#artificial-intelligence Tech News.

Harsh Vardhan Goenka, formerly of Rubrik Inc., joins Kalpa Labs as founding engineer and researcher. He accepts a role four months after an 11 PM interview on a spare Windows laptop. The team builds generalist audio models, with a vision to unlock capabilities like singing in a user's voice.

Samsung Electronics announced record quarterly operating profit of KRW 107.4 trillion, driven by memory division revenue of KRW 147.1 trillion. The company increased capital expenditure to KRW 29 trillion for AI chip production and expects memory demand to exceed industry supply by 2026.

Yair Alon, formerly of Google Research and DeepMind, joins Poetiq as a founding researcher. The San Francisco startup, part of YC S26, builds an AI system that optimizes other AI systems and itself. Alon previously led projects for Search, Ads, and YouTube before leaving his decade-long tenure to pursue this new venture.

Salesforce acquires defense tech startup Rune Technologies for $375 million in cash and stock. Rune, founded in 2024, raised $30 million from investors including Andreessen Horowitz and the CIA-affiliated IQT. The deal complements Salesforce's Missionforce software, which grew 80% year-over-year since its 2025 launch, expanding the company's military AI presence beyond administrative record keeping.

Proton CEO Andy Yen cancelled nearly company-wide AI re-interviews on Friday following a 404 Media investigation. The probe revealed Yen pushed AI aggressively despite security concerns. Internal documents show 90% of code was AI-written in October. Employees fear performance reviews will still measure AI usage going forward. Microsoft offered buyouts to 60,000 staff.