This Month's Latest Tech News in Bakersfield, CA - Thursday July 31st 2025 Edition

California continues to assert its dominance in the burgeoning AI landscape, capturing a remarkable 68% of all U.S. startup funding in the first half of 2025, totaling approximately $94.5 billion, with Silicon Valley at the helm.

Notably, San Francisco and Palo Alto collectively house over 25% of AI startup headquarters nationwide, fueling growth in industries ranging from healthcare to financial services.

Leading AI companies such as OpenAI, which secured an unprecedented $40 billion funding round, along with Perplexity, Anthropic, and xAI, are expanding globally, underscoring California's critical role in shaping AI innovation and investment patterns.

Meanwhile, Los Angeles is diversifying venture capital investment beyond AI, infusing $3.1 billion into sectors like defense tech and biotech, and emerging as a complementary tech hub.

Bakersfield, though currently behind these major tech centers, can leverage educational opportunities like Nucamp's AI Essentials for Work bootcamp and Solo AI Tech Entrepreneur bootcamp to build practical AI skills and entrepreneurial capacity, positioning itself for future participation in California's AI economy.

As AI startups demand expertise in cloud infrastructure, data security, and AI engineering, workforce readiness programs remain essential to bridging this gap.

For the most comprehensive insights on emerging AI companies and investment trends, visit Fundraise Insider's list of funded AI startups and Crunchbase's report on California startup funding.

Glance AI, developed by Glance and backed by Google, has launched an innovative AI-native commerce platform that transforms online shopping from a traditional search exercise into an inspiration-led discovery experience.

Available worldwide on both the Google Play Store and the Apple App Store, the platform allows users to upload a selfie or image to receive hyper-realistic, AI-curated fashion looks tailored to individual parameters including body type, skin tone, and style preferences.

Powered by a proprietary three-layer AI architecture combining deep commerce intelligence, generative AI visualization via Google's Gemini and Imagen on Vertex AI, and a transaction journey model, Glance AI links personalized stylized images to shoppable products from over 400 global brands with seamless cross-device integration spanning phones, TVs, and brand websites.

Early US trials report over 1.5 million active users, a 50% weekly retention rate, and 40 million style requests, signaling high engagement and a strong shift toward AI-driven consumer experiences.

Founder and CEO Naveen Tewari emphasized,

“The internet is being rewritten from curated feeds to AI-generated realities... embedded across phones, TVs, and brand stores, Glance AI marks a paradigm shift in commerce.”

With plans to expand beyond fashion into beauty, accessories, and travel within 2025, as well as ongoing integrative partnerships with Android handset makers and telecom providers, Glance AI exemplifies the next wave of personalized, privacy-conscious, and immersive digital shopping globally.

For further details, visit the official Glance AI platform and explore the DestinationCRM coverage of Glance's launch.

California continues to solidify its leadership in the AI economy, with the San Francisco and San Jose metropolitan areas recognized as “superstars” for their unparalleled strength in talent, innovation, and enterprise adoption, according to a Brookings Institution report on AI economy from July 2025.

These two metro areas alone account for 13% of all AI-related job postings nationwide and dominate in patents and AI startup activity, supported heavily by tech giants like Google, Meta, Nvidia, and OpenAI, which recently secured a landmark $40 billion funding round.

Additionally, Southern California's Los Angeles area ranks among the top AI “star hubs,” benefiting from diverse industries including entertainment and defense technology.

However, Bakersfield and other smaller California metros fall into the "others" category, reflecting significant gaps in AI readiness due to limited tech employer presence and lower levels of AI talent and investment.

This spatial concentration highlights the challenge faced by regions like Bakersfield striving to catch up with powerhouse hubs that combine cutting-edge research, skilled computer science graduates, and sizable venture capital inflows.

Experts such as Mark Muro of Brookings emphasize the need for a combination of top-down national strategy and bottom-up regional development to bridge these divides and ensure broader participation in the AI-driven future.

The Bay Area's dominance remains clear, but emerging efforts across the state and nation offer pathways for growing AI ecosystems beyond Silicon Valley. Learn more about California's AI leadership in the detailed Los Angeles Times analysis of AI readiness and the Route Fifty summary on AI readiness in U.S. cities.

AI Readiness Category	Number of Metro Areas	Key Examples	AI Job Posting Share
Superstars	2	San Francisco, San Jose	13%
Star Hubs	28	Los Angeles, Seattle, Washington DC, Austin	Significant
Others (including Bakersfield)	43	Bakersfield, Stockton, Modesto	Minimal

Visa is pioneering the future of autonomous commerce with its innovative Autonomous Transaction Agents (ATAs), AI-driven tools that analyze user behavior and execute purchases on their behalf using advanced tokenization for security.

The newly launched Visa Intelligent Commerce platform allows AI agents to access users' credit cards securely, following customizable spending limits and merchant controls.

Visa collaborates with AI leaders such as Anthropic, Microsoft, OpenAI, and others to embed seamless, personalized, and frictionless shopping experiences that extend from product discovery to payment completion.

This platform integrates Visa's robust $40 billion fraud prevention infrastructure, employing tokenized digital credentials instead of traditional card numbers to thwart payment fraud, while emphasizing consumer control and privacy.

As Jack Forestell, Visa's Chief Product and Strategy Officer, explains,

“Soon people will have AI agents browse, select, purchase, and manage on their behalf,”

underscoring a transformational shift comparable to the birth of e-commerce itself.

However, ethical and accountability challenges remain, with Visa implementing a shared responsibility framework to navigate issues around AI autonomy and consumer protection.

Visa's initiative, alongside competitors like Mastercard's Agent Pay, heralds a new era where AI agents empower consumers to delegate routine and complex shopping tasks securely and transparently.

Learn more about Visa's AI-powered commerce future in the Forbes analysis of Mastercard and Visa's AI shopping agents.

On July 23, 2025, the White House unveiled America's AI Action Plan, a comprehensive strategy comprising over 90 federal policy actions designed to secure U.S. dominance in artificial intelligence.

Structured around three core pillars - Accelerating Innovation, Building American AI Infrastructure, and Leading in International AI Diplomacy and Security - the plan aims to remove regulatory barriers, streamline federal permitting for data centers and semiconductor fabs, modernize the U.S. power grid, and promote export of American AI technology to allies.

The administration emphasizes ensuring AI systems remain free from ideological bias while bolstering national security and economic competitiveness. Key initiatives include expediting infrastructure projects through regulatory reform, expanding workforce training in specialized trades essential for AI infrastructure, and establishing cybersecurity standards with an AI Information Sharing and Analysis Center.

Furthermore, the plan addresses international competition by imposing export controls and countering foreign influence in AI governance. Industry leaders have widely praised the plan for its bold approach to innovation, infrastructure development, and global leadership.

For a detailed breakdown of the three pillars and policy actions, visit Powering Tomorrow - The White House AI Action Plan's Ambitious Vision, and for legal and regulatory analyses see Sweeping AI Strategy | “America's AI Action Plan”.

This plan marks a strategic pivot to out-innovate global competitors by fostering a robust AI ecosystem that integrates cutting-edge technology, infrastructure resilience, and international collaboration.

Alpha and Omega Semiconductor (AOS) has launched the AONK40202, a 25-V power MOSFET featuring innovative DFN3.3x3.3 source-down packaging specifically engineered to meet the demanding power requirements of AI servers and data center power distribution systems.

This MOSFET supports continuous currents exceeding 300 A at room temperature and maintains high efficiency with a maximum junction temperature of 175°C, while its low on-resistance of 0.7 mΩ significantly reduces power loss.

The source-down architecture allows larger silicon chips in the same package footprint, improves heat dissipation directly into the PCB, and facilitates easier PCB routing with a center gate pin design - critical advantages for managing the escalating power densities in AI GPUs such as NVIDIA's Blackwell and AMD's MI355X. AOS's senior director Peter H. Wilson emphasized that the AONK40202 delivers enhanced thermal performance and power density, enabling designers to maximize PCB space effectively.

Alongside this, AOS has also introduced the AOTL66935, a 100V MOSFET designed for 48V hot swap applications in AI servers, offering exceptionally low on-resistance and high safe operating area (SOA) robustness to limit inrush current and improve reliability in harsh environments.

Both products reflect industry shifts towards efficient power management amid rapidly increasing data center power demands, with the AONK40202 priced at $1.65 per unit in bulk and available now in production quantities.

Feature	AONK40202	AOTL66935
Voltage Rating	25 V	100 V
Packaging	DFN3.3x3.3 Source-Down	TO-Leadless (TOLL)
Continuous Drain Current (25°C)	319 A	360 A
Maximum Junction Temperature	175°C	175°C
On-Resistance (RDS(on))	0.7 mΩ @10 V	1.95 mΩ @10 V
Price (1,000 pcs)	$1.65	$4.20

Learn more about the AONK40202 on the official Alpha and Omega Semiconductor press release, explore technical analysis at Electronic Design power MOSFET source-down packaging article, and review complementary hot swap technologies in the Power & Beyond report on high SOA MOSFET for AI servers.

Google is currently facing significant legal challenges as the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) intensifies its antitrust lawsuit accusing the tech giant of maintaining an illegal monopoly in the search engine market through exclusive deals with major device makers like Apple.

A federal judge ruled in August 2024 that Google unlawfully monopolized search, opening a remedies phase expected to conclude by August 2025, with potential outcomes including breaking up parts of Google such as the Chrome browser or restricting its default search agreements.

The DOJ is also scrutinizing Google's dominant position in artificial intelligence, particularly its use of proprietary data to train AI models like Gemini, and is pushing for data sharing mandates to foster competition.

Google counters that its search dominance results from superior products and innovation, warning that aggressive remedies risk harming user privacy and U.S. technology leadership.

Meanwhile, Apple could face annual revenue losses up to $12.5 billion if Google's exclusivity on Apple devices ends, reflecting the financial stakes involved.

Google's ongoing $500 million, 10-year compliance overhaul may influence the final remedies, as legal experts believe it aims to address governmental concerns proactively.

With key proposals including expanding user choice for default search engines, limiting exclusivity deals, and instituting oversight mechanisms, this landmark case not only targets Google's search monopoly but also sets the stage for shaping competitive dynamics in the broader AI industry.

For detailed insights, see Fortune's coverage on the Google antitrust remedy deliberations, the DOJ's official antitrust announcement, and expert analysis on Google's AI and search antitrust lawsuit takeaways.

Aprimo has launched advanced enterprise-grade AI Agents designed to transform and automate every stage of enterprise content operations with intelligent, scalable automation.

These AI Agents, in production since late 2023, serve as autonomous digital workers within Aprimo's platform, reducing manual effort and enhancing governance across planning, metadata management, quality control, brand compliance, and content production.

The system includes specialized agents such as Planning Agents for generating strategic campaign briefs, Librarian Agents that automate metadata creation and asset classification, Critic Agents for editorial quality assessment, Compliance Agents performing brand and regulatory checks, and Production Agents streamlining content transformation and localization.

This unified AI framework dynamically adapts to real-time workflows, enabling enterprises to accelerate production timelines, improve brand consistency, and scale content creation efficiently across formats, languages, and markets.

Kevin Souers, Aprimo's Chief Product & Technology Officer, emphasizes that these AI Agents unlock new levels of speed, consistency, and adaptability for global brands.

Recognized as a leader by Gartner and Forrester, Aprimo's AI-driven platform delivers measurable results in regulated industries such as financial services and healthcare, helping teams create smarter, faster, and more personalized content.

For more information, visit the comprehensive overview of Aprimo AI Agents, read the official Business Wire press release, or explore detailed insights in the MarTech360 feature on Aprimo's AI innovations.

Following the end of a proposed federal 10-year moratorium on state AI legislation, California has swiftly advanced as a leader in AI regulation, particularly in employment.

The California Civil Rights Council finalized groundbreaking regulations, effective October 1, 2025, imposing strict standards on the use of Automated Decision Systems (ADS) such as AI-driven hiring tools.

Employers must now ensure that AI tools do not cause discrimination based on protected characteristics, maintain detailed records for four years, and are liable even for discriminatory impacts caused by third-party vendors.

As outlined in the Civil Rights Council's official announcement on AI employment regulations and detailed in the Fox Rothschild overview of California AI employment regulations, AI screening methods such as resume scoping and video interview analysis are carefully scrutinized, with a prohibition on using schedule availability screening practices that disproportionately affect religious observance or disability.

Furthermore, California's privacy agency has just finalized broader AI and automated decision-making regulations impacting multiple sectors, emphasizing transparency, opt-out rights, and risk assessments for AI systems handling personal data, as highlighted in their recent regulatory summary on AI risk assessments and cybersecurity.

This state-led momentum follows a bipartisan Senate vote that struck down the federal moratorium, preserving states' authority to innovate and regulate AI tailored to their residents' interests and safety.

California's proactive stance reflects a growing nationwide patchwork of AI oversight, with other states like New York and Colorado enacting complementary rules, underscoring the need for businesses to stay vigilant and compliant amid a rapidly evolving legal landscape.

Nvidia has once again surpassed market expectations despite ongoing tariff-related challenges, reporting an impressive $30 billion in revenue for Q2 fiscal 2025, marking a 122% year-over-year increase and beating analyst estimates by $1.3 billion.

The surge is primarily driven by its Data Center segment, which achieved a record $26.3 billion in revenue, up 154% from the previous year and accounting for 88% of total sales.

CEO Jensen Huang highlighted strong demand for the Hopper GPUs and the upcoming Blackwell architecture, which is anticipated to generate several billion dollars in Q4 revenue.

Despite a slight decline in gross margin to 75.1%, Nvidia's net income more than doubled to $16.6 billion with earnings per share rising to $0.68, exceeding Wall Street forecasts.

The company continues to benefit from the AI boom, with cloud providers like Microsoft, Alphabet, and Meta as key customers utilizing Nvidia chips for generative AI applications such as OpenAI's ChatGPT. Nvidia's fiscal 2025 full-year revenue reached a record $130.5 billion, doubling the previous year, with a continued optimistic outlook projecting $32.5 billion in revenue for Q3 2025.

The company has also approved a $50 billion share buyback program, underscoring confidence in long-term growth amidst export control hurdles. For readers interested in Nvidia's detailed financials and future guidance, refer to the official Nvidia Q2 Fiscal 2025 earnings release, the comprehensive CNBC Q2 2025 earnings analysis, and the Visible Alpha review of Nvidia Q2 2025 earnings for expert market insights.

TELUS Digital Experience has formed a strategic collaboration with Zendesk to enhance AI-driven customer experiences by integrating CRM and Contact Center as a Service (CCaaS) technologies with TELUS Digital's generative AI platform, Fuel iX™.

This partnership grants Zendesk customers access to TELUS Digital's extensive global CXM talent pool of 78,000 team members across 31 countries, combining human expertise and AI to deliver intelligent, connected support solutions that improve agent performance and streamline operations.

Fuel iX provides real-time agent assistance, conversational response suggestions, and deep customer sentiment analysis, helping clients achieve significant operational gains, including a reported 25% reduction in average handle time for an enterprise client within just two weeks.

TELUS Digital also manages full-service onboarding, configuration, integration, and ongoing optimization for Zendesk customers to ensure continuous innovation and elevated customer outcomes.

The collaboration builds upon TELUS Digital's existing partnerships, notably with Local Measure, whose voice and messaging solutions power Zendesk's CCaaS platform and which Zendesk plans to acquire by May 2025, further expanding AI voice capabilities.

As Zendesk CTO Adrian McDermott highlights, this alliance “unites Zendesk's AI-powered service and CCaaS platform with TELUS Digital's global talent delivery and generative AI capabilities to meet the needs of modern, large-scale customer service environments,” enabling businesses to implement smarter, more connected experience strategies.

Learn more about this transformative partnership at TELUS Digital's official announcement, explore TELUS Digital's AI-powered CX solutions, and read detailed market insights on Nasdaq's report on the TELUS-Zendesk partnership.

Bakersfield is steadily carving its place in California's dynamic AI and tech landscape, bolstered by a vibrant startup ecosystem and strategic local initiatives.

Key developments include the Bakersfield City Council's recent approval of a $250,000 grant supporting BIOS Health, a UK-based neurotech startup aiming to establish clinical trials locally, potentially generating over $100 million in economic impact and high-skilled jobs by 2027 read more in the Bakersfield Californian.

Though Bakersfield falls into a lower AI-readiness tier compared to California's AI “superstar” hubs like San Francisco and San Jose according to the Los Angeles Times, the city boasts a flourishing tech ecosystem that has quadrupled startups since 2020, attracting $200 million in funding and creating thousands of jobs as detailed by Nucamp Bootcamp.

To support this growth, local educational institutions and accelerators - like CSU Bakersfield's Venture Accelerator - are nurturing innovation and workforce readiness.

For those seeking to join this expanding market, Nucamp offers accessible coding and AI bootcamps tailored for different skill levels, from foundational AI at Work courses to entrepreneurial programs for launching AI startups, empowering Bakersfield residents to harness evolving technologies.

With continued investment and skill development, Bakersfield is poised to turn emerging opportunities in AI and tech into sustained economic prosperity amid the competitive California landscape.