Whether it's to accompany a new device you got for the holidays or you're just overdue for an upgrade, the new year is an excellent time to invest in some top-tier headphones. And though many of the postholiday sales have begun to fade, we just spotted an excellent deal on the best sounding wireless earbuds of 2024. Bowers & Wilkins Pi8 buds are down to just $319 on Amazon right now, a dramatic 20% price cut that saves you $80. See at AmazonIn his initial review of the Bowers & Wilkins Pi8 buds, Executive Editor David Carnoy noted that they were "easily among the best-sounding earbuds out there." And in his roundup of the best wireless earbuds of 2024, Carnoy said, "The Pi8s are fantastic-sounding earbuds that also benefit from having a clearly improved design from the Pi7 S2 and Pi5 S2." Hey, did you know? CNET Deals texts are free, easy and save you money.Carnoy was also impressed by the improved ergonomics and active noise cancellation. Another feature he noted is the Bowers & Wilkins music app, available for iOS and Android, which lets you customize how you control your earbuds.Note that as of this writing, all four color variants -- midnight blue, jade green, dove white and anthracite black -- are available at this discount. But Amazon stock can fluctuate quickly, so if your heart is set on a particular color, grab it while you can. Read more: The Best Wireless Earbuds of 2024Why this deal matters These are regularly priced at close to $400, so scoring them for $319 takes a little sting out of the splurge. And because of the favorable reviews, if you're all about sound, these are the earbuds for you. We don't see a ton of deals on these particular buds, so now's the best time to buy. More shopping deals from CNET CNET is always covering a wide array of deals on tech products and much more. Start with the hottest sales and discounts on theCNET Deals page, and sign up for theCNET Deals Textto get daily deals sent straight to your phone. Add the freeCNET Shopping extensionto your browser for real-time price comparisons and cash-back offers. And peruse ourgift guide, which includes a full range of ideas for birthdays, anniversaries and more. See at CNET

If an Xbox gaming console was on your wish list this year but Santa had other plans, you're in luck. We rarely see significant discounts on any of Microsoft's Xbox gaming consoles, but right now Best Buy is enticing members with an offer on the Xbox Series X 1TB gaming console for $399 for Best Buy Total members. That's a $51 discount for Best Buy Total members. Plus, Best Buy has a trade-in program that has the potential to save you even more. See at Best Buy For $399, you'll get Microsoft's Xbox Series X 1TB All-Digital Console. This means all games are streamed or downloaded to the hard drive from the Microsoft Game Pass store, so you don't need to purchase any discs. With 1TB of storage, plus games that can be streamed in the cloud, you'll be able to play hours upon hours of games with this fast, powerful gaming console.Hey, did you know? CNET Deals texts are free, easy and save you money.Note that this offer only extends to the Robot White model. It does include the wireless controller, but you may want to add another one to play two-person games. This offer is only extended to those who have a Best Buy Total membership. Best Buy's trade-in program does offer some credits if you have a similar device to trade in, which includes handheld and gaming consoles from Sony, Microsoft, Nintendo, Asus and Lenovo. How much you get will depend on what you are trading in Why this deal mattersThis fast, all-digital gaming console doesn't go on sale often so any discount is considered a good deal. Saving $51 knocks this down to just shy of $400, making it a little easier on the wallet. This isn't the best price we've ever seen, but deals for the Xbox usually only come around big shopping events like Black Friday or Best Buy's anti-Prime Day sales in the summer. A post-holiday discount of any kind on this gaming console is unusual. CNET is always covering a wide array of deals on tech products and much more. Start with the hottest sales and discounts on theCNET Deals page, and sign up for theCNET Deals Textto get daily deals sent straight to your phone. Add the freeCNET Shopping extensionto your browser for real-time price comparisons and cash-back offers. And peruse ourgift guide, which includes a full range of ideas for birthdays, anniversaries and more. See at CNET

Freezing food is the best way to keep good food and drinks from going bad including uncooked beef, excess herbs or wine that you couldn't finish.Unfortunately, not all your groceries are fit for the freezer. Some foods just don't handle those subzero temperatures and should be preserved another way, such as pickling, vacuum-sealing or simply consuming them before they start to turn. 20 Best Kitchen Gifts Under $30 See all photos To prevent a mass clean-out of expensive groceriesyou'd be wise to learn which foods don't belong there in the first place. Below, we've rounded up eight common foods you should never freeze.9 foods you should never freeze1. Milk and cream Keep your dairy out of the freezer or it will separate and curdle. DonNichols/Getty Images CNETMost dairy products can't be frozen and will become inedible if they are. Milk, cream, yogurt and sour cream tend to separate when frozen. Once they do, there's no returning them to their former state and the thawed result will be grainy, watery or even curdled. Nut milk, on the other hand, can be frozen more successfully.Ice cream is a known exception to the dairy rule because its high sugar content lowers the freezing point and keeps the product soft and palatable.2. Potatoes Potatoes shouldn't even be refrigerated, never mind frozen. Tyler Lizenby/CNETAmerica's favorite carb turns mushy and grainy when thawed, a physical state that is no bueno for use in anything from mashed potatoes to french fries. This is because the water separates from the tuber's starch, resulting in a gag-inducing texture that not even trash-foraging critters like raccoons can stomach. Freezing cooked or partially cooked potatoes (typically parboiled) is a-OK, as much of the water content is extracted during the cooking process. Bagged potato products from the freezer section of your local grocery store are treated with chemicals, preservatives or other specialized preparation methods to ensure flavor and texture are preserved when frozen.3. Cheese There are ways to store all types of cheese that will keep them fresh for longer but the freezer isn't one of them. Pamela Vachon/CNETPesky ice crystals form in frozen cheese, which completely changes its flavor and texture profile. This primarily applies to soft and moldy cheeses, though some hard varieties such as cheddar and jack can withstand the consistent blast of cold air if grated first and laid flat in a plastic storage bag.4. Fried food Unfortunetly, that leftover friend chicken can't be frozen for later. David Watsky/CNETThe best part of fried food is, of course, its crunchy breading. When placed in a freezer, this batter or crumb absorbs the appliance's moisture and makes the food become soggy. Additionally, fried food is chock-full of -- you guessed it -- oil, which doesn't freeze completely and can spoil before the meat or vegetable it has been cooked into. This can lead to foul-tasting meals but also an unfortunate and potentially dangerous bout of food poisoning.5. Eggs Eggs have a fairly long shelf life in the fridge so you shouldn't need to freeze them. Tanja Ivanova/Getty ImagesIf you enjoy your scrambled eggs rubbery, stick them in the freezer before preparation. This is due to a process called "gelation" where the yolk's protein molecules clump and make the liquid harder. Egg content also expands when frozen, which causes whole eggs to crack and leak. Avoiding eggs in the freezer means you must also avoid egg-based condiments as well, such as mayonnaise, which get lumpy and unspreadable.6. Salad-friendly fruits and vegetables Leftover salad ingredients such as avocado, lettuce and cucumbers should never be frozen. Carlo A/Getty ImagesIf it's a fruit or vegetable and can go into a typical salad, it won't hold up in the freezer. This includes any produce with high water content such as lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers and celery. The beloved avocado will also not fare well in extremely low temperatures. As it thaws, it will immediately begin to brown. Nobody wants to dip their way through brown guacamole.7. Whole citrus Your best with an excess of citrus is to juice the fruit and freeze the juice for recipes and cocktails later on. David Watsky/CNETSome dense fruits such as berries and mango do well in the freezer, but citrus won't hold form so well. Whole citrus fruit will become mealy after thawing it out. If you have an abundance of lemons, limes or oranges, your best bet is to juice them and freeze the juice for later.8. Cooked pasta and rice Leftover cooked rice and pasta can be frozen safely but they'll lose much of their structure and toothsomeness upon reheating. David Watsky/CNETYou certainly canfreeze cooked pasta and rice, but it doesn't mean that you should. The water content causes the cells in noodles and grains to burst, resulting in pasty, gloopy leftovers that can't be salvaged with even the most delicious of sauces. Pasta is almost certainly going to emerge from the freezer in rough shape. Rice is a little more durable but consider vacuum-sealing it to keep moisture out before popping it in the freezer for preservation.9. Bottled or canned beverages We've all tried to quick-chill a beer or soda in the freezer before. Getty ImagesWho among us hasn't tried to cheat time by chilling a lukewarm beer can or bottle in the freezer, only to forget about it and return to find a frozen, bubbling disaster? If you're going to use the freezer to chill canned or bottled beverages, you'd be wise to set a timer for 10 minutes so they don't freeze solid and explode.

December 30, 20244 min readAuroras May Light Up New Years Sky after Solar OutburstsWill still more auroras ring out 2024, a year marked by the celestial displays?By Meghan Bartels edited by Lee BillingsThe northern lights seen over Lindisfarne Castle in England on October 10, 2024. Owen Humphreys/PA Images via Getty ImagesThe sun is bidding farewell to 2024 with a bangor rather several bangs. Our star produced three powerful flares on December 29. In addition, two bubbles of material it sent speeding out across space may paint Earths skies with auroras just as many Earthlings mark the turn of the year.Solar flares are categorized by their peak brightness in x-ray wavelengths, with X-class flares being the fiercest flashes. Our stars December 29 activity included three such flares, which occurred at 2:18 A.M., 11:14 P.M. and 11:31 P.M. EST, according to a NASA statement. The outbursts represent continuing tumult amid what scientists have identified as the maximum of the suns current activity cycle, which also produced stunning auroras as far south as Florida in May and October.The suns 11-year activity cycle is dictated by the magnetic fields that roil our stars surface. Our sun is a giant magnet, and so most of the things that happen on the sun are guided by the magnetism, says Maria Kazachenko, a heliophysicist at the University of Colorado Boulder and the National Solar Observatory.On supporting science journalismIf you're enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today.Scientists measure the suns activity by counting the dark sunspots that mar its surface. Each sunspot is home to a smaller magnetic fieldalthough sunspots themselves are often the size of Earth. Sudden changes in the configuration of a sunspots magnetic field, called a magnetic reconnection, can release a huge amount of energy, causing a solar flare. But scientists are still trying to understand what events can trigger magnetic reconnections.The major problem with these flares is that we cannot really stick a thermometer or a magnetometer inside of the solar flare, Kazachenko says. So its very hard to understand whats going on.And magnetic reconnection in one sunspot can trigger the phenomenon in another sunspoteven across a large distancein what scientists call a sympathetic eruption. We frequently see flares occurring in groups, Kazachenko says. The two flares that occurred on Sunday evening represented such a group: they involved sunspots on opposite sides of the suns equator that erupted less than 20 minutes apart.But flares are merely blasts of radiation. Usually for an aurora to occur, the sun must release a bubble of plasma that scientists call a coronal mass ejection (CME), a phenomenon that follows some but not all flares. Whether a CME occurs depends on the details of magnetism at play. During some flares, magnetic fields trap material within the sun. During others, they allow vast blobs of plasma to escape the roiling star. And the more material there is, the better the odds of more spectacular auroras are, Kazachenko says.In the case of Sundays activity, all three major flares produced CMEs. Whether they will produce auroras isnt yet clear. But the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administrations Space Weather Prediction Center has released a geomagnetic storm watch for an event on December 31 and January 1 that, it says, might result in auroras becoming visible over the northern U.S. and into the nations lower Midwest.The uncertainty in the forecast arises from a few factors. Only two CMEs are on paths to potentially strike Earth, and these still may result in glancing blows, complicating predictions about their secondary effects. In addition, Kazachenko says, in order for an aurora to form, the magnetic field of the plasma blob must align opposite to Earths own magnetic field. Otherwise the plasma will simply stream by, scarcely perturbing our planet.The recent activity doesnt surprise scientists who have been carefully monitoring the suns progression through its activity cycle. In an October press conference, experts announced that the sun is officially in the maximum period of that cycle and will remain so for much of 2025.We can expect the maximum phase to be on the longer side, roughly three to four years long, said Lisa Upton, a solar scientist at the Southwest Research Institute, during that briefing. Currently were about two years into the maximum period, so we are anticipating another year or so of maximum phase before we really enter the declining phase.Throughout the remainder of solar maximum and beyond, scientists expect more activity and more impacts on Earth. We anticipate additional solar and geomagnetic storms leading to opportunities to spot aurora over the next several months, said NASA scientist Kelly Korreck during the same press conference.And although solar outbursts can harm satellites and astronauts in orbit and even the power grid on Earth, scientists are pleased to see 2024s activity and that of this solar cycle, which has aligned with the arrival of a massive new solar telescope and two separate spacecraft, all designed to tease apart the mysteries of how the sun works.This year has been amazing, Kazachenko says. Were now living through this solar maximum, and now we have this huge suite of instruments that observe the sun in a new way. Were now living in the golden age of solar multimessenger astronomy.

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(Reuters) -Chinese state-sponsored hackers breached the U.S. Treasury Department's computer security guardrails this month and stole documents in what Treasury called a "major incident," according to a letter to lawmakers that Treasury officials provided to Reuters on Monday.The hackers compromised third-party cybersecurity service provider BeyondTrust and were able to access unclassified documents, the letter said.News Police: Suspects in Aurora kidnapping, torture are Venezuelan TdA gang members looking for cellphone videoBy Kyla PearceThe Denver GazetteAccording to the letter, hackers "gained access to a key used by the vendor to secure a cloud-based service used to remotely provide technical support for Treasury Departmental Offices (DO) end users. With access to the stolen key, the threat actor was able to override the services security, remotely access certain Treasury DO user workstations, and access certain unclassified documents maintained by those users."The Treasury Department said it was alerted to the breach by BeyondTrust on Dec. 8 and that it was working with the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency and the FBI to assess the hack's impact.Treasury officials didn't immediately respond to an email seeking further details about the hack. The FBI did not immediately respond to Reuters' requests for comment, while CISA referred questions back to the Treasury Department. A spokesperson for the Chinese Embassy in Washington rejected any responsibility for the hack, saying that Beijing "firmly opposes the U.S.'s smear attacks against China without any factual basis."BeyondTrust, based in Johns Creek, Georgia, did not immediately respond to requests for comment, but on its website, the company said it had recently identified a security incident that involved a limited number of customers of its remote support software. The statement said a digital key had been compromised in the incident and that an investigation was under way.Tom Hegel, a threat researcher at cybersecurity company SentinelOne, said it appeared the security incident described by BeyondTrust aligns closely with the reported hack at Treasury, though he cautioned that the company itself would need to confirm any connection."This incident fits a well-documented pattern of operations by PRC-linked groups, with a particular focus on abusing trusted third-party services - a method that has become increasingly prominent in recent years," he said, using an acronym for the People's Republic of China.(Reporting by Raphael Satter in Washington, AJ Vicens in Detroit, and Akash Sriram in Bengaluru; Editing by Shinjini Ganguli, Tasim Zahid, Alistair Bell, Rod Nickel and Leslie Adler)

"KOF Studio will proudly carry on the 30-year legacy".As part of The King of Fighters 30th anniversary, SNK Corporation has established a new King of Fighters studio to keep the "legacy" going and also bring forth a new "revolution.Heres the official announcement on SNK's website:Read the full article on nintendolife.com

While AI is lauded by some as the biggest technological breakthrough since the industrial revolution, enterprises arguably the techs biggest potential customer base have been slow to adopt AI.While some investors predicted that 2024 would be the year wed start to see more AI adoption by enterprises, that didnt play out as budgets remained constrained and AI tech often remained in the experimental category.Will that all start to change in 2025? Depends on who you ask.TechCrunch talked to 20 venture capitalists who back startups looking to sell to enterprises about their predictions for 2025. They told us what they anticipate regarding enterprise budgets, trends worth following, and what it will take to raise a Series A in 2025, among other things. Heres what they said.SC Moatti, managing partner, Mighty Capital: Im really looking into this theme AI adoption hinges on better data. As enterprises transition from AI experiments to large-scale deployment, the demand for high-quality data intensifies.Aaron Jacobson, partner, NEA: Code agents for app development modernization are underhyped. Expect to see AI being used to re-platform mainframe apps to the cloud and upgrade older codebases.Molly Alter, partner, Northzone: A key focus of mine is on spaces that were historically untouchable by venture funds because their business models demanded high COGS or OpEx. Were seeing AI automate so much behind-the-scenes work that sectors like accounting services, or revenue cycle management, or white-glove legal services can now command software-like margins.Marell Evans, founder and general partner, Exceptional Capital: Understanding trends in enterprise sales cycles what is the duration certain organizations are trialing tools for before making decisions about internal adoption? In addition, understanding the different pricing models of AI [in relation to] traditional SaaS, consumption-based and/or outcome-based.Mike Hayes, managing director, Insight Partners: An unappreciated metric and something that I think will gain traction in 2025 is TTFV, or time-to-first-value. I see this as a proxy for ease-of-implementation, so faster TTFV solutions should have a bigger advantage going into [the] new year.What areas are you looking to invest in?Liran Grinberg, co-founder and managing partner, Team8: Enterprise resilience, whether in front of operational faults or malicious insider or outsider threats. The CrowdStrike software update incident demonstrated how fragile our digital world is, not only due to cyberattackers but also just mistakes.Jonathan Lehr, co-founder and general partner, Work-Bench: Data sovereignty as a service. Organizations are increasingly investing in data sovereignty solutions driven by regulatory requirements and geopolitical concerns. We are exploring startup opportunities that enable companies to maintain complete control over their datas location, storage, processing, and governance while ensuring compliance with local regulatory frameworks.Mark Rostick, vice president and senior managing director, Intel Capital: One area were looking at is companies that focus on task-specific models. While the foundational models are well established, I find models that excel at specific functions particularly intriguing, especially when combined with agents built on top of them. In addition, we are closely monitoring the development of alternatives to transformers and any possible solutions to reduce the need for the huge amount of computing capacity now required to train LLMs and use them in production.Mike Hayes, managing director, Insight Partners: Enterprises have historically thought of technology as either driving revenue or reducing cost, but that is quickly changing in favor of technology that drives enterprise value while simultaneously reducing business friction. I look for solutions that solve unique, orthogonal challenges for enterprises areas where traditional solutions have fallen short; this includes vertical and persona-specific workflows reimagined with GenAI or agentic automation and security innovations that not only identify and alert, but also remediate.Jason Mendel, venture investor, Battery Ventures: A few interesting areas where I think AI can add significant value, and which Im excited about, include observability / incident response, IT service management, demand generation and sales engagement, offensive security, software development, and the SOC workflow.Ed Sim, founder and general partner, Boldstart Ventures: We think in second order effects. So if we assume that in the future, meaning the next two to three years, we could live in a world where each of us has dozens or hundreds of agents doing work for us, we need to think about all of the infrastructure that needs to be built to support these new digital employees. Whos going to provide the security infra to provide access control? Whos going to manage these? Is there a platform to manage disparate agents and secure them? What about a runtime system for Claudes MCP, which feels like a dockerized, secure sandbox for agents to do work.What technologies, sectors, companies, etc., are you finding interesting that arent AI?Liran Grinberg, co-founder and managing partner, Team8: Quantum computing is still promising. Cybersecurity isnt going anywhere as well, with attackers leveraging AI and an increased complexity in protecting our digital infrastructure.Nina Achadjian, partner, Index Ventures: Weve seen a resurgence in fintech, SaaS, and e-commerce, which were hot sectors that saw a slowdown in the last couple of years. Beyond that, we expect cyber and gaming to continue to be interesting this year, with cyber accelerating further as the IPO market opens up and regulations and disclosure rules around security increase.Aaron Jacobson, partner, NEA: There is a ton of hype around securing AI, but the bigger opportunity is helping enterprises apply Cybersecurity 101 at scale in a way that doesnt impede user productivity. Key areas of particular interest are enforcing least privilege access, maintaining a secure data posture, and preventing ransomware. Im also excited to invest in technology that facilitates multi-cloud deployments for enterprises.Molly Alter, partner, Northzone: Im really excited about companies addressing the public sector. The fiscal environment for government contracting is flush; total federal agency contracts reached $774 billion in 2023. Technology adoption and modernization are key to driving the efficiencies that the new administration is committing to, and there is a growing ecosystem of companies that are tackling this head-on.Andrew Ferguson, vice president, Databricks Ventures: Were spending a significant amount of time with our system integrator partner ecosystem. These companies are doing the hard work of helping enterprises take their data and AI strategies and turn them into real-world implementations.Janelle Teng, vice president, Bessemer Venture Partners: We are moving beyond the modern data stack. The data infrastructure landscape is undergoing a massive transformation, fueled by various factors, including the rise of lakehouse architecture and convergence toward specific open table format standards.Raviraj Jain, partner, Lightspeed Venture Partners: Energy is a huge sector to invest in given increasing demand for energy for data centers and the challenges with grid failures across the country. Well see continued interest in nuclear both fusion and fission.When it comes to AI, how are you determining that a company has a moat?Cathy Gao, partner, Sapphire Ventures: I think about it in a 5D framework: design, data, domain expertise, distribution, and dynamism. Since early this year, we at Sapphire have used this framework to evaluate companies building applications with AI.SC Moatti, managing partner, Mighty Capital: An AI moat is built on proprietary data, cutting-edge algorithms, and scalable infrastructure, enabling unique and superior solutions.Scott Beechuk, partner, Norwest Venture Partners: The deepest moats will be created by large proprietary datasets. The companies with the greatest long-term potential are those building their own unique datasets to excel in their particular, verticalized channels often by either training or fine-tuning their own models.Jonathan Lehr, co-founder and general partner, Work-Bench: As a pureplay seed fund, were focusing most of our energy in vertical AI opportunities tackling business-specific workflows that require deep domain expertise and where AI is mainly an enabler of acquiring previously inaccessible (or highly expensive to acquire) data and cleaning it in a way that wouldve taken hundreds or thousands of man-hours.Raviraj Jain, partner, Lightspeed Venture Partners: Question to ask is, As models become better, does this company get threatened or strengthened?What does it take to raise a Series A as an enterprise startup in 2025?Liran Grinberg, co-founder and managing partner, Team8: With a strong founder-market fit, and an ambitious vision to build a big company, one can raise a solid $15 [million to] $25 million Series A round with only a few $100Ks in ARR.Molly Alter, partner, Northzone: Successful Series A enterprise startups will show strong topline traction (>100% YoY) with low burn multiples; gone are the days of 2021 when it was all about growth at all costs. More importantly, these businesses will show a clear long-term differentiation strategy that will set them apart from the host of other offerings attempting to raise money and sell into the same enterprise customer base.Kirby Winfield, founding general partner, Ascend: Go from zero to $1 million in two quarters with an A-plus team in a massive market with a differentiated solution having created overwhelming demand.Andrew Ferguson, vice president, Databricks Ventures: If youre building an AI-first product, an all-star technical team and early product market traction ($2 [million to] $5 million ARR) may be the Series A expectation. The time from product launch to $5 million ARR is materially faster in the AI era than it was in the traditional SaaS era. I expect that the Series B bar will be much higher and it remains to be seen if this early ARR is high-quality and durable.Jonathan Lehr, co-founder and general partner, Work-Bench: Were hearing from downstream peers that the bar is around $1.5 million with the ability to grow 3x from there sequentially to raise a stellar Series A.Jason Mendel, venture investor, Battery Ventures: Repeatability. Startups that are solving a real pain point in a large market where there is clear urgency from a buyer/user perspective should be well-positioned to raise a Series A in 2025.Do you predict enterprises will increase their tech budgets for 2025? Will they decrease them?Aaron Jacobson, partner, NEA: Within AI, well see budget allocated away from chatbots to agents. Enterprises will move beyond the low-hanging fruit of GPT wrappers to deploy digital workers that can reason and take action to make a real business impact.Scott Beechuk, partner, Norwest Venture Partners: Tech budgets across many industries will increase in 2025, driven by leaders desire to achieve two goals which will sometimes be at odds with each other. The first goal is consolidation. The second is increasing top-line growth and improving operational efficiency, both of which are achievable with AI-based software applications. Buyers will purchase startup solutions in this category despite their desire to consolidate.Kathleen Estreich, partner, Pear VC: In 2024, we expected to see more enterprise adoption of AI. But that hasnt panned out, primarily because we havent yet figured out use cases that are tightly scoped enough and the tools to reduce hallucinations and validate outputs have not gotten robust enough. In 2025 I expect to see more enterprise adoption as the model providers extend their stack upward. Every enterprise will need an AI tech strategy. If you dont adopt, you wont keep up. This will also create a lot of false signals on the revenue side for AI startups as experimental budgets will be high, but true product-market fit will be harder to see at first glance.Kirby Winfield, founding general partner, Ascend: Enterprises will increase AI budgets in 2025. The question isnt whether theyll invest but how theyll tackle pricing, testing, and data security. Companies like Salesforce and Smartsheet have already committed to AI adoption and will push harder to leverage their data assets to stay competitive.Susan Liu, partner, Uncork Capital: Probably the same for the first half, and then as the economy improves and revenue/profits improve, well see an increase in tech budgets in the second half.Mike Hayes, managing director, Insight Partners: Based on what Im hearing from our enterprise partners, theyre likely to marginally increase their tech budgets in 2025, with a focus on areas that deliver measurable ROI and clear KPIs. I expect pressure from boards and CXOs to put AI use cases into production to increase and receive discretionary budget. I also expect continued enterprise investment in cybersecurity and cloud optimization. Said differently, the right emerging technologies should not have trouble landing due to tech budgets.Jason Mendel, venture investor, Battery Ventures: Im optimistic about 2025 and expect to see companies increase their IT budgets with a strong focus on emerging technologies. Heading into the 2025 budgeting season, we at Battery Ventures polled 100 CXOs, collectively representing over $35 billion in annual technology spend, and 74% of them expected to increase their technology spend in 2025.Will there be more AI adoption?Paul Drews, managing partner, Salesforce Ventures: Yes, essentially all enterprise workflows can be optimized with AI especially agentic AI. Were seeing real demand for AI and ML tools that can make underlying models 50% more efficient while delivering improved results. AI is experiencing froth, but from a larger market perspective (not just Silicon Valley), AI is still new and everyone is trying to figure out how to use it, price it, and purchase it.Mark Rostick, vice president and senior managing director, Intel Capital: For the moment, it is clearly easier to adopt AI through application vendors than trying to build your own platform given that the market for enterprise platform tools is still very, very fragmented. I do think there is pent-up demand for some sort of platform solution, so I believe well see many founders trying to address that problem this coming year.Raviraj Jain, partner, Lightspeed Venture Partners: Its a consensus view but AI adoption will continue to accelerate in 2025 as (1) model capabilities improve, (2) enabling infrastructure is built out, and (3) stronger AI-first products come to market.What kinds of companies in your portfolio are seeing the strongest growth? Do you predict that will change in 2025?Marell Evans, founder and general partner, Exceptional Capital: Urgent pain points for AI-ready customers are producing shorter enterprise sales and procurement cycles and therefore faster traction and scale. As we see AI adoption more broadly, we may see enterprises will have greater appetite to try not just solving for the urgent problems but also planning ahead to maintain competitive edge with nice to have or more future-forward and strategic solutions.Kathleen Estreich, partner, Pear VC: We are seeing great traction in vertical agents with a clear understanding of the unique needs of their customers. I think vertical SaaS is a huge opportunity in 2025 to own the end-to-end workflows with custom-built agents for the tasks to be done.Janelle Teng, vice president, Bessemer Venture Partners: Many of Bessemers AI defense tech companies experienced tremendous growth this year. One of our observations earlier in the year is that the defense community is not sitting idly by as the AI revolution sweeps the consumer and commercial industries by storm. The [Department of Defense] mapped and released its formal AI adoption strategy last year, and we predicted that advancements and applications of ML will be embraced as essential for the national agenda and the defense communitys day-to-day work. This prediction proved prescient as the year continued.Mark Rostick, vice president and senior managing director, Intel Capital: Another strong segment of the portfolio focuses on the infrastructure layer of software and services companies. Anyscale is a fantastic example. With their software, developers can build, run, and scale AI applications instantly. Theres also RunPod, a virtual cloud service provider (CSP) for inference. It can bridge the gap between hardware and software stacks, which allows for seamless operation across various server providers, addressing a current challenge in the AI space.Ed Sim, founder and general partner, Boldstart Ventures: No. This is one of the greatest platform shifts Ive seen in 29 years of being a venture capitalist and IMO this will only accelerate.What are your predictions for the exit environment next year?Cathy Gao, partner, Sapphire Ventures: I predict M&A activity will increase as large companies seek to acquire AI expertise. Strategic acquirers will focus on startups with domain-specific AI capabilities or high data moats. The IPO market will remain cautious, but high-growth companies with profitability metrics might test the waters.Nina Achadjian, partner, Index Ventures: I anticipate more liquidity in 2025, both for M&As and the public markets.Aaron Jacobson, partner, NEA: With the change of administration, I expect the return of mega M&A deals. We are going to see a multi-billion and even decacorn M&A outcome for a leading AI company.Marell Evans, founder and general partner, Exceptional Capital: We expect exits to pick up slightly next year, possibly more acquisitions and IPOs. Although, given the latest fed meeting, exit volume might be slower than we expected.Kirby Winfield, founding general partner, Ascend: I predict new FTC leadership under the incoming administration will make hyperscalers more acquisition-friendly for tech and talent. But the IPO market will likely remain sluggish, given the frothy valuations some companies can command from the private market.Andrew Ferguson, vice president, Databricks Ventures: 2025 may finally be the year that we see an uptick in tech M&A activity, as more favorable macro and (potentially) less onerous regulatory oversight make larger companies less skittish about M&A. Most strategic M&A will be focused around amazing technical founders and technology, rather than on scaled business, especially ones that matured during the ZIRP era where the growth/profitability metrics may still not pencil out for strategic acquirers. Its possible that private equity or growth equity investors make a play to consolidate that class of assets into broader platforms.Paul Drews, managing partner, Salesforce Ventures: The likely emphasis on government efficiency and lower regulation will spur growth, investments, and exits. The public markets are soaring, but there continues to be hesitation around the IPO process from a private company perspective. Weve seen glimmers of hope in the IPO markets, which pre-IPO businesses should take as a good sign, but there is still some disconnect between the last private valuation and where the public market will price businesses.Mike Hayes, managing director, Insight Partners: I think enterprises will look to strengthen their inorganic growth through acquisition more in 2025 than in 2024. As far as the IPO market, I do think that enterprises focusing on mission-critical solutions with predictable revenue will have opportunities in 2025. Im optimistic and energized for 2025.

The highly stylized sci-fi project focuses on a remote planet on the brink of collapse, where most of its inhabitants are ensnared by a powerful addiction.

As if this was in doubt plot details are under wraps for the fourth cinematic installment, as Sonic the Hedgehog 3, which follows Sonic, Knuckles, and Tails as they reunite against the powerful adversary Shadow, quickly soars past $200 million at the global box office.