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THE DAILY INDEX

Technology, AI, software, security, crypto and business

Across today’s newsletters

Today’s Index

NVIDIA SHATTERS MOE AI PERFORMANCE RECORDS WITH A MASSIVE 10X LEAP ON GB200 ‘BLACKWELL' NVL72 SERVERS, FUELED BY CO-DESIGN BREAKTHROUGHS

Nvidia has managed to make a breakthrough in scaling performance on Mixture-of-Experts (MoE) AI models. The firm's GB200 Blackwell NVL72 configuration scaled up performance by a factor of 10 compared with the Hopper HGX200. With the results, Nvidia claims that the Blackwell architecture is poised to capitalize on the rise of frontier MoE models. MoE models are known for their computationally efficient nature. Their deployment across a wide range of environments is becoming increasingly prominent.

MODERNIZING REDDIT'S COMMENT BACKEND INFRASTRUCTURE

Reddit's infrastructure organization aims to deliver reliability and performance with a modern tech stack, which involves completely getting rid of its Python monoliths. It has four core models: Comments, Accounts, Posts, and Subreddits. Comments and Accounts have now been fully migrated from Reddit's Python monolith to domain-specific Go microservices. This post looks at how Reddit's team performed the migration and the lessons learned along the way.

EVEREST RANSOMWARE CLAIMS ASUS BREACH AND 1TB DATA THEFT

The Everest ransomware group claimed responsibility for breaching ASUS and exfiltrating over 1TB of data allegedly containing proprietary camera source code, firmware, and drivers for devices with built-in cameras. The group issued a 21-hour deadline for ASUS to respond via Qtox encrypted messaging, following recent claimed attacks on Under Armour, Petrobras, and Iberia airline. ASUS has neither confirmed nor denied the breach, which, if verified, would mark the second significant infrastructure compromise since the 2019 ShadowHammer supply chain attack.

FUSAKA & ETHEREUM'S NEW UPGRADE CADENCE

Fusaka, Ethereum's 17th major upgrade, just went live, marking the start of a planned twice-a-year hard-fork schedule. The main change is PeerDAS, plus two “blob parameter only” follow-ups (into January), which together can boost blob capacity by up to 8x, making rollups cheaper and more scalable. Fusaka also adds a blob fee floor, higher and safer gas limits, and native secp256r1/passkey support, while quietly laying groundwork for future ZK and quantum-resilience improvements.

SAM ALTMAN HAS EXPLORED DEAL TO BUILD COMPETITOR TO ELON MUSK'S SPACEX

Sam Altman has explored the possibility of acquiring or partnering with a rocket company to compete with Elon Musk's SpaceX. He has reached out to at least one rocket maker already. There were talks around a series of equity investments, but the talks are no longer active. OpenAI recently declared a 'code red' to improve ChatGPT. As a result, the company is delaying the rollout of other products.

SPOTIFY WRAPPED 2025 TURNS LISTENING INTO A COMPETITION

2025's Spotify Wrapped has been released. This year, Spotify added a new feature called Wrapped Party, which pits listeners against their friends to see who is the bigger music fan. Users can receive awards for listening to certain genres, and the feature judges the entire group's music tastes. Spotify has brought back its interactive song quiz and top artist sprint this year. This year's Wrapped also highlights top audiobook genres for the first time.

CHINA'S 1ST REUSABLE ROCKET EXPLODES IN DRAMATIC FIREBALL DURING LANDING AFTER REACHING ORBIT ON DEBUT FLIGHT

Chinese company Landspace's Zhuque-3 rocket exploded after successfully reaching orbit on Tuesday. The 216-foot stainless steel rocket successfully placed its expendable second stage in orbit, but the first stage booster appeared to lose an engine during its landing burn. No one was harmed in the incident. The anomaly is currently under investigation to discover its root cause. A video of the explosion is available in the article.

DRAGONFIRE LASER WEAPON TAKES DOWN HIGH-SPEED DRONES

Britain's DragonFire laser weapon shot down drones flying at 404 mph on November 20 at the Ministry of Defence's Hebrides Range in Scotland. The high-powered, solid-state laser will be installed in the Navy's Type 45 frigates by 2027. It can hit a target the size of a US quarter over a distance of 0.62 miles. The laser weapon can lock onto and fire at hostiles that are flying at a distance and at an altitude where they are above the curvature of the Earth.

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