Rayna Reid Rayford is aware that her maternal health experience was far from an anomaly. Rayford, a lawyer and strategic communicator, had a challenging start to parenthood. Early on, when she met her now husband, they had conversations about children and agreed they wanted just one. When they embarked on that journey, it was hard for Rayford to conceive, and she experienced two consecutive miscarriages within a couple of months. The second miscarriage was so painful that she went to the emergency room. “We started to meet with fertility doctors and I started to think, ‘Is something wrong with me?’ You really start to internalize a lot. And then it was at that juncture that we actually found out we were pregnant for the third time in the calendar year,” Rayford told AFROTECH™. This was in December 2023. She is grateful to have “survived” pregnancy. She worked with a doula after the first trimester because it was important to her to have a comprehensive 360-degree support system,...

An affordable housing project supported by NBA great Allen Iverson in Newport News, VA, is moving forward. Iverson Landing 13 News reports that Iverson teamed up with developer Alvin Keels Jr. on the project named Iverson Landing, which is geared toward working families and part of an overall effort to increase housing options in the Hampton Roads region of Virginia. Newport News Mayor Phillip Jones has also been vocal about affordable housing options with a goal of opening 21,000 affordable housing units by 2050, and he intends to reach it by working with emerging developers “who will shape the future of our communities,” he said in a Facebook post. This puts Iverson and Keels’ project squarely in line with a broader agenda to invest in affordable housing. The Iverson Landing will be based in Newport News, Iverson’s hometown, which he credits with shaping the person he is today — an NBA legend, Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Famer, tech investor, and vice president of Reebok...

These two Black women leading autonomous vehicle companies are leaders to watch out for in 2026, according to Forbes. Aicha Evans Aicha Evans, who has led Zoox as CEO since 2019, oversaw a major industry milestone when Amazon acquired the self-driving auto startup in 2020 for about $1.2 billion, as AFROTECH™ previously reported. The acquisition aimed to advance ride-hailing while keeping Zoox as a standalone business under Amazon. Evans said the deal “solidifies Zoox’s impact on the industry” and expands opportunities to develop fully driverless vehicles. Before joining Zoox, Evans spent more than a decade at Intel in senior engineering and strategy roles, bringing extensive tech and operational experience to her leadership at the startup. In an interview with Bloomberg, Evans discussed the recent launch of Zoox’s self-driving shuttles in Las Vegas, calling it “more than a decade in the making.” “We finally launched it essentially to the public, which is really nice,” she said. “If...

The Weeknd has closed an unconventional catalog deal. AFROTECH™ has reported various master’s and publishing deals over the years, which include Nelly, Hit-Boy, Wiz Khalifa, and T-Pain, who all secured deals with Black woman-owned HarbourView Equity Partners. The Weeknd — also known as Abel Tesfaye — appears to be the next artist in line to secure a deal tied to his catalog. Variety reports the “Wake Me Up” artist has finalized a deal with Lyric Capital Group, an investment firm focused on music royalties, to invest in his master’s and publishing catalog through 2025, while he and his team maintain creative control and continue as shareholders and owners. Additionally, half of the artist’s publishing rights were owned by Chord Music Partners. The exact value of the deal was not disclosed . The deal is said to be a “first-of-its-kind,” per Variety. The Weeknd was not interested in the sale of his catalog, which opened doors to an agreement that allows him and his team to maintain...

Is T-Pain taking over Twitch? The “I’m Sprung” artist currently has 1.1 million followers on the platform. While speaking on “Club Shay Shay,” he shared that he’s using Twitch to take fans behind the scenes on how he develops his music, starting with the first beat, leading up to the release of a song, which can sometimes be done in the span of a week. He says most of his studio workflow is a solo grind, with his wife and children occasionally joining him to help write a few bars. “I’m making all my music on Twitch,” he said on the podcast. “Every single that I release, everything that happens right now, you can clock it from me making the first sound to putting it out. Like all the way from me making the first sound of the beat, making the whole beat, recording the vocals, and then putting it out. I can show you the entire process on Twitch. It’s been not only a liberating thing for me, but it’s turned into an eyeopener to the viewers, for other artists,” he added. And he’s not the...

