faz_business - Faz Business | فاز الأعمال

GM joins race to build batteries for AI data centers and the grid

Posted on June 9, 2026 by faz_business

The race to secure power for AI data centers has spilled over into some unusual places, including the automotive world.

Battery recycler Redwood Materials kicked off the trend last year with a new energy storage division and a project that attached old EV packs to a Crusoe data center in Nevada. Then, Ford said it was repurposing some of its battery manufacturing capacity to make grid-scale batteries. And now GM is announcing its own — arguably more ambitious — plans for an energy storage system (ESS).

GM unveiled on Tuesday two new phases in its attack on the energy storage market. The biggest swing by far is GM’s new partnership with energy storage startup Peak Energy. For that partnership, GM is developing an entirely new sodium-ion battery chemistry tailored for grid-scale deployments.

Outside of China, no automaker has announced plans to build sodium-ion cells.

“The way we’re getting into the market is the easy way, through ESS,” Kurt Kelty, vice president of battery and sustainability at GM, told TechCrunch. “The performance characteristics are just what is needed in that market.”

GM wouldn’t share with TechCrunch how much money it is investing in this energy storage effort. But we do know the company has committed $900 million to commercialize new battery chemistries, an investment that includes a new battery development center.

Sodium-ion batteries work similarly to lithium-ion, but they swap out key materials to make the cells cheaper, longer lasting, and less prone to overheating. The tradeoff is that sodium-ion batteries need to be larger and heavier to store the same amount of electricity.

Peak Energy has already been working on energy storage systems that use sodium-ion batteries. Because sodium-ion batteries behave differently from lithium-ion, Peak has developed an energy storage system with that in mind. Its grid-scale batteries don’t have cooling systems or fire suppression systems because there’s less risk of overheating. The setup reduces upfront costs, and it should also eliminate costly maintenance, Paul Menson, director of energy storage commercialization at GM, told TechCrunch.

“This is the manifestation of the hardest part to engineer is no part at all,” he said. “Eliminate the part, eliminate the problem.”

GM plans to sell sodium-ions cells to the startup, which will then integrate them into its products. But that won’t happen right away.

The first GM cells are expected to enter trial production at the company’s Battery Cell Development Center in 2028. TechCrunch was recently given an exclusive look at the new facility, which GM expects will cut about a year from the commercialization process for sodium-ion batteries, reducing costs in the process.

GM’s sodium-ion cells are still years away from commercial production, however. In the meantime, the automaker will sell lithium iron phosphate (LFP) cells to LG Energy Solution for use in its energy storage systems. LG Energy Solution already works with GM through its Ultium joint venture, which makes batteries for the automaker’s EVs.

Alongside the partnerships with LG and Peak, GM announced that it was expanding its work with Redwood Materials, the battery recycling and energy storage startup founded by former Tesla executive J.B. Straubel.

Redwood already buys scrap from GM’s battery factories and used battery packs from its EVs. GM has a pipeline of around 10,000 packs it’s sending to Redwood, and the startup has been operating a 12 megawatt/63-megawatt-hour migrogrid using second-life packs at a Crusoe data center in Sparks, Nevada. GM said it is buying a 7.2 megawatt-hour Redwood system for use at one of its plants in Michigan, which it estimates will save it around $3 million over its lifetime.

The GM installation is “a step one” for Redwood, Cal Lankton, chief commercial officer for Redwood, told TechCrunch.

Data centers, where Redwood already operates, and industrial sites like GM’s are “vastly different things,” he said. Where data centers might use batteries nearly continuously to absorb some of the power fluctuations from GPUs, industrial sites are more likely to use them to shave off peaks in power demand, which can lower monthly power bills, and use them to provide backup power in case of an outage.

“The factory is really excited because now we’ve got a more reliable factory,” Kelty said. “Ultimately, we’ll be having similar installations like this at all of our factories. It just makes good economic sense.”

When you purchase through links in our articles, we may earn a small commission. This doesn’t affect our editorial independence.

Sony’s new 135-inch display is basically boardroom excess in its finest form

Posted on June 9, 2026 by faz_business

Sony Electronics is making a massive upgrade to the humble meeting room screen. The company has just unveiled Crystal LED UNIFY, a massive 135-inch all-in-one direct-view LED display designed for boardrooms, meeting rooms, community spaces, and higher education environments.

At a glance, it might look like Sony’s next massive flagship living room TV, but it’s cutting edge display tech arriving to the office space. It is part of Sony’s professional display lineup and sits alongside its existing BRAVIA Professional Displays and Crystal LED portfolio. The model number is ZRL-135SG, and Sony is positioning it as a simpler way for organizations to add a large dvLED display without dealing with the usual complexity of custom LED wall projects.

An easy to setup up giant wall of screen

One of the biggest selling points for the Crystal LED UNIFY is its convenience. It arrives as a complete package with five pre-assembled display units and a control unit. So installation is a relatively straightforward process that can be completed by two people in about an hour. Since direct-view LED installations can get complicated, Sony’s version of the tech isn’t just promising solid visuals. The appeal is the simplified ordering, installation, maintenance, and day-to-day use.

The display units are mounted on wall brackets and connected to the included control unit, while a slide-out, front-serviceable design should make maintenance easier after installation.

Built for big bright rooms

Coming to the fun part, Crystal LED UNIFY uses a 1.5mm pixel pitch, Full HD resolution, and 800 cd/m² brightness. Sony has also added Anti-Reflection Surface Technology, which should help visibility in brightly lit rooms where projectors often struggle. The display also supports 4K input, works with Sony’s Device Management Platform, and offers a familiar interface for organizations already using Pro BRAVIA displays. In other words, it should also slot into conference rooms or multi-display setups with needing an IT team to learn an entirely new ecosystem.

Sony has also put effort in making it look clean on a wall. The Crystal LED UNIFY has ultra-slim bezels, a concealed slide-out control unit, and a depth of under 100mm, or less than four inches, when used with the included wall-mount brackets. So it should fit seamlessly in professional spaces.

The company expects Crystal LED UNIFY to be available in early 2027, with plans for an early showcase at the upcoming InfoComm 2026 event in Las Vegas from June 17 to June 19. Pricing has not been announced yet, but this is clearly aimed at businesses, institutions, and premium professional spaces rather than home theater shoppers with unusually large walls.

Your Google smart display is finally learning how to hold a real conversation

Posted on June 9, 2026 by faz_business

What you need to know

Gemini for Home is becoming more conversational, replacing rigid voice commands and static responses with a more natural AI experience.
Weather forecasts, media controls, news summaries, and overall responsiveness are all getting upgrades through Google Home app version 4.18.
Gemini now respects preferred temperature units, answers hour-specific questions, and keeps spoken forecasts aligned with on-screen information.

Talking to a smart speaker may have, at some point, felt like giving commands to a stiff, literal-minded robot. If you didn’t use the exact phrasing, everything went awry. Gemini for Home’s latest Early Access update transforms the experience by replacing static broadcasts with a fully interactive, conversational AI experience.

Gemini for Home Early Access gets a new update with improvements to weather forecasts, media playback, news summaries, and general responsiveness. The changes are being rolled out via Google Home app version 4.18 and may not be available to everyone immediately.

The first big change is around weather. Before this update, voice assistants have struggled to provide detailed forecasts and to ensure spoken answers matched what was shown on smart screens. Google says Gemini now does a better job respecting users’ preferred temperature units and answering more specific questions, such as if it will rain at a certain hour. For a more consistent experience, spoken responses are now synchronized with detailed hourly forecasts presented on-screen.

Android Central’s Take

I think these updates will make Gemini for Home seem more useful than complicated. That said, it’s also a little amusing that Google is basically getting the basics right that voice assistants should have nailed years ago. Better natural conversations and accurate weather are welcome improvements, but users will likely not see these as revolutionary but rather overdue. But if Gemini continues to receive these practical upgrades, Google’s smart home ecosystem may finally start to feel as smart as the company has been promising.

macOS 27 Lets You Resize iPhone Mirroring in New Aspect Ratios

Posted on June 9, 2026 by faz_business

macOS 27 Golden Gate brings a major improvement to iPhone Mirroring, allowing users to resize the window beyond the iPhone’s fixed aspect ratio for the first time.

iphone mirroring blue

Until now, iPhone Mirroring has been limited to the iPhone’s native aspect ratio in a small window. Users could adjust the window’s overall size somewhat, but its proportions remained locked. With ‌macOS 27‌, users can now change the aspect ratio of the iPhone Mirroring window itself, offering dramatically more flexibility for workflows that rely on the feature.

The update was revealed in Apple’s Platforms State of the Union address. Several fixed aspect ratios appear to be available rather than free-form resizing, meaning the system snaps to the nearest supported shape. Depending on the chosen aspect ratio, iPhone Mirroring renders either an adjusted version of the app’s iPhone layout or its iPad layout, when one is available. Aspect ratio adjustments are currently limited to iOS 27-compatible apps, which at present means only native iOS apps.

‌macOS 27‌ also adds Control Center to iPhone Mirroring, joining the Home Screen, App Switcher, and Spotlight as iPhone areas accessible directly from the Mac.

The improvements arrive alongside a broader push Apple made at this year’s Platforms State of the Union, where developers were encouraged to move away from designing apps for fixed orientations and specific devices, and instead target what Apple described as “a dynamic range of sizes and aspect ratios.” Apple introduced resizable iOS apps in iPhone Mirroring and on ‌iPad‌, with developers who rebuild against the latest SDK automatically opted in. A new resizable iOS simulator in Xcode lets developers test layouts across a wide range of screen sizes and aspect ratios.

That guidance appears to have ramifications well beyond iPhone Mirroring, with wide speculation that the feature is essentially a veiled preparation for the upcoming foldable iPhone. Moreover, iOS 27 contains frameworks that point more explicitly toward foldable hardware: “foldState” and “angleDegrees.” A third find, a new key that returns the total count of built-in displays on a device, suggests Apple is also preparing the software stack for a device with more than one integrated screen. Taken together, the strings and the resizability push appear to be laying the groundwork for the foldable iPhone, widely expected to be called the “iPhone Ultra” and anticipated to launch alongside the iPhone 18 Pro in September 2026.

Solarpunk Free Download (v1.0.0-299719) – WorldofPCGames

Posted on June 9, 2026 by faz_business

Solarpunk Direct Download:

Solarpunk is a survival game in a technically advanced world of floating islands. Alone or together with your friends, you can construct buildings, grow food, craft gadgets and hop on your airship to explore distant islands in the sky.

Build freely
Design your dream home base with a wide range of materials and decorations. You’re free to build cozy spaces, add tiny details, and make your island feel just like home.

Energy system
Generate electricity using wind and solar energy. Weather conditions affect how much energy you produce, so you’ll need to plan ahead. Store energy in batteries and use wireless power to keep your base running smoothly.

Multiplayer
Play solo or with friends. Everyone has their own inventory, and you can decide whether to build something together or create your own little corner in the sky. Bloobs Adventure Idle

Animals & Farming
In Solarpunk, you live in symbiosis with animals. There is no exploitation, only coexistence. Pigs, for example, will dig up truffles if treated well. Growing fruits and vegetables is your main source of food. Plant seeds in the ground and harvest them once they’re fully grown.

Automation
Automate your tasks using transport drones to gather resources, giving you more time to build and explore your skybound home.

Airship
Each player can build their own airship. Use it to travel to surrounding islands and discover new resources.

Features and System Requirements:

Eco-friendly survival crafting game set in a hopeful, sustainable future
Build homes, farms, and renewable energy systems powered by nature
Explore vibrant floating islands and beautiful natural environments
Gather resources, craft tools, and automate production with green technology
Cooperative multiplayer gameplay focused on creativity, community, and sustainability

Screenshots

System Requirements

Minimum
Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system
OS: Windows 10/11 64-bit
Processor: Intel Core i5-8400 / AMD Ryzen 5 2600
Memory: 6 GB RAM
Graphics: GeForce GTX 1660 6GB | RX 5500 XT 6GB
Storage: 5 GB available space
Support the game developers by purchasing the game on Steam

Installation Guide

Turn Off Your Antivirus Before Installing Any Game

1 :: Download Game
2 :: Extract Game
3 :: Launch The Game
4 :: Have Fun 🙂

Best 39 Websites to Hire CAD Vectorization Experts for Architectural Design and Manufacturing Firms

Posted on June 9, 2026 by faz_business

Today’s post features the best sites for hiring CAD vectorization experts for architectural design and manufacturing firms. Everything a sketch has can turn into something beautiful. One can imagine just how hard it could be to turn rough sketches into anything you want them to be. It feels surreal how in the world or architecture and manufacturing were able to deliver such perfect visualization and how they can show us meticulous and perfect drawings. These designs could be made into vectors.

Have you ever wondered how they can turn rough drafts to vectors? Well, it has to be drawn in different lines and curves, and even in numerous layers! We really don’t have any idea what a design went through until you see its drafts. Curious who the heroes are behind all of that? These designs are perfectly crafted by quality CAD services freelancers. They’re the ones doing the magic and letting your imaginations become clear. And you can find these magicians in none other than CAD Crowd, your great partner in discovering skilled CAD vectorization specialists.

1. Cad Crowd

There is a good reason why CAD Crowd is easily on top of the list of where you’d find CAD vectorization and Autocad specialists. CAD Crowd takes pride in its focus and specialization in being knowledgeable in CAD vectorization, architectural, and manufacturing design. In this way, they do not need that much of a briefing, and they can comprehensively read sketches and drawings, translating them precisely. What sets them apart from other platforms is that others are more general freelancers and offer kind of specific filtering since their pool is broad and wide.

You’d need to screen and check carefully if they’re qualified for the task. Checking out on CAD Crowd saves you a lot of time and effort and makes the hiring process even more convenient and efficient while ensuring that the CAD designers you’d find are skilled and professional enough for your project needs. This platform is ideal for brands and businesses who values accuracy, time and quality. It easily is one of the strongest, most reliable, and readily available choices for results-driven teams.

Website: Cadcrowd.com

2. WorkingNomads.com

WorkingNomads.com is a platform that offers a lot of services across different fields and specializations, including CAD-related job opportunities. This is good for anyone who wants to start their remote work journey since it has a wide range of opportunities, but compared to CAD Crowd, of course, their vectorization specialization is quite lacking and uncertain. From this, it is recommended to screen applicants first to ensure their qualifications for the role.

WorkingNomads.com is more of a general and flexible platform because of its nature of offering multiple disciplines, while CAD Crowd delivers services in a targeted audience, curated for businesses and brands seeking streamlined workflow, precise outputs, and reliable skills and experiences for architecture and design. CAD Crowd adds certainty that applicants has great professional experience suitable for modern applications today.

Website: Workingnomads.com

3. CADJobs.com

CADJobs.com is a listing platform specializing in CAD-related job opportunities. It helps clients, businesses, and brands find talents who understand technical designs and workflow, but that’s it. It just serves as a medium to connect businesses to talent. It leaves the communication and management to the businesses to cover and handle. CAD Crowd, on the other hand, is hands-on not only in finding the right CAD drafting talents but also in ensuring that quality is considered in the hiring process. It remains to be dependable and reliable in the whole process, giving confidence to businesses, clients, and brands that the talents or professionals they’d hire have passed qualifications and can meet expectations.

Website: Cadjobs.com

4. CADHero.co

CADHero.co appeals the most to small businesses since this platform offers quick access to designers for a wide range of project scopes. This is one way of acquiring an opportunity in the easiest and fastest way, but the quality is uncertain since it does not have that much of a structured workflow. The quality of work may be inconsistent and vary. CAD Crowd gives importance to accountability in technical depth and experiences, giving businesses and clients confidence that there is lesser risks in failing to comprehend complex projects and strengthening relationships for longer professional partnerships in the future. It remains reliable and dependable in taking in a wide range of technical services, without compromising quality.

Website: Cadhero.co

5. JobLeads

JobLeads is a general job searching platform that is not limited to CAD vectorization roles. It gives opportunities to a wide range of professional and executive roles and can be really helpful in finding talent, but it is best suited for businesses that explore a lot of talent disciplines. If you’re only focused on hiring for CAD vectorization, this platform may be too time-consuming to use since it’s more of a broad approach rather than specified. If you value time and quality in searching for talents, CAD Crowd delivers an even sharper alignment to your hiring needs, as it gives you a pool of CAD drafting firms that do not require further screening and are highly reliable in architectural and manufacturing fields. It’s appealing for businesses and brands that are results-driven and give importance to first-class expertise.

Website: Jobleads.com

6. TotalJobs

TotalJobs is quite popular for general hiring needs, having a great reach and a large scale of job listings. It is a worldwide platform that has a massive volume of job listings, but it is not specialized in CAD vectorization projects. There could be availability sometimes, but not certain since there are other demands for other disciplines as well. In this platform, employers are encouraged to take on independent screening and would have to communicate with applicants to further find out their suitability for the role. CAD Crowd has an edge when it comes to this part since it handles some critical steps that can delay the hiring process. In CAD Crowd, you’d be confident that it can expedite and conveniently handle the technical evaluation and screening for you.

Website: Totaljobs.com

7. CADAgency

CADAgency is more of an outsourcing platform rather than a marketplace. It focuses on and provides services relating to drafting needs throughout other industries. It caters to small businesses the most because of its direct outsourcing nature, giving freedom to communicate easily. While it is convenient to use, it still has limited roles to offer and slim chances of flexibility. In CAD Crowd, there is a lot to choose from while ensuring that the pool is carefully curated and suitable for architectural and manufacturing. From the simplest to the most complex projects, CAD Crowd is ready to take on the demands of innovative and flexible collaboration across industries.

Website: Cadagency.co.uk

8. AVACADCAM.com

AVACADCAM.com provides services focused on engineering and automation, and specializes in CAD, CAM, and BIM-related services. In terms of technical expertise, it has an edge and can be a great choice for a platform. But AVACADCAM.com is more of a vendor than a network since it has established services provided. CAD Crowd, on the other hand, curates matching CAD drawing talents based on your hiring and project needs. It is hands-on in taking into account what are your preferences and qualifications in finding a talent and giving suitable ones just for you. It provides efficient results and versatility. This makes it easier for businesses to rely on CAD Crowd as they can trust that their needs are heard.

Website: Avacadcam.com

9. VectorWorks

VectorWorks is actually not a hiring platform but a CAD and BIM software. It is known to be used globally by designers and architects, supporting various modelling and drafting designs worldwide. Since this is software, it is still necessary to find someone who can do the work. CAD Crowd does provide the resources who can deliver the tasks professionally and are readily available to execute the project efficiently and precisely. Sure, software is a great help for the design, but you’d need the right person to do the work, and CAD Crowd is the best and ideal partner for you to have the best pool of talents.

Website: Vectorworks.net

10. Rockerstop

Rockerstop is a freelancing platform and can offer technical and creative disciplines, but it is not well-known, so the reach is slimmer and narrower. Because of this, the listings are inconsistent and make the search quite challenging. It’s a lot more challenging to explore and time-consuming, and there are small chances of getting a talent that is suitable for your project needs. This is not an issue for CAD Crowd because it has established workflows that have mitigated the risks of inconsistency and uncertainties, giving confidence in precision and accountability that the experts are knowledgeable in the architectural and manufacturing expertise. It’s far from blind exploration, and emphasizes on focused searching.

Website: Rockerstop.com

11. Twine

Twine is a freelancing platform that offers a wide range of opportunities, not limited to CAD roles. It offers flexibility in hiring but it still falls under general hiring needs, which you’d still need to filter, assess and evaluate the pool to match your needs and preferences. This adds effort and time to do so, and CAD Crowd would be a great help to reduce that extra effort to find the right 3D design experts. In CAD Crowd, it is certain that the pool would be a great match for your needs. There is no need for extra work and effort, CAD Crowd will do that for you. It already has a set of professionals waiting to be part of your team. It remains reliable and dependable in delivering efficient workflow, ensuring precision and accountability are taken into consideration in acquiring talents for your project needs.

Website: Twine.net

12. FlexJobs

FlexJobs is a general remote platform and provides job listings not limited to CAD-related opportunities. In this platform, the employers and businesses will still need to assess and evaluate the candidates, which would take a lot of time and effort. CAD Crowd allows ease of mind for employers and businesses because it can manage connecting them with CAD specialists without all the hassle of screening and technical assessments. From this targeted expertise, it has delivered a match to your project needs and requirements. It is proven to be reliable in architecture and manufacturing technical demands. It gives confidence in being professionally excellent in delivering tasks.

Website: Flexjobs.com

13. Workcircle

Workcircle is a hiring platform for freelancers in quite a diverse range of industries. And since this is a general hiring platform, employers tend to filter and screen the talent, so they know if they’re suitable for the roles they need. They’d have to measure their capabilities on their own, and this could sometimes be time-consuming. CAD Crowd provides a convenient and seamless workflow in matching employers to experts, ensuring that the professionals can handle even the most complex deliverables. CAD Crowd remains an ideal choice for getting quality candidates and ensuring that they have undergone necessary screening and technical evaluation, making them globally ready for project execution.

Website: Workcircle.com

14. Vollna

Volina is more of a service provider rather than a freelance marketplace. Its focus is on outsourcing and IT services. It does offer engineering designers and services, but it is inconsistent and can be limited. Its flexibility can suit some businesses, but not all can adapt to it. CAD Crowd provides a structure suitable for businesses with targeted preferences. It takes pride in its transparent workflow and manages the whole verification process, giving ease to the employers. CAD Crowd’s adaptability to architectural and manufacturing projects is commendable and can be trusted, it has continued to thrive even in modern times and keeps expanding its knowledge and expertise throughout the times.

Website: Vollna.com

15. FreeUp

FreeUp has managed screening and assessing the freelancers across different roles, even technical ones. It speeds up the whole hiring process and is very convenient, especially if the employers do not have the luxury of doing the verification processes. While this is a great choice, their specialization in CAD vectorization is limited. It can be inconsistent sometimes. This is where Cad Crowd has an edge because, aside from having the feature of doing and managing the whole verification process, it has in-depth knowledge and experience in CAD vectorization. It provides reliable deliverables, especially in architectural and manufacturing projects. It remains reliable and dependable up to date, from the smallest scale to the largest scale at full confidence.

Website: Freeup.net

16. Scan2CAD

Scan2CAD is not a hiring platform, but a file conversion software used for vector solutions. Though this software is useful in CAD workflows, there is still a need for an expert to deliver the tasks. It needs a talent that can understand how it works, and CAD Crowd takes place in covering providing the right professional. Cad Crowd is a practical and ideal choice for employers seeking precision and a great match to technical expertise in CAD vectorization. In hiring dependable specialists, efficiency and seamless processes can be observed in CAD Crowd, making it a reliable and dependable platform. It gives the employers and businesses ease and confidence that deliverables will be done the right way.

Website: Scan2cad.com

17. Arc.dev

Arc.dev specializes more in services such as software engineering rather than CAD-related roles. These best appeal to CAD technical drawing professionals and can be ideal for remote developers. Although they’re acknowledged for being competent in technical skills, it is uncertain that they are reliable for CAD vectorization expertise. CAD Crowd is more aligned with CAD vectorization and provides a clearer path for it. Employers who require better matching to their project, specializing in CAD, would make the CAD crowd suitable for them. In CAD Crowd, better alignment with architectural and manufacturing is certain. It provides professional support to firms seeking precision, accuracy, and accountability in everyday technical deliverables.

Website: Arc.dev

18. SolidGigs

SolidGigs is not the traditional freelance marketplace but is actually a gig service; it sends curated listings that align with your preferences. The catch is that it is subscription-based, which means there is a flat monthly fee. It’s best suited for a steady stream of opportunities, but it lacks specialization in screening so if you’re hiring, you’d be the one responsible for the screening processes. Cad Crowd provides project support efficiently by leading a platform that is curated and aligned in CAD roles and handles the verification processes, making it suitable for busy employers and businesses who value time and precision. It is a structured hiring platform that has reliable professional expertise and collaboration throughout architecture and manufacturing industries.

Website: Solidgigs.com

19. Workana

Workana is kind of a big freelancing site or platform wherein freelancers and clients connect. This is a global platform but has a strong presence in Latin America. They offer a lot of services and can also offer CAD design, but the quality of work is not guaranteed and depends on the freelancer. Employers will have to go through a series of verifications to determine if the candidate has strong qualifications to fit the role. This is not the case for CAD Crowd since it already has pre-screened its candidates, so you are sure that they’re qualified already for the role. CAD Crowd delivers consistently accurate technical expertise and keeps thriving even in advanced standards and expectations in today’s times.

Website: Workana.com

20. ZipRecruiter

ZipRecruiter is quite a large remote job board that aligns employers with 3D design freelancers. It has a wide reach and uses AI-powered matching technology, but its specialization to CAD vectorization roles is limited. The employers and businesses don’t always receive precise matches, so they need to be screened. While in the CAD crowd, it has a more definite, focused approach that aligns employers and businesses with the right matches based on their project needs. If accuracy and technical expertise are your priority, the suited platform for you is CAD crowd since it has a more efficient and effective solution in drawing out of the pool the right expert for you. It has notably thrived globally, adding value to the project with results-driven outcomes.

Website: Ziprecruiter.ie

21. Jooble

Jooble is more of a job search platform and functions by pulling from sources to one interface. It offers a wide range of reach and provides a lot of opportunities across different disciplines, but its specialization is limited. Further screening and evaluation independently is required to establish confidence. With this, businesses will have to take time in evaluating the applicants and it may be a lot more hassle and inconvenient. CAD Crowd, on the other hand, has a more systematic and seamless approach since it connects directly to screened professionals and perfectly matches the project needs.

With this, CAD Crowd reduces the risk of consuming time and effort and improves workflow. CAD Crowd showcases and emphasizes accountability and reliable services, especially in CAD-related roles. It provides quality outcomes for the architectural and manufacturing industries. CAD Crowd remains a more efficient option in focused collaboration throughout the demands worldwide.

Website: Jooble.org

22. LinkedIn

Linkedin remains a strong professional networking platform and offers great reach throughout multiple industries. It has given a lot of helpful support in connecting 3D artist talents to brands and businesses. It has deliberately helped in making teams grow globally. Despite the reach and numerous opportunities, it still required a great deal of technical assessment and evaluation. This is not an issue for CAD Crowd since it helps a lot of businesses to grow and expand without all the time-consuming screening and assessments. It focuses more on execution and seeking reliable deliverables. Specialized CAD-related roles are the focus of this platform and offer a lot of great opportunities to connect talents to business seamlessly.

Website: Linkedin.com

23. FlatworldSolutions

FlatworldSolutions actually functions like a service vendor, offering solutions across design, engineering and business functions and disciplines. It has outsourced services and provides a high reach. It connects businesses to talent, giving the team their expansion needs, whether small or large scale. CAD Crowd is more of an adaptive platform that takes pride in having curated and aligned matches of talents to project needs and requirements. Its transparency and accuracy in the processes have been its unique trait while delivering quality results globally. Its alignment and connection to businesses and talents remain consistent and focused on CAD-related roles. It has offered screening and evaluation that greatly helps businesses save a lot of time.

Website: Flatworldsolutions.com

24. Insolvo

Insolvo is a remote freelancing platform that appeals more to beginners who want to take on tasks easily. Payments can be done after completing the tasks, but CAD drawing freelancers have to pay for subscriptions first. The experience in this platform is inconsistent and does not always have good outcomes. While CAD Crowd is a specialized workplace emphasizing roles in CAD design. It has handled even the most complex projects while still ensuring quality is achieved. It is best for technical and long-term projects. CAD Crowd appeals the most to businesses requiring professional technical skills. It had offered screening and evaluation all throughout and competitively thrived in the global market, making it an ideal and preferred option.

Website: Insolvo.com

25. SimplyHired

SimplyHired is more of a job search engine that offers general listings from across multiple industries. It ranges from contract work to part-time and even full-time roles. It can also sometimes redirect jobs to the companies’ sites directly. It’s free and easy to use and covers more general roles. It could offer CAD vectorization, but listings for it could be limited and slim. There are no screenings on this platform, so the job quality is not consistent. Cad Crowd is the best fit for professional functions and purposes. It provides certain management tools and tailors job listings according to project needs and requirements. It assures quality is valued and deliberately supported projects.

Website: Simplyhired.com

26. Guru.com

Guru.com is a general freelancing platform and is more broad and wider reach and range. It shows basic profiles and feedback. It utilizes standard workflow and is mostly best suited for general hiring. This platform is general and flexible, but it’s not optimized for a certain niche or specialization. While CAD Crow, it has in-depth alignment to technical design and CAD roles and provides assistance and support that goes about and beyond globally. CAD Crowd is suited for businesses and brands that value quality deliverables and efficient workflows. In CAD Crowd, it is ensured that the talents are screened and can pass any technical difficulty of projects. It is best for precise technical and engineering design disciplines.

Website: Guru.com

27. SEEK

SEEK is a large international marketplace. It supports a lot of hiring needs across multiple industries. It connects freelancers to businesses and brands. Employers can post job listings and architectural drafting freelancers can take on the job. This is an easy reach for freelancers since they can easily and directly apply to job listings. Cad Crowd has a targeted niche and supports businesses in terms of their expansions and hiring needs. It has streamlined and structured the workflow and processes to reduce time and effort in screening and evaluating candidates. This ensures that the talents can deliver the work confidently, from small to complex projects. It ensures alignment and that smooth technical comprehension is delivered.

Website: Seek.com.au

28. Indeed.com

Indeed.com is considered to be one of the largest hiring platforms internationally and has a great range of opportunities and assists with the volume of listings and freelancers waiting to be bridged. But due to its general services, it lacks a specialized niche. If an employer is in need of technical and CAD vectorization, CAD Crowd can easily help and support it, as it can lessen time and effort in screening and evaluating the talent experts. It has ensured that the talent experts in line and in the pool are of great comprehensive skills in technical design, applicable to the architectural and manufacturing industries. It is established to cater to even advanced resolutions to complex projects, ensuring accountability and precision are present throughout project execution.

Website: Indeed.com

29. X-Pro CAD Consulting

X-Pro CAD Consulting is targeted for end-to-end design and consulting solutions. It can cater drafting, 3D modeling and other engineering support and prototyping. It values precision in all technical competencies and has a strong expertise in design. Even with their level of technical excellence, it still have limited talent selection. CAD Crowd has more to offer by having a broader and wider pool of talents and experts. This allows flexibility in selection and matching, curated for specific project needs. Companies specializing in architectural and manufacturing industries will lean more to CAD Crowd since It provide just what it needs, while being confident that the talents are skilled for the roles given.

Website: X-procad.com

30. Kolabtree

Kolabtree is a global network of AutoCAD drafting & design experts that involves research outputs. It focuses more on experimental design and literature reviews rather than freelancing work. Its technical expertise is limited and may be lacking, especially for CAD related niche. Brands and businesses may take a lot of time and effort to search and filter the pool according to their project needs.

