Techmeme
April 1, 2025, 12:35 AM

Top News

CNBC:
OpenAI closes a $40B funding round, the most ever raised by a private tech company, at a $300B post-money valuation; SoftBank led the round with $30B  —  OpenAI on Monday announced it had closed what amounts to the largest private tech funding round on record.
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 …
Kyle Wiggers / TechCrunch:
Sam Altman says OpenAI is planning to “release a powerful new open-weight language model with reasoning in the coming months”  —  OpenAI says that it intends to release its first “open” language model since GPT‑2 “in the coming months.”  —  That's according to a feedback form …
Kylie Robison / The Verge:
Sam Altman says “we added one million users in the last hour”, following last week's Images for ChatGPT launch; over the weekend he said “our GPUs are melting”  —  Last week, OpenAI released Images for ChatGPT which led to an explosion of interest thanks to its ability …
Ian King / Bloomberg:
At the Intel Vision conference, CEO Lip-Bu Tan says Intel plans to spin off non-core assets, create new products including custom semiconductors, and more  —  Intel Corp. Chief Executive Officer Lip-Bu Tan said the chipmaker will spin off assets that aren't central to its mission and create …
Sean Endicott / Windows Central:
Microsoft expands Copilot+ PC features like Live Captions and Cocreator, previously exclusive to models with Snapdragon chips, to models 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.
Juli Clover / MacRumors:
Apple releases iOS 18.4 with Priority notifications for Apple Intelligence, which gets support for eight more languages, Ambient Music via Control Center, more  —  Apple today released iOS 18.4 and iPadOS 18.4, the fourth major updates to the iOS 18 and iPadOS 18 operating system updates …
Chance Miller / 9to5Mac:
Reuters:
Cheng Ting-Fang / Nikkei Asia:
Sources: GlobalFoundries mulls merging with UMC, Taiwan's 2nd-largest chipmaker, to form a bigger, US-based company with production in Asia, the US, and Europe  —  TAIPEI — U.S. contract chipmaker GlobalFoundries and United Microelectronics Corp., Taiwan's No. 2 chipmaker …
Maxwell Zeff / TechCrunch:
Amazon's AGI Lab unveils Nova Act, a general purpose AI agent to control a web browser and independently perform some simple actions, and a Nova Act SDK  —  Amazon on Monday unveiled Nova Act, a general-purpose AI agent that can take control of a web browser and independently perform some simple actions.
Caroline O'Donovan / Washington Post:
Alexa+ will start rolling out to users today; sources: some features demoed in February are slated to arrive in two months, while others will take longer  —  Alexa+, Amazon's AI-enhanced voice assistant, will launch to some customers Monday, though not every feature will be available right away
Vicky Ge Huang / Wall Street Journal:
Dan Primack / Axios:
Sources: CaaStle, a clothing inventory monetization platform that had raised $530M+, is almost broke and is accusing its founder of financial misconduct  —  Fashion technology company CaaStle is almost broke and is accusing its founder and former CEO Christine Hunsicker of financial misconduct, Axios has learned from multiple sources.
More: Puck and TechCrunch
Michael J. de la Merced / New York Times:
Isomorphic Labs, a DeepMind spinoff focusing on drug discovery, raised $600M led by Thrive to research treatments, including for cancer and immune disorders  —  The company, which uses artificial intelligence to develop new treatments, now counts the venture capital firm Thrive Capital as a backer.

Sponsor Posts

Google:
Try Gemini 3 Pro  —  Google's newest and most intelligent AI model that helps you bring any idea to life
Shopify:
Shopify's new AI commerce stack  —  Their VP of Product digs into just-launched products to help entrepreneurs and developers build with the latest AI and tech.
Zoho:
From content collaboration to content intelligence: Zoho WorkDrive's 2025 journey  —  As 2025 draws to a close, we're reflecting on a year marked by meaningful progress, purposeful innovation, and continuous learning at Zoho WorkDrive.
IDrive:
Protecting your Cloud Applications Data  —  Backing up Office 365, Google Workspace, Dropbox & Box data is critical to preventing data loss or corruption, complying with laws and avoiding critical downtime in case of a disaster.

Featured Podcasts

Hard Fork:
Why Roomba Died + Tech Predictions for 2026 + A Hard Forkin' Xmas Song
The future is already here. Each week, journalists Kevin Roose and Casey Newton explore and make sense of the latest in the rapidly changing world of tech.
Subscribe to Hard Fork.
Big Technology Podcast:
Sam Altman: How OpenAI Wins, AI Buildout Logic, IPO in 2026?
The Big Technology Podcast takes you behind the scenes in the tech world featuring interviews with plugged-in insiders and outside agitators.
Subscribe to Big Technology Podcast.
Access:
Betting on reality with Kalshi CEO Tarek Mansour
A show about the tech industry's inside conversation, hosted by tech reporter Alex Heath and founder whisperer Ellis Hamburger.
Subscribe to Access.
Lenny's Podcast:
The new AI growth playbook for 2026: How Lovable hit $200M ARR in one year | Elena Verna (Head of Growth)
Interviews with world-class product leaders and growth experts to uncover actionable advice to help you build, launch, and grow your own product.
Subscribe to Lenny's Podcast.
Channels with Peter Kafka:
"Neither Side Is Used to Losing." Lucas Shaw on What's Next for Netflix and Paramount in the Battle for Warner Bros.
Media and tech aren't just intersecting - they're fully intertwined. To understand how those worlds work, Peter Kafka talks to industry leaders, upstarts and observers.
Subscribe to Channels with Peter Kafka.
Tools and Weapons with Brad Smith:
Ted Sarandos: Netflix and how tech changed storytelling
Microsoft Vice Chair and President Brad Smith speaks with leaders in government, business, and culture to explore the most critical challenges at the intersection of technology and society.
Subscribe to Tools and Weapons with Brad Smith.
 

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 12:35 AM ET, April 1, 2025.

The most current version of the site as always is available at our home page. To view an earlier snapshot click here and then modify the date indicated.

More News

Kevin Beaumont / DoublePulsar:

Earlier Picks

Karin Matussek / Bloomberg:
Arjun Kharpal / CNBC:
Benoit Berthelot / Bloomberg:
Bloomberg: