WHAT’S INSIDE:

Feature: California’s Proposed Billionaire Wealth Tax Explained

Top Tech News: Gold hits $5K/oz USD slid⁠⁠, India AI Summit⁠⁠, Trump 25% Korea tariff hike⁠⁠, OpenAI's Brockman $25M MAGA donation⁠⁠, Gemini Siri February reveal⁠⁠

Company Watch: Google $68M privacy settlement⁠⁠, OpenAI ChatGPT ads at $60 CPM⁠⁠, NVIDIA $2B CoreWeave rescue⁠⁠, Samsung HBM4 mass production⁠⁠, MS Maia 200 chip

Buzzy Tools: Gemini Siri by February⁠⁠, AirTag 2 50% range boost⁠⁠, Claude Canvas apps for Slack/Figma/Canva⁠⁠, UpScrolled TikTok-rival⁠⁠, Stripe Agentic Suite⁠⁠, Falcon-H1R 7B

Buzzy Tech: Gmail spam filter global outage⁠⁠, Google AI science fund⁠⁠, NVIDIA Earth-2 weather models beat GenCast⁠⁠, sodium battery breakthroughs⁠⁠, SpaceX Starship V3

Crypto: WYDE $EAT⁠⁠, Ledger eyes $4B US IPO⁠⁠, snowstorm delays Senate crypto bill⁠⁠, $40M gov wallet theft⁠⁠, Japan targets 2028 crypto ETFs⁠⁠, SEC dismisses Gemini Earn suit⁠⁠

IN PARTNERSHIP WITH SYNTHESIA

Google Ventures Just Bet $200m on Synthesia’s AI Avatars to Reinvent How Enterprises Actually Work.

Every enterprise has the same achilles heel: thousands of documents, training videos, and wikis that cost millions to build but deliver zero value when people actually need them. They search. They scroll. They give up. 

This is the knowledge problem, and it's expensive. Synthesia just closed a $200M Series E led by Google Ventures at a $4B valuation to kill it.

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90% of the Fortune 100 already use Synthesia. They've crossed $100M in ARR. This funding round just proved that conversational avatars will become the default interface for how enterprises actually get work done at scale.

Top Technology News

Gold Smashes $5,000 — Global stocks hit new peaks as gold breaks the historic $5K-per-oz barrier, driven by a sliding dollar and Fed pivot hopes.

Korea Tariffs — President Trump announced a 25% tariff hike on South Korean goods, including autos and pharma, citing the "slow pace" on a bilateral trade deal.

ICE Saga — A new federal filing reveals ICE is seeking advanced ad-tech surveillance to track mobile device IDs across border zones.

India AI Summit — Sam Altman and Jensen Huang are in New Delhi to discuss scaling AI infrastructure across the world’s most populous developer market.

Trump Super PAC Bet — OpenAI President Greg Brockman has donated $25M to the MAGA Inc. super PAC, signaling a shift toward unified federal AI regulation.

Gemini Siri Reveal — Apple is set to unveil its Gemini-powered Siri in February, marking a transition to Google-backed foundations.

California’s Proposed Billionaire Wealth Tax Explained

Mais Adwal for The Tech Buzz

Though wealth inequality has been a topic of contention in the U.S. for decades, the issue has flared up with the recent debate over a proposed 5% wealth tax on ultra-high net worth individuals in California. Billionaires and politicians alike have weighed in on the complex issue with a range of views, so it's worth exploring the legal, ethical and financial implications of this proposal.

The past few years have demonstrated a strong need for a rapid increase in the financial sponsorship of vital programs in the healthcare industry. This need for funding is why California’s health care union is pushing a ballot initiative for a one-time 5% tax on anyone worth over $1 billion (the human version of a unicorn, perhaps). The union argues it’s necessary to offset the deep cuts to health care that the U.S. has seen in the past year. In terms of the logistics, it needs around 870,000 signatures to make November’s ballot, where it would need a majority to pass. 

How does the Billionaire Wealth Tax Proposal work?

Well, technically the bill targets the voting shares (controlling interest) of founders of some of the largest companies in Silicon Valley. The issue affects every tech founder who retained control through dual-class stock. If these billionaires are forced to sell off a significant portion of their stock, it could cause its price to drop, which would have a ripple effect in many markets. Not least, the labor market, as most employees have some sort of stock-based compensation plan tied to the performance of the company. So, in reality, this tax bill could run up to much more than 5%. “But, hey, they’re billionaires… they’ll be fine!” 

Unfortunately, the Magnificent 7 (Apple, Microsoft, Alphabet, Amazon, Meta Platforms, Nvidia, Tesla) which make up over 30% of the S&P 500 are uniquely tied together. If the tech sector struggles, so does the majority of Americans’ investments. For an exercise, you could look at the largest 401k plan managers, and narrow down the common 401k funds. But, regardless, since before the S&P 500 or the QQQ even existed, we’ve been told to diversify our investments in an index fund; the same holds true for major investment allocators. And the valuation of these companies can be assessed based on voting interests in a company when they exceed actual economic stakes.

Most of these founders hold Class-B voting shares. These can’t be traded publicly, but they are a vital part of corporate governance. It essentially determines who holds the cards–and who can make decisions for the company. Together, for example, Larry Page and Sergey Brin own about 11.3 percent of Alphabet (Google) but control 52.3 percent of voting rights. Mark Zuckerberg owns about 13.6 percent of Meta but has 61.0 percent voting control.

What’s Silicon Valley’s reaction?

It’s unsurprisingly been a mixed bag of responses. While Larry Page left the state, Jensen Huang is “perfectly fine” with the 10-figure tax bill in California. And PayPal and Palantir co-founder Peter Thiel donated $3 million to a lobbying group working against this proposal. Keep in mind this whole debate was brought on by a healthcare union, and doesn’t necessarily mean California politicians agree. Even Governor Gavin Newsom has vowed to put a stop to it in an interview with the NYT. So depending on your political persuasion, this is either a good or bad thing. Where might these people go? Miami, is a common choice, as is Austin. 

How it Impacts Startups and Scaling Companies

But the implications of this issue should be examined beyond just the current generation of mega-corporations. It would be decidedly difficult to build a successful company, be left with illiquid stock and have to pay a 5% tax on your wealth; it’s almost a suicide note for your company. Roughly 20% of the state’s GRP (gross regional product) comes from Silicon Valley. So while it feels unfair to watch Mark Zuckerberg’s $400 million yacht cruise in the San Diego Harbour, driving him and his megayacht out of the state would have other repercussions that would be even more unfair. California’s fiscal budget is made up of personal income taxes, and while you may be surprised, top earners contribute to nearly half of that. 

Will this tax pass?

It isn’t clear yet. With Governor Newsom and other influential players like the tech giants rallying against it, the chances seem pretty remote at this stage. Of the 924 billionaires in the U.S. (31% of the world’s billionaires) 215 live in California. Why stay to pay 5% on your wealth when you have the flexibility to move and the alternative is 0 in other States. While this logic attacks the premise of the tax – that healthcare in America, and specifically California, needs serious funding – it also touches the egos of many billionaires. That fight between social welfare and financial security will be a messy one so don’t think you’ve seen the last of this issue. 

Breaking News: Ending Hunger is Now Public!

The first crypto 501c4 nonprofit (WYDE: END HUNGER $EAT) that has aimed to use trade fees to feed those who are hungry has recently:

• Hit it’s all time high market cap following a new year surge to $14.4M FDV 

• Reached the milestone of funding 5000 meals through Food charities

• Secured Charitable Status as Tax-exempt (the 1st U.S. exchange to do so)

Companies To Watch

Latest deals and trending companies

Open Deal: The Wyoming Exchange Building the "New York Stock Exchange for Nonprofits." Watch an investor talk by co-founders on WYDE’s mission & news.

NVIDIA’s $2B Rescue — NVIDIA committed $2B to help CoreWeave build 5GW of AI compute capacity and doubles down on Europe’s "AI Infrastructure." NVIDIA is now TSMC’s largest customer, making up 22% revenue.

$68M Privacy Bill — Google has agreed to a $68M settlement following a class-action lawsuit alleging that Assistant inappropriately recorded private conversations.

The $60 CPM Standard — OpenAI is pitching ChatGPT search ads to premium brands at triple the rates of Meta, despite offering limited conversion tracking.

Recursive Hits $4B in 2 Months — AI chip challenger Recursive hit $4B valuation just 60 post-launch, fueled by breakthrough energy-efficient architecture designed for edge-inference nodes.

Qualcomm Bets on SpotDraft Contract AI — Qualcomm is integrating SpotDraft’s legal automation directly into its Snapdragon silicon, enabling on-device contract analysis that bypasses the need for cloud-based processing.

IBM Partner Plus Surge — IBM has overhauled its ecosystem strategy, launching "Agent Connect" to streamline AI deployment through its global partner network.

HBM4 Breakthrough — Samsung Electronics will begin mass production of HBM4 chips next month, securing a critical spot in the NVIDIA supply chain for the upcoming Vera Rubin AI platform.

Microsoft Maia 200 Crushes AWS and Google in AI Chip Wars — Microsoft has unveiled its Maia 200 AI chip, claiming 3x the performance of Amazon's Trainium 2 and significant cost savings for Azure-based training.

Buzzy Tools & Tech

The Latest Trending Tools & Cutting Edge Technology Developments

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Siri 2 — Gemini in Siri is expected to be available by February.

AirTag 2 — A 50% range boost & Precision Finding directly from Apple Watch

Claude "Canvas" Apps — New AI apps to live-edit docs in Slack, Figma, Canva.

UpScrolled Video — New Tiktok-rival AI-first platform goes viral as bill progresses.

Stripe Agentic Suite — Infrastructure stack for AI agent product hunt, checkout

Falcon-H1R 7B — A compact reasoning model performance comparable 7x its size

Technology Trending Today

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Also: Google deploys a massive fund to accelerate AI scientific breakthroughs

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Sodium-Ion Charging — Breakthroughs in sodium battery chemistry for EVs

Space Race

SpaceX — Eyes mid-March for the first flight test of Starship V3, ft Raptor 3 engines

Cryptocurrency News

The Latest News in Crypto & Blockchain

Open Deal: The Wyoming Exchange Building the "New York Stock Exchange for Nonprofits." Watch an investor talk by co-founders on WYDE’s mission & news.

Ledger Eyes $4B New York IPO — French hardware wallet giant Ledger is reportedly preparing for a $4 billion U.S. IPO, advised by Goldman Sachs and Jefferies, as the Trump admin's pro-crypto stance reopens the listing window.

Snowstorm Delays Senate Crypto Bill — A severe winter storm in Washington, D.C. has forced the Senate Agriculture Committee to push its markup of the Digital Commodity Intermediaries Act to later this week.

Alleged $40M Gov-Wallet Theft — Investigative researcher ZachXBT has tied a $40 million theft from a U.S. government crypto wallet to the son of a high-level custody contractor, exposing critical flaws in federal digital asset storage.

Japan Targets 2028 for Crypto ETFs — Japan’s Financial Services Agency (FSA) is moving to reclassify cryptocurrencies as "specified assets," paving the way for the country's first Spot Crypto ETFs by 2028.

SEC Dismisses Gemini Earn Suit — The SEC has officially agreed to dismiss its case against Gemini regarding the Gemini Earn program, following the successful restoration of 100% of assets to affected investors.

Breaking News: $EAT hits All-Time High Marketcap and Meals Funded ($14.4M MC & 5000 meals)

Ending Hunger is public!

The first crypto 501c4 nonprofit (WYDE: END HUNGER $EAT) that has aimed to use trade fees to feed those who are hungry has just hit it’s all time high ($14.4M FDV) the same day it reached the milestone of funding 6000 meals.

Coinbase Listing: $EAT

It was launched on the Wyoming Decentralized Exchange and is now tradable on Coinbase.

About WYDE: END HUNGER($EAT)

• Tradable on Coinbase - TRADE

• The first cause coin with an organizational structure behind it (DUNA 501c4 federally approved tax exempt organization).

• The $EAT team is working with some of the most well-respected nonprofits in America

• Every trade funds verified food banks and operators who impact their local community.

• Holding $EAT provides you with governance in the organization (coming soon)

• Fair launched and fully decentralized.

• Meals Funded so far: 5,100 / Next Milestone: 10,000

• Current number of holders: 548

Visit www.wyde.org for more information on Wyoming Decentralized Exchange

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