CAD Crowd has a clear alignment to CAD vectorization and gives certainty to matching with precision. The pool is curated and tailored to produce results-driven deliverables. It ensures that collaboration and execution will be handled smoothly and seamlessly. It remains reliable and dependable in terms of its project oversight and technical expertise in the architectural and manufacturing fields.

Website: Kolabtree.com

31. Contra.com

Contra.com is more of a professional network and is considered an all-in-one platform. It appeals to freelancing professionals the most, giving them direct access to clients. It takes pride in being a commission-free platform and helps freelancers the most to be discovered through their portfolios and profiles. CAD Crowd covers specialization in design and CAD related niche. It emphasizes precise alignment and connection curated for project needs. CAD Crowd offers in-depth knowledge and expertise in technical design engineering services. It supports structured collaboration across professional disciplines worldwide. It has ensured that the experts in the pool are screened and evaluated. It has dependable and reliable deliverables.

Website: Contra.com

32. Glassdoor

Glassdoor is actually popular for its feedback to companies, salary, and even workload and environment. It supports the image and branding of businesses and employers due to its reviews feature. It serves as a reliable source when needing insights. Although there are opportunities posted here, listings related to CAD may be limited. It does not fully specialize in the technical design niche. Cad Crowd, on the other hand, is a focused platform that’s more specialized in CAD Vectorization and other design roles. It emphasizes collaboration and execution. It allows businesses and brands to have a clear alignment and can benefit from quality deliverables. It has defined technical comprehension and thrived up to modern times.

Website: Glassdoor.com

33. PeoplePerHour

PeoplePerHour is a remote marketplace that services international talents and experts throughout and across different fields and industries. CAD could be included, but it’s not guaranteed. It does allow flexibility in work and pricing options, but the quality of deliverables may be varying in every freelancer. Technical assessments and evaluations are recommended to be conducted to ensure they are qualified for the role. From this, businesses will invest a lot of time and effort to reduce the risks of finding freelancers who do not match their needs.

With CAD Crowd, this risk is mitigated since it has already screened its experts and surely matches CAD-related roles. Cad Crowd improves and enhances the consistency and quality of the work and promotes efficiency in the professional handling of projects. It makes use of detailed and streamlined workflows and standards, and takes pride in accountability across the architectural and manufacturing industries.

Website: Peopleperhour.com

34. Toptal

Toptal is considered to have a meticulous hiring process with its screening. It is known to be an elite talent pool. Although this is the case, its specialization in CAD vectorization is limited and may be inconsistent. CAD Crowd has more edge since it’s focused on CAD vectorization and offers a more cost-effective approach, since it saves businesses a lot of time to look for a qualified drafting and design candidate who can fully understand the technical details and workflow of the project. It has ensured that its precision and alignment remain reliable and dependable across the global market today.

Website: Toptal.com

35. Unicorn Factory

Unicorn Factory runs on a pay-for-lead credit system and handles its own pricing and contracts. It is a freelance marketplace that appeals most to startups and creative technical talents. Its emphasis is more on innovation and flexibility. Clients would have to conduct screening and evaluation to ensure quality and alignment with project needs. CAD Crowd is a more simplified approach by ascertaining that the talent experts are screened and assessed, they provide better matching to project needs, handle project oversight, and remain dependable in results-driven output. CAD Crowd takes pride in being a cost-efficient approach and appeals to businesses who value time and money, without compromising quality.

Website: Unicornfactory.nz

36. Truelancer

Truelancer is a general hiring platform and marketplace that offers different services across multiple disciplines, which includes CAD design. It offers a wider reach and access, and this leads to inconsistent quality. Clients and freelancers are connected and matched in this platform, but there is no guarantee that the matched 3D CAD design freelancer fits the role perfectly. Clients would have to take time to screen and process the whole thing, so it aligns with them. CAD Crowd would be a greater fit and suitable for businesses that value time and effort. It prioritizes accurate outcomes and leads professional collaboration. Cad Crowd is a more reliable and sensible solution and approach for supporting complex design projects and provides deliverables that align with industry standards.

Website: Truelancer.com

37. Freelancer.com

Freelancer.com offers a great and broad reach across different fields throughout multiple industries and fields. It is considered one of the largest freelance platforms, and one of its processes is posting and receiving bids. Doing this doesn’t equate to consistent quality, as it varies in every freelancer’s skill. Employers would have to filter the bids, and that would take time and effort to do so. CAD Crowd addresses this problem by having a screened and filtered pool, ensuring consistency and alignment to project needs and requirements. It gives confidence in technical design expertise and is a more efficient approach. It can handle project oversight and streamline workflows.

Website: Freelancer.com

38. Fiverr

Fiverr is an international remote freelancing marketplace where there is an involved buying and selling of services. It runs on gigs across different fields and industries. CAD vectorization is somehow limited, though, and may require further screening and technical assessments to ensure quality. CAD Crowd can be a great option to strengthen technical confidence and ensure accuracy in deliverables. Yes, Fiverr is a lot more affordable and quicker to deliver, but CAD Crowd is focused on precision and quality. For businesses and brands that are more articulate and detailed and require in-depth technical comprehension, CAD crowd is a great solution.

Website: Fiverr.com

39. Upwork

Almost everyone knows how Upwork leads a global hiring marketplace in its variety of job listings and 2D & 3D designers. It has a filter feature to ease screening, but it leaves the assessment and screening to clients. Employers would have to take time to review and assess the talents to be sure they are suitable for the tasks. CAD vectorization may not always be present and offered, and CAD Crowd is a great option to resolve that issue. CAD Crowd is a specialized platform that focuses primarily on CAD design and roles, not limited to vectorization. It offers quality and precision in its outputs and has ensured that transparency and accountability are valued the most. It remains reliable in delivering quality professional solutions constantly across the world today.

Website: Upwork.com

The bottom line

Accuracy is one of the prides of design architects. They deliver tasks in a manner that can fully translate the technical drawings into an accurate model. Finding the right expert to handle the work shouldn’t feel like a long, exhausting process. It is much more cost-effective and efficient to hire an expert to mitigate the risks of having an amateur handle the work, especially when the project is complex and large-scale.

