Good morning. A New York State school district is piloting a humanoid robot teacher made by a company that also makes sex dolls.
Yes, really.
When the school year in Salamanca, New York kicks off in the fall, the ‘bot will join classrooms to support the district’s STEAM curriculum. The humanoid “has been loaded exclusively with district-approved curriculum, instructional strategies, and historical information” about the town, the district says, and will guide students’ learning, “rather than complete the work for them.” (Sounds rad.)
But the robot’s maker comes with an interesting backstory (and a surprisingly complicated corporate structure).
Toronto’s Realbotix has two distinct businesses: its eponymous B2B robotics unit and a B2C subsidiary that focuses on “adult companionship products” doing business as RealDoll. The two units started as completely separate companies that found each other two years ago; a flurry of M&A later, RealDoll’s inventor is Realbotix’s co-founder and COO.
The adult industry: still tech’s earliest adopters, even in the age of AI.
More tech news below; have a wonderful weekend. —Andrew Nusca
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EU orders Google to share search data with rivals by 2027
The European Union on Thursday issued two new rules for Google that force the company to open its Android operating system to rivals and share search data with them.
The first rule allows Android phone owners to choose third-party AI assistants over Google’s own if they prefer.
Google currently restricts the access of competing assistants to key parts of the Android OS, making them less capable; this would put them on equal footing with “robust safeguards to ensure that the privacy of users, device integrity and security are protected.”
The second rule allows, among other things, third-party AI assistants to draw on anonymized Google search data for search functionality.
“The decision provides guidance on several key aspects which have made Google's data sharing offer ineffective so far,” notes the European Commission, the EU’s executive arm, which puts third-party search engines at a perpetual disadvantage. (By some estimates, Google enjoys almost 90% search market share in the EU.)
The rules are legally binding and take effect next year. Failure to comply could result in penalties of up to 10% of a company’s annual global revenue.
This is just the latest of many steps in Brussels’s effort to unwind vertical integration and curb the gatekeeping power of big tech companies. Those corporations have, by the way, consistently objected to the EU’s digital regulations on the grounds that the rules would harm users’ privacy and lead to a degraded experience. —AN
Marc Lore says Wonder is ready for an IPO
Marc Lore is ready to ring the bell.
The serial entrepreneur—who previously sold Jet.com to Walmart for $3.3 billion—told UnHerd exclusively that his food delivery and service company Wonder will be “ready and prepared to go public early next year.”
And the company has news to back it up.
Wonder, Lore’s food‑tech platform, raised more than $650 million Series D at a $9 billion valuation. Returning investors Accel, GV, and NEA participated in the fundraising round; new entrants include AllianceBernstein, Cathie Wood’s ARK Invest, and Kayne Anderson.
The round brings Wonder’s total raised to approximately $3 billion since its founding in 2018.
Wonder operates 135 food halls across 10 East Coast states. Each location runs up to 30 restaurant concepts—including licensed names like Bobby Flay Steak and Tejas Barbeque—out of a single kitchen. Customers order through Wonder’s app, combining dishes from multiple concepts in one transaction, with Wonder handling cooking and last‑mile delivery itself.
The company also owns Grubhub, acquired for $650 million early last year (including $500 million in assumed debt), and Blue Apron, bought in 2023 for $103 million.
Wonder’s current footprint is still firmly Northeastern. The latest financing will fund continued expansion—Wonder plans to enter Texas next year—alongside investments in robotics and AI.
“Our mission is to make great food more accessible,” he told UnHerd. “That’s really where we excel—in places where the food’s not currently available, at price points that are currently not possible.” —Lily Mae Lazarus
TSMC will spend another $100 billion on U.S. manufacturing
TSMC is doubling down on the United States.
The Taiwanese chipmaking giant said Thursday that it plans to spend another $100 billion on expanding its manufacturing capacity in the U.S.
The news brings the company’s total commitment in the States to $265 billion.
It’s an astonishing amount—but the world’s largest contract chipmaker is good for it, thanks to the continued AI boom and lots of orders from Apple, Nvidia, and others.
This week, TSMC recorded an expectations-crushing Q2 profit jump of 77% (to about $22 billion) and raised its revenue forecast for the year.
TSMC also said it will increase its total capital expenditures for the year to upwards of $64 billion, rather than the $56 billion it previously budgeted for. (AI boom or bubble? Clearly there’s little talk of the latter at company headquarters in Taiwan.)
In the U.S., TSMC currently has one 4nm fabrication plant up and running in Phoenix and a legacy 8nm plant across the border from Portland, Ore. Its Arizona fab is part of a larger planned complex that, if fully constructed, would include six fabs (including 3nm and 2nm facilities), two packaging facilities, and an R&D center.
Chairman and CEO C.C. Wei said during an investor call that global AI demand remains extremely robust. “I believe from this day on,” he said, “all the way to probably 2029, 2030, the demand is very strong.” —AN
More tech
—Uber will acquire Delivery Hero. A $14.8 billion deal that includes Prosus’ 17% stake.
—Moonshot releases its model Kimi K3. The Chinese AI startup aims to dethrone Anthropic’s Claude Opus 4.8 and OpenAI’s GPT-5.5.
—Netflix shares drop 7%. Q2 revenue of $12.6 billion slightly misses estimates; Q3 guidance comes in weaker than expected.
—Google Gemini launch is reportedly delayed. “Months behind” on the flagship AI model Gemini 3.5 Pro as the company bulks up its coding capabilities.
—Apple’s iPad revamp: A new OLED Mini this fall, standard iPad and Air models early next year.
—A new prediction market entrant. The startup Pascal has raised $9 million to take on Kalshi and Polymarket.
—Hacker accuses Suno of stealing songs and lyrics to train its AI music generator.