|
April 1, 2025, 11:15 AM
|
Mediagazer
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, Laptop Mag, Wall Street Journal, Sherwood News, Reuters, Financial Times, VentureBeat, Digital Trends, Benzinga, Maginative, Axios, Fortune, Yahoo Finance, Nairametrics, StrictlyVC, TechSpot, Forbes, Cryptopolitan, YourStory.com, Interesting Engineering, Neowin, TechCrunch, Tech Xplore, AIN, SiliconANGLE, Decrypt, PYMNTS.com, San Francisco Business Times, Tech in Asia, Thurrott, The Wrap, and VC News Daily
Bluesky: @carnage4life, @edzitron.com, @andrewparker, @edsbs, and @edzitron.com
X: @sama, @mikeisaac, @garymarcus, @rogoswami, @kyliebytes, @apompliano, @edzitron, @danprimack, @mikebutcher, and @gavinpurcell
LinkedIn: Hayden Field and Geoff Lewis
Forums: Hacker News, r/OpenAI, r/singularity, and r/technology
| Bloomberg: |
Sources: SoftBank is seeking a bridge loan of as much as $16.5B to help fund AI investments in the US, its largest-ever borrowing denominated solely in USD — The bridge loan under discussion has a tenor of about 12 months, said the people, who asked not to be identified discussing private matters.
More: PYMNTS.com, Global Corporate Venturing, Sherwood News, Fortune, Tech in Asia, and Analytics India Magazine. LinkedIn: Kari Lindberg
| 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: DatacenterDynamics, SoftBank Group Corp., Barron's Online, Washington Post, Reuters, Global Corporate Venturing, The Decoder, PitchBook, CNBC, Quartz, Arabian Business, Yahoo Finance, Benzinga, New York Times, Euronews, Silicon Republic, YourStory.com, Business Today, Proactive, Tech Funding News, Blockonomi, TNGlobal, Pulse 2.0, Financial Express, Times of India, The Information, Wall Street Journal, Australian Financial Review, Hindustan Times, Verdict, The Crypto Times, CRN, 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: |
More: OpenAI, Tech Monitor, Reuters, The Decoder, Business Standard, 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, @garrytan, @dorialexander, @thexeophon, @gdb, @altcap, @levie, @joheidecke, 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, Business Standard, PCWorld, Tom's Hardware, The Verge, Beebom, WinBuzzer, Ghacks, TechRadar, Guru3D, BetaNews, Cryptopolitan, Digital Trends, 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
| 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| 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: TechRadar, XDA Developers, Investor's Business Daily, TechCrunch, Reuters, Intel, PC Gamer, Intel on YouTube, Financial Times, Cryptopolitan, Wall Street Journal, 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
| 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 … | Financial Times: |
Current and former Google DeepMind scientists say a tougher vetting process and more bureaucracy at the Google 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| 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: Gameranx, Forbes, The Indian Express, Tech4Gamers, Tom's Guide, Comic Book, Laptop Mag, T3, and Engadget
| Jess Weatherbed / The Verge: |
Google rolls out a new Gmail encryption model for enterprises in beta 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: Google Workspace Blog, BleepingComputer, PCMag, 9to5Google, CyberInsider, ComputerWeekly.com, WinBuzzer, Infosecurity, Forbes, TechRepublic, and SiliconANGLE. Forums: Slashdot
| 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
More: 9to5Mac, Telecoms Tech News, and Tech Transparency Project
| 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
| 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 … | The Information: |
OpenAI says ChatGPT has hit 20M paid subscribers, up from 15.5M at the end of 2024, suggesting the company is making at least $415M in monthly revenue — Before today's main column about the AI attention war between OpenAI and Google, there's OpenAI news from my colleague Natasha … | Zoë Schiffer / Wired: |
The USPTO suspends xAI's Grok trademark application, saying the name could be confused with companies Groq and Grokstream; startup Bizly claims it owns “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
| Nicole Sperling / New York Times: |
In a new strategy, Amazon plans to release 14 to 16 movies per year in theaters, rivaling other major studios, with most running for 45 days before streaming — The streaming giant is planning to release at least 14 movies a year in theaters around the country, rivaling other major studios.
More: Engadget, Deadline, and Los Angeles Times
| 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: Bloomberg, Roblox Corporate, Reuters, Benzinga, TipRanks Financial, Ad Age, Wall Street Pit, MediaPost, Variety, Investing.com, Marketing Brew, and Google
| 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 … | 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.| Wency Chen / South China Morning Post: |
Earlier in 2025, Microsoft closed its IoT & AI Insider Lab in Shanghai, opened in May 2019, marking a 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| 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: Decrypt, Cybersecurity Insiders, and The Maritime Executive
Bluesky: @malwaretech.com, @malwaretech.com, and @swiftonsecurity.com
Sponsor Posts
Subquadratic:
Subquadratic: the LLM built for 12M-token reasoning — SubQ can reason across entire codebases and document sets in one pass with no RAG workarounds. Read how SubQ 1.1 Small holds near-perfect retrieval out to 12M tokens.
Subquadratic: the LLM built for 12M-token reasoning — SubQ can reason across entire codebases and document sets in one pass with no RAG workarounds. Read how SubQ 1.1 Small holds near-perfect retrieval out to 12M tokens.
Cape:
Most carriers track everything. Cape doesn't. — Unlimited talk, text & data, 24-hr metadata deletion, network ID rotation, SIM-attack defense, and more. Switch today and get 29% off for life.
Most carriers track everything. Cape doesn't. — Unlimited talk, text & data, 24-hr metadata deletion, network ID rotation, SIM-attack defense, and more. Switch today and get 29% off for life.
Zoho:
Introducing Zoho connected apps for Google Gemini — Note: Now available to organizations in the Indian data center. Support for other Zoho data centers will be available soon.AI assistants have gotten remarkably …
Introducing Zoho connected apps for Google Gemini — Note: Now available to organizations in the Indian data center. Support for other Zoho data centers will be available soon.AI assistants have gotten remarkably …
IDrive:
Protecting your Cloud Applications Data — Backing up Office 365, Google Workspace, Dropbox & Salesforce data is critical to preventing data loss or corruption, complying with laws and avoiding critical downtime in case of a disaster.
Protecting your Cloud Applications Data — Backing up Office 365, Google Workspace, Dropbox & Salesforce data is critical to preventing data loss or corruption, complying with laws and avoiding critical downtime in case of a disaster.Featured Podcasts
Channels with Peter Kafka:
The Weird, Big Business of Microdramas
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.
Big Technology Podcast:
How AI Should Handle News, Politics, Medicine, and Mental Health — With Campbell Brown
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.
Training Data:
Parallel's Parag Agrawal: Building a New Web for AI Agents
Sequoia Capital partners host conversations with leading AI builders and researchers to develop a deeper understanding of the evolving technologies and their implications.
Subscribe to Training Data.
Invest Like the Best:
Neil Movva - Making AI 10x Cheaper
The leading destination to learn about business and investing. We do this by showcasing exceptional talent and ideas.
Subscribe to Invest Like the Best.
Grit:
Data Centers in Orbit by 2028: Baiju Bhatt on His Plans After Robinhood
Grit explores what it takes to create, build and scale world-class organizations.
Subscribe to Grit.
Tools and Weapons with Brad Smith:
Connecting the Unconnected: Doreen Bogdan-Martin
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 11:15 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.
From Mediagazer
Matthew Keys / TheDesk.net:Max Tani / @maxwelltani:
Benjamin Mullin / New York Times:
Upcoming Tech Events
More News
| Yogita Khatri / The Block: |
| Stephen Nellis / Reuters: |
More: eeNews Europe, Network World, Lightmatter, Lightmatter, and SiliconANGLE
LinkedIn: Lightmatter and Lightmatter
Earlier Picks
| Juli Clover / MacRumors: |
More: 9to5Mac, ZDNET, Apple, MacRumors, MacRumors, Stuff, Emojipedia, AppleInsider, WebKit, Neowin, The Hindu, Mirror, O'Grady's PowerPage, TechCrunch, MacStories, Stephen Robles on YouTube, MacRumors, YouTube, Brandon Butch on YouTube, zollotech on YouTube, Cult of Mac Today, iDeviceHelp on YouTube, CNET, AppleInsider, Laptop Mag, mjtsai.com, Axios, Ars Technica, 9to5Mac, Appleosophy, 9to5Mac, MacRumors, Digital Trends, PhoneArena, Daring Fireball, 9to5Mac, 9to5Mac, AppleInsider, Thurrott, iDownloadBlog.com, TechRadar, Engadget, BGR, The Mac Observer, The Mac Observer, The Mac Observer, The Mac Observer, The Apple Post, The Verge, Macworld, iPhone in Canada Blog, The Mac Observer, Forbes, AppleInsider, AppleInsider, Cult of Mac, and CNET
Bluesky: @sdw. Mastodon: @viticci@mastodon …, @GossiTheDog@cyberplace.social, and @Kierkegaanks@beige.party. Threads: @danawollman. X: @markgurman
LinkedIn: Eric Gourlaouen and Christopher B. Neubauer
Forums: r/OpenCoreLegacyPatcher, r/iphone, r/apple, r/MacOS, MacRumors Forums, and MacRumors Forums
| Caroline O'Donovan / Washington Post: |
More: 9to5Mac, KnowTechie, Neowin, Digital Trends, The Verge, iPhone in Canada Blog, Android Police, Android Authority, About Amazon, Android Headlines, TechCrunch, and Engadget. Threads: @joannastern