In the last several weeks of 2025 alone, nuclear startups raised $1.1 billion, largely on investor optimism that smaller nuclear reactors will succeed where the broader industry has recently stumbled. Traditional nuclear reactors are massive pieces of infrastructure. The newest reactors built in the U.S. - Vogtle 3 and 4 in Georgia - contain tens of thousands of tons of concrete, are powered by fuel assemblies 14 feet tall, and generate over 1 gigawatt of electricity each.
One reason is that the pandemic brought a sharp shift in household consumption toward goods and away from services. Rural America, the manufacturing heartland, benefited from job growth in 2022 and 2023. That growth slowed by 2024, but legislation like Sen. Todd Young's CHIPS and Science Act offered at least a hint that we might be entering a period of more stable factory employment.
Acer made a big splash at CES 2025 with the announcement of its surfboard-sized Nitro Blaze 11 gaming handheld, but its targeted second-quarter release came and went long ago. There's been no word of the chunky 11-inch Blaze or its smaller siblings.
The robot, with a glowing circle for a face and a fully electric, battery-powered body, is so advanced that it will soon be working alongside human factory workers for parent company Hyundai, the companies claimed. Hyundai said it plans on mass-producing Atlas as "production-ready humanoid robots" that will be put to work at the automaker's car plants, starting with the Hyundai Motor Group Metaplant in Savannah, Georgia. The company estimates it will produce 30,000 robots annually starting in 2028.
The Museum of Craft and Design is proud to present Pecha Kucha: Architecture and Manufacturing in the Bay Area. Translating to 'chit-chat' in Japanese, Pecha Kucha is a fast-paced presentation format in which each speaker shows 20 slides for 20 seconds each. Pecha Kucha Wednesday, January 21, 2025 | 5-7p Museum of Craft and Design, 2569 Third St., SF General Admission |$45 MCD Member Tickets (fees included)
In a long-vacant industrial building on Mare Island, once a vital cog in the U.S. Navy's shipbuilding machine, a very different kind of manufacturing hum has taken hold. Where trains once rolled inside carrying steel and supplies for submarines and ships, technicians now strip, rebuild and re-engineer classic vehicles, many of them reborn as electric cars designed to meet modern expectations of performance, safety and reliability.
For industries built on rigid schedules and office walls, Gen Z's flight toward flexibility isn't just a trend; it's a tectonic shift that threatens to leave traditional careers gathering dust. It's no secret that Gen Z is shaking up the workforce with their unique perspective on work, life, and everything in between. From their preference for digital interactions to their demand for work-life balance, this generation is steering away from careers that once seemed stable and go-to options.
"This is good news for us. It keeps us alive for the long term," he says. "It keeps 500 employees employed, and it keeps a global brand, based in Boston, viable," he says. "We just signed a long-term lease on our headquarters as a result of this and are keeping all of the engineers, R&D, and software development in this building."
The Brussels-based electric bike company has officially closed its deal to be acquired by ReBirth Group Holding, which also owns cycling brands Peugeot, Gitane, and Solex. The transaction includes new, undisclosed funding from ReBirth as well as €15 million ($17.6 million) from existing shareholders. The funding will be used to restart production and deal with a backlog of spare parts, the companies say.
Federal data belatedly released Tuesday shows that the US unemployment rate rose to the highest level in four years last month as President Donald Trump's administration continues its assault on the government's workforce and American corporations lay off workers at a level not seen in decades.
I'm French, but I absolutely love living in LA. Still, during my maternity leave, I returned to Paris to be closer to my family. There, my baby adored singing books. She was only a few months old, but they kept her engaged. When we returned to America, I couldn't find anything similar. At the same time, I was learning all the English nursery rhymes I hadn't grown up with. I loved singing rhymes like "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" and "Patty Cake."
If cozy, lived-in beds dressed in rich colors and whimsical prints keep popping up on your social feed, the photos are probably of Piglet In Bed bedding. The West Sussex-based home brand nails the cottagecore look with its viral linen bedding, which is why it's all over my Pinterest board. But is Piglet In Bed worth all the hype it gets online?
A Northamptonshire manufacturer of sustainable warehouse storage and packaging solutions is expanding its global footprint after securing £1.6 million in government-backed finance. Pallite Group, based in Wellingborough, has won new export opportunities across Europe, the US, Asia, the Middle East, Australia and New Zealand, prompting the need for additional working capital to keep pace with growing international demand. The company has now secured a £1.6 million corporate facility from KBC Bank, supported by UK Export Finance's (UKEF) General Export Facility (GEF).
It makes for a weaker starting point, as companies see new opportunities around the corner to use AI to automate their work. It's not a new trend: These sectors showed weak job creation or outright job losses for the last couple of years of the Biden administration. But it is striking that a GDP surge fueled by data center and AI investment hasn't been enough to generate more robust hiring.
India has announced a sweeping set of labour reforms, saying it will implement four long-delayed labour codes that the government says will modernise outdated regulations and extend stronger protections to millions of workers. Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on X on Friday that the overhaul would provide a strong foundation for universal social security, minimum and timely payment of wages, safe workplaces and remunerative opportunities.
In the late 2010s, at the height of the direct-to-consumer boom, Framebridge founder Susan Tynan was green with envy. Many other venture-backed startups from the era-like Casper, Away, and Glossier -were growing much faster than her custom framing business. While these other buzzy brands focused on acquiring customers and growing revenue, Tynan was using her $81 million in venture funding to tackle more arduous operational issues, like building factories and hiring hundreds of craftspeople to make frames by hand.
FreshBrew - which runs six 500-pound Probat machines at its plant in Houston - said it "will secure ownership of multiple licenses, enabling the company to develop, produce and market coffee for major brands with established market presence." The company said the deal will complement its existing private-label business, expanding operations to produce approximately 150,000 pounds of coffee per day. The company also offers a broad range of packaging, tea, extracts and cold brewing solutions, in part through its recent $10 million manufacturing expansion.
US manufacturers who late last year asked the incoming Trump administration for a "regulatory reset" have seen roughly 80% of their specific regulatory requests acted on in just the first eight months of Trump taking office. The fast action across various agencies comes after 100 manufacturing industry groups sent a letter to then President-elect Donald Trump last December complaining of a "regulatory onslaught" under the Biden administration that the group said was "strangling" the economy.
The Hall of Flowers trade show has become one of the cannabis industry's most influential gatherings, where innovation meets collaboration. This year, Booth A428 is generating major buzz as Silly Nice and Veterans Holdings come together to showcase their high-performance cannabis products, unique brand story, and the partnerships driving a new era of excellence in New York's legal market. For those attending the event today and tomorrow, Booth A428 is more than just a stop it's an experience.
Hallucinations have commonly been considered a problem for generative AI, with chatbots such as ChatGPT, Claude, or Gemini prone to producing 'confidently incorrect' answers in response to queries. This can pose a serious problem for users. There are several cases of lawyers, for example, citing non-existent cases as precedent or presenting the wrong conclusions and outcomes from cases that really do exist. Unfortunately for said lawyers, we only know about these instances because they're embarrassingly public, but it's an experience all users will have had at some point.