Techmeme
April 14, 2025, 1:32 PM

Top News

New York Times:
FTC v. Meta: in opening arguments, FTC lawyers accuse Meta of a “buy-or-bury strategy” to cement a social networking monopoly by buying Instagram and WhatsApp  —  The tech giant went to court on Monday in an antitrust trial focused on its acquisitions of Instagram and WhatsApp.
New York Times:
Legal expert: Meta's FTC antitrust trial, where Mark Zuckerberg could take the stand as early as today, is set to be more grueling than Congressional hearings  —  Meta's chief has grown accustomed to tough questioning in courts and hearings, but an antitrust trial starting Monday could be more grueling, experts said.
Kyle Wiggers / TechCrunch:
Nvidia starts making its Blackwell chips at TSMC's Phoenix plant and says it aims to make up to $500B of AI infrastructure in the US in the next four years  —  Nvidia said on Monday that it has commissioned more than a million square feet of manufacturing space to build and test AI chips …
Arjun Kharpal / CNBC:
Sony hikes PlayStation 5 prices in Europe, the UK, Australia, and New Zealand, citing a “challenging economic environment”; the PS5 Pro remains the same price  —  Sony hiked the price of its flagship PlayStation 5 console in Europe, Australia and New Zealand, citing a “challenging economic environment” behind its move.
Kyle Wiggers / TechCrunch:
OpenAI releases GPT‑4.1, GPT‑4.1 mini, and GPT‑4.1 nano, which excel at coding, instruction following, and long context understanding, available via its API  —  OpenAI on Monday launched a new family of models called GPT-4.1.  Yes, “4.1” — as if the company's nomenclature wasn't confusing enough already.
Dominic Preston / The Verge:
Nikkei Asia:
Sources: Apple asked suppliers in India, Vietnam, and Thailand to ramp up production earlier in 2025; Indian factory utilization rates are already at the limit  —  TAIPEI — Apple is ramping up production of key products in India and Vietnam to take advantage of a 90-day grace period on U.S. tariffs …
Reuters:
Financial Times:
Keith Bradsher / New York Times:
Zaheer Kachwala / Reuters:
Intel says it will sell a 51% stake in Altera to Silver Lake, valuing the programmable chip unit at $8.7B; Intel bought Altera for $15B in 2015  —  Intel said on Monday it would sell a 51% stake in Altera to private equity firm Silver Lake, valuing the programmable chip unit at $8.75 billion.
The Keyword:
Google details DolphinGemma, a new 400M-parameter LLM to decode dolphin communication by analyzing the vocalizations of wild Atlantic spotted dolphins  —  DolphinGemma, a large language model developed by Google, is helping scientists study how dolphins communicate — and hopefully find out what they're saying, too.
Naga Avan-Nomayo / The Block:
Crypto exchange Kraken begins rolling out commission-free trading for over 11,000 US-listed stocks and ETFs, initially in nine US states and DC  —  - Kraken now supports equities trading on its digital asset exchange — powered by a brokerage deal with Alpaca.
Counterpoint Research:
Global smartphone sales grew 3% YoY in Q1 2025; Apple took the top spot, its first ever for Q1, with a 19% share, and Vivo was the fastest growing brand  —  - The global smartphone market continued its growth trajectory in Q1 2025.  Smartphone sell-through grew 3% YoY during the quarter …
New York Times:
How private prison company Geo Group built a lucrative side business making digital tools like smart watches and tracking apps to help ICE surveil immigrants  —  After a Honduran immigrant arrived in the United States in 2022, officials ordered him to use a government-issued app as part of an immigration surveillance program.

Sponsor Posts

ElevenLabs:
ElevenAgents by ElevenLabs  —  You know us for voice.  Now meet ElevenAgents — featuring Expressive Mode, our most human-sounding AI voice technology in 70+ languages with ultra-low latency.  Hear it for yourself.
Intel:
5G's most deployed platform  —  Powering live networks with built-in Inference across Core and RAN.  That's the power of Intel Inside®
Zoho:
How Zoho Workplace makes your Zoho CRM lighter  —  If you use Zoho CRM daily, you already know it's powerful.  It handles pipeline management, forecasting, automation, reporting, and everything that makes …
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.

Featured Podcasts

Big Technology Podcast:
Senator Mark Warner: Nobody's Ready for What AI Could Do To Us
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.
Uncapped with Jack Altman:
Ron Conway from SV Angel
Conversations with people I admire about things I'm genuinely interested in.
Subscribe to Uncapped with Jack Altman.
Channels with Peter Kafka:
Why Prediction Markets Are Turning Everything Into a Bet
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.
Cheeky Pint:
The 20-year journey to fully autonomous cars with Dmitri Dolgov of Waymo
Stripe cofounder John Collison interviews founders, builders, and leaders over a pint.
Subscribe to Cheeky Pint.
Invest Like the Best:
Mitchell Green - Lessons from Cold Calling 10,000 Companies
The leading destination to learn about business and investing. We do this by showcasing exceptional talent and ideas.
Subscribe to Invest Like the Best.
Tools and Weapons with Brad Smith:
Everybody Goes Home: How technology is helping prevent wildfires from spreading
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 1:32 PM ET, April 14, 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

Andy Bounds / Financial Times:
Associated Press:
Financial Times:

Earlier Picks

Kyle Wiggers / TechCrunch:
Bill Toulas / BleepingComputer: