In a nutshell: Spotify is preparing to launch its long-awaited high-fidelity streaming service later this year. Sources told Bloomberg that the Swedish music giant could charge as much as $5.99 per month for access and that's on top of the standard monthly fee that premium users already pay. Rumblings of a Spotify HiFi tier have persisted for several years. In early 2023, Spotify co-president Gustav Sderstrm said the industry changed after they initially announced the service, and that they would need to rethink their strategy in a way that makes sense for them and their listeners before a rollout could occur.The industry change Sderstrm referenced was likely Apple's decision to start offering lossless quality to its streaming music subscribers. Others, including Amazon, followed suit shortly after.Sources now tell Bloomberg that the HiFi tier, reportedly dubbed Music Pro, will be an add-on for existing, paying subscribers a "super-fan" streaming experience, if you will. In addition to higher-quality tracks, users will be able to leverage remixing tools and get early access to concert tickets. The $5.99 per month price is not set in stone as the company is still hammering out details and licensing rights. Pricing is also expected to vary by region, with cheaper rates in less-developed markets.Even with mixing tools and early access to ticket sales, Spotify could have a hard time marketing Music Pro against the competition. An individual Apple Music subscription sells for $11.99 per month, and the full catalog is offered in lossless. A Spotify individual membership also starts at $11.99, plus the cost of the Music Pro add-on. That is nearly $18 a month and let's be honest, how many people are really going to care about concert tickets or remixing software?Spotify previously considered adding audiobook access for HiFi subscribers, but ended up rolling this perk into its standard premium package. Now, premium members get 15 hours / month of listening time from the audiobooks subscriber catalog. // Related StoriesImage credit: Getty Images, Natalia Blauth

TL;DR: Elon Musk's xAI has unveiled the Grok 3 AI model, claiming it outperforms competing products from OpenAI and DeepSeek. The company also announced plans to open-source Grok 2 later this year and has updated the Grok iOS and web apps with new capabilities. Additionally, xAI introduced Grok 3 Mini, a smaller, faster variant of the model that trades some accuracy for increased speed. During the Grok 3 announcement livestream on X, Elon Musk claimed the new model is 10 times more powerful and "an order of magnitude" more capable than its predecessor. Previously, Musk had promised that Grok 3 would be "scary smart," with advanced reasoning capabilities.The Grok 3 family includes Grok 3 Reasoning and Grok 3 Mini Reasoning, both designed to "think through" problems, similar to OpenAI's o3-mini and DeepSeek R1. These reasoning models fact-check their responses in real time to minimize inaccuracies, a common issue with AI systems like ChatGPT and Google Gemini.According to test data provided by xAI, Grok 3 Reasoning outperforms OpenAI's o3-mini-high in key benchmarks, including AIME 2025, a high school-level mathematics assessment. xAI emphasized that its latest reasoning models excel at answering math, science, and programming questions. Both models are available via the Grok app.According to xAI, the Grok app will soon receive a new feature called DeepSearch, similar to OpenAI's Deep Research. This tool will scan online sources, including X, to generate responses to various queries. Additionally, the app will introduce a voice mode with a synthesized voice, expected to roll out as early as next week.Grok 3 was reportedly trained on a supercomputer called Colossus, which utilizes more than 200,000 GPUs in a data center in Memphis, Tennessee. xAI claims that Colossus was built within six to eight months specifically to train the next-generation Grok model. // Related StoriesGrok 3 will initially be available in early access to X Premium+ subscribers. xAI is also introducing a new subscription package called SuperGrok, available through the Grok app and website. This premium tier includes advanced features such as enhanced reasoning, DeepSearch queries, and unlimited image generation. It is rumored to cost $30 per month or $300 per year.Musk also reiterated his commitment to open-sourcing older versions of Grok whenever a new iteration is fully rolled out. Following the launch of Grok 3, xAI plans to open-source Grok 2. According to Musk, the company will release Grok 2's source code to the public "in the coming months" once Grok 3 is "mature and stable."

Using online interactive maps to track where hard-to-find items have been a staple for many games. Especially when you're playing open-world games like Infinity Nikki, it's nice to have a reference for the elusive items you're trying to hunt down.Recommended VideosDifficultyEasyDuration5 minutesBut did you know that Infinity Nikki now has an official interactive map? Infold Games has an interactive world map in beta that you can sync with your in-game data to track important items. If you're missing a few Dews of Inspiration or Whimstars, this program is perfect. We'll explain how to use the official interactive map and sync your Infinity Nikki account with it.As a reminder, this official interactive map is in a closed beta, so there may be some issues with it before it fully releases. The good news is that making it work is super easy and will only take you a minute or two!Step 1: Visit the official Pear Pal Infold Games website, the home for the Pear-fect Guides page. From here, you want to log in your Infinity Nikki account by selecting the button in the top right-hand corner. Enter your email and password, and make sure if you're using a third-party login like Google you sign in through that.Infold GamesStep 2: Once you've logged into the right account, you can now select the World Map (Closed Beta) tab at the top of your screen.RelatedStep 3: After it takes some time to load, you may receive a pop-up with some important information. After reading the pop-up, select the Got it button to continue to the actual map.Infold GamesStep 4: Currently, it won't have it synced to your in-game data until you tell it to. So select the Update Game Data button at the top left of your screen.Infold GamesStep 5: You'll get another pop-up that has some information to read before you agree to its terms. Check off the box that says you've agreed, and then select the Agree button to have it sync.Infold GamesStep 6: Now your game data has officially synced and you should be able to see which items you've collected and not collected yet! In the case of Dews of Inspiration, the Dews that I haven't found are clear while the Dews I've collected are faded. Use the table on the left side of the screen to select and de-select collectibles to track them.Infold GamesEditors Recommendations

Table of ContentsTable of ContentsA new category?The designThat wild headbandUneven audioANC and transparencyCall qualityBattery lifeConclusionWhen Mark Clayton was building his career as a wide receiver with the Miami Dolphins in the 80s (and with Green Bay in the 90s), he probably didnt imagine that retirement from the NFL would lead him to challenge massive audio brands like Beats, Bose, Sony, and Apple, but thats exactly what hes doing.Clayton, now 63 years old, is about to launch the Livv Pro, a set of luxury sports headphones, that look like nothing else on the market. With their unique (and patented) zig-zag headband shape, triangular earcups, and metallic gold accents, the Livv Pro are designed to give a more secure fit than traditional wireless headphones without sacrificing the audio quality and versatility youd expect from those other brands.Recommended VideosI interviewed Clayton in 2024 to learn more about these cans, and he generously arranged for his company, Livv Audio, to send me a set of matte black Livv Pro to check out (they also come in an off-white creme-latte color).RelatedTheyre a pre-production pair, so this isnt a scored review we only do that when we test full-production devices. Still, Claytons team says theyre 95% identical to what folks will get when they hand over the $350 asking price (coincidentally, the same price as the Beats Studio Pro), so I suspect my observations will likely hold for the final product.Simon Cohen / Digital TrendsGoogle best sports headphones and you will notice that almost every list refers to wireless earbuds. To me, that just makes sense. I asked Clayton why he decided to target the sports crowd with an over-ear design. When you go to the gym, I bet you see people with over-ear headphones too, he said. People have their preference.Hes right. When I look around at my local gym, I see plenty of people wearing full-size, over-ear wireless headphones, like the Sony WH-1000XM5, Bose QC45 and QC Ultra Headphones, plenty of Beats Studio 3/Studio Pro, and even the occasional Apple AirPods Max.In other words, people like them for workouts whether theyre designed to be used that way or not. If the Livv Pro successfully tap into this under-served market, they could be the first product in a new category: high-performance, over-ear sports headphones.Simon Cohen / Digital TrendsTechnically, these arent the first-gen Livv Pro. Claytons original design was produced as a very limited run in 2016. He says that the first version garnered great feedback, especially from the uber-active parkour community, but it lacked mass-market appeal. Women, in particular, were lukewarm about the look.Todays Livv Pro owe a big hat-tip to Beats. The choice of headband materials, the design of the hinges and sliders, and the way the headband seamlessly transitions into the earcup housing, all scream Beats Studio Pro. Perhaps the price isnt such a coincidence.Despite these similarities, the Livv Pro arent a 1:1 clone, and you can see where Claytons choices make his cans better for workourts.Simon Cohen / Digital TrendsLike the Beats, power and ANC control are managed through the same button. But unlike the Studio Pro, which uses a tiny and difficult-to-find button, the triangular Livv Audio logo on the right earcup serves this purpose much better, especially when you need to have a quick chat with your trainer or even the barista at your local coffee shop. The playback and volume buttons are positioned within easy reach of your thumb on the rear edge of the same earcup.You also get IPX4 protection from sweat and splashes the minimum, in my opinion, for active use, but which the Beats lack.Simon Cohen / Digital TrendsThe earcushions attach magnetically like Apples pricey AirPods Max making it easy to clean the inner surfaces where sweat will inevitably accumulate, and easy to replace when they inevitably break down (Livv Audio sells replacement sets for $49).Theyve also got wear sensors that pause your tunes when you take them off, something the Studio Pro should have but dont.I am a little concerned that in taking so much inspiration from the Studio Pro, the Livv Pro may have also inherited the Beats problems with durability, particularly with their headband and hinges. I experienced no problems, but my time with them wasnt long enough to reveal this kind of thing.The Livv Pro come with two cables: double-USB-C for charging and USB audio, and a USB-C-to-3.5mm for analog sources.Theyre covered in braided nylon and generously sized at 56 inches making them longer and more flexible than the ones that ship with the Studio Pro. The analog cable even works when the Livv Pro are powered down take that, Beats.Simon Cohen / Digital TrendsThen theres that swoopy headband. Its supposed to accomplish two tasks: create a more secure fit, and give you the option of tilting the cans backward, so that the headband rests just behind your crown. This could increase comfort if youre sensitive to pressure in that region, but Clayton simply wanted headphones that wouldnt suddenly shift forward when training.I cant say I noticed a significantly more secure fit while wearing the Livv Pro versus the Beats Studio Pro, but Claytons design absolutely delivers on the versatility promise. The forward connection to the earcups creates a counterbalance, letting you push the headband a few degrees forward or backward from the center position, without feeling like the cans are about to slide right off your head. I tried doing that with the Beats and lets just say they werent very cooperative.The Livv Pro (left) need to be squeezed to fold as flat as the Beats Studio Pro (right). Simon Cohen / Digital TrendsIm hardly what youd call a gym rat, and my one rule about running is that I only do it when Im being chased. Still, I did a variety of free-weight and machine exercises, including ones that had me lying on my back and my front. I even spent a few painful minutes on a treadmill; the Livv Pro didnt budge, and they proved very comfortable. As you might expect from a set of cans designed for sports, the clamping force is stronger than most wireless headphones, but I was pleasantly surprised by the pressures even distribution. They gripped my head without squeezing it.This is all the more impressive when you consider the size of my head. Its tiny, at least as far as male humans go. With some headphones, the smallest headband adjustment isnt small enough. Not so with the Livv Pro in fact, I wore them with both sides opened to the first notch. This bodes well for women too.The headband materials, hinge, and earcup designs are similar to the Beats Studio Pro. Simon Cohen / Digital TrendsI still prefer wireless earbuds for working out I find over-ear cans get too hot and heavy. But if I had to pick a set of over-ears for the gym, the Livv Pro would be strong contenders.If we keep going with the Beats comparison for just a little longer, there are three small drawbacks to the Livv Pros design. They weigh more: 11.35 ounces versus 9.45 for the Beats. The shape makes them a tad bulkier when folded. And I was aware of the forward swoop of the headband in my peripheral vision.In a controlled environment like a gym, its a non-issue. Outdoors, especially when running on streets or sidewalks, it could mask the approach of a car or other hazard, reducing the time you have to react.Simon Cohen / Digital TrendsPerhaps its a reflection of their pre-production status or the fact that the companion app wasnt ready yet, but I found the quality of the wireless audio lacking. I put an emphasis on wireless because the wired audio was excellent. That strongly suggests a software issue, not a problem with hardware, which would be much tougher to fix.Using Bluetooth, the music sounded distinctly compressed, even from lossless sources like Apple Music. It was like listening to a low-bitrate MP3. I noticed it most in the midranges, which felt hollow. The bass was underwhelming and the highs were unpleasantly shouty.All of this changed when I plugged in one of the USB cables. The bass acquired authority and resonance, the mids yielded details and texture, and the highs were clear and effortless. It may not surprise you that when I plugged in the Beats Studio Pro, they delivered a very similar sound signature.I enjoyed it so much, that Im not sure if Id use the extra EQ settings in the app even if I had access to it.Clayton says theyre great for his favorite genres: rap, EDM, and hip-hop, and I agree. Frankly, theyre great for all genres.Without access to the EQ options that will be available in the Livv Audio app, its hard to say just how far youll be able to boost the bass, but I get the sense the 40mm drivers are capable of more low-end than their out-of-the-box tuning generates.Simon Cohen / Digital TrendsThe Livv Pros noise canceling will help mask distracting background sounds, but they arent in the same league as Sonys WH-1000XM5 or Boses QuietComfort Ultra Headphones, which kill a broader range of frequencies. On the other hand, transparency mode is very clear- almost too clear. I hope the mobile app lets you dial back the amount of gain on the mics. Right now it feels like the outside world is being amplified by about 10% instead of simply passing through at a neutral volume.Shifting between ANC modes is instant when you press the logo button, which isnt true for all ANC cans.The only thing thats missing is the ability to shift between ANC and transparency without passing through the off mode another option I hope will arrive with the app.Simon Cohen / Digital TrendsCalling on the Livv Pro works well, and shocker they sound a lot like the Beats Studio Pro. Outdoors, they do a great job of killing background sounds. Your callers will likely never hear loud trucks or other distractions. However, the louder these sounds get, the more your voice will be garbled as the algorithm attempts to suppress the noise around you.Indoors, as with most wireless headphones, your voice will be consistently clear.I was initially hesitant to use the Livv Pro for video calls I thought the design would look a little goofy on camera. But when viewed straight ahead, the headbands unusual shape disappears. Unless you turn your head to one side or the other, they look just like a regular set of wireless headphones.They also have Bluetooth Multipoint, a handy feature for connecting two devices (like a phone and a laptop) simultaneously, which the Studio Pro lack.Livv Audio pegs battery life at 50 hours with ANC off and 40 hours when its on. I didnt get a chance to test this claim fully, but even if it turns out to be less, theyll still handily beat flagship headphones from Sony, Bose, Beats, and Apple in the stamina department.Over-ear headphones might not be everyones pick for working out, but one things for sure: there are few options for those who like them. The Livv Pro stand out both visually theres nothing like them in the gym or on the street and technically, with features that are thoughtfully designed for fitness.My pre-production pair struggled with wireless audio quality but aced the wired tests. If Livv Audio can fix this issue and give users helpful adjustments to EQ, ANC, and transparency in the app, I think were looking at a rarity in the audio world: a newcomer with a product that challenges the biggest brands in the business.Editors Recommendations

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RIF Watch By the end of today, NASAs workforce will be about 10 percent smaller A dark and painful day at a space agency that brings so much light and joy to the world. Eric Berger Feb 18, 2025 9:52 am | 139 In this illustration, NASAs OSIRIS-REx spacecraft collects a sample from the asteroid Bennu. The agency's superpower is its capacity to dazzle us. Credit: NASA/Goddard/University of Arizona In this illustration, NASAs OSIRIS-REx spacecraft collects a sample from the asteroid Bennu. The agency's superpower is its capacity to dazzle us. Credit: NASA/Goddard/University of Arizona Story textSizeSmallStandardLargeWidth *StandardWideLinksStandardOrange* Subscribers only Learn moreSpread across NASA's headquarters and 10 field centers, which dot the United States from sea to sea, the space agency has had a workforce of nearly 18,000 civil servants.However, by the end of today, that number will have shrunk by about 10 percent since the beginning of the second Trump administration four weeks ago. And the world's preeminent space agency may still face significant additional cuts.According to sources, about 750 employees at NASA accepted the "fork in the road" offer to take deferred resignation from the space agency later this year. This sounds like a lot of people, but generally about 1,000 people leave the agency every year, so effectively, many of these people might just be getting paid to leave jobs they were already planning to exit from.The culling of "probationary" employees will be more impactful. As it has done at other federal agencies, the Trump administration is generally firing federal employees who are in the "probationary" period of their employment, which includes new hires within the last one or two years or long-time employees who have moved into or been promoted into a new position. About 1,000 or slightly more employees at NASA were impacted by these cuts.Adding up the deferred resignations and probationary cuts, the Trump White House has now trimmed about 10 percent of the agency's workforce.However, the cuts may not stop there. Two sources told Ars that directors at the agency's field centers have been told to prepare options for a "significant" reduction in force in the coming months. The scope of these cuts has not been defined, and it's possible they may not even happen, given that the White House must negotiate budgets for NASA and other agencies with the US Congress. But this directive for further reductions in force casts more uncertainty on an already demoralized workforce and signals that the Trump administration would like to make further cuts.An awful weekJob losses are always terrible. This will be a dark and painful day at a space agency that brings so much light and joy to the world. Many of the probationary employees are just starting out their careers and were likely thrilled to land a job at NASA to explore the universe. And then all of that youthful energy and hope was extinguished this week.It's possible to view these losses through a couple of lenses.Yes, NASA is clearly losing some capability with these latest cuts. Many of these hires were likely being counted on to bring new energy into the space agency and become its future discoverers and leaders. And their jobs are being sacrificed for no clear purpose. Is it to increase funding for the military? Is it to pay for tax cuts for the rich? There is a lot of anger that the relatively thin budget line of NASAless than one-half of 1 percent of the federal budgetis being sliced for such purposes.There is also frustration at the indiscriminate nature of the cuts. The Trump White House and the Department of Government Efficiency, spearheaded by Elon Musk, have taken a meat-cleaver approach by firing a lot of people at the same time, and probably not the right people, through a messy and painful process. This is not dissimilar to job cuts during corporate mergers or bankruptcies. It's the fastest possible way to make cuts. There is no empathy, and it is a brutal process.Are cuts needed?It is also clear that, as within other federal agencies, there is significant "bloat" in NASA's budget. In some areas, this is plain to see, with the space agency having spent in excess of $3 billion a year over the last decade "developing" a heavy lift rocket, the Space Launch System, which used components from the Space Shuttle and costs an extraordinary amount of money to fly. In the meantime, the private launch industry has been running circles around NASA. Similarly, consider the Orion spacecraft. This program is now two decades old, at a cost of $1 billion a year, and the vehicle has never flown humans into space.One could go on. Much of the space community has been puzzled as to why NASA has been spending on the order of half a billion dollars to develop a Lunar Gateway in an odd orbit around the Moon. It remains years away from launching, and if it ever does fly, it would increase the energy needed to reach the surface of the Moon. The reason, according to multiple sources at the agency when the Gateway was conceived, is that the lunar space station would offer jobs to the current flight controllers operating the International Space Station, which is due to retire in 2030.In recent years, NASA has been in the midst of a difficult transition. The agency deserves a lot of credit for nurturing a commercial space industry that now is the envy of the world. But as part of this, NASA has been moving away from owning and operating its rockets, spacecraft, and other hardware and buying services from this commercial space industry. This transition from traditional space to commercial space marks an important step for NASA to remain on the cutting edge of exploration and science rather than trying to compete with US industry.But it is also a painful step.The key is ensuring that any future cuts at NASA are not indiscriminate. If and when Jared Isaacman is confirmed by the US Senate as the next NASA administrator, it will be up to him and his team to make the programmatic decisions about which parts of the agency are carrying their weight and which are being carried, which investments carry NASA into the future, and which ones drag it into the past. If these future cuts are smart and position NASA for the future, this could all be worth it. If not, then the beloved agency that dares to explore may never recover.Eric BergerSenior Space EditorEric BergerSenior Space Editor Eric Berger is the senior space editor at Ars Technica, covering everything from astronomy to private space to NASA policy, and author of two books: Liftoff, about the rise of SpaceX; and Reentry, on the development of the Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon. A certified meteorologist, Eric lives in Houston. 139 Comments

The three layers of the atmosphere of the gas giant TylosESO/M. KornmesserThe atmosphere of a distant world has been mapped in detail for the first time, revealing a strange, topsy-turvy weather system, with the fastest winds ever seen inexplicably blowing around the planets stratosphere.Astronomers have studied WASP-121b, also known as Tylos, since 2015. The planet, which is 900 light-years away, is a vast ball of gas double the size of Jupiter and orbits its star extremely closely, completing a full orbit in just 30 Earth hours. This close orbit heats the planets atmosphere to temperatures of 2500C, hot enough to boil iron. AdvertisementNow, Julia Seidel at the European Southern Observatory in Chile and her colleagues have looked inside Tylos scorchingly hot atmosphere using the Very Large Telescope, and found it has at least three distinct layers of gas moving in different directions around the planet a structure unlike anything astronomers have ever seen. Its absolutely crazy, science fiction-y patterns and behaviours, says Seidel.The planetary atmospheres in our solar system share a broadly similar structure, where a jet stream of powerful winds blowing in the lower portion of an atmosphere is driven by internal temperature differences, while winds in the upper layers are more affected by temperature differences created by heat from the sun warming the day side of the planet but not the other.But in Tylos atmosphere, the lower layer winds are driven by the heat from its star, travelling away from the warm side, while the jet stream appears to be mostly in the middle layer of the atmosphere, travelling around the planets equator in the direction of the planets rotation. An upper layer also shows jetstream-like features, but with hydrogen gas drifting outwards from the planet. This is difficult to explain using our current models, says Seidel. What we see now is actually exactly the inverse of what comes out of theory. Voyage across the galaxy and beyond with our space newsletter every month.Sign up to newsletterWhats more, the jet stream on Tylos is the most powerful ever seen, blasting at around 70,000 kilometres per hour across half the planet almost double the speed of the previous record holder. Exactly what is driving this speed is unclear, but the researchers think that it may be due to the planets strong magnetic field or because of ultraviolet radiation from its star. This could possibly change the flow patterns, but this is all highly speculative, says Seidel.Journal reference:Nature DOI: 10.1038/s41586-025-08664-1Journal reference:Astronomy & Astrophysics DOI: 10.1051/0004-6361/202452405Topics:

