Techmeme
April 14, 2025, 7:00 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.
Brendan Bordelon / Politico:
FTC v. Meta: the US argued Meta has a monopoly in the “personal social networking” market, which it claims includes only Instagram, WhatsApp, Snapchat, and MeWe  —  The government wants to show the Meta CEO bought Instagram and WhatsApp to snuff out social media competition.
New York Times:
Legal expert: at Meta's FTC antitrust trial, Mark Zuckerberg is likely to face a more grueling time on the stand compared to his former 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.
Ben Smith / Semafor:
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.
The Information:
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 …
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.
Mark Gurman / Bloomberg:
Apple plans to begin on-device, privacy-centric analysis of user data, comparing it to synthetic data, to improve AI, in beta versions of iOS 18.5, macOS 15.5  —  Apple Inc. will begin analyzing data on customers' devices in a bid to improve its artificial intelligence platform …
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 …
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 …
Financial Times:
Andy Bounds / Financial Times:
Sources: the European Commission is issuing burner phones and laptops to some US-bound staff to mitigate espionage risks, a move typically reserved for China  —  European Commission officials heading to IMF and World Bank spring meetings advised to travel with basic devices

Sponsor Posts

Command Line:
We can build it.  Can we judge it?  —  As agentic AI shortens the path from idea to shipped code, journey evaluation becomes a critical design skill.
Will Reed:
The best sales leaders aren't job hunting.  Here's how to reach them without months of cold outreach.  —  Our team came from Box, Square, and Brex, so we already know the GTM leaders worth meeting.
Zoho:
App Spotlight: Map My Client Location for Zoho CRM  —  App Spotlight brings you hand-picked solutions that enhance your Zoho apps and tools.  Visit Zoho Marketplace to explore all of our apps, integrations …
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:
Google's Potential, AI Money Spigot Shutting?, PHP Bug & Cybersecurity's "Black October"
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.
Machine Gods:
Fired OpenAI Safety Researchers Speak Out + We Look Inside Pandora's Box
The official podcast of the singularity, from Casey Newton and Kevin Roose. Twice-weekly news, analysis, and interviews with the people who are building the future.
Subscribe to Machine Gods.
The Upstarts Podcast:
The Parking Startup That Swallowed A 100-Year-Old Giant | Metropolis CEO Alex Israel
Veteran tech reporter Alex Konrad sits down with breakout entrepreneurs taking on the status quo to shake up their fields in AI, design, nuclear energy, space, and more.
Subscribe to The Upstarts Podcast.
Great Chat:
AI's Spooky Season
A podcast mostly about tech. Brought to you weekly by Angela Du, Sally Shin, Mac Bohannon, Helen Min, and Ashley Mayer.
Subscribe to Great Chat.
Sources:
Sundar Pichai on Gemini 4 and the AI compute crunch
Candid conversations with the leaders shaping what's next in AI and the broader tech industry. Hosted by Alex Heath, who has covered Silicon Valley for more than a decade.
Subscribe to Sources.
Channels with Peter Kafka:
Netflix in Turmoil + Derek Thompson on AI & The Antisocial Century
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.
 

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 7:00 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

Associated Press:
Financial Times:

Earlier Picks

New York Times:
Arjun Kharpal / CNBC:
Bill Toulas / BleepingComputer: