Tech Trend Scanner — September 9, 2026

Findings

1. [1] 2026-09-09 Uber invests $10M in Indian fleet operator Carrum at $168M valuation

   Carrum Mobility operates about 5,100 vehicles in India and is Uber's largest fleet partner for its premium Uber Black service in the country.

2. [2] 2026-09-09 AI spend per employee slumped at top firms in August — summer doldrums or a warning sign?

   Falling token costs, cheaper models, and less spend per employee—AI adoption isn't playing out the way hyperscalers hoped.

3. [3] 2026-09-09 NOAA is putting commercial fishing ahead of conservation

   In July, the Trump administration relegated endangered leatherback turtles, sea lions, and whales to mere collateral damage in its race to profit from the oceans. Now, fisheries science is in the government’s crosshairs. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) announced new agency priorities last week that they say are a commitment to “cutting bureaucracy, modernizing our science, and putting…

4. [4] 2026-09-09 My favorite gaming earbuds got their first discount

   Asus’ Cetra Open wireless earbuds are some of the best that I’ve tested, despite being open-style earbuds. Their drivers sit outside of your ear, which allows outside sounds to mix with audio coming from your console. Some gamers may not want this, but it works well for me as someone who prefers to be aware of their surroundings as they…

5. [5] 2026-09-09 Nintendo Direct September 2026: The biggest news and trailers

   It’s almost time for part two of Nintendo’s double feature this week. On Tuesday, the company hosted a showcase all about the Legend of Zelda franchise, including footage and a November 5th release date for the Switch 2 Ocarina of Time remake. On Wednesday, the company will be airing its next Nintendo Direct, which will spotlight Switch 2 games “launching…

6. [6] 2026-09-09 Group of bipartisan lawmakers ask US government to ban several hack-for-hire firms

   The three Indian companies are accused of using hackers to steal information used to sway litigation.

7. [7] 2026-09-09 Amazon Prime Video’s new AI tech matches lips to dubbed audio

   Maxton Hall. | Image: Prime Video Amazon's Prime Video is launching a new AI-powered feature that lines up an actor's mouth with "human-dubbed" audio. The feature is only available with the English dub of the German series Maxton Hall for now, but Prime Video plans to expand it to "additional titles" in the future. In its announcement, Prime Video says…

8. [8] 2026-09-09 Instacart launches an AI grocery shopping assistant called Clementine

   Instacart is the latest app to bake a conversational AI assistant into its platform.

9. [9] 2026-09-09 Autonomy pivots to gas vehicles to keep the dream of car subscriptions alive

   Scott Painter, founder of TrueCar, is still trying to build a business around vehicle subscriptions, where you can cancel at any time.

10. [10] 2026-09-09 Sequoia doubles down on Cymphony as AI agents create new enterprise security risks

    Cymphony was valued at more than $100 million in a $25 million Series A co-led by Sequoia and SMBC Fin Atlas Beyond Fund.

11. [11] 2026-09-09 Besxar is building an orbital semiconductor factory, one SpaceX rocket at a time

    If you want to manufacture in space—and bring the products back again—there’s a limited set of options: Wait to go to the International Space Station, or partner with a handful of start-ups launching spacecraft that spend time in orbit before they return to Earth. But the vehicle that goes to space and comes back to […]

12. [12] 2026-09-09 How to watch Apple’s September 9th launch event

    Apple's September 9th launch event could be one of its biggest in years. It will be Apple's first event since John Ternus took over as CEO on September 1st, stepping in for Tim Cook, and will likely feature the first models in Apple's iPhone 18 lineup. That could include the long-rumored foldable "iPhone Duo," coming just a couple months after…

13. [13] 2026-09-09 Suno replaces its AI models with a new one trained on licensed music as copyright suits pile up

    As it grapples with a bevy of lawsuits, Suno said its new model, Suno v6, is not trained using music it used to train previous versions of the AI model.

14. [14] 2026-09-09 Students who use AI generally score worse at school

    Students who use AI to help them study tend to perform worse at school than those who don't, according to data from a global OECD educational report. The situation is more complex than it sounds though, with certain types of AI use giving learners a slight boost, especially among students taught to critically assess how well the AI tools perform.…

15. [15] 2026-09-09 Man told ChatGPT he was feeling delusional. ChatGPT insisted he was Jesus.

    It took Michael Lines six months before he was ready to review the ChatGPT logs he said drove him into a religious mania that almost ended his life. In July, Lines sued OpenAI after weeks of ChatGPT exchanges allegedly pushed him so deep into a delusional spiral that he first believed he was Jesus, then that ChatGPT was God, and…

16. [16] 2026-09-09 Worried Anthropic researchers warn that AI ‘could kill all humans’

    A senior Anthropic safety researcher has said there is more than a 10 percent chance artificial intelligence "could kill all humans" by the end of the decade, just hours after a colleague resigned over fears the AI lab and its rivals are carelessly racing to build "superhuman systems" they cannot control. In a post on X announcing his departure, Jacob…

17. [17] 2026-09-09 Google DeepMind alumni are building tools to accelerate fusion power for the grid

    Fusionality is developing control systems and simulation environments to help fusion power startups move faster.

18. [18] 2026-09-09 Apple’s foldable ‘iPhone Duo’ will reportedly start at $2,000

    With only a few hours left until the first iPhone launch event since John Ternus took over as the CEO of Apple, Bloomberg reporter Mark Gurman says the name of the company's long-rumored folding phone is the iPhone Duo. The midnight report suggests it will have a price starting at $2,000 for a model with 256GB of storage, or around…

19. [19] 2026-09-09 CloudNC raises $20M to automate manufacturing’s most pressing bottlenecks

    UK-based manufacturing software startup CloudNC announced Wednesday a $20 million B extension round, bringing its lifetime total raised amount to $128 million.

20. [20] 2026-09-08 White House takes down ‘Build the Wall’ game after the Tetris Company complains

    The Trump administration's short-lived arcade game "Build the Wall" is now nowhere to be found after the Tetris Company posted that it takes "copyright infringement very seriously."

21. [21] 2026-09-08 LG TV shown scanning LAN for third-party phones and other devices

    LG TVs are facing scrutiny due to a video seemingly showing the devices’ capability to track users when the TVs are off. YouTube channel Gamers Nexus worked with Level1Techs, a technology-focused YouTube channel, and security researchers to analyze LG TVs’ tracking capabilities. They shared packet captures that pointed to the TVs, including LG’s pricey G5 OLED TV, scanning the LAN for…

22. [22] 2026-09-08 Sony isn’t phasing out discs quite as quickly as we thought

    Sony isn't backing away from its decision to kill the video game disc in January 2028. But Sony isn't shutting down production as quickly as we thought, either. Two months after reports that Sony's last discmaking plant was already being repurposed, the company's discmaking division now says that one widely reported detail was wrong. Originally, it sounded like the division's…

23. [23] 2026-09-08 GOG brings back "big box" PC games, one printable template at a time

    Those who remember PC gaming in the days before Steam may have fond memories of the "big box" packaging that made those games stand out as shelf eye candy and sought-after in-home collectibles. Today, PC gaming platform GOG is hoping to reignite some of the nostalgia for those days by adding downloadable 3D models and printable, foldable high-res packaging scans…

24. [24] 2026-09-08 Why this month's Microsoft patch release is a doozy

    Microsoft’s patch for September is a doozy, with a record number of roughly 972 vulnerabilities fixed and 112 of them meeting the high critical-severity threshold. It was only two months ago that Microsoft patched a then-record 570 vulnerabilities. Then, last month, Microsoft patched some 620 of them. Google and other companies have also published record numbers of vulnerabilities in recent…

25. [25] 2026-09-08 Hackers are stealing Claude tokens from subscribers

    Last month, a Claude user noticed his account was consuming tokens even though he wasn't working. Anthropic has since warned users about hackers.

26. [26] 2026-09-08 Cognition hits $48B valuation, signaling investors believe AI coding is far from a winner-take-all market

    Cognition's valuation multiple is higher than Cursor's was before selling to SpaceX.

27. [27] 2026-09-08 Drama swirls around OpenAI’s legendary mathematical milestone

    OpenAI says it found a solution to a major math problem that has remained unsolved for around 90 years, as reported earlier by The New York Times and Wired. In a blog post on Tuesday, OpenAI announced that it discovered a solution to the Navier-Stokes problem – which relates to the flow of liquid and gas – using an internal…

28. [28] 2026-09-08 The Exploration Company nabs $450 million to challenge SpaceX

    The Exploration Company (TEC) has raised $450 million to build reusable spacecraft, in what it describes as “the largest-ever Series C by a European space company.”

29. [29] 2026-09-08 Rivian spinout Also apologizes for delays in shipping futuristic e-bikes

    Rivian's futuristic e-bike is delayed, and customers are not happy. Last year, Rivian's micromobility spinoff Also unveiled a new, software-controlled electric bike called the TM-B that immediately set the e-bike world ablaze. With USB-C chargeable battery, removable seat post, and software-controlled pedal-by-wire system, the TM-B set itself apart with a totally unique approach to electric bicycle design. It's not an…

30. [30] 2026-09-08 The universal language of space is… Star Trek? Mais oui.

    Sixty years after television audiences first tuned in to see the voyages of the Starship Enterprise, an astronaut on board the International Space Station has paid tribute to Star Trek by flying the badge of the franchise's latest fictional captain. Expedition 75 flight engineer Sophie Adenot with European Space Agency (ESA) donned the Delta badge originally worn by actor Anson…

31. [31] 2026-09-08 NIH to use part of its budget to pay for Department of Defense research

    Late last week, word started leaking that the National Institutes of Health (NIH) had reached an agreement with the Department of Defense that would see part of the NIH's budget used to fund research at the Department of Defense. So, on the Friday just prior to a US holiday weekend, the Department of Defense released a copy of the agreement and…

32. [32] 2026-09-08 Supreme Court forces TV stations to sell more election ads at steep discounts

    In a victory for Republican campaign committees, the Supreme Court issued an order on Friday that forces broadcast TV stations to cut the prices of election ads purchased by political parties and joint fundraising committees. The September 4 ruling came in response to a petition filed by the National Republican Congressional Committee and National Republican Senatorial Committee. The Supreme Court…

33. [33] 2026-09-08 Top chipmakers embrace ASML’s $400M machines, agree to crucial chipmaking change

    Leading chipmakers Samsung Electronics and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. announced plans to adopt ASML’s latest chipmaking machines in the next several years—and they also joined Intel in agreeing to a crucial technology change that could boost chip production on the new machines by 40 percent. This signifies the semiconductor industry’s broader embrace of high NA EUV photolithography technology that can…

34. [34] 2026-09-08 Meta debuts its Muse AI agent. Will consumers trust it?

    Meta's new personal AI agent Muse wants access to users' email, calendars, payments, health services, and more — making the company's biggest consumer AI bet yet a major test of whether people still trust Meta with their data.

35. [35] 2026-09-08 Godzilla Minus Zero IMAX trailer teases King Ghidorah

    One of the cinematic highlights of 2023 was director Takashi Yamazaki's gloriously grounded kaiju epic, Godzilla Minus One, which became a major international hit and snagged an Oscar for best visual effects. Yamazaki is back this fall with the hotly anticipated sequel, Godzilla Minus Zero. Toho just dropped the full IMAX trailer, featuring not just our beloved Godzilla, but also…

36. [36] 2026-09-08 How to watch Apple’s foldable iPhone announcement

    Apple's annual iPhone event will stream live on September 9 at 10 a.m. PDT, and we're expecting big news.

37. [37] 2026-09-08 Google complies with EU rules for travel searches, says the new results stink

    As the world's largest search engine, Google is often a target of Europe's Digital Markets Act (DMA), which seeks to rein in Big Tech. The European Commission hit Google with a hefty 460 million euro ($543 million) fine in July for preferring its own services in searches for travel and shopping. Google has now made changes in accordance with the…

38. [38] 2026-09-08 The White House made a "Tetris" clone. The Tetris Company was not amused.

    An anti-immigration-themed adaptation of Tetris was removed from the White House website over the weekend. The move comes days after The Tetris Company disavowed any involvement with the game and said that it "take[s] copyright infringement very seriously." The White House's "Build the Wall" game asked players to stop a "Zombie Border siege" by stacking Tetris-styled bricks in an attempt…

39. [39] 2026-09-08 The secret to protecting next-gen spacecraft might be eggshells

    In 2007, a piece of space debris punched a bullet-like hole through the radiator panel of the US space shuttle Endeavor. The shuttle program ended in 2011, but the space debris problem has only intensified as we launch more and more satellite constellations, telescopes, and spacecraft into orbit. That's why Chinese scientists have devised a new aluminum material inspired by eggshells…

40. [40] 2026-09-08 The combat demo for Free Stars: Children of Infinity is out, and it's free

    After five years in development, Free Stars: Children of Infinity—the official sequel to The Ur-Quan Masters by the old game's original creators—has released a free public demo. It's a "combat demo" in the style of UQM’s melee mode, where players can assemble a fleet from the game's roster of nearly 40 ships, then match those ships up in head-to-head arcade…

41. [41] 2026-09-08 Google’s revived nuclear power plant gets $1.9B loan from US government

    Google said it would bring an Iowa nuclear power plant back from the dead. Now the plant's owner is getting a $1.9 billion loan from the U.S. Energy Department.

42. [42] 2026-09-08 EV batteries last longer than drivers feared

    Electric vehicle batteries are lasting longer than previously feared by drivers, with most used EVs able to retain about 90 percent of their original usable battery capacity after 150,000 kilometers, a new study has shown. Despite a surge in global EV sales on the back of rising fuel prices, long-term battery durability continues to be one of the key concerns…

Sources

1. [1] Uber invests $10M in Indian fleet operator Carrum at $168M valuation
2. [2] AI spend per employee slumped at top firms in August — summer doldrums or a warning sign?
3. [3] NOAA is putting commercial fishing ahead of conservation
4. [4] My favorite gaming earbuds got their first discount
5. [5] Nintendo Direct September 2026: The biggest news and trailers
6. [6] Group of bipartisan lawmakers ask US government to ban several hack-for-hire firms
7. [7] Amazon Prime Video’s new AI tech matches lips to dubbed audio
8. [8] Instacart launches an AI grocery shopping assistant called Clementine
9. [9] Autonomy pivots to gas vehicles to keep the dream of car subscriptions alive
10. [10] Sequoia doubles down on Cymphony as AI agents create new enterprise security risks
11. [11] Besxar is building an orbital semiconductor factory, one SpaceX rocket at a time
12. [12] How to watch Apple’s September 9th launch event
13. [13] Suno replaces its AI models with a new one trained on licensed music as copyright suits pile up
14. [14] Students who use AI generally score worse at school
15. [15] Man told ChatGPT he was feeling delusional. ChatGPT insisted he was Jesus.
16. [16] Worried Anthropic researchers warn that AI ‘could kill all humans’
17. [17] Google DeepMind alumni are building tools to accelerate fusion power for the grid
18. [18] Apple’s foldable ‘iPhone Duo’ will reportedly start at $2,000
19. [19] CloudNC raises $20M to automate manufacturing’s most pressing bottlenecks
20. [20] White House takes down ‘Build the Wall’ game after the Tetris Company complains
21. [21] LG TV shown scanning LAN for third-party phones and other devices
22. [22] Sony isn’t phasing out discs quite as quickly as we thought
23. [23] GOG brings back "big box" PC games, one printable template at a time
24. [24] Why this month's Microsoft patch release is a doozy
25. [25] Hackers are stealing Claude tokens from subscribers
26. [26] Cognition hits $48B valuation, signaling investors believe AI coding is far from a winner-take-all market
27. [27] Drama swirls around OpenAI’s legendary mathematical milestone
28. [28] The Exploration Company nabs $450 million to challenge SpaceX
29. [29] Rivian spinout Also apologizes for delays in shipping futuristic e-bikes
30. [30] The universal language of space is… Star Trek? Mais oui.
31. [31] NIH to use part of its budget to pay for Department of Defense research
32. [32] Supreme Court forces TV stations to sell more election ads at steep discounts
33. [33] Top chipmakers embrace ASML’s $400M machines, agree to crucial chipmaking change
34. [34] Meta debuts its Muse AI agent. Will consumers trust it?
35. [35] Godzilla Minus Zero IMAX trailer teases King Ghidorah
36. [36] How to watch Apple’s foldable iPhone announcement
37. [37] Google complies with EU rules for travel searches, says the new results stink
38. [38] The White House made a "Tetris" clone. The Tetris Company was not amused.
39. [39] The secret to protecting next-gen spacecraft might be eggshells
40. [40] The combat demo for Free Stars: Children of Infinity is out, and it's free
41. [41] Google’s revived nuclear power plant gets $1.9B loan from US government
42. [42] EV batteries last longer than drivers feared