NASA, ESA, CSA, STScIMany millions of years after the big bang, a point of light arose in a dark universe. This first star began to blast out radiation, which knocked electrons off the surrounding fog of hydrogen. More stars formed, turning nearly all the opaque, neutral hydrogen atoms into a transparent broth of ionised hydrogen, so that light could travel freely through the expanding cosmos. This was the end of the cosmic dark ages and the start of galaxy formation.These first stars and the galaxies they formed were very different from anything we see in the modern universe. For one, they were made almost entirely of hydrogen and helium, with trace amounts of lithium, because no heavier elements existed yet. The chemistry that we see can only be made in stars, says Richard Ellis at University College London.Up until 2022, the oldest known galaxy was one called GN-z11, which formed about 400 million years after the big bang. We know this because of a property called redshift: the expansion of the universe means that the more distant an object is, the faster it is moving away from us, and the quicker this motion, the redder its light becomes. Light takes time to travel, so the more distant an object is and the higher its redshift the earlier in the universes history we are seeing it. GN-z11 has a redshift of about 11.However, thanks to the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), we now know there are galaxies that are much more ancient than GN-z11. JWST is larger and more sensitive

The Chinese businessman is 59 years old.Jack Ma in 2014. REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson Jack Ma born Ma Yun was born on September 10, 1964, in Hangzhou, southeastern China. He has an older brother and a younger sister, USA Today reported.He doesn't come from money.Hangzhou, China, where Ma was raised. rongyiquan / Shutterstock.com He and his siblings grew up at a time when communist China was increasingly isolated from the West, and his family didn't have much money when they were young, per 60 Minutes.Ma was scrawny and often got into fights with classmates. "I was never afraid of opponents who were bigger than I," he recalls in "Alibaba," a book by Liu Shiying and Martha Avery.As a kid, Ma liked collecting crickets and making them fight, and was able to distinguish the size and type of cricket just by the sound it made, according to USA Today.When he became a teen, he offered travelers tours of his city in exchange for English lessons. That's how ended up with the nickname Jack, 60 Minutes reported.It took Ma three tries to get into college.Ma didn't get into Harvard despite trying multiple times. WEF After high school, he applied to go to college but failed the entrance exam twice. He finally passed on the third try, going on to attend Hangzhou Teachers Institute. At the World Economic Forum in 2016, Ma revealed he has been rejected from Harvard 10 times.He graduated in 1988 and started applying to as many jobs as he could.He received more than a dozen rejections including from KFC before being hired as an English teacher at a university. Ma was a natural with his students and loved his job though he only made $12 a month at a local university.Ma keeps his family life private, but he's been married for decades.Ma got married after he graduated. Wang HE/Getty Images Ma married Zhang Ying, a teacher he met at school after they graduated in the late 1980s. They have two children a daughter and a son, according to Bloomberg.Ma got the idea to start an internet company during a trip to America.Ma has had a connection to the US from a young age. AP Images Ma had no experience with computers or coding, but he was captivated by the internet when he used it for the first time during a trip to the US in 1995. He had recently started a translation business and made the trip to help a Chinese firm recover a payment.Ma's first online search was "beer," but he was surprised to find that no Chinese beers turned up in the results. It was then that he decided to found an internet company for China.He founded Alibaba in 1999, and its success was nearly instant.Alibaba's headquarters is in Hangzhou. Reuters Though his first two ventures failed, four years later, he gathered 17 of his friends in his apartment and convinced them to invest in his vision for an online marketplace he called "Alibaba." The site allowed exporters to post product listings that customers could buy directly.Soon, the service started to attract members from all over the world. By October 1999, the company had raised $5 million from Goldman Sachs and $20 million from SoftBank, a Japanese telecom company that also invests in technology companies.The team remained close-knit and scrappy. "We will make it because we are young and we never, never give up," Ma said to a gathering of employees.Ma was given the nickname "Crazy Jack" by reporters during his company's mid-2000s rivalry with eBay.The homepage of the Chinese e-commerce site Taobao. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein) He was known for maintaining a sense of fun at Alibaba. In the early 2000s, when the company decided to start Taobao, its eBay competitor, he had his team do handstands during breaks to keep their energy levels up.When the company first became profitable, Ma gave each employee a can of Silly String to go wild with.Yahoo invested in Alibaba in 2005.Yahoo won big when it invested in Alibaba. China Photos/Stringer/Getty Images In 2005, Yahoo invested $1 billion in Alibaba in exchange for about a 40% stake in the company. This was huge for Alibaba at the time it was trying to beat eBay in China and it would eventually be an enormous win for Yahoo too, netting it $10 billion in Alibaba's IPO alone, TechCrunch reported.Ma stepped down from his post as CEO in 2013.Ma stepped down from the CEO position the year before Alibaba went public. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid Alibaba went public on the New York Stock Exchange on September 19, 2014.The company's $150 billion IPO was the largest offering for a US-listed company in the history of the NYSE. It also made Ma the richest person in China, with an estimated worth of $25 billion at the time, Bloomberg reported."Today what we got is not money. What we got is the trust from the people," Ma told CNBC at the time.Ma stayed on as chairman at Alibaba until 2019. That year it was reported heMa owns stakes in Alibaba and a payment-processing service.Alipay logo is seen at a train station in Shanghai. Thomson Reuters Alibaba reported in 2022 that Ma owned 3.7% of the company both directly and through holding companies, according to Bloomberg Billionaires Index.Ma owns a 10% stake in payment-processing service Alipay, which rebranded to Ant Group in 2014, according the company's prospectus filing in 2020.One of his greatest passions is the environment.Chelsea Clinton, left, and Jack Ma during a session at the Clinton Global Initiative. Shannon Stapleton / REUTERS According to Fortune, Ma developed an interest in environmentalism when a member of his wife's family became sick with an illness that Ma suspected was caused by pollution.He sat on the global board of The Nature Conservancy and spoke during a session of the Clinton Global Initiative in 2015. He was also, according to Fortune, instrumental in funding a 27,000-acre nature reserve in China.The biggest day in the calendar for Alibaba is China's "Singles' Day" a retaliation to Valentine's Day which supposedly celebrates the country's singletons.Ma looks back at a giant electronic screen showing real-time sales figures on the "Singles' Day" online shopping festival. REUTERS It's also known as the Global Shopping Festival in Alibaba reports, and it takes place on November 11. In 2021, the e-commerce giant reported nearly $85 million on Singles' Day. Taylor Swift performed at the company's Singles' Day event in 2019.Ma appears humble despite his financial success.Ma is a fan of practicing tai chi. Associated Press Alibaba's success may have made Ma an extremely wealthy man, but he still has some pretty modest hobbies."I don't think he has changed much, he is still that old style," Xiao-Ping Chen, a friend of Ma, told USA Today. He likes reading and writing kung fu fiction, playing poker, meditating, and practicing tai chi.Ma once told employees at a press conference in 2014 that he hoped they use their newfound wealth to become "a batch of genuinely noble people, a batch of people who are able to help others, and who are kind and happy."Even though Ma has kept his humble hobbies, he has also splurged on a French chateau and a plane for Alibaba.Ma bought a vineyard and a chateau in Bordeaux, France, in 2016, according to CNBC. And in March 2013, Alibaba spent a reported $49.7 million on a Gulfstream G550, mostly for Ma's use, according to China Daily.In 2017, Ma made headlines after meeting President Donald Trump.Donald Trump with Jack Ma. AP Despite Trump's protectionist attitude towards trade, Ma said China and the United States were not about to be drawn into a trade war."Give Trump some time. He's open-minded," Ma told a panel at the World Economic Forum in January 2017.Ma is something of a celebrity in China.Ma was known for his eccentric personality in China Steven Shi / REUTERS Crowds of people show up to listen to him speak. The company also hosts annual talent shows, and Ma is a natural entertainer. At a company anniversary event, he dressed up as a punk rocker for a performance in front of 20,000 Alibaba employees, according to 60 Minutes.In 2014, Ma told Bloomberg he knew Alibaba had made it big when another customer offered to pay his restaurant bill.The customer, Ma said in the interview, had left Ma a note that read: "I'm your customer of Alibaba group, I made a lot of money and I know you don't make any money. I'll pay the bill for you.".Ma stepped down as Alibaba's chairman on his 55th birthday and chose a former Alibaba CEO to replace him.Ma had a lavish farewell party. Courtesy of Alibaba He left the position on September 10, 2019. The company threw him a farewell party in an 80,000-seat stadium in Hangzhou, and Ma performed with other Alibaba executives.Ma picked Daniel Zhang, who was named the CEO of Alibaba in 2015, to replace him as chairman. According to CNN Business, Ma decided to pivot to full-time philanthropy.When COVID-19 rocked the world, Ma sprung into action.Ma was active on social media in 2020. Jack Ma/Twitter When the coronavirus pandemic brought the world to a halt in March 2020, Ma sourced and shipped N95 face masks and COVID-19 testing kits to over 100 countries dealing with shortages, including the US.In May 2020, SoftBank announced that Ma would resign from the troubled investment fund's board of directors.Masayoshi Son, SoftBank's chairman and CEO. Reuters "Stepping down from SoftBank Group's Board, I believe, and he said to me actually, was something that he decided on his own," SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son said during the firm's earnings announcement."That's sad, but we still keep in contact directly, and right before the COVID-19, we met face-to-face every month to have dinner, to talk about businesses, to talk about lives. And we will remain friends for the rest of our life, I believe."In October 2020, Ma made headlines again in relation to Ant Group's highly anticipated IPO.Ant Group's headquarters is in Hangzhou. Chen Zhongqiu/VCG/Getty Images Ant Group was expected to raise $37 billion with a valuation reportedly surpassing $300 billion. But then, Ma publicly snubbed China's financial regulatory system, calling it "an old people's club."Soon after, regulators introduced new online lending rules that directly impacted Ant's business.Officials then said there were "major issues" with Ant's listing, and by November 2020, the IPO was suspended.It was expected to serve as a "stamp of approval" for disruptors in the traditional banking sector before the new rules changed the IPO's trajectory.Chinese regulators opened an antitrust investigation into Alibaba in December 2020, yet another crackdown on Ma's empire.The crackdown had a serious impact on Ma's net worth. Reuters Regulators said they were launching an anti-monopoly investigation into Alibaba and held talks about stricter financial regulations with Ant Group.As part of the investigation, China's State Administration for Market Regulation looked into the contracts Alibaba asked sellers to sign.Amid the investigation, speculation began on whether Ma was missing in 2021.Ma began laying low in 2021. Bryan Thomas/Getty Images In January 2021, Yahoo Finance reported that Ma hadn't been seen publicly in more than two months and had been replaced as a judge on the TV talent show he founded, which raised the question of whether Ma had gone missing.Ma isn't the first Chinese businessman to disappear from the public eye under such circumstances.Ma's absence mirrored similar situations where Chinese businessmen had disappeared after battling with regulators.But multiple sources said that Ma was not missing he was simply "laying low" amid the government scrutiny and new regulations.Ma appeared to resurface in Thailand in January 2023.A post shared by JAY FAI () (@jayfaibangkok) Jay Fai restaurant in Bangkok, Thailand, posted a photo of Jack Ma on Instagram. The caption read: "Incredibly humble, we are honored to welcome you and your family to Jay Fai's."His reappearance came as Ant Group said it was streamlining voting rights to prevent any one shareholder from having a controlling vote.His net worth is now estimated at around $30 billion, making him China's seventh-richest person in 2023.

Elliott Management bet against Nvidia using put options last quarter, filings show.Paul Singer's firm had "at least $600 million in downside exposure" to the chip maker, one analyst said.Elliott told clients last year that Nvidia was in a "bubble" and AI was "overhyped."Elliott Management bet big against Nvidia after telling clients the chipmaker's stock was in a "bubble" and artificial intelligence was "overhyped."Billionaire investor Paul Singer's firm bought put options last quarter on 1.45 million Nvidia shares with a notional value of about $195 million as of December 31, a Securities and Exchange Commission filing revealed on Friday.The activist-investing specialist also owned puts worth a notional $1.1 billion on the Invesco QQQ ETF, which tracks the Nasdaq-100 index. Moreover, it held puts worth a notional $4.2 billion on the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust, which follows the S&P 500 index. Nvidia is the second-largest constituent of both indexes, after Apple.Between the three short positions, Elliott had "at least $600 million in downside exposure to Nvidia directly or indirectly" at the end of December, Gerry Fowler, head of European equity strategy at UBS, told Business Insider.Elliott, which manages roughly $70 billion of assets, appears to have "specifically shorted Nvidia via put options" and bet against the largest US companies more broadly to hedge its risk on long positions such as Southwest Airlines and Pinterest, Fowler said.However, Fowler emphasized the strike prices and maturities of the puts aren't disclosed, so the "cost of this protection could be quite low or high we just don't know."In a client letter obtained by The Financial Times last year, Elliott's bosses said that Nvidia and other Big Tech stocks were in "bubble land" and questioned whether the massive demand for Nvidia's graphics chips would last.They also predicted that some AI applications were destined to always cost too much, function poorly, consume too much energy, or betray users' trust.Elliott has only disclosed a Nvidia position once before, according to SEC filings dating back to 2001. It owned 5,000 shares worth $4.5 million at the end of March 2024 but sold them within three months.Nvidia stock is almost flat this year after soaring just over 100% in the past 12 months, leaving it worth $3.45 trillion second only to Apple in value.Elliott's US stock portfolio was worth about $9 billion at December's close, excluding options and convertible debt securities. Its top positions included $2 billion stakes in Triple Flag Precious Metals and Southwest Airlines, and a $1.8 billion position in Suncor Energy.It's worth highlighting that Form 13Fs only provide a snapshot of a firm's US stock holdings on a single day, roughly six weeks before their release. They also exclude shares sold short, stakes in private companies, foreign-listed assets, and non-stock assets such as gold and real estate, meaning they don't always paint a full picture of an investor's strategy.Elliott declined to comment.