Bookmarks (1024)

Harry Dempsey / Financial Times: Japanese officials and executives warn that China's export curbs on gallium, germanium, and other chip raw materials threaten global electronics supply chains  —  Officials and executives say gallium rules will upset supply chains for chips and vehicle batteries

Bloomberg: Alibaba CEO Eddie Wu calls the pursuit of AGI the company's “primary objective”, saying “our first and foremost goal is to pursue AGI”  —  “Our first and foremost goal is to pursue AGI,” Eddie Wu told investors on a call after the company reported results that surpassed analyst estimates.

Hannah Murphy / Financial Times: Sources: Meta's oversight board got little notice of Zuckerberg's “free speech” overhaul, fueling tensions as it rushes to hold Meta accountable for the changes  —  Independent body searches for ways to hold social media group to account over content moderation and hate speech changes

Brenda Goh / Reuters: Chinese state media: Huawei founder Ren Zhengfei told Xi Jinping at a meeting that concerns about China lacking homegrown chips or operating systems had eased  —  Huawei's founder told Xi Jinping at a meeting the Chinese president held with private sector entrepreneurs that concerns China …

Benj Edwards / Ars Technica: Microsoft researchers introduce Magma, an AI foundation model that combines visual and language processing to control software interfaces and robotic systems  —  On Wednesday, Microsoft Research introduced Magma, an integrated AI foundation model that combines visual and language processing …

Gergely Orosz / The Pragmatic Engineer: A look at the potential reasons why software developer job listings on Indeed hit a five-year low in January, down 35% from 2020, including the impact of AI  —  Hi, this is Gergely with a bonus issue of the Pragmatic Engineer Newsletter.  In every issue, I cover topics related to Big Tech …

Jonathan Vanian / CNBC: Filing: Meta approves raising executives' annual bonuses to 200% of base salary, up from 75%, as most employees' annual stock options are reportedly cut by ~10%  —  Executives at Meta stand to get bigger bonuses this year.  —  The company said in a corporate filing Thursday that it had approved …

Wall Street Journal: Sources: GameStop CEO and activist investor Ryan Cohen has grown his personal stake in Alibaba to about 7M shares, worth roughly $1B, in recent months  —  The meme-stock king and investor still has his sights set on the Chinese e-commerce behemoth  —  Ryan Cohen still has his sights set …

Mobile EDR Security: iVerify's iOS app detected a Pegasus infection in 11 new cases in December 2024, and about half of them did not receive Threat Notifications from Apple  —  In December, we published our groundbreaking investigation into mobile device threats.  The public didn't just read the report …

Ben Lang / Road to VR: Meta announces a $50M creator fund for Horizon Worlds; CTO Andrew Bosworth reportedly told staff that 2025 is a make-or-break year for Meta's XR ambitions  —  Meta today announced a $50 million fund to incentivize the creation of new and improved content in Horizon Worlds, the company's first-party social gaming platform.

MacKenzie Sigalos / CNBC: Block reports Q4 revenue up 4.5% YoY to $6.03B vs. $6.29B est., gross profit up 14% to $2.31B, Cash App gross profit up 16% to $1.38B; XYZ drops 6%+ after hours  —  Block reported fourth-quarter results on Thursday that fell short of Wall Street expectations.  The stock dropped more than 7% in extended trading.

Aisha Malik / TechCrunch: Substack adds the ability to post videos from its app and lets creators monetize videos, and plans to add more video tools like trimming and enhanced analytics  —  As TikTok's future in the U.S. remains uncertain, Substack tries to lure creators to its platform by doubling down on video.

Ian Carlos Campbell / Engadget: Meta says US users over 18 can now sign up to be a Community Notes contributor on Facebook, Instagram, and Threads; notes will have a 500-character limit  —  The company is replacing third-party fact-checking with Community Notes on Threads, Instagram and Facebook.

Sarah Perez / TechCrunch: Amazon plans to end support for its videoconferencing tool Chime on February 20, 2026; report: Amazon is adopting Zoom as its standard app for internal meetings  —  Amazon Chime, the tech giant's underwhelming alternative to Zoom and Google Meet, is shutting down for good.

Emily Birnbaum / Bloomberg: FTC Chair Andrew Ferguson announces an inquiry into “Big Tech censorship”, which he says is “un-American” and “potentially illegal”  —  - FTC Chair Ferguson invites public comment about tech platforms  — Conservatives claim ideas, affiliations have been censored

Financial Times: Sources: Meta has led the charge against the EU's AI Act this year, as Big Tech, with backing from President Trump, grows bolder in challenging EU regulations  —  US groups such as Meta emboldened in effort to water down regulations on AI and market dominance

Katie Roof / Bloomberg: Sources: X is in talks to raise funds at a $44B valuation, matching the price Elon Musk paid for Twitter in 2022, as his proximity to Trump alters X's prospects  —  - Valuation is the same as Musk's 2022 Twitter acquisition  — Billionaire has recently tapped private markets for big sums

