Sources: Sam Altman is talking to investors, including the UAE government, to raise as much as $5T to $7T for an AI chip project  —  Sam Altman was already trying to lead the development of human-level artificial intelligence.  Now he has another great ambition: raising trillions of dollars …

Sources: OpenAI's annualized revenue hit $2B in December, up from $1.3B in October 2023, and the company believes it can more than double the figure in 2025  —  San Francisco-based start-up joins Google and Meta as one of the fastest-growing tech companies ever

Sources: Nvidia plans to build a new business unit focused on designing custom chips, including AI chips, for cloud companies; custom chips are a $30B market  —  Nvidia (NVDA.O) is building a new business unit focused on designing bespoke chips for cloud computing firms and others …

John Walker, a computer programmer and co-founder of 3D design software maker Autodesk, died on February 2 at the age of 75  —  Very sad news on the passing on John Walker, programmer and co-founder of AutoDesk. His contributions to our industry, the rise of the PC, and the modern industrialization of nearly everything were incredibly significant. I thought I would use some of John's own words to show the... [image]

Source: Disney's $1.5B investment in Epic Games will give Disney a 9% stake in Epic at a valuation of $22.5B, down ~29% from its 2022 valuation of $31.5B  —  Disney's $1.5 billion investment in Epic Games values the Fortnite maker at $22.5 billion, a person familiar with the matter said.

Meta removes the Facebook and Instagram accounts of Iran's supreme leader for repeatedly violating its Dangerous Organizations & Individuals policy  —  Meta on Thursday said it had removed the Facebook and Instagram accounts of Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei for violating its content policy.

LastPass warns users about a fake copy of its app on Apple's App Store, with a similar name and logo, likely used as a phishing app to steal users' credentials  —  LastPass is warning that a fake copy of its app is being distributed on the Apple App Store, likely used as a phishing app to steal users' credentials.

A look at the state of Passkeys, supported by Google, Apple, and others, which offer a seamless vision of a more secure future but the UX still needs work  —  Passkeys are here to replace passwords.  When they work, it's a seamless vision of the future.  But don't ditch your old logins just yet.

How Palantir embedded itself in the day-to-day work of Ukraine's wartime government in an unprecedented way, as Ukraine becomes a laboratory for military tech  —  Early on the morning of June 1, 2022, Alex Karp, the CEO of the data-analytics firm Palantir Technologies, crossed the border between Poland …

The White House says it plans to invest $5B+ from the CHIPS Act in “semiconductor-related research”, including in the National Semiconductor Technology Center  —  - Officials seek to prevent China from benefiting from funding  — R&D effort seeks to fill hardware, packaging innovation gaps

Chris Dixon's book becomes an NYT Best Seller but with a dagger icon denoting bulk orders; a16z and some startups linked to it gave the book to staff and others  —  Motherboard found that firms linked to a16z and general partner Chris Dixon bought numerous copies of his new book promoting cryptocurrencies …

Sources: Paytm E-commerce changed its name to Pai Platforms and acquired Bitsila, a seller platform on India's Open Network for Digital Commerce  —  Paytm E-commerce has changed its name to Pai Platforms and has acquired Bitsila, a seller platform on ONDC, gaining share in the online retail business.

Grammarly lays off 230 staffers as part of a restructuring, after growing its team from 200 to 1,000 over the past five years; it was valued at $13B in 2021  —  Grammarly is laying off 230 employees worldwide as part of a “business restructuring,” the company announced this week.

Meta says it will not “proactively recommend political content from accounts you don't follow” on Threads, the same policy it uses on Facebook and Instagram  —  Meta will not “proactively recommend political content from accounts you don't follow” on Threads, the company said in a statement provided to Axios.

Xiaolang Zhang, a former Apple engineer who pled guilty in August 2022 to IP theft of Apple's car project, is sentenced to 120 days in prison and a ~$147K fine  —  For the last six years, we've been following the case of Xiaolang Zhang, a former Apple engineer who pled guilty to stealing Project Titan trade secrets.

Epik, a domain registrar serving far-right and extremist websites, has been acquired by Registered Agents, whose services allow companies to operate anonymously  —  Known for doing business with far-right extremist websites, Epik has been acquired by a company that specializes in helping businesses keep their operations secret.

Ring plans to raise the price of its cheapest subscription by 25% to $5 a month or $50 a year from March 11, 2024  —  In what is fast becoming a trend, another security camera company is raising the price of its subscription plan. … The Basic is Ring's cheapest plan and gives you access …

Filing: Microsoft says Activision had planned layoffs before the merger, responding to the FTC's claims that the layoffs contradict Microsoft's court statements  —  - Xbox maker cutting 1,900 workers, including at Activision  — Tech giant responds to Federal Trade Commission over layoffs