• Physical Intelligence, the two-year-old San Francisco robotics startup, is in discussions to raise about $1 billion in new funding at a valuation exceeding $11 billion. The deal would effectively double the company's $5.6 billion valuation in just four months.

• SK hynix, a South Korean memory chip giant, is laying the groundwork for a potential US listing that could reportedly raise $10B-$14B. The company announced it has confidentially filed a Form F-1 with the SEC, targeting the second half of 2026.

• Waymo has reached a milestone of providing 500,000 paid robotaxi rides per week across 10 US cities. The company's average weekly paid robotaxi trips have grown tenfold in less than two years, from 50,000 per week to 500,000 per week.

• Data center construction is on the rise, but at what cost? The increased demand for electricity has led to a spike in cancer rates in Oregon. Google's latest project is using gas turbines to power its data centers.

• The European Union's top executive body, the Commission, has confirmed a cyber attack after hackers reportedly stole reams of data from its cloud storage. The attackers allegedly stole hundreds of gigabytes of data, including multiple databases, from the Commission's account on Amazon Web Services. The investigation is ongoing.

• Aetherflux, the space solar power startup founded by Robinhood co-founder Baiju Bhatt, is in talks to raise $250-350 million for a Series B round that would value the company at $2 billion. The startup has shifted its focus to building data centers in space, rather than transmitting electricity from space to Earth.

• Winter testing has been completed for the vw id.every1, the first vehicle under a joint venture between rivian and volkswagen group to be equipped with the ev maker's software and electrical architecture. This unlocks another $1 billion investment from volkswagen group into rivian.

• Iranian government-backed hackers known as Handala have allegedly breached the personal email account of FBI Director Kash Patel. The group claims to have accessed a cache of files that appear to come from Patel's Gmail account, including pictures of a younger Patel.

• Apple has announced that its Lockdown Mode, an opt-in series of security protections that switches off certain features in iPhones and other Apple devices, has yet to see a case where someone's device was hacked with these additional security protections switched on.

• For any one person, ranking 50 items can be a long and tedious process. For a community, however, it's markedly easier. Rather than have each user submit a full list, we can break down the rankings into bite-size components, then recombine them once we have enough votes.

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