AIM Media House

Solana Labs CEO Anatoly Yakovenko now lets AI handle his coding after 15 years in software development. Speaking at TechCrunch Disrupt, he said AI is "a great force multiplier" and he watches Claude code, able to "smell when it's going off the rails." He admits ignoring meetings to monitor Claude. Solana reported $2.85 billion in annual revenue this month from crypto trading. Its first ETF launched through Bitwise, pulling in nearly $70 million in one day. Yakovenko credited growing acceptance from traditional finance professionals who understand settlement and banking risks. Cryptocurrency faces criticism for enabling bribery through Solana-hosted Trumpcoin, which funneled an estimated $350 million to the president. Critics cite Trump's pardons of Tron and Binance founders. As an open protocol, Yakovenko has little control over hosted coins.

Mark Zuckerberg is committing Meta to a $600 billion AI investment by 2028, even if the boom turns out to be a bubble. Speaking on the Access podcast, he argued that playing it safe poses a bigger risk. "If we end up misspending a couple of hundred billion dollars, that is going to be very unfortunate, but the risk is higher on the other side," he said. Zuckerberg noted that past tech bubbles left behind infrastructure that fueled future innovation. He highlighted Meta's advantage over AI startups like OpenAI and Anthropic, which rely on external funding that could vanish in a downturn. "We're not at risk of going out of business," he stated. Meta is now restructuring around superintelligence with a dedicated lab where top researchers work without rigid deadlines. The company is pouring billions into GPUs and custom AI systems, prioritizing "compute per researcher" as its competitive edge.

At Verizon, automation isn’t solving bad incentives—it’s reinforcing them. Two internal AI tools, Personal Shopper and Priority Upgrades, are reshaping how retail employees work, but not necessarily for the better. Instead of improving service, they automate sales quotas, preloading customer carts with add-ons, and flagging “at-risk” accounts for upselling. Workers say the systems amplify pressure rather than reduce it. Verizon’s story highlights a growing truth: AI doesn’t change corporate logic—it scales it. When sales metrics define success, automation simply enforces the same goals, faster and with less human discretion.

UPS says AI isn’t behind its layoffs — but the numbers tell another story. The logistics giant has cut 48,000 jobs in 2025, closed nearly 95 facilities, and automated 66% of its package handling network . From route optimization and robotic arms to AI-powered sales tools, automation now drives UPS’s efficiency push. CEO Carol B. Tomé calls it “a masterful job of managing headcount to meet volume,” but the cost is thousands of displaced workers. As UPS reshapes operations, the line between AI-driven efficiency and workforce replacement is growing increasingly thin in the logistics industry.

Amazon is cutting 14,000 corporate jobs—even as profits surge and AI investments soar. The company says the move will make it “faster, leaner, and more focused on what matters most.” But behind that efficiency lies a transformation: a shift from human-led expansion to AI-driven control. CEO Andy Jassy made it clear—generative AI is reshaping work itself. Amazon spent $55.6 billion this year to strengthen AWS and automation, redefining efficiency as power. As profits rise and people exit, Amazon’s message is unmistakable: in the AI era, fewer humans may mean greater performance.

Cartesia has raised $100 million to launch Sonic-3, a real-time conversational AI that captures the full emotional range of human speech — from tone and laughter to subtle sentiment shifts. Built on State Space Models (SSMs) instead of Transformers, Sonic-3 delivers 190ms response time and supports 42 languages, setting a new benchmark for real-time voice AI. “If you’re qualified and we can’t make your voice AI better than what you’re using now, I’ll donate $5K to your chosen charity,” said Karan Goel, CEO of Cartesia.

Mem0 has raised $24 million to expand what it calls the memory layer for artificial intelligence, enabling AI systems to maintain context and continuity across time, users, and applications. “Many top models lock memory in. We’re building memory as infrastructure: one layer that works across every model, every framework, every platform,” said Taranjeet Singh, co-founder and CEO of Mem0, to AIM Media House. Integrated with Amazon Web Services (AWS), CrewAI, Flowise, and Langflow, Mem0 aims to power the next generation of AI agents that remember, adapt, and evolve beyond single-session intelligence.

Fireworks AI has raised $250 million in Series C funding, led by Lightspeed Venture Partners, Index Ventures, and Evantic Capital, valuing the company at $4 billion. Founded by the engineers behind PyTorch, Fireworks AI is building the backbone of enterprise AI infrastructure. Its platform delivers up to 12x faster inference than leading benchmarks, powering applications for Uber, Shopify, GitLab, and Retell AI. The company enables enterprises to run and optimize open-source AI models with transparency and scale. CEO Lin Qiao says the goal is simple democratize AI infrastructure, giving every business speed, control, and ownership over its AI systems.

Adobe has expanded its Firefly creative AI suite with audio, video, and imaging tools, integrating partner models from ElevenLabs, Google, OpenAI, Topaz Labs, Luma AI, and Runway. Announced at Adobe MAX, the updates include Generate Soundtrack for instrumental tracks, Generate Speech for multilingual voiceovers, and a timeline-based video editor. Adobe also launched Firefly Image Model 5, producing photorealistic 4MP images with natural-language editing via Prompt to Edit. Firefly Custom Models let creators train personalized models in their own style. Project Moonlight, an experimental AI assistant, analyzes social channels and projects to help develop content. Most features are in public beta, while the video editor, Custom Models, and Project Moonlight remain in private beta.

NVIDIA is investing 1 billion dollars in Nokia for a 2.9 percent stake, the companies announced Tuesday. The chip maker will purchase 166.4 million new shares at 6.01 dollars each. The partnership focuses on AI-powered radio access networks and data centre networking. Nokia will optimize its 5G and 6G software for NVIDIA's architecture while expanding into AI and cloud markets. The companies will jointly develop AI networking solutions and integrate Nokia's data centre technologies into NVIDIA's AI infrastructure. The new shares will be registered in November and listed on major exchanges, bringing Nokia's total share count to 5.74 billion.