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April 1, 2025, 9:40 AM
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memeorandum
WeSmirchTop News
| CNBC: |
OpenAI closes a $40B round, the most raised by a private tech company, at a $300B post-money valuation; SoftBank led with $30B; source: ~$18B is for Stargate — OpenAI on Monday announced it had closed what amounts to the largest private tech funding round on record.
More: OpenAI, The Verge, Sherwood News, Financial Times, Reuters, Digital Trends, Maginative, Fortune, VentureBeat, Axios, Interesting Engineering, AIN, Nairametrics, StrictlyVC, Neowin, TechSpot, Forbes, Cryptopolitan, YourStory.com, Tech Xplore, SiliconANGLE, Decrypt, PYMNTS.com, San Francisco Business Times, Thurrott, The Wrap, Tech in Asia, and TechCrunch
Bluesky: @carnage4life, @edzitron.com, @andrewparker, @edsbs, and @edzitron.com
X: @sama, @mikebutcher, @mikeisaac, @garymarcus, @rogoswami, @kyliebytes, @apompliano, @edzitron, @danprimack, and @gavinpurcell
LinkedIn: Hayden Field and Geoff Lewis
Forums: Hacker News, r/singularity, and r/technology
| Shirin Ghaffary / Bloomberg: |
Source: SoftBank will invest an initial $7.5B in OpenAI's $40B round, plus $22.5B by 2025's end; other backers include Microsoft, Coatue, Altimeter, and Thrive — OpenAI, the artificial intelligence company behind ChatGPT, said it has finalized a funding round that will bring in $40 billion …
More: SoftBank Group Corp., Barron's Online, Washington Post, Reuters, Benzinga, The Decoder, Quartz, Arabian Business, CNBC, PitchBook, Tech Funding News, Euronews, New York Times, Yahoo Finance, Silicon Republic, Proactive, YourStory.com, Business Today, Times of India, Blockonomi, The Guardian, TNGlobal, Pulse 2.0, The Information, Financial Express, Wall Street Journal, Australian Financial Review, Hindustan Times, CRN, Verdict, The Crypto Times, Sherwood News, Nikkei Asia, The Japan Times, and DigiTimes
Forums: r/Economics and Beehaw
| Ivan Mehta / TechCrunch: |
OpenAI's new GPT-4o-powered image generator is now available to all users; Sam Altman last week mentioned a limit of three images per day for free-tier users — OpenAI's new image generator, powered by its GPT-4o model, is now available to all users, CEO Sam Altman said in a post on X … | Kyle Wiggers / TechCrunch: |
Sam Altman says OpenAI plans to “release a powerful new open-weight language model with reasoning in the coming months”, its first open-weight model since GPT-2 — OpenAI says that it intends to release its first “open” language model since GPT‑2 “in the coming months.”
More: OpenAI, Tech Monitor, Reuters, Business Standard, The Decoder, Tom's Guide, The Indian Express, The Crypto Times, Silicon UK, Cointelegraph, Digit, Benzinga, Analytics India Magazine, WinBuzzer, CoinGape, SiliconANGLE, VentureBeat, Neowin, CNET, Business Insider, Decrypt, The Information, and Wired
X: @sama, @joheidecke, @clementdelangue, @joheidecke, @garrytan, @dorialexander, @thexeophon, @gdb, @altcap, @levie, and @sama
LinkedIn: Jake Saper and Romain Huet
Forums: r/LocalLLaMA and Slashdot
| Sean Endicott / Windows Central: |
Microsoft expands Copilot+ PC features exclusive to Snapdragon, like Live Captions, Cocreator, Restyle Image, and Image Creator, to PCs with AMD or Intel chips — Staggered feature releases make me ask “what even is a Copilot+ PC?” — Microsoft has a big update for Copilot+ PCs powered by Intel or AMD processors.
More: Windows Experience Blog, PCWorld, Tom's Hardware, WinBuzzer, Ghacks, TechRadar, BetaNews, The Verge, Guru3D, Digital Trends, Business Standard, Cryptopolitan, TechPowerUp, MakeUseOf, Liliputing, CRN, VideoCardz.com, XDA Developers, Neowin, and Thurrott
X: @zacbowden, @pavandavuluri, @windowsblog, @sasamarinkovic, @dylanonchips, @yusuf_i_mehdi, @amdryzen, and @dylanonchips. LinkedIn: Mark Linton
| Ian King / Bloomberg: |
Intel Vision conference: CEO Lip-Bu Tan says that Intel plans to spin off non-core assets, create new products including custom chips, hire engineers, and more — Intel Corp. Chief Executive Officer Lip-Bu Tan said the chipmaker will spin off assets that aren't central to its mission …
More: TechCrunch, Wall Street Journal, TechRadar, PC Gamer, Reuters, Cryptopolitan, Intel, Intel on YouTube, Financial Times, TrendForce News, Business Insider, Capacity Media, Benzinga, Tech in Asia, Oregonian, MarketWatch, Nikkei Asia, Wall Street Journal, CRN, PCWorld, Barron's Online, Thurrott, and DigiTimes
Threads: @sung.kim.mw. X: @greengart, @intelnews, @iancutress, @iancutress, @greengart, @firstadopter, @underfox3, @underfox3, @intelnews, @iancutress, @intelnews, @intelnews, @iancutress, and @iancutress
| Wall Street Journal: |
Sources: in recent weeks, Meta executives including Mark Zuckerberg have pressed US trade officials to oppose an impending EU fine and cease-and-desist order — Facebook owner presses trade officials to push back against European law that could undermine its ad business| Bloomberg: |
Sources: US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick signals withholding promised CHIPS Act grants as he pushes companies to substantially expand their US projects — Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick has signaled he could withhold promised Chips Act grants as he pushes companies in line … | Takashi Mochizuki / Bloomberg: |
Ahead of the Switch 2, Nintendo is branching out to use its characters in cinema, theme parks, and merch in a Disney-like way to create more consistent revenue — Tech Across the Globe … Sequoia Capital and Spark Capital are in talks to co-lead the round. — Revalued
More: PCMag
| Bloomberg: |
More: Forbes, The Indian Express, Tech4Gamers, Tom's Guide, Comic Book, CNET, Laptop Mag, T3, and Engadget
| Financial Times: |
Current and former Google DeepMind scientists say a tougher vetting process and more bureaucracy at Google's AI arm have made it harder to publish AI research — Google's AI arm led by Demis Hassabis makes it harder for its researchers to publish studies in major change in approach| Yoolim Lee / Bloomberg: |
Samsung says TM Roh, who oversees mobile, will temporarily step into a broader role overseeing its consumer electronics, after the death of co-CEO Han Jong-Hee — Roh will fill the vacancy at the top of Samsung's Device Experience group until the company's board approves a formal successor to Han …
More: Samsung Newsroom and SamMobile
| Bloomberg: |
Builder.ai lowers its H2 2024 revenue estimates by ~25% after some sales channels “did not come through” and says it expects a full audit report by summer 2025 — The London-based company, which has raised more than $450 million, dropped its revenue estimates for the second half … | Financial Times: |
The Alan Turing Institute, the UK's flagship AI agency, plans to focus on defense, environment, and health, after staff criticized its leadership in December — Agency responds to criticism and rapidly evolving technology by cutting back initiatives — Britain's flagship artificial intelligence agency … | Wency Chen / South China Morning Post: |
Microsoft closes its IoT & AI Insider Lab in Shanghai, opened in May 2019, reflecting a broader pullback from China amid geopolitical tensions with the US — The IoT & AI Insider Lab in the Zhangjiang hi-tech zone likely closed in January or February, nearby workers say| Zoë Schiffer / Wired: |
USPTO suspended xAI's Grok trademark application, saying the name could be confused with companies Groq and Grokstream; startup Bizly claims rights to “Grok” — Elon Musk said he borrowed the name from a 1960s science fiction novel, but another AI startup applied to trademark it before xAI launched its chatbot.
More: eWeek. Bluesky: @paleofuture, @destroyer267, @mikewilsoninoz, and @elleisanisland
Forums: r/NewsOfTheStupid and r/inthenews
| Marcus Hutchins / MalwareTech: |
The US needs a new cybersecurity strategy, but offensive cyber operations are unlikely to deter Chinese state-sponsored hacking and come with significant risk — Ever since China's ‘Salt Typhoon’ hacking operations against US telecom networks was uncovered, there's been a lot of discussion about “hacking back”.
More: Cybersecurity Insiders, Decrypt, and The Maritime Executive
Bluesky: @malwaretech.com, @malwaretech.com, and @swiftonsecurity.com
| Kendra Barnett / Adweek: |
Google is bringing its immersive Rewarded Video ads to Roblox, letting users watch ads in exchange for in-game benefits like virtual currency or power-ups — Advertisers can buy Rewarded Video ads on Roblox via Google Ad Manager, the company announced Tuesday
More: Reuters, Ad Age, MediaPost, Variety, Investing.com, Marketing Brew, and Google
| Financial Times: |
TTP: Apple's and Google's app stores host popular “private browsing” apps operated by Shanghai-listed Qihoo 360, sanctioned by the US in 2020 for military ties — New findings reveal free ‘private browsing’ apps popular with US users have ties to blacklisted Qihoo 360| Jess Weatherbed / The Verge: |
Google rolls out a new Gmail encryption model in beta for enterprise that doesn't require senders or recipients to use custom software or exchange certificates — The beta feature for enterprise accounts allows Gmail users to simply toggle encryption for external emails.
More: PCMag, ZDNET, The Register, 9to5Google, Infosecurity, Forbes, TechRepublic, and SiliconANGLE
| Megan Specia / New York Times: |
How some UK parents created a “Smartphone Free Childhood” pledge, signed by 124K+ people, after the UK government watered down a bill banning phones in schools — In Britain, amid growing evidence of harm to young people from extreme content online, a “Smartphone Free Childhood” campaign is going viral.| Stephen Nellis / Reuters: |
Lightmatter, which uses silicon photonics to move data in chips via light, unveils an interposer and chiplet for AI chips; the startup has raised $850M so far — Lightmatter, a startup valued at $4.4 billion, on Monday released two pieces of technology aimed at speeding up the connections between artificial intelligence chips.
More: eeNews Europe, Network World, and SiliconANGLE
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