived and who lives nearby. This can be particularly concerning for people dealing with stalking, harassment or threats.
• Medicare and healthcare fraud: A scammer who knows your name, age or location could use those details to make a fake Medicare call or insurance offer seem legitimate. Never provide your Medicare number to an unexpected caller.
• Family impersonation scams: Criminals may use relatives' names and personal details to create convincing emergency stories. They might claim someone you love needs money immediately.
• Spam calls and unwanted messages: Data brokers and marketing lists can contribute to unwanted contact. However, removing your information will not eliminate every robocall, spam text or phishing email.

Even if you've never experienced one of these problems, reducing the amount of personal information available online can make it harder for someone to research you.

THE SECRET LIST THAT TELLS SCAMMERS YOU'RE AN EASY TARGET

How to opt out of data brokers yourself

You can request removal from many people-search websites for free. However, each company may have different requirements, and removing a listing doesn't always prevent it from returning.

Here's how to get started.

• Search for yourself online. Look up your full name, city, current address and phone number. Check major people-search websites for matching listings. Avoid paying for reports unless you have a specific reason.
• Save the website addresses. Keep a record of the pages exposing your information so you can return to them later.
• Find each site's removal instructions. Look for links labeled "Opt Out," "Remove My Information" or "Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information." You can also check the site's privacy policy.
• Submit your removal request. Follow the company's instructions. Some sites require you to verify your identity or confirm that the record belongs to you. Share only the information necessary to complete the request.
• Complete any verification steps. Check your email for confirmation links or follow-up instructions. A request may remain incomplete until you finish the process.
• Consider search-result removal. If sensitive information appears in Google search results, you may qualify to request its removal. Keep in mind that removing a search result does not erase the information from the original website.
• Check again periodically. Brokers may refresh their records, and previously removed details can reappear. Revisit the sites and submit new requests when necessary.

A new privacy shortcut for California residents

If you live in California, you now have another option. The state's free Delete Request and Opt-out Platform (DROP) at privacy.ca.gov/drop/ launched in January 2026. It allows eligible residents to submit one deletion request to more than 600 registered data brokers. Beginning August 1, 2026, covered data brokers were required to start processing those requests. The system also requires recurring checks for matching information, although legal exceptions apply and removal is not immediate. Other states have their own privacy laws and removal rights, so your options may depend on where you live.

How a data removal service can help protect your personal information

If manually contacting dozens of websites sounds exhausting, a data removal service can handle much of the work for you. These services help identify data brokers and people-search websites that may have your information. They can also submit removal requests on your behalf and follow up when necessary.

Depending on the provider and subscription plan, available features may include:

• Automated removal requests: Services contact covered data brokers and people-search websites to request deletion of your personal information.
• Recurring removals: Some providers periodically repeat requests and check whether previously removed information has reappeared.
• Progress reports: You can track removal requests and review updates about which companies have responded.
• Multiple personal details: Certain services let you submit current and previous addresses, email addresses and phone numbers to help identify matching records.
• Custom removals: Some providers allow you to submit additional website links for review and possible removal assistance.

To get started, choose a reputable data removal service, create an account and provide the information needed to identify your records. You'll typically need to authorize the service to submit removal requests on your behalf. Some providers also offer family plans that cover multiple household members.

Before subscribing, compare the websites each service covers, its removal process, ongoing monitoring features and subscription costs.

Check out my top picks for data removal services and get a free scan to find out if your personal information is already out on the web by visiting CyberGuy.com.

What a data removal service cannot do

Even with automated removal, some personal information may remain publicly accessible. Property ownership records, government databases and certain court records can continue displaying details about you. Data removal services generally cannot force government agencies to delete legally available public records.

Additionally, not every website must honor a removal request. Some services offer custom removals, but legal restrictions and technical limitations can prevent certain information from being deleted.

Removing data broker listings also cannot undo previous data breaches or guarantee that scammers will stop contacting you.

