Techmeme
April 15, 2026, 2:00 PM

Top News

Bryce Elder / Financial Times:
Shoe company Allbirds, which sold last week for $39M after its valuation fell from $4B+ in 2021, says it aims to become an AI compute provider; BIRD jumps 800%+  —  Ah, zeitgeist:  —  Allbirds is a San Francisco maker of wool trainers that was once valued at more than $4bn.
Alexandra S. Levine / Bloomberg:
Snap CEO Evan Spiegel says the company plans to lay off ~1,000 full-time employees, or 16% of its global workforce, to cut costs and achieve profitability  —  Snap Inc. is laying off roughly 1,000 full-time employees, or 16% of its global workforce, part of an effort by Chief Executive Officer Evan Spiegel …
Abner Li / 9to5Google:
Google launches a Gemini Mac app, featuring a keyboard shortcut, screen sharing for better context, image generation with Nano Banana, and more  —  Gemini now has a native Mac app in the first expansion from Android and iOS.  —  This “native desktop experience” is launched via an Option + Space keyboard shortcut.
Abner Li / 9to5Google:
Matt Burgess / Wired:
Analysis: nearly 90 schools and 600+ students globally have been impacted by AI-generated deepfake nudes; North America had nearly 30 reported cases since 2023  —  An analysis by WIRED and Indicator found nearly 90 schools and 600 students around the world impacted by AI-generated deepfake nude images …
Arjun Kharpal / CNBC:
ASML reports Q1 net sales of €8.8B, above €8.5B est., a €2.8B net profit, above €2.5B est., and raises its 2026 net sales forecast from €34B-€39B to €36B-€40B  —  ASML stock fell 6% on Wednesday despite raising its sales forecast for 2026 and beating first-quarter revenue and profit expectations.
Gian Volpicelli / Bloomberg:
The EU unveils an open-source age verification app, which requires showing ID, to shield kids from harmful content, setting the standard for verification tech  —  The European Union has unveiled an app to confirm users' age online, setting the standard for verification technology …
Ivan Mehta / TechCrunch:
Adobe unveils Firefly AI Assistant, which can orchestrate and execute multistep tasks across Creative Cloud apps, available in public beta in the coming weeks  —  Last October, Adobe previewed a new assistant under the “Project Moonlight” moniker that could do tasks for you by tapping different Adobe apps …
Emily Nicolle / Bloomberg:
Tel Aviv-based eToro agrees to acquire crypto wallet provider Zengo, a source says for ~$70M, mostly in cash; Zengo lets traders swap between tokens and fiat  —  EToro Group Ltd. has agreed to acquire Zengo, a crypto wallet provider, as the trading and investment platform expands its reach into decentralized finance.
Lauren Forristal / TechCrunch:
Spotify launches a feature to buy physical books in the US and UK, powered by Bookshop.org, and expands its Page Match scanning tool to support 30+ languages  —  In February, Spotify made an exciting (and a bit unusual) move when it entered the world of physical book sales.
Mark Gurman / Bloomberg:
Apple endorses the ~$11.6B Amazon-Globalstar deal, noting that it has a “proven track record” with Amazon infrastructure; Apple holds a ~20% stake in Globalstar  —  Amazon.com Inc.'s takeover of Globalstar Inc. is poised to benefit one of the company's biggest rivals in hardware devices: Apple Inc.
Steven Vaughan-Nichols / ZDNET:
Cal.com, which provides scheduling software, is moving its core open-source codebase to a closed repository, citing the dangers of AI hacking its open code  —  ZDNET's key takeaways  — Cal is reluctantly moving away from open source for security.  — This move isn't about Mythos, but risks from modern AI tools.
David Ingram / NBC News:
Letter to Senators in January: Apple said it told X it may remove Grok from the App Store for not stopping the app from generating nude and sexualized deepfakes  —  In a letter to senators sent in January, Apple detailed how it responded to Grok's ability to generate sexualized deepfakes.
IDC:
Global smartphone shipments fell 4.1% YoY in Q1, the first drop since mid 2023, amid memory constraints; only Samsung and Apple grew shipments, at 3.6% and 3.3%  —  Limited memory supply and record high memory prices increase pressure on smartphone OEMs to reduce shipments and increase prices that dampen demand.
Madison Mills / Axios:
Hilbert, whose AI software connects data across teams to help companies make decisions from a single system, raised a $28M Series A led by a16z  —  Hilbert, an AI startup rethinking how companies drive growth, raised a $28 million Series A led by Andreessen Horowitz, the startup told Axios exclusively.
More: FinSMEs and a16z
CNBC:
Meta and Broadcom announce an expanded partnership to co-develop multiple generations of Meta's MTIA chips; Broadcom CEO Hock Tan plans to leave Meta's board  —  Meta and Broadcom on Tuesday announced a sweeping deal that extends an existing partnership between the two companies for the design …
Sean Hollister / The Verge:
The US FCC grants Netgear a conditional approval to import its future consumer routers, cable modems, and cable gateways into the US through October 1, 2027  —  Make it make sense. Make it make sense. … The United States' foreign router ban didn't make a whole lot of sense, and today may not change that.
Financial Times:
Sources and analyst estimates: Uber is on track to spend $7.5B+ on thousands of robotaxis and $2.5B+ on equity stakes in their makers over the next few years  —  Ride-hailing app races to make up lost ground with equity investments and vehicle order commitments
Juro Osawa / The Information:
ByteDance launches its Seedance 2.0 video model to enterprise clients in 100+ countries, excluding the US amid legal disputes, after a February launch in China  —  ByteDance's cloud computing unit has made the company's Seedance 2. AI video generation model available globally to enterprise customers …
Rachel Metz / Bloomberg:
OpenAI rolls out GPT-5.4-Cyber, a fine-tuned GPT-5.4 variant for defensive cybersecurity use cases, to some participants of its Trusted Access for Cyber program  —  OpenAI is letting a select group of users access a new artificial intelligence model that's meant to be more adept …

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