Techmeme: A look at the economics of Microsoft and Google inserting LLMs into search, crushing profitability and requiring massive capex, and the impact on the companies (SemiAnalysis)

Top News

Dina Bass / Bloomberg:

Sources: Microsoft cuts jobs in its Surface, HoloLens, and Xbox units; heavy cuts to the HoloLens hardware team raise questions about the third goggles version — Microsoft Corp., implementing the layoff of 10,000 workers announced last month, on Thursday cut jobs in units including Surface devices …

More: Computerworld, GeekWire, The Register, Neowin, Game Rant, Thurrott, OnMSFT.com, iPhone in Canada Blog, Pure Xbox, and Slashdot

Tweets: @geronimo_73_, @dinabass, and @tomwarren

Kevin McLaughlin / The Information:

Source: Microsoft shut its Industrial Metaverse Core team, formed in October 2022 to build tools for industrial settings, and laid off the team's ~100 employees — In a surprising reversal, Microsoft has killed a team it formed four months ago to help customers use the metaverse in industrial settings …

More: DCD, BigTechWire, CoinDesk, Metaverse Post, and Blockworks. Tweets: @e3waitfor2020

Brian Fung / CNN:

Some under-resourced academic and civil-society researchers say a Twitter API paywall would jeopardize studies of influence campaigns and platform manipulation — For years, Twitter, like other social media platforms, has freely given its platform data to independent researchers …

More: Silicon Republic, NPR, publication, Dark Reading, and Yahoo Finance

Tweets: @b_fung, @cat_zakrzewski, @viacristiano, @b_fung, and @b_fung

Chris Stokel-Walker / Fast Company:

Former staff say Twitter needs to update its systems to enact Elon Musk's asks, but the mass layoffs have brought code freezes and vast concurrent code changes — Twitter's outage on Wednesday, which saw the site rendered unusable for most users by blocking people from tweeting within the app …

More: The Verge, The i Paper, 9to5Mac, Neowin, and BBC

Tweets: @kyliebytes, @clancynewyork, @stevanzetti, @mingle74, @stokel, and @stokel. Thanks:@stokel

Saksha Menezes / Bloomberg:

Analysis: Apple's 2020-2022 revenue per new hire was $2.51M, up from $1.17M during 2017-2019, and above Meta's $0.79M, Microsoft's $1.06M, and other peers — There's a reason why Apple Inc. is under less pressure than tech peers to slash jobs during the current slowdown: It hired more efficiently in the first place.

More: 9to5Mac, MacDailyNews, Patently Apple, and The Information. Tweets: @lisaabramowicz1

Manish Singh / TechCrunch:

Sources: Amazon is in talks with Times Internet to acquire MX Player, a top VOD streaming service in India; Times Internet acquired MX Player for $140M in 2018 — Amazon is engaging with Times Internet to explore the acquisition of MX Player, one of the largest on-demand video streaming services in India …

More: Neowin, The Information, Inc42 Media, and Cord Cutters News. Tweets: @indicoder18

Gabrielle Coppola / Bloomberg:

A look at Otonomo and Wejo, two struggling startups trying to monetize connected car data; Otonomo plans to merge with roadside assistance tech startup Urgently — Auto companies promising billions in new software revenue by the end of the decade have been hiring engineers left and right …

More: Otonomo, SiliconANGLE, and TechCrunch

Tweets: @otonomo_, @rr_edmonds, and @stevematthews12

Bloomberg:

Source: PayPal is pausing work on its stablecoin as regulators increase their scrutiny of cryptocurrencies and its key partner Paxos faces a probe in New York — PayPal Holdings Inc. is pausing work on its stablecoin as regulators increase scrutiny of cryptocurrencies and a key partner …

More: CoinDesk, The Block, Ethereum World News, Crypto Daily, Cryptopolitan, Coinspeaker, Forkast, and Cryptonews

Chloe Xiang / VICE:

Researchers: some Reddit usernames and other keywords cause ChatGPT to give bizarre responses, likely due to the web data OpenAI scraped to train its model — Reddit usernames like ‘SolidGoldMagikarp’ are somehow causing the chatbot to give bizarre responses. — Chloe Xiang

More: Metaverse Post and Moneycontrol

Tweets: @janusrose, @revhowardarson, @leighalexander, and @thurn_und_taxis

SemiAnalysis:

A look at the economics of Microsoft and Google inserting LLMs into search, crushing profitability and requiring massive capex, and the impact on the companies — $30B Of Google Profit Evaporating Overnight, Performance Improvement With H100 TPUv4 TPUv5 — OpenAI's ChatGPT took the world by storm …

More: Forbes, CRN, Wired, Search Engine Roundtable, New World Same Humans, Insider, and On the Other Hand …

Tweets: @mcwm, @hkanji, @dylan522p, @dylan522p, @01core_ben, and @dylan522p

Arjun Kharpal / CNBC:

JD.com plans to launch an “industrial version” of a ChatGPT-like tool called ChatJD for retail and finance, after Alibaba's and Baidu's chatbot announcements — - JD.com said it will release an “industrial version” of ChatGPT called ChatJD. — It will be a chatbot product focused on the fields of retail and finance.

More: SiliconANGLE, TechNode, Reuters, Barron's Online, Nikkei Asia, Livemint, and Tech Xplore. Tweets: @chrismessina

Michael Wayland / CNBC:

GM signs a long-term deal with GlobalFoundries to establish exclusive production capacity at the chipmaker's New York facility for the automaker's key suppliers — - GM has signed a long-term agreement with GlobalFoundries to establish exclusive production capacity of U.S.-produced semiconductor chips …

More: CNN, General Motors Co., New York Times, Reuters, Appuals.com, Bloomberg, The Verge, Tech Xplore, and Barron's Online

Tweets: @ldignan, @big_dead_bird, @danielnewmanuv, and @stocktwits

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