How Cad Crowd can help

Choosing the right software and expert shouldn’t really be that tiresome and hard. There is actually one platform that simplifies your needs and offers all that in one, allowing you to save time, effort and even funds! It is a trusted site that has an established pool of experts, with in-depth knowledge of technical comprehension. Find your next CAD vectorization at CAD Crowd and achieve a production-ready output now. Contact us for a quote.

MacKenzie Brown is the founder and CEO of Cad Crowd. With over 18 years of experience in launching and scaling platforms specializing in CAD services, product design, manufacturing, hardware, and software development, MacKenzie is a recognized authority in the engineering industry. Under his leadership, Cad Crowd serves esteemed clients like NASA, JPL, the U.S. Navy, and Fortune 500 companies, empowering innovators with access to high-quality design and engineering talent.

Connect with me: LinkedIn ✦ X ✦ Cad Crowd

How the UK Is Turning Sovereign AI Ambition Into Action With NVIDIA Technologies

Posted on June 9, 2026 by faz_business

A year ago at London Tech Week, NVIDIA founder and CEO Jensen Huang and U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer made a declaration: the U.K. would be an AI maker, not an AI taker.

At this year’s event, NVIDIA and its partners are showcasing how that commitment is producing real momentum across the nation’s infrastructure, startups and enterprises.

U.K. technology leaders are innovating across healthcare and life sciences, coding, agentic AI, inference and more — all running on sovereign AI deployments.

AI Minister Kanishka Narayan said: “A year ago, we said the UK would be an AI maker, not an AI taker. Today we’re delivering on that — with sovereign compute powering British startups to push the boundaries of what AI can do, from drug discovery to healthcare to robotics. This is what it looks like when a country backs its own talent with the infrastructure to match.

“NVIDIA’s decision to invest billions here is a reflection of the strength of what’s being built in Britain. We are determined to make sure the next generation of AI breakthroughs happens in this country, and we have everything we need to make it happen.”

Commitment to Compute

Over the past year, the number of AI cloud providers planning to deploy AI infrastructure on U.K. soil has doubled.

Nebius has announced plans to expand customers and cloud capabilities with three new deployments of advanced NVIDIA AI infrastructure, as the NVIDIA AI Cloud ecosystem partner continues to build out its commercial and AI R&D hub in London. Combined, the deployments are expected to reach 65 megawatts when fully ramped up in 2027.

CoreWeave is building in the U.K. Government’s AI Growth Zones, and seven more NVIDIA AI Cloud ecosystem partners have plans in the pipeline. BT and Nscale announced plans to build sovereign AI data centers across three existing BT sites in the U.K., combining NVIDIA AI infrastructure, Nscale’s full stack and BT’s trusted nationwide connectivity backbone.

From Fund to Frontier

Central to that sovereign compute story is Isambard-AI — the U.K.’s most powerful computer. Built on 5,400 NVIDIA GH200 Grace Hopper Superchips and running entirely on zero-carbon electricity, it’s the engine behind some of the U.K.’s most ambitious AI research.

The U.K. government’s Sovereign AI Fund is putting that capability to work by backing homegrown companies and providing the domestic infrastructure needed to scale their ambitions.

Among its first recipients is Ineffable Intelligence, which recently announced a collaboration with NVIDIA to build the future of reinforcement learning infrastructure.

Other recipients include four U.K.-based NVIDIA Inception startups, each pushing the AI frontier using Isambard-AI. These startups are:

Cosine Builds Sovereign Coding Platform

Cosine is building an end-to-end sovereign AI coding platform for highly regulated industries such as financial services, critical infrastructure and national security. Using Isambard, Cosine is training a new, large-parameter, mixture-of-experts, multimodal agentic LLM for natively handling data types beyond text and image.

“Access to Isambard enables the project, full stop,” said Alistair Pullen, cofounder and CEO of Cosine. “We already have the people who know how to do this. We have the data. We have the infrastructure and the training. The thing we’ve never had is this level of compute.”

Cursive Trains Self-Improving AI Systems

Cursive is building self-improving AI systems that learn continuously from real-world data, enabling them to operate autonomously over long periods of time. This is unlocked through new memory-augmented architectures with dramatically larger context windows, currently in development using the Sovereign AI Fund resources. In addition, the team recently adopted the NVIDIA Megatron-LM framework for distributed training at scale.

“The Sovereign AI Fund is more than just processing power — it’s a statement about investing in AI in the U.K.,” said Talfan Evans, cofounder and CEO of Cursive. “Sovereignty is actually now a buying criterion — and it’s a challenge to tap into the resources we uniquely have as U.K. and European companies.”

Doubleword Optimizes Inference to Deliver Abundant Intelligence Tokens

Doubleword, the U.K.’s first dedicated inference lab, optimizes every layer of the AI stack to maximize what it calls “IQ per dollar.” The company deploys open models including NVIDIA Nemotron 3 Super 120B and builds on the NVIDIA Dynamo inference framework.

On Isambard, Doubleword’s early results achieved 70x faster model cold starts — aka model loading times — and 4x lossless KV cache compression, critical advancements for long-running agentic workloads. The result: inference at 90-95% lower costs than other leading inference providers.

“Sovereign AI is most impactful at the inference layer,” said Meryem Arik, cofounder and CEO of Doubleword. “Inference is when you’re actually getting the value from the model — we want that value created in the U.K., with U.K. compute and U.K. data centers.”

Prima Mente Uses Foundation Models to Study Alzheimer’s and More

Prima Mente builds biological foundation models to identify new biomarkers, subtypes and drug targets of Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and ALS. With its Isambard allocation, the company is developing Pleiades 2, a foundation model combining five biological data modalities.

Achieving nearly 3x speedups in model training with NVIDIA Blackwell GPUs, Prima Mente also uses NVIDIA Parabricks for genomic data processing and NVIDIA Transformer Engine for model optimization.

“Research shows Alzheimer’s might be 25 different subgroups of disease, and we want to help by using AI to identify these subtypes and the biology within the cells as they change,” said Hannah Madan, cofounder of Prima Mente.

Video courtesy of Nebius and Prima Mente.

AI Talent, Policy and Production

NVIDIA’s £2 billion investment in the U.K. startup ecosystem — in collaboration with leading venture capital firms — is bringing new capital and advanced AI infrastructure to major U.K. hubs including London, Oxford, Cambridge and Manchester.

U.K. membership in the NVIDIA Inception program has increased by 50% over the past year. AI-native companies like Doubleword, Synthesia and PolyAI are scaling globally from U.K. roots.

At last year’s London Tech Week, NVIDIA announced a collaboration with the U.K Department for Science, Innovation and Technology on 6G and AI skills. The 6G collaboration has seeded testbeds at four U.K. universities. In May, the NVIDIA Deep Learning Institute (DLI) delivered two new courses — added to support the nation’s wireless research community — to participants from over 30 U.K. universities.

Plus, as part of this AI skills collaboration, NVIDIA DLI courses are offered as part of QA’s AI Apprenticeships in England.

And the NVIDIA Developer Program now includes more than 200,000 U.K. developers.

The Sovereign AI Forum, which launched last year with seven charter members, convened the country’s AI leadership to turn policy into deployment roadmaps. Over the past year, the Forum has welcomed dozens of participants across government, industry and the startup community — turning policy into deployment roadmaps.

And enterprise AI is moving from pilot to production:

Apian is building digital twins of two National Health Service hospitals, combining autonomous devices, ground robots, computer vision and robotic simulation.
Deliverance AI is helping regulated enterprises to run, govern and scale AI agents inside their own environment — through a single control plane. The Agentic Operating System is built for organizations where data sovereignty is non-negotiable.
Glass Futures has installed an AI-driven digital twin of its glass furnace capable of testing and predicting new, optimal ways to make glass. The digital twin taps into NVIDIA accelerated computing and the NVIDIA PhysicsNeMo framework.
Orbital Industries has announced codesigned, NVIDIA Vera Rubin DSX AI Factory-compliant AI infrastructure that accelerates time to first token.
Reading Football Club is partnering with Stelia to establish an AI Centre of Excellence, combining Stelia’s full-stack AI platform with accelerated compute infrastructure from NVIDIA and Lenovo.

It all reflects momentous progress in U.K. AI leadership — and offers a glimpse of where it’s heading.

Join NVIDIA at London Tech Week.

New AI Approach for Public Schools: Improving Student Outcomes

Posted on June 9, 2026 by faz_business

Most conversations about AI in public education stop at teacher tools lesson planners, rubric generators, email helpers. The bigger question is what AI can do for students: differentiating instruction, personalizing pathways, and measurably improving outcomes.

Join TrekAi leadership for a 45-minute thought leadership session built for public school and district leaders. We’ll explore what becomes possible when AI moves from helping teachers work faster to helping every student learn deeper and we’ll demo the AI doing it.

You’ll see a new class of education AI in action: Predictive, Dynamic, and Self-Guided. Going far beyond the large language models most of us have grown accustomed to.
We’re also looking forward to seeing many of you at ISTE the following week (June 28–July 1, Orlando). Reach out to connect before then, or stop by the TrekAi booth to keep the conversation going in person.

KEY VALUE PROPS:

Designed to work alongside the systems your district already has in place
AI engineered to measurably improve student outcomes — not just teacher productivity
Predictive, Dynamic, and Self-Guided technology that goes far beyond LLMs
Live demo from TrekAi leadership of the most current platform capabilities

For the 2nd time in weeks, Microsoft packages laced with credential stealer

Posted on June 9, 2026 by faz_business

Dozens of cryptographically verified open source packages from Microsoft were compromised late last week to add advanced credential-stealing code that was triggered when developers opened them in AI coding agents.

In all, multiple researchers said, 73 packages were flagged as malicious when automated systems on GitHub blocked them on the platform. Rather than noting they are malicious—and that developers who used AI agents to work with them should assume their systems are compromised—the Microsoft-owned GitHub said it disabled the packages “due to a violation of GitHub’s terms of service.” The text went on to encourage the package owner to contact GitHub.

Devs: Assume compromise and proceed accordingly

It wasn’t until Monday that Microsoft even raised the possibility the packages were infected. In an email, the company stated: “We have temporarily removed some repositories as we investigate potential malicious content.”

The incident is the second supply-chain attack in as many months to breach an official Microsoft repository account. In mid May, the firm StepSecurity documented the compromise of Microsoft’s durabletask Python SDK on PyPI. The package is a framework for building fault-tolerant workflows and orchestrations to automate distributed transactions and other workflows. It receives 400,000 downloads per month.

The compromise packages executed a 28 KB payload that steals credentials from AWS, Azure, GCP, Kubernetes, password managers, and over 90 developer tool configurations. It then spreads laterally through cloud infrastructures to infect other developer machines. The attack, which has been linked to a threat actor tracked as TeamPCP, poisoned the durabletask package after compromising Microsoft credentials for publishing the package. The technique allows attackers to bypass the repository’s build pipeline entirely.

The malware used in the attack is tracked as Miasma. It’s essentially a clone of TeamPCP’s Mini Shai-Hulud toolkit, which the threat actor open-sourced recently. Security firm Cloudsmith said the malware harvests OIDC (OpenID-Connect) token credentials that are used in SLSA (Supply-chain Levels for Software Artifacts) provenance attestation, a method for providing cryptographically signed guarantees of a software’s integrity.

As was the case in the May compromise of Microsoft’s durabletask, the one last week made use of the functionality to steal a legitimate Microsoft OIDC token. It was also used in a separate supply-chain attack poisoning dozens of Red Hat packages.

Before Obsession, Inde Navarrette was streaming her Call of Duty killstreaks with the type of unbothered grace I can only dream of

Posted on June 9, 2026 by faz_business

I’ve spent the past several weekends swearing I would make time to watch Obsession, but that day has yet to come. I’ve read the rave reviews, seen the YouTube essays in passing, and heard about its many box office records. All of that is cool and all, but I keep kicking the can further down the road.

You know what would have resolved this earlier, though? Someone stopping to tell me that Obsession’s Inde Navarrette was a painfully likeable Twitch goblin before all the fame. Actually, someone finally did—shout out to PC Gamer’s Tim Clark for that—but a VOD of her rampaging through The Last of Us gave me the push I needed.

It’s true, before she was the star of a box office horror hit, Navarrette was streaming her Call of Duty killstreaks unbothered in a Toad hat with the type of chill and unclenched jaw I aspire to have. In an interview with GQ, the Obsession star explained she started the hobby like a lot of us, influenced by an older sibling or relative. In the case of Navarrette, it was her older brother and mom: