October 31, 2026

Boletín 26–31 oct 2026 · Tech

Anthropic files for its IPO

Anthropic published its S-1, showing rapid growth ahead of what the NYT calls a blockbuster IPO, and spelling out both promise and peril. By week's end, Blackstone and an FT report said the company may land a junk credit rating rather than investment grade.

Big Tech earnings and the AI spending scare

Alphabet's revenue rose 25% while profit fell, Microsoft's profit jumped 32% despite heavier spending, and Intel's shares plunged 20%. Google Search is now less than half of Alphabet's revenue. Coverage converged on one question: the data center blitz is burning cash, and investors are starting to see cracks in the AI boom.

The $6.3B Binance hack

Hackers stole $6.3 billion from Binance in about 20 minutes, and the exchange suspended withdrawals. The NYT framed it as the start of a riskier era for crypto.

Binance Suspends Withdrawals After Crypto Hackers Steal $6.3 Billion (NYT)
The $6.3B Binance hack was pulled off in just 20 minutes (Hacker News)
Binance-hacker-1029 – $5.6B stolen from Binance (Hacker News)
Binance’s $6.3 Billion Hack Is Just the Start of a Risky New Era (NYT) Grok ChatGPT Gemini

Backdoored Claude Code extensions

Hacker News front-paged several reports of a backdoor in Claude Code's VS Code extension as distributed on the Cursor marketplace, and of backdoors in official Claude Code extensions. A separate thread said Claude Code sends each background agent's transcript to its model.

Backdoor in Claude Code for VS Code extension on the Cursor Marketplace (Hacker News)
Claude Code VS Code extension with backdoor released on Cursor marketplace (Hacker News)
Backdoors in official Claude Code extensions (Hacker News)
Claude Code regularly sends each background agent’s transcript to its model (Hacker News) Grok ChatGPT Gemini

A week of breaches

Hackers exposed the identities of more than 40,000 DHS employees, Northflank and Scribd reported breaches, and a hack could leave fan-fiction site AO3 offline for weeks. Researchers also published five cross-tenant Azure compromises, while the NYT reported that AI is finding a flood of bugs.

Hackers expose the identities of more than 40k DHS employees (Hacker News)
Azure's Weakest Link – Five Full Cross-Tenant Compromises (Hacker News)
Northflank Breached (Hacker News)
Tell HN: Scribd Breached (Hacker News)
Hack Could Leave AO3, a Popular Fan Fiction Site, Offline for Weeks (NYT)
Applebee’s exposed customers’ personal data after leaving database password in app (TechCrunch)
Chained PHP2Shell exploit roots 25 servers, including US Government servers (Hacker News)
Zero click, silent, remote Android DoS (Hacker News)
AI Is Finding a Flood of Bugs, and Silicon Valley Is Rushing to Fix Them (NYT) Grok ChatGPT Gemini

Microsoft offers buyouts to 60,000 employees

Microsoft offered buyouts to about a quarter of its workforce as it spends on AI.

Microsoft Offers Buyouts to 60,000 Employees as It Spends on A.I. (NYT)
Microsoft offers to buy out a quarter of its workforce (Ars Technica) Grok ChatGPT Gemini

DoorDash buys Instacart

DoorDash agreed to buy Instacart for $17 billion, uniting two delivery giants.

DoorDash to Buy Instacart for $17 Billion, Uniting 2 Delivery Giants (NYT)
DoorDash to acquire Instacart (Hacker News) Grok ChatGPT Gemini

New models and OpenAI's funding

Gemini 4 Carbon took the top spot on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index, and Mistral released the weights of Mistral Large 4. OpenAI raised less than half of its $30B target.

Gemini 4 Carbon is the new #1 on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index v5 (Hacker News)
We're releasing the weights of Mistral Large 4 (Hacker News)
OpenAI raises less than half of $30B target (Hacker News) Grok ChatGPT Gemini

Apple's first touchscreen Mac

Apple unveiled a MacBook Pro with a PROLED XDR display, its first touchscreen Mac, plus an M6 MacBook Pro and iMac and an OLED iPad mini. Some iPhone Duo screens are already failing, Apple said.

Apple Unveils Its First Touch-Screen MacBook Pro (NYT)
Apple announces all-new MacBook Pro with PROLED XDR display, its first touchscreen Mac (9to5Mac)
The touchscreen MacBook Pro is just a MacBook Pro with a touchscreen (The Verge)
Apple reveals updated iPad mini with a bigger OLED screen for $700 (Ars Technica)
Apple iPhone Duo review: Two screens, two experiences, two thousand dollars (Ars Technica)
Some iPhone Duo screens are already failing, Apple says only a "small number" are affected (Ars Technica) Grok ChatGPT Gemini

Data centers in orbit

Google's first data center satellite came online and sent its first AI response to Earth, and startup Satlyt moved closer to turning satellites into space data centers.