Latest / Connecting the Dots / Microsoft Hires from DeepMind, xAI Chases Chips, and Kraken Founder Cleared

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Microsoft Hires from DeepMind, xAI Chases Chips, and Kraken Founder Cleared · Connecting the Dots

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  Today's tech news moves fast, but understanding
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  it shouldn't be hard. That's why Snarful Solutions
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  Group brings you Connecting the Dots, where we
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  break down what's happening in tech and why it
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  matters to you. Now, let's dive in with your
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  hosts. Welcome, everyone, to Connecting the Dots.
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  I'm Alex. And I'm Morgan. Great to be with you.
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  It is Tuesday, July 22nd, 2025. And yeah, we're
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  ready to connect some dots on the tech news shaping
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  your world. Absolutely. And shaping our day here
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  in Sacramento, we've got, well, partly sunny
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  skies expected, high of 79 Fahrenheit. Oh, nice.
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  Pretty comfortable day, then. Yeah, definitely.
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  Good day to dig into things. Okay, quick look
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  at the markets from yesterday's close. The Dow
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  Jones saw a little bit of a lift, closed up about
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  40 points, so just under a tenth of a percent.
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  Right, holding steady for the week, too, mostly.
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  Yeah, small gain there. The S &P 500, though,
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  dipped a tiny bit yesterday, down what, .11 %?
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  Yeah, barely noticeable day over day, but it's
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  still looking pretty good for the week, up almost
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  three quarters of a percent. And Bitcoin. Still
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  climbing. Jumped over 1 % yesterday. Wow. Yeah,
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  over 1 ,200 points. And decent weekly growth,
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  too. It's been on a tear. It really has. Speaking
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  of tears, maybe some tears of frustration for
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  Giants fans yesterday. Oh, yeah. Tough one. Lost
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  to the Braves, 5 to 9. Yeah, saw that. Bryce
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  Elder got the win for Atlanta. Yeah. On the bright
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  side, Willie Adams had a monster day for us,
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  4 for 5, and a homer. Wow, OK. Nice individual
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  effort. Just not enough in the end, I guess.
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  Nope, that's baseball, right? True. OK, let's
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  shift gears then. Time for the real game changers,
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  the top tech stories from our Morningstar report.
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  Yeah, we've got some really interesting stuff
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  today. Big moves and AI talent, a crypto founder
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  investigation wrapping up and just staggering
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  numbers when it comes to AI chip orders. All
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  right, let's jump into that first one. This is
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  more than just hiring, it feels like, like a
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  strategic acquisition of brain power. You know,
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  Microsoft is really aggressively recruiting AI
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  talent, especially from Google DeepMind and also
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  Inflection AI. Yeah, the name that keeps popping
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  up is Mustafa Suleyman. He's Microsoft AI CEO,
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  but he also co -founded DeepMind. Right. And
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  our sources say he's hired, get this, over 24
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  people from Google DeepMind just in the last
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  six months. Wow. That's quite a drain from Google.
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  It really is, and it's very targeted. He just
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  brought over three former DeepMind colleagues,
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  Marco Talisaki, Zam Borsos, and Mathias Minderer.
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  They're actually founding members for a new Microsoft
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  AI office in Zurich. Zurich, OK, so specific
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  roles. Exactly. Talisaki and Borsos, they're
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  focusing on audio stuff. Think AI summarizing
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  EFO into like a podcast format. Google's audio
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  overviews, that kind of thing. And Minderer is
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  all about Vision AI so really specific skill
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  sets. He's pulling in it sounds like he's rebuilding
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  his old team Almost like a coach bringing his
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  star players with him kind of yeah, and it's
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  not just Zurich remember back in December They
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  hired Dominic King. Oh, right the former DeepMind
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  health lead who's also a surgeon. That's the
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  one He's now a VP leading Microsoft's new AI
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  health unit And he brought others with him, like
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  Christopher Kelly, another DeepMind scientist.
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  So this isn't just about making Copilot better.
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  It's about pushing into really specific, high
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  -value areas like health. Precisely. And don't
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  forget, Suleiman himself came from Inflection
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  AI earlier this year and brought key people like
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  Corinne Simonian with him. Right. So the big
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  picture here, you know, it's this intense talent
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  war, but it's evolved. It's not just individuals
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  anymore. It's about acquiring whole teams, specialized
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  knowledge, almost like carving up the AI expertise
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  landscape. So for you listening, why does this
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  matter? Well, it means Microsoft's consumer AI
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  like Copilot could get smarter, faster, but maybe
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  more importantly, they're aiming for breakthroughs
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  in areas like health AI. Yeah, think about it,
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  that Deloitte study. Nearly half of us 48 % are
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  already using AI for health questions symptoms
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  mental health stuff like that So bringing in
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  this kind of specialized talent. It could lead
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  to much more accurate Maybe more supportive AI
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  health tools like that quit bot idea for smoking
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  or AI that could potentially spot Alzheimer's
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  earlier. Exactly. That's the potential impact
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  It really makes you wonder, you know How will
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  this deeper integration of AI change how we manage
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  our own health this huge potential but Also brings
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  up questions right regulation. Oh definitely
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  all these close ties between the big tech players
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  and smaller AI firms Federal agencies are already
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  asking questions looking into the investments
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  and partnerships Yeah, the tech moves fast the
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  oversight needs to catch up always the case.
