Techmeme
April 9, 2025, 1:20 PM

Top News

Kyle Wiggers / TechCrunch:
Cloud Next: Google unveils Ironwood, its seventh-generation TPU and the first for inference, coming later in 2025 in a 256-chip cluster or a 9,216-chip cluster  —  During its Cloud Next conference this week, Google unveiled the latest generation of its TPU AI accelerator chip.
Abner Li / 9to5Google:
Google launches Workspace Flows, an AI tool to automate multi-step processes, in alpha, and new Docs, Sheets, Meet, Chat, and Vids features, like audio in Docs  —  Besides new Gemini features in Google Docs, Sheets, Meet, Chat and Vids, Cloud Next 2025 saw the announcement of Google Workspace Flows.
Mark Gurman / Bloomberg:
Samsung and Google plan to launch Ballie, a soccer-ball-shaped home robot “like a personal BB-8” that uses AI and can project video onto walls, in summer 2025  —  Samsung Electronics Co. and Alphabet Inc.'s Google are partnering to launch the Ballie, a soccer-ball-shaped home robot …
Elisabeth Buchwald / CNN:
Tariffs on China rose to 104% at 12:01am ET on April 9 after China missed Trump's deadline to remove its reciprocal tariffs  —  President Donald Trump is set to impose an astounding 104% in levies across all Chinese imports on Wednesday, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt announced on Tuesday.
More: Silicon Valley Business …, Benzinga, Financial Times, New York Times, FreightWaves, Rolling Stone, The White House, Mediaite, CNBC, Cryptopolitan, Bloomberg, Mirror, Fortune, Android Authority, NPR, Variety, Associated Press, NBC News, New York Post, Watcher Guru, and CoinGape
Threads: @aaron.rupar and @kolchak
Reuters:
Call transcript: Luxshare Chair Wang Laichun says the iPhone and AirPods maker is in talks with clients to move more production from China, including to the US  —  Apple (AAPL.O) supplier Luxshare (002475.SZ) is in talks with customers on ways to respond to U.S. tariffs by shifting …
Karthikeyan Sundaram / Bloomberg:
White House document: the US will tax imports of items priced up to $800 at 90% of their value, up from a prior plan of a 30% levy, targeting Chinese retailers  —  The escalating trade war between the US and China saw President Donald Trump raise tariffs even further on small parcels that were until now exempt from taxes.
Nikkei Asia:
Sources: to avoid tariffs, Apple, Dell, Microsoft, Lenovo, and others pressed suppliers to fly as many $3,000+ devices as possible to the US before April 9  —  TAIPEI/PALO ALTO, California — Ever since Donald Trump was elected president back in November, the world's biggest electronics brands …
Chance Miller / 9to5Mac:
NPR:
Sources: after Jensen Huang went to Mar-a-Lago last week, the White House reversed course on Nvidia H20 export restrictions to China, in the works for months  —  When Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang attended a $1 million-a-head dinner at Mar-a-Lago last week, a chip known as the H20 may have been on his mind.
Will Canny / CoinDesk:
Ripple agrees to acquire prime brokerage Hidden Road for $1.25B; Hidden Road plans to use Ripple's RLUSD stablecoin as collateral across its platform  —  Among other things, the deal is expected to strengthen Ripple's stablecoin ambitions.  —  What to know:
Isabelle Bousquette / Wall Street Journal:
How Google used new AI techniques to enhance 90%+ of The Wizard of Oz, released in 1939, to show on the Las Vegas Sphere's giant screen from August 28, 2025  —  Google invented new techniques to enhance resolution and generated new character performances to bring the 1939 film to the giant screen
Georgia Butler / DatacenterDynamics:
Microsoft backs out of its October 2024 plan to invest $1B in three Ohio data center campuses, the latest in a series of its data center project cancellations  —  Another data center project bites the dust  —  Microsoft has backed out of plans to build data centers in Licking County, Ohio.
Abner Li / 9to5Google:
Google rolls out Loss of Pulse Detection to the Pixel Watch 3 in the US after getting FDA clearance in February 2025; the feature rolled out in Europe in 2024  —  Following the April 2025 OTA update and Scam Detection yesterday, Google is now rolling out Loss of Pulse Detection in the US.
Reuters:
At an NRCC event, President Trump says he told TSMC it would pay a tax of up to 100% if it didn't build US plants; in March, TSMC said it would invest $100B  —  President Donald Trump on Tuesday said he told the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, which has pledged to build new factories …
Vikram Dodd / The Guardian:
Statewatch and FOI documents: the UK government is developing a “murder prediction” tool that uses personal data of those known to police to find likely killers  —  Exclusive: Algorithms allegedly being used to study data of thousands of people, in project critics say is ‘chilling and dystopian’

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The Verge:
Abner Li / 9to5Google:
The Information: