Techmeme
May 14, 2025, 10:40 AM

Top News

Financial Times:
The US Commerce Department issues guidance stating that “using Huawei Ascend chips anywhere in the world violates US export controls” as they likely use US tech  —  Commerce department guidance aims to toughen export controls on tech used by China to make AI processors
Rebecca Szkutak / TechCrunch:
Bloomberg:
Sony reports Q4 revenue down 24% YoY to ~$17.7B, PlayStation 5 units sold in FY 24 down 11% YoY to 18.5M, and expects a ~$700M impact from US tariffs in FY 25  —  Silicon Valley Is Coming for the Pentagon's $1 Trillion Budget  —  The Trump administration wants startups to remake the US military …
Tom Warren / The Verge:
Microsoft extends security updates for Microsoft 365 apps on Windows 10 until October 10, 2028, after previously planning to end support on October 14, 2025  —  Microsoft 365 apps will continue to get security updates on Windows 10 for another three years.
Belle Lin / Wall Street Journal:
Databricks agrees to acquire cloud database startup Neon for ~$1B, set to close in Q2 2025; Neon's platform is based on open-source database PostgreSQL  —  The deal is aimed at making it easier for businesses to build artificial intelligence agents with their own data, Databricks CEO says
Tina Nguyen / The Verge:
President Trump's acting leaders for the Copyright Office are hostile to the tech industry and not the kind of people that generative AI proponents would want  —  What initially appeared to be a power play by Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) to take over the US Copyright Office …
Steven Levy / Wired:
A look at Brian Chesky's efforts to turn Airbnb into a storefront for real-world services, after its “experiences” experiment started in 2016 was unsuccessful  —  CEO Brian Chesky is spending hundreds of millions to relaunch his travel company as an everything app.  Fitness!  Food!
Clare Duffy / CNN:
Ian King / Bloomberg:
AMD and Humain partner to invest up to $10B on AI infrastructure over the next five years, including in data centers stretching from Saudi Arabia to the US  —  Silicon Valley Is Coming for the Pentagon's $1 Trillion Budget  —  The Trump administration wants startups to remake the US military …
Jessica Lyons / The Register:
The EU's Vulnerability Database project, announced in June 2024, is now fully operational, while the US' NVD struggles with a vulnerability submission backlog  —  EUVD comes into play not a moment too soon  —  The European Vulnerability Database (EUVD) is now fully operational …
Grant Stoner / IGN:
Sources, including former AbleGamers staff, detail abuse, financial mismanagement, and other issues at the nonprofit dedicated to promoting gaming accessibility  —  20 Years after AbleGamers' founding, new reports detail abuse fostered by management, mismanaged funds, and leadership that failed to protect employees.
Jennifer Elias / CNBC:
Google says it started testing an AI Mode button on the Google Search homepage with Labs users over the past week, replacing the I'm Feeling Lucky button  —  Google's stalwart search button has a new neighbor: AI Mode.  —  The artificial intelligence feature is being tested directly beneath …
CNBC:
Neobank Chime files for a Nasdaq IPO under CHYM, reporting active members up 23% YoY to 8.6M at the end of March 2025 and $251 average revenue per active member  —  Financial technology company Chime on Tuesday filed paperwork to go public on the Nasdaq.  The company intends to file under the ticker symbol “CHYM.”
New York Times:
US SEC filing: GD Culture Group, a struggling China-linked company that has only eight staff, plans to buy $300M in BTC and $TRUMP, creating ethical conflicts  —  The firm, which produces content for TikTok, recorded no revenue last year, but it announced this week that a mysterious stock sale …
Samantha Subin / CNBC:
Stock and crypto brokerage eToro prices its IPO at $52 per share, above its expected range of $46 to $50, raising nearly $310M and valuing the company at ~$4.2B  —  EToro, a stock brokerage platform that's been ramping up in crypto, has priced its IPO at $52 a share, as the company prepares …
Arjun Kharpal / CNBC:
Tencent reports Q1 revenue up 13% YoY to ~$25B, above ~$24.3B est., net profit up 14% YoY to ~$6.6B, below ~$7.3B est., driven by its gaming business' growth  —  Tencent on Wednesday reported an annual rise in its top and bottom line in the first quarter fuelled by accelerated growth in its key gaming business.
Bloomberg:
How Finland's district heating systems are harvesting heat from data centers; Microsoft's project in Kirkkonummi will be the largest in the world when completed  —  By pairing power-hungry computer processing facilities with district heating systems, Nordic countries are trying to limit their environmental downsides.
More: Tech.eu
Jennifer Maas / Variety:NEW
The Information:
Sources: TikTok is working on a new feature to let US users share photos over DMs inside the app, and also plans to introduce voice messaging  —  TikTok has been working on a new feature that will allow users in the U.S. to share photos over direct messages inside the app, according to three people with knowledge of the situation.
IDrive:
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Lauren Feiner / The Verge:
Vlad Savov / Bloomberg:
Appfigures: mobile gamers spent $65.4B in 2024, up 4% YoY, but less than $4B went to games released in 2024; studios launched 126K games in 2024, down 43% YoY  —  Silicon Valley Is Coming for the Pentagon's $1 Trillion Budget  —  The Trump administration wants startups to remake the US military …

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UiPath:
UiPath Unveils 10 Innovations that Will Shape the Agentic Future  —  Orchestration engine, API workflows and agentic testing among key features of new UiPath Platform™ for agentic automation, launched at UiPath DevCon 2025
Zoho:
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IDrive:
Protecting your Cloud Applications Data  —  Backing up Office 365, Google Workspace, Dropbox & Box data is critical to preventing data loss or corruption, complying with laws and avoiding critical downtime in case of a disaster.

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The Guardian:
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