Tech
Bitcoin Conference Draws Cryptocurrency Fans To Miami
Jack Dorsey onstage at the Bitcoin 2021 Convention in Miami, Florida (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
OUT OF THE BLUE

Jack Dorsey has made a Bluetooth-based messaging app that doesn’t require internet

At the weekend, the Twitter cofounder unveiled the beta version of “Bitchat” — an encrypted, decentralized messaging service built on... Bluetooth.

Millie Giles

However you spent your Fourth of July weekend, it probably wasn’t as productive as Jack Dorsey’s (or, for that matter, Joey Chestnut’s).

On Sunday, the Twitter cofounder and ex-CEO announced that he’d successfully completed his “weekend project” of learning about Bluetooth mesh networks — and created a beta version of “Bitchat,” a new encrypted messaging app able to function entirely via Bluetooth, without the need for internet connection, cell service, phone numbers, or emails.

Dorsey’s “personal experiment” works by connecting users’ phones via local Bluetooth clusters, allowing messages to be sent between devices. Then, “bridge” devices that connect overlapping clusters are used to stretch the mesh network over a greater distance.

Privacy, please

Dorsey has long been a fan of decentralized communications, playing a major role in the development of social networking apps Damus and Bluesky, and his new app’s peer-to-peer encrypted messaging will also rival Meta-owned WhatsApp — without the requirements of identifiable accounts or data collection.

What really separates Bitchat, though, is its use of Bluetooth to keep it functioning offline, similar to mesh messaging apps used during the 2019 Hong Kong protests, per CNBC. While Bluetooth technology isn’t anything new, it’s still impressively prescient in the modern tech world.

Bluetooth Device Shipments
Sherwood News

Long in the tooth

Based on developments made at Nokia-owned Ericsson in 1994, the first Bluetooth device hit the market in 1999 the same year that the first camera phone was released. 

With a name that started as a reference to King Harald, who united Denmark and Norway, and a logo resembling Nordic runes for his initials, Bluetooth connected computers, phones, and gadgets with wireless transfer capabilities at breakneck speed in the decades to come. In 2000, an estimated 800,000 Bluetooth-enabled devices were shipped; by 2020, this number had multiplied 5,125x over to 4.1 billion, per company reports.

There are very few technologies that are still growing after 30-plus years... but, despite contracting slightly in 2024, Bluetooth looks to have managed it, with the company projecting that shipments will near 8 billion by 2029.

More Tech

See all Tech
tech
Jon Keegan

WSJ: Anduril’s weapons systems have failed during several tests

Autonomous drones by sea, land, and air. Futuristic AI-powered support fighter jets, and swarms of networked drones controlled by sophisticated software. These are some of the visions for the future of warfare pitched by defense tech startup Anduril. Cofounded by Oculus founder Palmer Luckey, the Peter Thiel-backed startup has landed some major national security contracts based on this futuristic outlook for battlefield AI.

But according to a report from The Wall Street Journal, the company’s tech is failing key tests in the real world, raising concerns about the viability and safety of Anduril’s systems within the military command.

Anduril’s Altius drones proved vulnerable to Russian jamming while deployed in Ukraine and have been pulled from the battlefield, per the report.

More than a dozen sea-based drone ships powered by Anduril’s Lattice command and control software recently shut down during a Navy test, creating a hazard for other vessels in the exercise.

And this summer, during a drone intercept test, Anduril’s counter-drone system crashed and caused a 22-acre fire at a California airport, the report found.

Anduril told the WSJ that the failures are just part of its rapid iterative development process:

“We recognize that our highly iterative model of technology development — moving fast, testing constantly, failing often, refining our work, and doing it all over again — can make the job of our critics easier. That is a risk we accept. We do fail… a lot.”

But according to a report from The Wall Street Journal, the company’s tech is failing key tests in the real world, raising concerns about the viability and safety of Anduril’s systems within the military command.

Anduril’s Altius drones proved vulnerable to Russian jamming while deployed in Ukraine and have been pulled from the battlefield, per the report.

More than a dozen sea-based drone ships powered by Anduril’s Lattice command and control software recently shut down during a Navy test, creating a hazard for other vessels in the exercise.

And this summer, during a drone intercept test, Anduril’s counter-drone system crashed and caused a 22-acre fire at a California airport, the report found.

Anduril told the WSJ that the failures are just part of its rapid iterative development process:

“We recognize that our highly iterative model of technology development — moving fast, testing constantly, failing often, refining our work, and doing it all over again — can make the job of our critics easier. That is a risk we accept. We do fail… a lot.”

tech
Jon Keegan

OpenAI’s partners shouldering $100 billion of debt, taking on all the risk

OpenAI’s ambitious plans for global AI infrastructure projects — like its series of massive Stargate AI data centers — will require tens of billions of dollars funded by debt, but you won’t find much of that on OpenAI’s balance sheet.

According to a new analysis by the Financial Times, OpenAI has somehow convinced its many partners to shoulder at least $100 billion in debt on its behalf, as well as the risks that come with it.