Dr. Carlotta A. Berry’s journey with engineering is anything but ordinary. From her early days at Spelman College to her current role as a professor of electrical and computer engineering at Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology, Berry has consistently challenged the norms of STEM education. Alongside her work in mobile robotics and human-robot interaction, she is a mentor, author, and advocate dedicated to diversifying technology and empowering historically marginalized communities. Early Roots Berry’s STEM foundation began at Spelman College, where she earned a mathematics degree in 1992, then continued at Georgia Institute of Technology ( Georgia Tech ), earning a bachelor’s in electrical engineering through a dual-degree program in 1993, according to her LinkedIn. She went on to earn a Ph.D. in electrical and computer engineering at Vanderbilt University in 2003, focusing on human-robot interfaces for mobile robots. “Going from Spelman to Georgia Tech was like night and day. I...

Isaiah Chavous isn’t anti-AI, but he is on a mission to protect what makes art human. Chavous’s stance is reflected in his footprint as a founder, which marries his passion for music. His mother, a single parent, introduced him to soulful music as a child, but he would take it to new heights by becoming a musician, something uncommon in his family. At age 13, he was making and recording his own music. He described himself as becoming a “bit of a geek” in the band from sixth grade through high school, when he solidified his passion for music, leading him to create a brand called Wifi Kids. “I used it as a vessel to be creative, not only to make music and put out music, but to host events and make merchandise and get into fashion,” Chavous told AFROTECH™. He continued, “It also correlated to my first introduction to technical products — building websites, designing things, becoming efficient in Adobe Photoshop and Premiere. And I remember having a cracked version of all of the...

Beats Academy is providing students with real industry experience alongside notable athletes such as Olympic gymnast Jordan Chiles. Founded in 2023, Beats Academy, based in Los Angeles, is a program affiliated with audio brand Beats by Dr. Dre. The organization was born out of a need for college students in creative fields to secure roles after earning their degrees. Beats’ Head of Social Impact, Alexis Johnson, told AFROTECH™ that students were surveyed about their experiences in other programs. The consensus was that you can have multiple internships under your belt, but without tangible works or writing samples to show to an employer, that experience becomes less impactful. Who Can Apply? From its inception, Beats Academy has been committed to providing students enrolled in two- or four-year degree programs (including students in graduate and technical schools) with hands-on experience to work on a campaign with a Beats ambassador. Students can network with top creative marketing...

Instagram users can have more control over their algorithm. According to ABC News, the social media company announced a new feature, Your Algorithm. Using AI, it will generate a summary of users’ interests by analyzing their activity. Tessa Lyons, vice president of product at Instagram, told “Good Morning America.” “If we get it wrong, you can remove those interests from your algorithm,” she said in the interview. The feature can be accessed by navigating to the Reels tab, where users will find an icon shaped like two lines with a heart. They will be presented with a dashboard that shows their interests and can select what they would like to view more or less of, per ABC News. “Being able to tell us that directly so that we can take action in real time, I think, will improve their Instagram experience,” Lyons said on “Good Morning America.” “This is one way for you to give us feedback on what you’re seeing on reels that can influence the reels you’re seeing going forward. And I...

President Donald Trump is placing guardrails around AI’s influence across states. He has signed an executive order that will introduce a “single national framework” for AI, according to CNN. This will also limit the states from placing their own regulations on the technology. The executive order states, “to win, United States AI companies must be free to innovate without cumbersome regulation. But excessive State regulation thwarts this imperative,” CNBC reports. This comes at a time when tech leaders, including OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, have been adamant that state regulations would limit the nation’s AI race against China and slow progress altogether, per CNN. “This is an executive order that orders aspects of your administration to take decisive action to ensure that AI can operate within a single national framework in this country, as opposed to being subject to state-level regulation that could potentially cripple the industry,” White House aide Will Scharf said of the executive...

Fintech platform Esusu has raised new funding to help improve financial outcomes for Americans. The company was founded in 2018 by Wemimo Abbey and Samir Goel (co-CEOs) to help people boost their credit scores. Its inspiration came from their own struggles because both grew up in immigrant families with limited financial resources. “When we came here, we didn’t have a credit score. We went to one of the biggest financial institutions to borrow money; we were turned away and had to go borrow from a predatory lender who wanted to lend at over 400% interest rate,” Abbey told CNBC, referring to his family’s experience. This inspired Esusu’s mission to help ensure race, background, or zip code is not a barrier to economic mobility. Its platform can report on-time rent payments to credit bureaus such as TransUnion, Equifax, and Experian, its website mentions. Esusu states that when more renters see their scores increase, they are more likely to remain on top of monthly payments, renew...

Every year, YouTube releases its list of top creators and offers a cultural snapshot of what captured our attention. It reflects who shaped the jokes we repeated, the challenges we tried, the music we streamed, and the digital worlds we escaped into. The 2025 list does all of that, but it also exposes a clear reality. Out of the 10 most influential creators of the entire year, only two Black creators appear: IShowSpeed and CoryxKenshin. In a landscape powered by massive digital audiences, global fandoms, and billion-view moments, their inclusion carries weight. The absence of more Black peers also raises important questions. However, their rise demonstrates what Black creators continue to accomplish, even within an industry that often overlooks their contributions. View this post on Instagram What The 2025 Top Creators List Reveals About YouTube According to YouTube’s official 2025 Trending report, the platform has entered a new moment in which creators shape pop culture in real...

A newly founded AI startup is making waves in the tech world with one of the largest seed rounds in recent memory. According to Bloomberg, Unconventional AI, launched just two months ago by former Databricks AI lead Naveen Rao, secured $475 million in seed funding at a $4.5 billion valuation to develop a new generation of energy-efficient computers designed specifically for artificial intelligence. The funding round was co-led by Andreessen Horowitz and Lightspeed Venture Partners, with participation from Lux Capital, DCVC, Databricks, and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, per Bloomberg. Rao also invested $10 million of his own funds on the same terms as other investors. The company is exploring a larger funding goal of up to $1 billion, according to TechCrunch. Bloomberg notes that Unconventional AI draws inspiration from biology, where living systems must operate within strict energy limits yet achieve high efficiency. Rao highlighted the human brain as an example, noting it can perform...

Avante Price and Eli Taylor-Lemire are finding great success with their live events platform, POSH. The pair were students at New York University (NYU) and met while working at events. Price was a DJ, and Taylor-Lemire was a photographer. During an interview with Forbes, Price shared that the pair initially worked with other event brands geared towards college students, who he claims were missing the mark. POSH The founders believed they could create a solution that would provide a better overall event experience for students and organizers, which led to the formation of the live events platform POSH. Though the platform was initially built in 2019 as a software product to benefit the pair directly, it launched to the public in 2023 along with a mobile app. “POSH at the onset was just an IRL events company for NYU and Columbia kids to have a posh upscale experience,” Price told Forbes. “We got a lot of different experience with Eventbrite or these other products that existed at the...

A major technology deal is set to reshape how enterprises manage and use real-time data. According to a press release, International Business Machines Corp. (IBM) and Confluent announced that IBM will acquire all outstanding Confluent shares for $31 each, a transaction that values the data-streaming company at $11 billion. Based in Mountain View, CA, Confluent provides an open-source platform that enables real-time data streaming, helping businesses process, connect, and manage data across applications and systems. The company serves more than 6,500 clients — including over 40% of the Fortune 500 — and integrates with major cloud providers such as AWS , Microsoft, and others, according to the press release. “IBM and Confluent together will enable enterprises to deploy generative and agentic AI more effectively by providing trusted communication and data flow across environments, applications, and APIs,” said Arvind Krishna, IBM chairman, president, and CEO, in the press release....