Welcome back to Week in Review! We have a lot of stories to share from this week, including the biggest hits from Nvidia GTC, the NASA astronauts suddenly returned home, Rippling’s petition, and Google buying Wiz. Let’s get to the point!
Google finally completes its biggest acquisition in its story this week by revealing its$ 32 billion purchase of Wiz. Wiz will not be a Google-only store, according to Google, as it is billed as a “multicloud” giving. Google provided$ 23 billion for its business next year. It’s probably worthwhile to say no occasionally.  ,
Speaking of mergers, Elon Musk’s AI business, xAI, recently acquired Hotshot, a firm developing AI-based video-generation resources. The deal might indicate that xAI intends to create its own video-generation types in a way that rivals Google’s Veo 2, OpenAI’s Sora, and others.
Nvidia GTC: The biggest event of the year for Nvidia came to an end on Thursday, and we were on the floor to share the newest news from the chipmaker. The company also revealed two specific AI mainframes, , a fundamental model for human robots, fresh GPUs, , as well as many other details.
We recap the year’s biggest news for TechCrunch’s Year in Review. Want to receive this every Saturday in the form of a magazine? Register around.
News
The HR firm Rippling filed a lawsuit against Deel, another person in the field, alleging criminal, unlawful disturbance, unfair competition, and aiding and abetting a breach of fiduciary responsibility. Deel refutes the claims.  ,
The two NASA astronauts who had been stranded on the International Space Station for more than nine times have now arrived back on Earth. After a 17-hour return trip from the ISS, Sunita” Suni” Williams and Barry” Butch” Wilmore made a splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico in a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft on Tuesday.
Google introduces a fresh Pixel, the 9a, this year. The$ 699 smartphone has an upgraded 6. 3-inch Actua display, which Google claims is 35 % brighter than the Pixel 8a display. The real change is in the pattern, though, since it has removed the camera bar from the back.  ,
Hacker-stolen personal information: According to the Pennsylvania State Education Association ( PSEA ), the state’s largest educator organization, more than half a million members were among the victims. According to a letter sent to the affected individuals, PSEA claimed that part account numbers, PINs, credentials, and safety rules were also accessed as a result of the violation.
Neat! A 12th grader created a website called Minecraft Bench (MC-Bench ) to pit two AIs against one another to see which one creates better Minecraft creations. Technically speaking, MC-Bench is a software standard because the models are required to write code to make the prompted build.
Google is actually making your inbox more searchable, which is really good. Instead of displaying everything sequentially, it will now use AI to take into account aspects like recency, most clicked emails, and numerous contacts when surfacing messages based on your search query. On a search results page, a switch will let users choose the most current or most important messages.
Humanoid computers for the home: The publicity seems to have soared to new levels. By the end of the year, Norway robotics company 1X has announced that it will test its human machine, Neo Gamma, in” a few hundred to a few thousand” properties.  ,
Analysis
Nvidia on top: Nvidia is a leader in the AI market, but it is faced with shifting priorities from major AI clients, such as DeepSeek and U.S. taxes. The company made a promise at this year’s GTC that visitors and the rest of the world who were present would not experience a decline in demand for its chips anytime soon.  ,
Wayve is a wave rider: Wayve, which was founded in 2017 and has raised more than$ 1.3 billion in the last few years, intends to license its self-driving software to fleet and automotive partners like Uber. Alex Kendall, co-founder and CEO of Wayve, sees promise in the development of his automatic vehicle startup’s technology.