A few years after buying Twitter for $44 billion, Elon Musk announced that his AI business xAI has acquired the social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter. In a tweet, he described it as an all-stock transaction, valuing xAI at $80 billion and X at $33 billion, including $12 billion in debt it had as part of his takeover. “This combination will unlock immense potential by blending xAI’s advanced AI capability and expertise with X’s massive reach,” writes Musk.In response to a deal cementing about $11 billion in lost value since the 2022 sale, X CEO Linda Yaccarino posted, “The future could not be brighter.”Despite failing so far to make X an “everything app,” Musk has tied these two ventures together closely since launching xAI in the summer of 2023, saying that access to the vast trove of data from Twitter / X would give it a major advantage, and prominently placing xAI’s Grok tool within the social app. This week, Grok launched an integration beyond X, joining Telegram.The arrangement is also a reminder of a previous Musk deal combining two companies he controlled. Tesla Motors acquired SolarCity, a company with Musk as its largest individual shareholder and his cousin Lyndon Rive as CEO, for $2.6 billion in 2016 and dropped “Motors” from its name. Musk didn’t mention Tesla in the announcement, after already proclaiming “I have, like, 17 jobs” at a hastily-announced all-hands meeting for the car company last week — it’s unclear if this deal adds to or subtracts from the number.Today’s tweet also didn’t mention his ambition for the service to handle “someone’s entire financial life,” but it does repeat his claim of X as “the digital town square.”As we noted in January, xAI staffers were also X employees, with company laptops and access to its code base. Musk had also previously claimed X investors would own 25 percent of XAI, but as of January, that had not materialized for X employees with shares in the company.While X’s valuation had reportedly dropped since the 2022 takeover before recently rebounding, the value of xAI has risen along with other companies in the space like Nvidia and OpenAI, where Musk has gone from co-founder and early investor to rival and legal antagonist since walking away in 2018. The Wall Street Journal reported xAI had been valued at $50 billion in an investment round last November, more than double its $24 billion valuation during another funding round in the spring of 2024.Elon Musk:@xAI has acquired @X in an all-stock transaction. The combination values xAI at $80 billion and X at $33 billion ($45B less $12B debt).Since its founding two years ago, xAI has rapidly become one of the leading AI labs in the world, building models and data centers at unprecedented speed and scale.X is the digital town square where more than 600M active users go to find the real-time source of ground truth and, in the last two years, has been transformed into one of the most efficient companies in the world, positioning it to deliver scalable future growth.xAI and X’s futures are intertwined. Today, we officially take the step to combine the data, models, compute, distribution and talent. This combination will unlock immense potential by blending xAI’s advanced AI capability and expertise with X’s massive reach. The combined company will deliver smarter, more meaningful experiences to billions of people while staying true to our core mission of seeking truth and advancing knowledge. This will allow us to build a platform that doesn’t just reflect the world but actively accelerates human progress.I would like to recognize the hardcore dedication of everyone at xAI and X that has brought us to this point. This is just the beginning.Thank you for your continued partnership and support.

Helldivers 2 remains wildly popular, commonly sitting among the most-played games on Steam. A recent update to the game is apparently causing issues for players with older CPUs, however, as reported by Eurogamer. Developer Arrowhead Studios has acknowledged the issue and says it's working on a fix, but CPUs that worked previously with the game have suddenly started crashing whenever players start a mission.

Microsoft is no longer playing around when it comes to requiring every Windows 11 device be set up with an internet-connected account. In its latest Windows 11 Insider Preview, the company says it will take out a well-known bypass script that let end users skip the requirement of connecting to the internet and logging in with a Microsoft account to get through the initialization process of a new PC.As reported by Windows Central, Microsoft already requires users to connect to the internet, but there’s a way to bypass it: the bypassnro command. For those setting up computers for businesses or secondary users, or simply, on principle refuse to link their computer to a Microsoft account, the command is super simple to activate during the Windows setup process.Microsoft cites security as one reason it’s making this change:We’re removing the bypassnro.cmd script from the build to enhance security and user experience of Windows 11. This change ensures that all users exit setup with internet connectivity and a Microsoft Account.Since the bypassnro command is disabled in the latest beta build, it will likely be pushed to production versions within weeks. All hope is not yet lost, as of right now the script can be reactivated with a registry edit by opening a command prompt during the initial setup (Press Shift + F10) and running the command:reg add HKLMSOFTWAREMicrosoftWindowsCurrentVersionOOBE /v BypassNRO /t REG_DWORD /d 1 /f shutdown /r /t 0″However, there’s no guarantee Microsoft will allow this additional workaround for long. There are other workarounds as well, such as using the unattended.xml automation that lets you skip the initial setup “out-of-box experience.” It’s not straightforward, though, but it makes more sense for IT departments setting up multiple computers.As of late, Microsoft has been making it harder for people to upgrade to Windows 11 while also nudging them to move on from Windows 10, which will lose support in October. The company is cracking down on the ability to install Windows 11 on older PCs that don’t support TPM 2.0, and hounding you with full-screen ads to buy a new PC. Microsoft even removed the ability to install Windows 11 with old product keys.

Gerard Barron, Chairman and CEO of The Metals Company in San Diego, California on June 8, 2021. | Photo: Getty ImagesThe company that has pushed to open up the deep sea for mining is cozying up to the Trump administration after years of hitting roadblocks in international negotiations. The island nation of Nauru initially sponsored The Metals Company (TMC) and its deep-sea mining effort. In 2021, that triggered a race to develop regulations before TMC or any other company could begin harvesting minerals in international waters to be used in rechargeable batteries.Panic quickly set in among many scientists, environmental groups, and policymakers worried about the consequences of mining the ocean’s abyss. The surface of the Moon is better mapped than the world’s seafloor, and researchers are still making stunning discoveries there that raise questions about the ripple effects mining could have on ocean ecosystems and the coastal communities that rely on them.With President Donald Trump on a crusade to roll back environmental protections and “drill, baby, drill,” the US could prove to be a more powerful ally for TMCTalks to develop rules for deep-sea mining are still underway at the International Seabed Authority (ISA), which was established by the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. Nauru and more than 160 other nations have ratified the convention, but the United States has not. And with President Donald Trump on a crusade to roll back environmental protections and “drill, baby, drill,” the US could prove to be a more powerful ally for TMC.TMC announced yesterday that the company had “met with officials in the White House” and now plans to apply for permits under existing US mining code to begin extracting minerals from the high seas. “After extensive legal review and constructive engagement with [the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)] and other officials across the U.S. government, we believe the United States offers a stable, transparent, and enforceable regulatory path,” TMC CEO Gerard Barron said in a press release yesterday.The news sent shockwaves through ISA meetings taking place in Kingston, Jamaica, this month. It quickly elicited criticism from groups opposed to deep-sea mining that say TMC is attempting to circumvent a multilateral process.“The Metals Company is crossing a dangerous line by flirting with a breach of international law and a disruption of multilateralism,” Emma Wilson, a policy officer at the Deep Sea Conservation Coalition, said in a press statement. The coalition, along with more than 30 countries, is pushing for a ban or moratorium on deep-sea mining until rules are in place to minimize the potential damage. Crafting those rules has been slow-going, in part because researchers say they need more time to study the deep sea to understand the risks. Just last year, for instance, scientists published controversial evidence of “dark oxygen” rising from the abyssal seafloor. They still don’t know for sure how the oxygen is produced since oxygen is a product of photosynthesis, a process requiring sunlight. The paper, which was published in the journal Nature Geoscience, suggests that there’s a completely different and previously unknown process for producing oxygen, raising questions about how much life on Earth depends on that process and whether deep-sea mining might interfere with it. That research was initially funded in part by The Metals Company, which later repudiated the findings, claiming the scientists’ methods were “flawed.” Other mining companies and independent researchers have also cast doubt on the study.Its authors hypothesized that polymetallic nodules rich in nickel, copper, cobalt, iron, and manganese that are strewn across the seafloor might be able to produce enough of an electrical charge to split seawater, releasing oxygen through electrolysis. Those nodules are exactly what TMC and other mining companies are eager to harvest to feed growing demand for the battery materials used in electric vehicles and rechargeable devices. Other recent studies have found that deep-sea mining could lead to “irreversible” damage and noise loud enough to make it difficult for whales and other sea creatures to communicate.TMC says its own data shows that deep-sea mining would be less damaging than mining on land. In an email to The Verge, its CEO also says, “TMC remains fully compliant with international law.” According to The New York Times, “drafts are now circulating of an executive order President Trump will be asked to sign” that would support mining in international waters on the basis that the US hasn’t ratified the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. The Trump administration didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment from The Verge.“States, civil society, scientists, companies, and Indigenous communities continue to resist these efforts,” Louisa Casson, senior campaigner for Greenpeace International, said in a press statement. “Having tried and failed to pressure the international community to meet their demands, this reckless announcement is a slap in the face to international cooperation.”

After Google completed its acquisition of Fitbit in early 2021, the company integrated Fitbit’s services with its own and required users to migrate existing Fitbit accounts to a Google account by 2025. But in an email sent to Fitbit users today, Google now says that deadline has been extended until next year. “As we have previously shared, Fitbit is now a part of Google, and Fitbit Account holders will need to transition to Google Accounts to continue using Fitbit,” the email says. “If you want to keep using Fitbit, you must move to a Google Account by February 2, 2026.”In addition to not being able to continue to use the Fitbit service after the new deadline, the email also warns users that “your historical data will not be retained beyond February 2, 2026 (except as needed to comply with laws), and your account and data will be deleted.” Those not wanting to migrate have the option to “download or delete your data anytime on or before” the new deadline.Following the acquisition, Google had also announced that activating new Fitbit hardware (including the Pixel Watch 2 and Fitbit Charge 6), accessing new health features, or creating a new Fitbit account would require a Google account starting in 2023. The company positioned the requirements as being a more convenient unified login solution for Fitbit users who would also be able to manage their Fitbit health data through the Google Privacy Center.

A court took action on Friday to keep the Trump administration and its Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) from shutting down a consumer watchdog agency while its court case plays out.Judge Amy Berman Jackson granted a preliminary injunction to save the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) from being further gutted while she decides whether the Trump administration has the legal authority to dismantle it in the first place. “Absent an injunction freezing the status quo – preserving the agency’s data, its operational capacity, and its workforce – there is a substantial risk that the defendants will complete the destruction of the agency completely in violation of law well before the Court can rule on the merits, and it will be impossible to rebuild,” Jackson writes.The ruling is a significant win for the federal workers’ union and groups that rely on the CFPB’s work that filed the complaint, alleging that the Trump administration is violating the separation of powers under the Constitution by trying to eliminate an agency established by Congress. They’ve warned that the efforts to wind down the agency have already left many consumers without sufficient recourse for their complaints about financial services. In recent years, the CFPB has increasingly become a check on the technology industry as tech companies grew into the financial services space. (For example, Elon Musk’s X purports to eventually become a payments service.) But as DOGE got involved at the agency, according to reporting and testimony presented before the judge, the CFPB terminated technologists — who would, obviously, be necessary staff when regulating tech companies — and placed much of its workforce on administrative leave. After CFPB Acting Director Russell Vought told agency staff on February 10th to “stand down from performing any work task,” workers testified they followed that order literally. Allegedly, this surprised the administration, with one official later clarifying that statutorily mandated work should still get done. The judge says she was “left with little confidence that the defense can be trusted to tell the truth about anything,” saying that the government’s arguments that CFPB workers were back to work have “been shown to be unreliable and inconsistent with the agency’s own contemporaneous records.” She also condemned an “eleventh hour attempt to suggest immediately before the hearing that the stop work order was not really a stop work order at all.”Jackson opens her opinion with quotes from Musk (the public face of DOGE), Vought, and President Donald Trump about their alleged intentions to eliminate the agency. For instance, Musk tweeted “CFPB RIP” on February 7th. “The CFPB has been a woke and weaponized agency against disfavored industries and individuals for a long time. This must end,” Vought said the following day. A couple days later, Trump added, “That was a very important thing to get rid of.”Essentially, the CFPB can — for now — get back to workJackson came to the conclusion that unless she takes action, “the RIF [reduction-in-force] notices that have already been prepared will go out before the ink is dry on the Court’s signature, the employees will be back on administrative leave for just thirty days before they are gone, and the defendants will pull the plug on the CFPB.” While this isn’t a final ruling, as part of issuing the injunction, Jackson says the workers’ union is likely to ultimately succeed in court on its claims.The judge orders the Trump administration to reinstate all probationary and term employees terminated since February 10th, carry out no further terminations without cause or issue any RIF notice, lift the administrative leave requirements and stop-work order, and let employees either return to an office or work remotely. She also requires that the government maintain CFPB data and records, and rescind contract termination notices sent since February 11th. Essentially, the CFPB can — for now — get back to work.Workers are cautiously celebrating. “While we are thrilled and relieved at today’s outcome, union members are under no illusion that this is the end of Trump’s lawless attacks,” CFPB Union President Cat Farman says in a statement. “Vought has already violated previous court orders by deleting data and failing to reinstate illegally fired workers. We can’t rely on judges alone to keep wannabe dictators in check. We need everyone to join the fight to save our services, unionize our workplaces, and create more good middle class jobs doing vital work that benefits working people instead of billionaires and Wall Street.”

When building a small form factor (SFF) PC or using a device with integrated graphics, you're likely working with weaker GPU performance than what's available in more advanced discrete graphics cards. It's probably that the RTX 5090 won't fit inside your SFF case, nor would it make much sense, which is why technologies such as DLSS, FSR, and XeSS are so crucial for getting the most out of the available hardware. SFF cases have some limitations compared to other form factors, but here are a few reasons why these upscaling technologies are vital for gaming.

Microsoft is starting to test Quick Machine Recovery, a feature designed to prevent incidents like last year’s Crowdstrike catastrophe. It’s rolling out in its latest Windows Insider Preview build (6120.3653) and allows IT professionals to remotely recover Windows 11 devices even if they won’t boot.Microsoft first announced Quick Machine Recovery last year as part of its Windows Resiliency Initiative, which came in direct response to the Crowdstrike outage. Last July, Crowdstrike rolled out a faulty kernel-level update that caused the Blue Screen of Death to appear across millions of Windows devices, impacting banks, airlines, TV broadcasters, and more. IT admins struggled to quickly get them back online because many needed physical access to the machines to issue a fix.But Quick Machine Recovery should at least help prevent similar outages. It prompts a device to enter the Windows Recovery Environment, where the machine can access the network and provide Microsoft with diagnostic information. Microsoft can then remotely deploy fixes via the Windows Update system.The feature is enabled by default for home users, and Windows Insiders can try it out now using a simulated environment.

You know when something goes wrong on Windows and the operating system fires up a troubleshooter to fix it? How many times have those things actually managed to shoot the trouble? For me, I remember exactly one time it fixed something wrong with my Wi-Fi adapter, and every time after that, it has just shrugged and said it was unfixable. I say this because the Windows 11 Beta is getting a new recovery tool, and I'm hesitantly optimistic that it'll actually do what it says it does.

Hard drives are like the forgotten teammate no one wants to play with because they're old and can't keep up with others anymore. SSDs have outclassed HDDs in speed, efficiency, and reliability, with the latter remaining useful for a select few use cases. HDDs might be nearing obsolescence for the vast majority of PC users, but the myths surrounding them refuse to die down.

3D printing is not only a fun hobby but also an excellent way to produce a ton of functional tools and accessories that can be used around the house. Apart from printing new objects and items, though, 3D printing can also be used to fix broken items, add additional features to existing objects, and make the most out of what you already have lying around at home. Not only is this a great way to save some money, but also a good way to contribute to saving the environment.

Amazon’s Big Spring Sale is happening now through Monday, March 31st, with several dozen good-to-great deals available that don’t require an Amazon Prime membership. Our main roundup has you covered with more than 100 deals on Verge-favorite gear with quite a high price ceiling. But, for this post, we wanted to provide some low-cost alternatives that, to us, are just as appealing as the pricey ones.All of these deals come from Amazon, with the exception of one that’s on Woot (which is owned by Amazon). We’ll keep our eyes out for more $30 and under candidates as we cruise through the weekend, just in case you’d rather pick up an inexpensive pair of earbuds, a security cam, or a retractable charger instead of a $1,500 robot vacuum.Update, March 28th: Verified that deals are still in effect, and added new discounts, including the JLab Go Air Pop earbuds, the Anker 525 7-in-1 charging station, and the 4K Blu-ray editions of Batman: Mask of the Phantasm, and Everything Everywhere All At Once.