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  Okay, so Next story a bit different. This one
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  involves crypto investigations and reputation,
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  right? The FBI has officially closed its investigation
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  into Jesse Powell He's the co -founder of the
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  Kraken crypto exchange. OK, that's big news for
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  him. And they returned his devices. Yep. Dozens
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  of devices seized in a raid back in mid -2023
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  returned. Must be a massive relief. Now, this
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  investigation, it wasn't actually about Kraken's
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  business, was it? No, that's the key point. It
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  had nothing to do with the exchange. It was all
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  tied to allegations that Powell had hacked and
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  cyber -stocked an arts nonprofit he co -founded,
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  the Verge Center for the Arts, right here in
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  Sacramento, actually. Oh, wow. Local connection.
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  The personal dispute that escalated. Seems like
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  it. Powell denied it all, said it was just about
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  access to shared accounts like Google and Slack,
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  and claimed the board tried to put him out. And
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  now the DOJ says no charges. Exactly. They issued
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  what's called a declination letter. Basically,
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  case closed, investigation dropped, clears his
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  name. federally on this specific issue. That's
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  significant, not just personally, but you have
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  to imagine it helps Kraken's image too, removing
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  that cloud. For sure. It really shows how these
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  high profile investigations, even if they're
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  unrelated to the main business, can just, you
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  know, hang over someone. Yeah, narratives form
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  so quickly, especially in tech and crypto. Damage
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  can be done even if nothing comes of it legally.
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  Good reminder to separate the individual from
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  the company sometimes. Definitely. And just to
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  be clear, while the federal probe is over, Powell
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  still has an ongoing civil lawsuit against the
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  Verge board members. OK, so not entirely over,
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  but the criminal investigation part is done.
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  Right. Still complex. OK, let's pivot now from
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  investigations to, well, just absolutely massive
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  investments. We're talking Elon Musk's X .A .I.
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  Yeah, the company behind the Grok Chatbot. They
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  are looking to raise a ton of money. Initially,
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  it was reported around $6 billion they were aiming
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  for. Right, but now. Sources say they might have
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  already raised up to $10 billion, and they could
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  be pushing for $12 billion. $12 billion? Wow.
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  And what's the main reason for raising that kind
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  of cash? Get this. It's primarily to buy 100
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  ,000 Nvidia chips. 100 ,000? Just chips. Just
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  chips. Well, not just chips. These are the high
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  -end chips you need for serious AI development.
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  They're for a new supercomputer XAI is building
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  in Memphis. Okay, so this is the hardware side
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  of the AI arms race front and center. Absolutely.
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  That supercomputer is meant to power XAI's future
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  work, maybe even help with Tesla's full self
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  -driving tech. It shows you this race isn't just
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  code. It's about massive infrastructure, raw
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  compute power. And XAI is positioning itself
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  directly against OpenAI, Google. Yep. Playing
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  the big leagues. And it's classic Musk, right?
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  He was apparently denying fundraising efforts
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  not long ago. Now he's reportedly on investor
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  calls talking about XAI's value. Sounds familiar.
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  And wasn't there that recent merger with X, the
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  social media platform? Yeah, an all -stock deal
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  valued the combined company at $80 billion. Shows
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  how intertwined all his ventures are becoming
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  XAI, X, Tesla. It's all converging around AI.
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  So for you, the listener, this huge spending
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  spree on chips, what's the takeaway? Well, it
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  could mean much more powerful AI tools coming
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  down the line. Maybe Grok gets way better. Maybe
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  self -driving tech takes the leap. It just highlights
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  the incredible scale required now to compete
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  at the very top of AI development. The investment
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  is just staggering. It really signals where things
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  are headed. Definitely. And one quick related
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  point our sources mentioned on the political
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  side. Apparently, President -elect Donald Trump
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  plans to repeal Biden's executive order on AI.
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  Oh, interesting. Yeah. Advocating for AI development
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  based on the quote was free speech and human
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  flourishing just shows how different approaches
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  to regulating this powerful tech could emerge.
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  We're just reporting what the source said there,
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  of course. Right. Important context. OK, so let's
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  quickly recap today's main stories. We started
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  with Microsoft's big AI talent grab, pulling
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  experienced teams from deep mind and inflection,
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  especially for areas like AI health, really highlights
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  the strategic nature of the talent war now. Then
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  we had Jesse Powell. the cracking co -founder,
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  getting his name cleared by the FBI in that investigation
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  related to the Verge Center, reminding us how
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  personal issues can impact public figures, even
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  if unrelated to their main work. And finally,
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  Elon Musk's ex -AI, looking to raise potentially
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  $12 billion, mostly just to buy 100 ,000 Nvidia
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  chips, really underscores the massive hardware
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  investment needed in today's AI race. Yeah, all
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  these stories really connect the dots between
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  high -level tech strategy, individual Reputations
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  massive investments and ultimately the technology
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  that's increasingly shaping Well everything around
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  us from health to how we get information It's
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  moving incredibly fast lots to keep track of
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  it is indeed, but hey, that's why we're here
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  We're here to help and start full so reach out
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  on our website if you have any more questions
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  That's a wrap on today's top stories. Remember,
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  tech doesn't have to be complicated, and we're
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  here to help connect the dots. If you've got
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  questions or want to learn more, visit us at
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  snarful .com. Thanks for listening, and we'll
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  catch you next time.