Cheng Ting-Fang / Nikkei Asia: Taiwan's ASE Technology, the world's largest chip packaging and testing firm, opens a new plant in Penang, Malaysia, as part of its biggest overseas expansion  —  PENANG, Malaysia — ASE Technology Holding on Tuesday opened what is set to become its largest overseas operations in Penang …

Olga Kharif / Bloomberg: Solana has lost ~25% of its market value, or ~$20B, since February 14 after Argentine President Javier Milei faced scrutiny for promoting Solana memecoin Libra  —  - Around $20 billion in Solana market value has been erased  — Solana has been a popular blockchain for issuing memecoins

Reuters: President Trump said tariffs on semiconductors would start at “25% or higher” and that he planned to provide some time for chip makers to set up US factories  —  U.S. President Donald Trump said on Tuesday he intends to impose auto tariffs “in the neighborhood of 25%” …

Emilia David / VentureBeat: OpenAI researchers, using the SWE-Lancer benchmark, find that real-world freelance software engineering work remains challenging for frontier language models  —  Large language models (LLMs) may have changed software development, but enterprises will need to think twice about entirely replacing …

Bloomberg: Sources: Niantic is in talks to sell its games unit to Saudi Arabia-controlled Scopely for ~$3.5B; the deal would include Pokémon Go and other mobile games  —  A deal could be announced in coming weeks.  The price being discussed is about $3.5 billion, according to one of the people.

Kevin Purdy / Ars Technica: Asus ROG Flow Z13 review: the ~$2,300 convertible tablet's integrated GPU in its AMD Ryzen AI Max+ 395 chip offers performance comparable to a GeForce RTX 4060  —  Looking at this thing, you might expect to see it propped up at an airport bar, in front of somebody talking into wireless headphones about Tim in Product.

Aaron Souppouris / Engadget: Humane says Ai Pin's online features will stop working on February 28, when all customer data will be deleted, and it will refund some customers  —  Humane is discontinuing the AI Pin and selling out to HP.  —  AI hardware startup Humane has given its users just ten (10!) days notice that their Pins will be disconnected.

Sarah Perez / TechCrunch: Google Play Books for iOS will now let users complete their e-book or audiobook purchase on the Google Play website, under Apple's “reader apps” exception  —  Google has gained permission to sell its e-books and audiobooks directly to customers through its iOS app, Google Play Books.

José Adorno / BGR: Protector, an iOS app that offers on-demand personal security, including armed agents, debuts in NYC and LA; adviser Nikita Bier calls it “Uber with guns”  —  There's a new app on the App Store called Protector, which, as its advisor describes it, is “Uber with guns.”

Etan Vlessing / The Hollywood Reporter: VFX company DNEG's AI unit Brahma acquires Metaphysic, a maker of AI tools for de-aging and more; Abu Dhabi's UASG and DNEG will invest another $25M into Brahma  —  The UK-based company has acquired the AI tech platform that first gained headlines for popularizing a deepfake TikTok account spoofing Tom Cruise.

Brody Ford / Bloomberg: HP will acquire assets from Humane for $116M; Humane's Ai Pin business will be wound down, and Humane's team, including its founders, will join HP  —  - Humane's Ai pin business to be wound down after rocky launch  — New unit at HP will focus on implementation of AI in devices

Bloomberg: Sources: Silver Lake is in exclusive talks to acquire a majority stake in Intel's Altera unit  —  The private equity firm is thrashing out details of an investment in Altera, whose multi-use chips are primarily deployed in telecommunications networks, according to the people.

Kritika Lamba / Reuters: Bumble reports Q4 revenue down 4.4% YoY to $261.6M, Bumble app paying users up 5% to 2.8M, and forecasts Q1 revenue below estimates; BMBL drops 13%+ after hours  —  Bumble (BMBL.O) forecast its first-quarter revenue below analysts' estimate on Tuesday, signaling that the dating app operator's efforts …

Financial Times: A look at changes in the UK's CMA after its chair was forced to resign and the agency tries to reconcile its enhanced powers with government's pro-growth focus  —  CMA chair Marcus Bokkerink was told by phone he was to resign after months of rising frustration within government

Reuters: South Korea's data protection authority says DeepSeek app downloads have been suspended in the country after DeepSeek failed to follow its personal data rules  —  South Korea's data protection authority on Monday said it had temporarily suspended the domestic service of Chinese AI app DeepSeek since Saturday.

Max Tani / Semafor: Docs: the NYT greenlights the use of select internal and external AI tools for editorial and product staff, including from OpenAI, Amazon, Google, and Microsoft  —  The Scoop  —  The New York Times is greenlighting the use of AI for its product and editorial staff, saying that internal tools …

Madeline Coleman / New York Times: A look at sim racing, Formula One world champion Max Verstappen's passion for the competitive esport, and his efforts to get sim drivers into physical racing  —  Race teams always look up and down the motorsports ladder to identify rising stars.  But Formula One world champion Max Verstappen …

Financial Times: Match's head of trust and safety, Yoel Roth, says Match is using AI in its apps, like Tinder, to detect men's “off-color” messages and drive “behavioral change”  —  Online dating group is using the technology to detect ‘off-colour’ messages, says safety chief Yoel Roth

Mark Gurman / Bloomberg: A look at Apple's and Meta's robotics efforts; sources say Apple is working on a 27" Studio Display successor to launch by 2026 and considering monetizing Maps  —  Apple and Meta are set to go toe-to-toe in another emerging area: AI-powered humanoid robots.

Gian Volpicelli / Bloomberg: Meta's Joel Kaplan says Meta “won't shy away” from taking up its case with President Trump if the EU uses its rules to unfairly target Meta's digital products  —  - Kaplan says company will make case if EU singles it out  — Tension over tech rules underscores transatlantic rift

Reuters: Tencent is testing using DeepSeek for search in its messaging app Weixin, while Baidu plans to fully connect its search engine to DeepSeek and its LLM, Ernie  —  Tencent said on Sunday its (0700.HK) Weixin messaging app, China's largest, is allowing some users to search via DeepSeek's …

Kyle Baird / DL News: Indian authorities have seized nearly $190M in cryptocurrency linked to the BitConnect Ponzi scheme, one of the country's largest crypto enforcement actions  —  Indian authorities have seized nearly $190 million in cryptocurrency linked to the BitConnect Ponzi scheme — one of the country's largest crypto enforcement actions.

William Wroblewski / Rest of World: Some Bolivians, frustrated with spotty internet from a China-built satellite, are smuggling in Starlink kits despite Bolivia banning the service in August 2024  —  Bolivia, which relies on a Chinese-built satellite for some of its connectivity, banned Starlink — but that hasn't stopped people …

Pooja Dash / IndiaSpend: India's BharatNet program to provide broadband access to 650K villages by 2025 is set to fall short of its target, with only 199K having broadband as of January  —  As of January 2025, only 1.99 lakh villages out of 6.5 lakh villages or 30.4% had broadband internet access

Dan Gallagher / Wall Street Journal: Intel's foundry business lost $13B+ on $17.5B in revenue in 2024, while TSMC generated $41.1B in operating profit on $90B in revenue over the same period  —  While President Trump's domestic AI focus is a good sign for Intel, easy fixes have proved elusive  —  The Trump administration …

Connie Loizos / TechCrunch: A new autopsy report finds former OpenAI employee Suchir Balaji's death was a suicide, countering his family's suspicions, which had fueled speculation online  —  Suchir Balaji, a former OpenAI employee, was found dead in his San Francisco apartment on Nov. 26; on Friday …

Dan Whateley / Business Insider: Maryland-based Uscreen, which helps creators launch apps, engage fans, monetize memberships, and more, raised $150M from PSG Equity, giving PSG a majority stake  —  - Uscreen, a startup that helps creators make apps, scored a $150 million investment from PSG Equity.

Wall Street Journal: Sources: Broadcom has informally explored a bid for Intel's chip design and marketing unit, but only if it could secure a partner for Intel's foundry business  —  Broadcom has interest in Intel's chip-design business, while TSMC is looking at the company's factories

Olga Kharif / Bloomberg: The website of President Trump's World Liberty Financial shows the crypto project sold 24B+ of its 25B WLFI tokens after a slow start, implying sales of $1.25B  —  - The project has sold more than 24 billion tokens so far  — Chinese crypto entrepreneur Justin Sun is a project investor

Hugh Son / CNBC: Zelle's payment volume crossed $1T in 2024, the most ever for a P2P platform, user base jumped 12% YoY to 151M accounts, and the total dollars sent grew 27% YoY  —  Zelle, the payments network run by banks-owned Early Warning Services, crossed $1 trillion in total volumes last year …

Emily Nicolle / Bloomberg: Tether acquires a minority stake in the iconic Italian football club Juventus, as part of a broader push to integrate digital assets into sports franchises  —  Tether Holdings SA de CV said it's acquired a minority stake in Juventus Football Club SpA, as one of crypto's most valuable companies continues …

Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch: Identity security startup SGNL, which lets enterprises enforce policies in real-time for privileged access to systems, raised a $30M Series A led by Brightmind  —  Security experts often describe identity as the “new perimeter” in the world of security: in the world of cloud services …

Lauren Faith Lau / Bloomberg: DeepSeek's rise has turned the spotlight on its hometown, Hangzhou, the capital of the Zhejiang province, which has earmarked ~$13.7B to fund tech companies  —  Plus: The struggle over improving 7-Eleven, and how Silicon Valley swung to Trump. … There's Shenzhen, whose designation …