The world’s largest privately owned laser just turned on; plus, Uber caps employee AI spending and Martin Scorsese becomes the latest Hollywood voice for AI
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What is the new Phoenix Laser system and why does it matter for fusion power?
This is TechCrunch.
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On Wednesday, fusion startup Examer Energy flipped the switch on its Phoenix Laser System, which the company says is the largest privately owned example in the world. Examer's approach to fusion power is modeled after the National Ignition Facility, or NIF, which proved back in December of 2022 that a controlled fusion reaction could release more.
How does Examer plan to use the Phoenix Laser to achieve commercial fusion by the 2030s?
more power than required to ignite it. The NIF trained 192 laser beams on a fuel target smaller than a pencil eraser. The energy from the lasers hit the gold target, and as the lasers obliterated the gold target, their energy was converted into X-rays, which were focused on the fuel pellet inside, compressing it until atoms in the fuel fused and released energy. The company is betting that more powerful, less complex lasers will help turn NIF's concept for fusion power into something more profitable. Examerse plans for a fusion power plant call for two lasers capable of firing in microsecond long pulses. Lights from those pulses will be fed through a compression system of sorts, which will deliver the laser's energy to the fuel target in nanoseconds.
Now, the quicker the fuel is compressed, The more likely it is to generate usable fusion reactions. Phoenix is a step toward an eventual power plant.
Why is Uber imposing a $1,500 per‑employee AI spending cap and what does it reveal about AI costs?
The system uses eczamer amplification, similar to those used in semiconductor manufacturing, but significantly more powerful. As eczemer told TechCrunch, at full strength, the Krypton fluoride laser generates over one kilojoul of energy, and its core is thirty eight meters long. While that may be the most powerful privately owned laser, it's still a fraction of what the company says it will need for a commercial power plant, which could exceed twelve megajoules. Examer hopes to complete a prototype in 2028 before working on a larger system that it hopes will produce at least as much power as it consumes. Sometime in the mid-2030s, it is planning to build its first commercial scale power plant. AI is getting expensive, and some companies are cutting back on usage in an attempt to moderate costs.
That cohort includes Uber, which recently instituted internal usage caps as a way to cut down on its exorbitant AI spend. Bloomberg reported that the company has instituted a new rule that places a monthly $1,500 cap per employee and per agentic coding tool, including Anthropic's clawed code or cursor. The usage is trackable via an internal dashboard that each employee has access to, although in certain cases the caps can be exceeded with permission, the company says.
What are the challenges companies face in measuring AI return on investment?
The news is perhaps not that surprising, since, you know, back in April, the company's CTO revealed that the ride-sharing giant had blown through its entire annual AI budget in a matter of four months. That appears to have occurred after Uber encouraged staff to use AI as much as possible, and even ranked their internal usage competitively on internal leaderboards. Uber's COO, Andrew MacDonald, also recently cast doubt on AI's productivity impact, noting during a podcast appearance that it's very hard to draw a line between AI usage and and new consumer features. Uber's cutback raises a broader issue that the tech industry is currently facing. As enterprises pour money into AI, where exactly is the return on investment?
Indeed, AIROI has so far remained a largely theoretical phenomenon that everybody hopes will eventually materialize, although some companies are obviously getting a little restless while they wait.
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Chapters
5 chapters
1
What is the new Phoenix Laser system and why does it matter for fusion power?
0:02–1:08
2
How does Examer plan to use the Phoenix Laser to achieve commercial fusion by the 2030s?
1:08–2:13
3
Why is Uber imposing a $1,500 per‑employee AI spending cap and what does it reveal about AI costs?
2:13–3:43
4
What are the challenges companies face in measuring AI return on investment?
3:43–5:01
5
How is Martin Scorsese using AI‑generated storyboards and what does it mean for Hollywood?
5:01–6:27
Speakers
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