Image generated with Gemini’s “Nano Banana” feature (Google)

B-A-N-A-N-A-S

This is bananas! Google’s Gemini has booted ChatGPT from the top of the iOS App Store

A surge of interest in Gemini’s popular Veo 3 video generator and Nano Banana image generator has rocketed the app to the top of the iOS App Store, dethroning ChatGPT from its long-standing perch atop the leaderboard.

Jon Keegan

9/16/25 3:05PM

Google’s Gemini chatbot has rocketed to the top of Apple’s app store, claiming the No. 1 spot on the Top Apps leaderboard and dethroning OpenAI’s ChatGPT, which has enjoyed a solid run as the most popular app for months.

Two new popular features have provided the rocket fuel to take Google’s humble app to such heights: the Veo 3 video generator and Nano Banana, a powerful new image generation model.

Veo 3 was added to the iOS version of the Gemini app on August 27, which sent it from 66th place to 38th overnight.

On September 3, Google released an update to Gemini that noted, “Gemini now has updated image editing capabilities (Nano Banana).” In the weeks following the release, social media buzz surrounding the new feature pushed the app to the top of the charts.

Veo 3 lets users generate short cinematic videos from a text prompt.

Nano Banana lets users alter photos with a text prompt, like imagining your pet as different characters, trying on different Halloween costumes, or rendering yourself as an action figure.

Meet Cooper, the dog…also the jock, the vet and the dramatic actor. 🐶

With Nano Banana, you can give your pet (or yourself) a makeover right in the Gemini app.

Follow @GeminiApp for more ideas ✨ pic.twitter.com/MQ06MCGv0p
— Google (@Google) September 8, 2025

Republican Presidential Nominee Former President Trump Holds Rally In Butler, Pennsylvania

Tesla investors don’t want Elon Musk involved in politics

The Tesla CEO is spending big on the GOP in midterm elections.

Rani Molla3h

Jon Keegan4h

Report: China’s “Manhattan Project” built an advanced EUV chip fab prototype

The most advanced chipmaking process in the world is currently owned by one company: Dutch chipmaker ASML.

The process, known as extreme ultraviolet lithography (EUV), allows for the smallest, most complex semiconductors to be etched onto silicon chips.

These advanced chips are used in a huge number of crucial industries such as AI, mobile phones, and weapons manufacturing.

A new report from Reuters says that China has completed a factory-sized prototype of an EUV chip fab, a first that could have huge ramifications for the balance of power in the global technology race.

The prototype was built in a high-security facility in Shenzhen by former ASML employees and made use of secondary markets to acquire older, used ASML parts, according to the report. Despite a goal of delivering working chips by 2028, sources say China is likely a couple years behind that schedule.

ASML’s $250 million EUV machines are used to manufacture advanced chips for Nvidia, Advanced Micro Devices, and for chips made by TSMC.

ASML shares were down about 4.8% as of 12 p.m. ET.

Exclusive: How China built its ‘Manhattan Project’ to rival the West in AI chips

These advanced chips are used in a huge number of crucial industries such as AI, mobile phones, and weapons manufacturing.

ASML’s $250 million EUV machines are used to manufacture advanced chips for Nvidia, Advanced Micro Devices, and for chips made by TSMC.

ASML shares were down about 4.8% as of 12 p.m. ET.

Alexander C. Kaufman

Powerhouse

Inside Oklo’s audacious plan to turn leftover weapons-grade plutonium into a nuclear bridge fuel

“There’s enough energy in nuclear waste to power the country for 150 years, and every year we produce enough for another four years,” the CEO of Oklo told Sherwood News.

Blastoff of Missile from Underground Bunker

Jon Keegan5h

Google is reportedly working with Meta to expand software support for its AI chips

Nvidia dominates the market for AI chips. But its advantage is not limited to hardware.

The company has a growing suite of software tools that are usually paired with its chips, optimized to get the most out of the GPUs crunching the data.

Any challengers to Nvidia’s dominance will need to make it easy for developers to walk away from the Nvidia software-hardware lock-in. That’s what Google and Meta are teaming up to do.

A new report from Reuters says Google is working on an initiative code-named “TorchTPU,” which aims to make it easier for AI developers who use the ubiquitous, open-source PyTorch software framework to switch the hardware layer to Google’s tensor processing units (TPUs).

Meta is a huge backer of the PyTorch project, so the company is teaming up with Google to help develop its TorchTPU software, per the report.

Last month, it was reported that Google is planning on selling TPUs worth “billions of dollars” to Meta, which follows other Big Tech players who are hedging their bets against Nvidia’s dominance.

Exclusive: Google works to erode Nvidia's software advantage with Meta's help

Any challengers to Nvidia’s dominance will need to make it easy for developers to walk away from the Nvidia software-hardware lock-in. That’s what Google and Meta are teaming up to do.

Meta is a huge backer of the PyTorch project, so the company is teaming up with Google to help develop its TorchTPU software, per the report.

$100B

Rani Molla6h

Waymo, Alphabet’s autonomous driving subsidiary, is in talks to raise more than $15 billion in a funding round that would value the company near $100 billion, Bloomberg reports. That’s more than double the valuation from its last round in October 2024, reflecting its lead in driverless ride-hailing.