Partners Oracle, SoftBank, CoreWeave, Crusoe, and Blue Owl Capital are all taking on debt in the form of bonds, loans, and credit deals to meet their obligations with OpenAI for infrastructure and computing resources.

Having close ties with OpenAI has been an anchor for many publicly traded companies in recent weeks. The company’s cash burn and the rise of Gemini 3 have seemingly darkened its outlook and fostered guilt by association for many of its close partners and investors. Most notably, Oracle’s aggressive capital expenditure plans to support demand from OpenAI have sparked a sell-off in its stock while widening its credit default swap spreads.

A senior OpenAI executive told the FT: “That’s been kind of the strategy. How does [OpenAI] leverage other people’s balance sheets?”

Partners Oracle, SoftBank, CoreWeave, Crusoe, and Blue Owl Capital are all taking on debt in the form of bonds, loans, and credit deals to meet their obligations with OpenAI for infrastructure and computing resources.

Having close ties with OpenAI has been an anchor for many publicly traded companies in recent weeks. The company’s cash burn and the rise of Gemini 3 have seemingly darkened its outlook and fostered guilt by association for many of its close partners and investors. Most notably, Oracle’s aggressive capital expenditure plans to support demand from OpenAI have sparked a sell-off in its stock while widening its credit default swap spreads.

A senior OpenAI executive told the FT: “That’s been kind of the strategy. How does [OpenAI] leverage other people’s balance sheets?”

tech

Chinese tech giants are training their models offshore to sidestep US curbs on Nvidia’s chips

Nvidia can’t sell its best AI chips in the world’s second-largest economy. That’s an Nvidia problem. But it’s also a China problem — and it’s one that the region’s tech giants have resorted to solving by training their AI models overseas, according to a new report from the Financial Times.

Citing two people with direct knowledge of the matter, the FT reported that “Alibaba and ByteDance are among the tech groups training their latest large language models in data centers across south-east Asia.” Clusters of data centers have particularly boomed in Singapore and Malaysia, with many of the sites kitted out with Nvidia’s latest architecture.

One exception, per the FT, is DeepSeek, which continues to be trained domestically, having reportedly built up a stockpile of Nvidia chips before the US export ban came into effect.

Last week, Nvidia spiked on the news that the Trump administration was reportedly considering letting the tech giant sell its best Hopper chips — the generation of chips that preceded Blackwell — to China.

Citing two people with direct knowledge of the matter, the FT reported that “Alibaba and ByteDance are among the tech groups training their latest large language models in data centers across south-east Asia.” Clusters of data centers have particularly boomed in Singapore and Malaysia, with many of the sites kitted out with Nvidia’s latest architecture.

One exception, per the FT, is DeepSeek, which continues to be trained domestically, having reportedly built up a stockpile of Nvidia chips before the US export ban came into effect.

Last week, Nvidia spiked on the news that the Trump administration was reportedly considering letting the tech giant sell its best Hopper chips — the generation of chips that preceded Blackwell — to China.

tech
Millie Giles

Alibaba unveils its first AI glasses, taking on Meta directly in the wearables race

Retail and tech giant Alibaba launched its first consumer-ready, AI-powered smart glasses on Thursday, marking its entrance into the growing wearables market.

Announced back in July, the Quark AI glasses just went on sale in the Chinese retailer’s home market, with two versions currently available: the S1, starting at 3,799 Chinese yuan (~$536), and the G1, at 1,899 yuan (~$268) — a considerably lower price than Meta’s $799 Ray-Ban Display glasses, released in September.

tech
Jon Keegan

Musk: Tesla’s Austin Robotaxi fleet to “roughly double” next month, but falls well short of earlier goals

Yesterday, Elon Musk jumped onto a frustrated user’s post on X, who was complaining that they were unable to book a Robotaxi ride in Austin. Musk aimed to reassure the would-be customer that the company was expanding service in the city:

“The Tesla Robotaxi fleet in Austin should roughly double next month,” Musk wrote.

While that sounds impressive, there are reports that Austin has only 29 vehicles in service.

But last month, Musk said the Robotaxi goal was to have “probably 500 or more in the greater Austin area” by the end of the year.

Meanwhile, Google’s Waymo has more than 100 autonomous taxis running in Austin, and 1,000 more in the San Francisco Bay Area.

“The Tesla Robotaxi fleet in Austin should roughly double next month,” Musk wrote.

While that sounds impressive, there are reports that Austin has only 29 vehicles in service.

But last month, Musk said the Robotaxi goal was to have “probably 500 or more in the greater Austin area” by the end of the year.

Meanwhile, Google’s Waymo has more than 100 autonomous taxis running in Austin, and 1,000 more in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Latest Stories

Sherwood Media, LLC produces fresh and unique perspectives on topical financial news and is a fully owned subsidiary of Robinhood Markets, Inc., and any views expressed here do not necessarily reflect the views of any other Robinhood affiliate, including Robinhood Markets, Inc., Robinhood Financial LLC, Robinhood Securities, LLC, Robinhood Crypto, LLC, or Robinhood Money, LLC.