This week, we take a look at some of the top stories in tech to come out over the past five days, beginning with Austin Russell, the 28-year-old billionaire founder and CEO of Luminar, who purchased an 82% stake in Forbes Global Media Holdings. Meanwhile, Tesla CEO Elon Musk teased two new electric vehicles, while Telly, a hardware startup led by Pluto TV co-founder Ilya Pozin, offered free TVs with a catch, and ChatGPT released a new mobile app. In addition, Elizabeth Holmes, the former Theranos founder and CEO was found guilty for defrauding investors and is now facing 11 years in prison, Kustomer was spun out from Meta and they have raised $60 million, and WhatsApp launched a new Chat Lock feature. Lastly, Sanctuary AI unveiled Phoenix, a humanoid robot, and several podcasts were released to keep you entertained this weekend.
The company mentioned in this article is Luminar Technologies, a startup that develops vision-based lidar and machine perception technologies for self-driving cars. With Austin Russell at the helm, the company purchased an 82% stake in Forbes Global Media Holdings, valuing the company at nearly $800 million.
The person mentioned in this article is Elizabeth Holmes, former Theranos founder and CEO. She found guilty of defrauding investors and was sentenced to 11 years in prison. Though she is appealing her sentence, a panel of Ninth Circuit judges ruled that her legal team has not raised enough of a “substantial question” to keep her out of prison.
Overall, this was a week full of exciting tech news, from Tesla’s upcoming electric vehicles, to the launch of WhatsApp’s new Chat Lock feature and the unveiling of Sanctuary AI’s humanoid robot Phoenix. The news of Luminar’s acquisition of Forbes and the sentencing of Elizabeth Holmes have only added to the buzz.
