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April 12, 2025, 11:20 AM

Top News

Bloomberg:

The Trump administration excludes smartphones, laptops, hard drives, processors, memory chips, and machines used to make semiconductors from reciprocal tariffs — President Donald Trump's administration exempted smartphones, computers and other electronics from its so-called reciprocal tariffs …

More: AppleInsider, U.S. Customs …, CNN, CNBC, Barron's Online, Yahoo Finance, Financial Times, Fortune, Axios, Windows Central, 9to5Mac, The Verge, Le Monde, New York Times, PhoneArena, Android Central, Daily Mail, The Hill, RedState, Mirror, ZeroHedge News, Mediaite, CBS News, Politico, KENS, Forbes, KVUE-TV, and WHEC.com

Bluesky: @sandertordoir, @bgrueskin, @iamfreetobeme, @michaelcaley, @nosunkcosts, @jaec, @whetmoser.com, @danielzhao, @monhegan, @scottlincicome, @chadpbown.com, @christianh, @lookitup.baby, and @christianh. Mastodon: @KimPerales@toad.social. Threads: @carnage4life

LinkedIn: Lori Mullins, Andy Rothman, and Deborah Elms

Bloomberg:

Netflix is testing an OpenAI-powered search engine that lets users find shows via inquiries that go beyond genres or actors' names, like the subscriber's mood — The OpenAI-powered search engine lets customers look for shows using far more specific terms, including the subscriber's mood, for example, the company said.

More: The Verge, Financial Express, T3, Tech in Asia, and Trusted Reviews

Bluesky: @carnage4life and @quinnypig.com. X: @jakuuire. Forums: r/technology

See also Mediagazer

Sophie McEvoy / GamesIndustry.biz:

Newzoo: global consumer spending for PC and console gaming fell 2% YoY to $80.2B in 2024, with console revenues leading market share with $42.8B, down 3.9% YoY — Firm estimates PC and console gaming market to reach $92.7 billion by 2027 — Global consumer spending for PC and console gaming fell …

More: Newzoo, TechSpot, ITC.UA, Mezha.Media, Game Rant, Kotaku, Game File, PC Games Insider, and CNET

Bluesky: @gtelephant. X: @gamer_matheusx, @newzoohq, and @stephentotilo. Forums: r/pcmasterrace

Financial Times:

Sources: Ilya Sutskever's Safe Superintelligence raised $2B led by Greenoaks at a $32B valuation; SSI last raised $1B at a $5B valuation in September 2024 — Start-up raises $2bn, underscoring investors' keen appetite for bankrolling AI groups despite US economic tumult

More: StrictlyVC, The Information, and Windows Central

Threads: @jjackyliang. X: @emollick. LinkedIn: James Mawson

Reuters:

Source: Alphabet and Nvidia are among investors backing Safe Superintelligence; Google Cloud announced on April 9 that SSI is using its TPUs for AI research

More: Neowin and The Motley Fool

Bluesky: @nosunkcosts. Forums: r/singularity

Makena Kelly / Wired:

Sources: Palantir is helping DOGE build an API layer above all IRS databases; DOGE wants Palantir's Foundry software to be the “read center of all IRS systems” — For the past three days, DOGE and a handful of Palantir representatives, along with dozens of career IRS engineers …

Bluesky: @sbyrnes, @wired.com, @wired.com, @emptywheel, @techviews, @whodat35, @couts, and @katie-drummond. Mastodon: @JorisMeys@mstdn.social. X: @wired

Forums: r/technology, r/politics, r/feddiscussion, r/fednews, and r/TrueReddit

Meaghan Tobin / New York Times:

ByteDance, which spent an estimated $11B in 2024 on infrastructure for AI, is using data from ~1B users of its apps as the linchpin of its growing AI business — A set of popular apps helped China's ByteDance develop a key component of advanced artificial intelligence: information on how a billion people use the internet.

More: Politico

Ryan Weeks / Bloomberg:

Architect Partners: Q1 2025 was a record quarter for crypto M&A with 61 deals and $2.2B in total deal value, including Kraken's $1.5B acquisition of NinjaTrader — A false dawn for M&A? — Is the crypto M&A boom for real? We asked Casper Johansen, partner at The Spartan Group, a digital assets advisory firm.

More: Architect Partners and Architect Partners. X: @business

Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:

Appfigures: ChatGPT was the most downloaded app globally in March, excluding games, with 46M downloads across App Store and Google Play, its biggest month ever — ChatGPT became the world's most downloaded app in March, excluding games, topping the usual contenders for the No. 1 spot, Instagram and TikTok.

