Business & Tech AI Company Databricks Declares It Will ‘Invest Over $1 Billion’ in Downtown SF With Big Conference, New HQ Flush with their latest $10 billion fundraising round, the cloud-based AI platform firm Databricks recently signed a 150,000 square-foot lease at One Sansome, and is now committing to keeping their annual conference in SF for five more years.
SF News New Plans Announced for Steph Curry’s Splashy New Offices In Dogpatch Warriors all-star Steph Curry is getting ready to say night-night to his playing career, and the new company he’s started just released their plans for a giant, fancy headquarters on 20th Street out at Pier 70.
Business & Tech Bing Crosby’s Former Home in Hillsborough on the Market for a Record-Breaking $40 Million Asking Price Purchased for a song at just $175,000 in 1965, the French chateau-style former home of pop crooner Bing Crosby is now on sale again for $40 million, a price that would break the Hillsborough real estate record that currently belongs to Elon Musk’s old house.
Business & Tech Google Maps Lists an Oakland Homeless Encampment as “Homeless Encampment,” Hilarity Ensues A vacant East Oakland lot that’s become overrun with RVs and tents is now listed on Google Maps as “Homeless Encampment,” though this is clearly the work of some joker trying to embarrass Oakland City Hall.
Business & Tech Apple Shareholders Scoff at Think Tank Proposal to Scrap DEI Programs At least one more major US company isn't rushing to toss its diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives just because Trump and his minions don't get racism.
Business & Tech Not Shockingly, the Ninth Circuit Has Rejected Elizabeth Holmes's Appeal In a ruling that perhaps only Elizabeth Holmes herself was optimistic about, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has denied Elizabeth Holmes's attempt to see her fraud conviction overturned.
Business & Tech North Berkeley ‘Deathtrap’ That Comes With Lifetime Elderly Tenant Is Pending Sale A North Berkeley home that's in severe disrepair and comes with a lifetime tenant is pending sale by a developer who plans to restore it rather than tear it down.
Business & Tech Sam Altman’s Other Startup Reportedly Looking to Lease 60,000 Square Feet In Mission Rock OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has another startup you may not have heard about called World that controversially collects biometric data, and it’s in talks to scoop up a reported two floors of a newly opened office building in Mission Rock.
Business & Tech The Search for Ethical Tech Alternatives As major tech companies become more invasive, users are turning to privacy-focused alternatives. Proton has a solid suite of offerings, but mixing things up is probably the way to go.
Business & Tech Uh-Oh: Reddit Says It Will Start to Paywall Some of Its Subreddits The free ride might be over soon for Reddit lovers, as the company’s CEO said on a Thursday ‘Ask Me Anything’ that they might start charging subscriptions for certain Subreddits.
Business & Tech Elizabeth Holmes Still Says She's Innocent, Gives Prison Interview to 'People' Magazine Convicted fraudster Elizabeth Holmes still maintains her innocence, and apparently she saw a reason to give an interview to People Magazine that's out this week, trying to un-tarnish her reputation, or something.
Business & Tech Lyft Claims It Will Launch Self-Driving Cars Next Year, Though Only in Dallas Eight years after Lyft’s first claim that they would have self-driving cars, the rideshare company just made their latest declaration that these robotaxis are right around the corner, with “right around the corner” meaning “next year,” and only in Dallas.
Business & Tech Elon Musk Bids to Buy OpenAI for $97.4 Billion, Sam Altman Laughs It Off A team of investors led by Elon Musk put in a bid to buy OpenAI for $97.4 billion, a fraction of the company’s value. OpenAI founder Sam Altman merely responded, “No thank you but we will buy twitter for $9.74 billion if you want.”
Business & Tech Meta Bringing the Axe Down With an Estimated 4,000 Layoffs Worldwide Today The Super Bowl hangover day is particularly rough at Facebook’s parent company Meta, as nearly 4,000 employees are learning that they’ve been pink-slipped today, though it’s unknown how many Menlo Park employees are getting the boot.
Business & Tech SF-Based Telehealth Startup Hims & Hers Gets Negative Attention From Congress After Super Bowl Ad You may have seen a prominent ad that aired during the Super Bowl Sunday for the weight-loss meds known as semaglutides that can be ordered inexpensively as non-FDA-approved compounds through SF-based Hims & Hers. Well, a pair of US senators are now crying foul.
SF news Developer Abandons Housing Plans, Puts Portola’s Historic Greenhouse Site Up for Sale San Francisco’s historic 770 Woolsey St. is back on the market after a failed housing plan, frustrating community efforts to turn it into an urban farm. Its future remains uncertain.
Business & Tech Elon Musk Claims Tesla Will Have Self-Driving Robotaxis This Year, Which He Has Claimed in Five Previous Years This is at least the fifth time that Elon Musk has declared he’d have self-driving cars this year, though if it ends up being true, at least they would start rolling in Texas and not San Francisco.
Business & Tech PG&E Rolls Out Ads In Which Execs Talk to Real-Life Customers — Is Anyone Buying It? PG&E has an awkward new PR campaign with ads airing in NorCal markets in which company executives sit and have frank-seeming conversations with customers about the company's horrible reputation when it comes to wildfire safety.
SF News Day Around the Bay: OpenAI Says DeepSeek May Have Used Their Tech to Build Their AI Model OpenAI says DeepSeek may have improperly harvested data from their tech; a San Mateo man has filed suit against Amazon for secretly tracking customers; and the brother of Oakland rapper Too Short was killed in a shooting this morning.
Business & Tech DeepSeek R1 Model Shows China Flexing Its Muscles In AI Race, Causing Silicon Valley Stocks to Slide A new AI model released by Chinese startup DeepSeek has caused a great flurry of buzz and consternation in the American tech world, and that was reflected in a bunch of Silicon Valley companies' stock prices Monday morning.
SF News SF Gets an Early Morning Taste of SpaceX Rocket Activity in Our Skies Some crazy lights and cloud formations created a mysterious celestial display around 6 am Friday morning in San Francisco skies, and it was all because of a SpaceX rocket launch that happened more than 300 miles away in Santa Barbara.
Business & Tech Latest Robotaxi Criticism Claims They’re Blocking SF Housing Development Here’s a complaint we hadn't considered about Waymos and self-driving cars, as at least 600 units of proposed housing are not getting built, because the property owners are getting quicker and easier money by renting out the lots as vehicle charging stations.
Business & Tech Conspiracy Theories Fly as Meta Users Find Themselves Suddenly Following Trump and JD Vance Millions of Facebook and Instagram users were shocked to find that they were suddenly following Donald Trump, JD Vance, and Melania Trump, but the company insists it was just the normal switching of official accounts that happens for every presidential transition.
Business & Tech Elon Musk Fumes as $500 Billion AI Data Center Investment Comes From Sam Altman and Not Him The completely unproven and unreliable AI sector says it’s going to build $500 billion worth of data centers with Trump’s blessing, and with AI safeguards now repealed, that’s a lot of deepfake porn to produce. But Elon Musk is mad that he’s not in on the action.
Business & Tech SF-Based Hims & Hers Healthcare Company, Founded By Owner of New West Portal Doughnut Shop, Donates to Trump Inauguration Hims & Hers Health, the SF-based telehealth startup founded by Andrew Dudum, just kicked $1 million to Donald Trump's inauguration fund, perhaps because they're concerned about the administration's future plans when it comes to mail-order drugs.