Still, reducing the number of websites exposing your information can make it harder for strangers to find personal details. For retirees, that added privacy can help reduce exposure to targeted scams and unwanted contact.

Kurt's key takeaways

What concerns me most is how much someone can learn about you without ever meeting you. Your address, family connections and personal history can give scammers information they can use to gain your trust. And once that information starts circulating, controlling where it goes becomes difficult. That's why I recommend taking a proactive approach. Start by finding out what's publicly available, remove what you can and keep checking. If the process becomes overwhelming, a reputable data removal service can help with the ongoing work. You may never erase every trace of yourself from the internet, but you can make your personal information harder to find.

Have you ever searched your name on a people-search website and been surprised by how much information was available? Let us know by writing to us at CyberGuy.com.

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• For simple, real-world ways to spot scams early and stay protected, visit CyberGuy.com – trusted by millions who watch CyberGuy on TV daily.
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Drops for stocks in the artificial-intelligence industry are dragging markets down worldwide on Thursday, while oil prices hit their highest levels since May amid the Iran war.

Drops for stocks in the artificial-intelligence industry are dragging markets down worldwide on Thursday, while oil prices hit their highest levels since May amid the Iran war.

• Elon Musk has repeatedly said cars will drive themselves around the world.
• Now, he's making a bolder claim: Tesla will dominate that autonomy, he predicts.
• The only thing that could get in the way, Musk says: these pesky governments!

Tesla CEO Elon Musk famously thinks bots will drive us around.

On Wednesday, he took that long-running vision of autonomy a step further. During the automaker's earnings call, Musk predicted that Tesla itself would dominate how passengers get around — so long as pesky regulators don't get in the way.

"I think Tesla will end up doing a majority of all passenger miles on Earth in any country where it is allowed to operate freely," he said. "And you can come back and look at this prediction, but I feel confident about this prediction."

He said Tesla's biggest hurdle to world domination is foreign governments blocking autonomous tech "to protect a domestic industry."

That is a bolder statement than Musk's prior autonomy predictions.

During a January earnings call, he said the "vast majority of miles traveled" would eventually be autonomous and guessed that people would manually drive fewer than 5% of miles. That prediction left other autonomous competitors — Waymo, Zoox, Ford, GM, Rivian, etc. — in the fray.

Vehicle autonomy is core to Tesla's valuation story. The company says its future lineup will include only one vehicle that drivers can operate manually: the high-priced Roadster.

In September, the company started rolling out the steering-wheel-less Cybercab for ride-hailing in Texas.

That rollout has had its fits and starts. While Tesla says it's ramping production and preparing to launch Cybercab rides in Florida, the NHTSA issued an audit inquiry hours after the car's public release to probe the automaker's self-certification.

Musk, who has described his predictions as his "best guesses," has missed several recent timelines for Tesla's autonomy rollout — including a prediction that unsupervised autonomy would ramp across the US in 2025.

Now, Tesla has a new target date for the consumer launch of its full self-driving software. On Wednesday, Ashok Elluswamy, the company's VP of AI, said unsupervised FSD is coming "somewhere around Q2 next year."

Tesla didn't immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.

• A version of this story originally appeared in Business Insider's weekly VC Insider newsletter.
• Sign up for BI's VC Insider newsletter here.

Ben here. Up until recently, it was a great time to be the founder of a neolab, the lavishly funded, research-first AI startups founded by top talent who defected from the likes of OpenAI or Google DeepMind.

We reported last month that Jeff Dean, Google's former chief scientist, is seeking a valuation as high as $50 billion for his new AI science startup. OpenAI cofounder Ilya Sutskever's Safe Superintelligence is worth $32 billion. Another OpenAI alum, Mira Murati, is raising a round for Thinking Machines Lab at a valuation of around $40 billion.

But lately, in conversations with multiple VCs around Silicon Valley, there is a growing divide about whether neolabs can make the economics work with their multibillion-dollar price tags and formidable competition from frontier labs.

One VC at a top firm, who asked that I not use his name, told me neolabs are the most hotly debated type of investment right now.

"Some would say you shouldn't invest in any, and others would say this is basically all you should be investing in because software's dead, and you either have to own models or hardware, and even if you enter at a billion, the company could be worth a trillion," he said.

When I recently asked Menlo Ventures partner Matt Murphy at Business Insider's Growth Mode conference which sector he thought was most overhyped, he immediately cited neolabs, which was noteworthy, given that Menlo invested in some of them.

Murphy pointed to an example from his time as an early board advisor at Google, which he said did so well because it "was like a match thrown into a bonfire."

"The opposite thing you want to do is start a match with a bonfire," Murphy told me. "That's the risk of what's going on now with companies raising such large rounds."

Another Menlo partner, Deedy Das, posted last month about the "difficult game" of making neolab math work.

Das seemed a bit taken aback by the reaction to his post and later texted me: "Like all startups, many will fail, some will work."

Picking which ones will work is why VCs get paid the big bucks.

Neolabs are a power-law bet taken to an extreme, Radical Ventures' Aaron Rosenberg told me.

Investors know most will likely burn enormous sums on compute and talent without ever becoming profitable. But the rare winner could become a foundational AI company worth hundreds of billions or more.

"We're confident that the best neolabs will attract ongoing support," Rosenberg said. "Talent continues to transition out of the incumbents and academia into founder roles, and we see no signs of that slowing."

Like Radical, New Enterprise Associates wrote a bullish view in June. One of the authors, Andrew Schoen, told me his views have not changed. "There are neolabs I know of that are finalizing billion-plus-dollar rounds of equity financing, and those processes are moving very smoothly and quickly," he said.

The Buzz

Katie here. Many of tech's biggest names gathered at the Ritz-Carlton in San Francisco on Saturday, at a black-tie event in the name of Menlo Ventures' 50th anniversary.

Hollywood titan turned venture capitalist Jeffrey Katzenberg of Dreamworks fame asked the audience to join a prayer "for the blockbuster IPO of Anthropic," a joking reference to Menlo's early investment in the company.

I also spotted Morgan Stanley's storied technology banker Michael Grimes, who is undoubtedly holding his own AI IPO prayers. Other attendees included an array of public company and startup CEOs, including those from Snowflake, Zscaler, Legora, and OpenRouter.

As Menlo partner Venky Ganesan quipped, there was more AUM (assets under management) in the room than in many countries, given the attendees' net worth and the investment capital they manage.

Menlo isn't the first venture firm to host a splashy anniversary party; Index Ventures recently went big for its 30th anniversary.

A person at a rival venture shop expressed disappointment that their firm doesn't host such celebrations.

Menlo's night ended with concerts from two super confidential Grammy Award winners trying to rake in those AI bucks!

Around the Cap Table

• We reported this week that Fireworks AI is seeking fresh funding at a valuation of between $30 billion and $40 billion, a dramatic jump just months after its last blockbuster round was closed.
• "You Can See Everything" has everyone talking. Ben thought it was absolute genius, if a bit long. It will make this year's Oscars race exciting. See it in theaters before the experience is lessened by spoilers.
• Our colleague Rya Jetha explored the excitement and pitfalls of investing in robotics startups. Like neolabs, robotics companies are commanding big valuations with little to show for it, yet.
• Foursquare's $0 acquisition ended with no payout for employees or investors, according to founder Dennis Crowley.

Post of The Week

The VC Insider team

Ben Bergman, chief correspondent, in Los Angeles. Katie Roof, editor at large, in San Francisco. Pranav Dixit, senior technology editor, in San Francisco. Leena Rao, executive editor, in Los Angeles.

En pleine mobilisation lycéenne et pour le pouvoir d'achat en France, Bitchat mesh se classait n°1, jeudi, des applications sur l'App Store dans la catégorie "réseaux sociaux". Lancée en juillet 2025 par le cofondateur de Twitter, cette messagerie décentralisée fonctionne avec le Bluetooth et sans Internet. Pratique quand le réseau est saturé, comme cela peut arriver dans une manifestation.

Ukraine now builds far more weapons than it can afford to buy. A year ago, it promised to sell the surplus abroad and turn the proceeds back into its own army. However, 12 months later, that promise has barely materialized: a state fee of up to 30% is pricing Ukrainian arms out of foreign markets, and no one can say how much the army has actually gained, said Ihor Fedirko, executive director of the Ukrainian Council of Armorers.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced the resumption of controlled weapons exports in October 2025, resting it on four promises: 1) sell what Ukraine makes beyond its own needs, 2) channel part of the proceeds into a special fund for the army, 3) open export offices in Europe and the US, and 4) establish joint ventures abroad.

The surplus is real: Ukraine's defense output is projected to reach $55 billion in 2026, far beyond what the state can finance. A year on, Fedirko checked each promise in turn.

1) Export of surpluses: rules that strangle businesses

On 1 July 2026, the government approved rules for controlled arms exports. They shortened the maximum application review period from 90 to 30 days, but also introduced an export fee: 20% for finished products and technologies, and 30% for components. For finished products exported under the special procedure, the contract value must be at least $334,000.

In September, the Ukrainian Council of Armorers, together with other associations, proposed a zero rate, no advance collection of the fee, refunds for deals that fall through, and simplified test shipments. The industry was promised that its amendments would be taken into account and that the resolution would be rewritten.

Even in early October, however, the rules still needed work. According to Fedirko, the new mechanism has effectively not started working. Whether it can bring in additional funds for defense depends on how acceptable the export terms are to manufacturers.

Fedirko says, though, that judging by current decisions, the state intends to keep the export fee.

“The industry is ready to discuss its contribution to defense financing. But the rate must be economically justified,” he says.

2) Procurement for the Ukrainian military: balance is only being established

He adds that the Ukrainian Council of Armorers intends to push for a rate significantly lower than 20%, one that would let companies fulfill contracts and invest in production.

With such high rates, Fedirko says, the competitiveness of Ukrainian weapons on foreign markets is in question, as is the ability to send even small test batches to potential buyers.

“The fundamental requirement is post-payment: after the contract has actually been fulfilled and the manufacturer has been paid. A company should not pay the state in advance a share of income it has not yet received,” he says.

He added that, given all this, the real export figures remain unclear, as does how much exports have actually brought the military.

“The military and manufacturers must feel the benefit of exports. I sincerely hope that next year will bring much better results,” he says.

In addition, on 12 October, the Ukrainian Parliament passed bill No. 15400 in the first reading. It provides for crediting the export fee to a special fund directed to the Ministry of Defense: 50% for the procurement, modernization, and repair of weapons and equipment, and 50% for the pay of Armed Forces personnel.

The bill has not yet been adopted, but Fedirko says he expects “final adoption and launch of the mechanism.”

3) Export offices: offices in Germany and Denmark

On 3 November, the Ukrainian government named the first cities for export offices: Berlin and Copenhagen. On 15 December, it again spoke of preparing an office in Berlin. In reality, Fedirko says he does not know the office’s status, and it likewise remains unclear how companies can apply to it and how many contracts it has helped close.

4) Joint ventures abroad: There are concrete results in this area

According to Fedirko, eight joint ventures have been created, five of which are already supplying products to Ukraine. He stresses that this is the result of work by Ukrainian companies, foreign partners and the state, and that it deserves recognition.

As early as February 2026, the authorities spoke of plans to create ten joint ventures in Europe within a year. At the same time, they announced Quantum Frontline Industries in Germany, with a planned annual capacity of 10,000 drones for Kyiv.

Beyond the number of ventures and deliveries, however, it is important to understand how other manufacturers can join the Build with Ukraine program.

“Who accepts applications, by what criteria are decisions made, and what support does a company receive?” Fedirko asks.

In other words, joint ventures are already delivering results, but the rules of participation and the state support mechanism must be clear to companies that want to develop production abroad.