More: Business Today, 9to5Mac, Moneycontrol, Nairametrics, The Economic Times, CNET, and Redmond Pie

Chris Metinko / Crunchbase News:

Asia's startup funding fell 40% YoY to ~$13B in Q1 2025, the lowest funding for a quarter since $12.3B in Q4 2014; AI startup funding fell 50% YoY to just $1.8B — While OpenAI's massive $40 billion funding boosted global and North America's funding totals, Asia was not so lucky.

X: @crunchbasenews

Gabriela Sá Pessoa / Rest of World:

A look at the battle between Uber and its unlikely ally, Chinese-owned rival 99, against the São Paulo city government, which banned motorcycle taxis in 2023 — The ride-hailing rivals are taking on the government of São Paulo, which banned motorcycle taxis.

Bluesky: @rinachandran. LinkedIn: Gabriela Sá Pessoa

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From Mediagazer

Ted Johnson / Deadline:

A new filing from Nexstar in the DirecTV lawsuit says the existing restraining order freezing the Nexstar-Tegna merger could jeopardize assets of both companies

Minho Kim / New York Times:

A US appeals court pauses a lower-court order that would have reinstated around 1,000 Voice of America journalists and staff who had been put on paid leave

New York Times:

Sources: an Iranian-aligned militia in Iraq is seeking the release of several detained militia members in exchange for freeing journalist Shelly Kittleson

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More News

Counterpoint Research:

In Q1 2025, SK Hynix overtook Samsung for the first time to lead global DRAM revenues with a 36% share, driven by its dominant 70% market share in HBM

More: SamMobile, KED Global, SammyGuru, DigiTimes, and Tech in Asia. X: @counterpointtr

Kate O'Keeffe / Bloomberg:

US investigators are probing whether the China ties of TP-Link Systems Inc., the US-based business of Wi-Fi router giant TP-Link, pose an “unacceptable risk”

X: @business, @kate_okeeffe, @marksimonhk, @tomcottonar, and @dnvolz. Forums: Slashdot

Barry Schwartz / Search Engine Land:

Google says some terms in AI Overviews will link to Google's search results “to help people more easily explore topics and discover relevant websites”

More: 9to5Google and Search Engine Roundtable. Bluesky: @glenngabe

Financial Times:

Bain Capital agrees to buy Blackstone-backed HealthEdge, which offers SaaS for health insurers to modernize their systems, sources say for ~$2.6B including debt

More: Axios and Bain Capital

Natalie Lung / Bloomberg:

YipitData: Waymo's robotaxis made up about 20% of rides offered by Uber in Austin in the last week of March, after launching on March 4

More: The Robot Report, TipRanks Financial, The Driverless Digest, and Business Insider

Bluesky: @jf2u. X: @aleximm, @stockmarketnerd, @adamkovac, and @sethdavishoops. Forums: r/waymo

Ari Levy / CNBC:

Filing: Founders Fund has closed a $4.6B late-stage venture fund; source: a substantial amount of the capital was provided by the firm's general partners

More: Tech in Asia, The Economic Times, Bloomberg, and US SEC

Aisha S Gani / Bloomberg:

Revolut plans to add UK stocks to its trading platform as some investors look to diversify away from US equities, and says it has over 800K UK trading customers

More: Financial Times and PYMNTS.com. LinkedIn: Aisha S Gani

Sean O'Kane / TechCrunch:

Blue Water Autonomy, which says it is building a 100-ton autonomous naval ship, emerges from stealth with a $14M seed from Eclipse VC, Riot, and Impatient

More: goSkagit, Blue Water Autonomy, Inc., The Boston Globe, and VC News Daily

X: @bluewaterships, @bluewaterships, @sethwinterroth, @bluewaterships, and @bloombergtv

Earlier Picks

Colin Campbell / Axios:

Ann Arbor, Michigan-based Optilogic, a supply chain software provider, raised a $40M Series B led by NewRoad Capital and launches a tariff optimization tool

More: Pulse 2.0, Optilogic, FinSMEs, and VC News Daily

Kyle Wiggers / TechCrunch:

A group of former OpenAI employees files an amicus brief in support of Elon Musk in his lawsuit opposing OpenAI's for-profit transition

More: The Verge, CNBC, The Decoder, Chat GPT Is Eating the World, Benzinga, Fortune, Bloomberg, PC Gamer, and The Guardian

Bluesky: @lorak. X: @todor_m_markov and @raopoornima. Forums: Slashdot