Techmeme: Sources: senior DOJ officials plan to hold closed-door Senate briefings on March 19 and 20 to advance a TikTok divestiture, as opposed to an outright US ban (Bloomberg)

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March 19, 2024, 11:55 AM

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Kif Leswing / CNBC:

Nvidia announces Blackwell, a new generation of AI chips available later in 2024, starting with the GB200 superchip, which pairs two B200 GPUs with a Grace CPU — - Nvidia on Monday announced a new generation of artificial intelligence chips and software for running AI models.

More: Nvidia Newsroom, The Verge, NVIDIA, Ars Technica, VentureBeat, The Guardian, The Independent, Wall Street Journal, Tom's Hardware, Gizmodo, Tom's Hardware, Nvidia Newsroom, VideoCardz.com, AnandTech, Yahoo Finance, CRN, CNBC, Engadget, CCN.com, ExtremeTech, Bloomberg, Investing.com, The Economic Times, Interesting Engineering, VentureBeat, TechPowerUp, NextBigFuture.com, TechSpot, Silicon UK, Trusted Reviews, TrendForce Insights, Taiwan News, RTÉ, AsiaOne, SD Times, Nikkei Asia, Wccftech, Wccftech, Barron's Online, Spyglass, DatacenterDynamics, Reuters, Wccftech, AppleInsider, Bloomberg, and NVIDIA on YouTube

Threads: @hellodavidryan, @jjackyliang, @laurengoode, and @laurengoode. Mastodon: @ovid@fosstodon.org

LinkedIn: Ethan He and Sameer Halepete

Forums: Hacker News, r/artificial, r/singularity, r/wallstreetbets, r/technology, r/technews, and r/teslainvestorsclub

Harry McCracken / Fast Company:

An interview with Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang on how the company's early decisions led to its AI boom, why Nvidia's ubiquity will not be easy to replicate, and more — Nvidia's chips sparked the AI revolution. Now it's in the business of putting the technology to work in an array of industries.

More: The New Stack, Barron's Online, Tech Monitor, Silicon Valley Business …, NVIDIA, New York Times, Investor ideas …, Benzinga, and Quartz. X: @harrymccracken

Frederic Lardinois / TechCrunch:

Nvidia announces NIM, a microservices software platform designed to streamline the deployment of custom and pre-trained AI models into production environments

More: Nvidia Newsroom, NVIDIA Technical Blog, ITPro Today, Constellation Research, Counterpoint Research, Nvidia Newsroom, and InfoWorld

Brian Heater / TechCrunch:

Nvidia unveils Project GR00T, a general-purpose foundation model for humanoid robots, and Jetson Thor, a computer designed for testing humanoid robot software

More: Nvidia Newsroom, Decrypt, Interesting Engineering, CCN.com, Tom's Guide, HackerNoon, Analytics India Magazine, The Indian Express, NVIDIA, IEEE Spectrum, NewsBytes, Reuters, Yahoo Finance, VentureBeat, and SiliconANGLE

X: @drjimfan and @drjimfan. Forums: r/teslainvestorsclub

Dean Takahashi / VentureBeat:

Nvidia unveils Earth-2, a platform that lets users create AI-powered climate simulations ranging from global atmospheric conditions to local weather phenomena

More: The Metaverse Insider, NewsBytes, TweakTown, Investing.com, NVIDIA, Nvidia Newsroom, DatacenterDynamics, and TechRadar

Bluesky: @cbdawson.bsky.social. X: @martinvars, @mattlanza, and @pitdesi. Forums: r/climate

Sean Michael Kerner / VentureBeat:

Stability AI debuts Stable Video 3D, a generative AI tool built on its Stable Video Diffusion model, letting users generate 3D video from a text or image prompt — Stability AI is growing its generative AI model portfolio today with the release of Stable Video 3D (SV3D).

More: Stability AI, PCMag, Hugging Face, Ben's Bites, Silicon Republic, Analytics India Magazine, and MSPoweruser

X: @stabilityai, @emostaque, @jampani_varun, and @_akhaliq. LinkedIn: Martin Wells

Forums: Hacker News, r/singularity, r/MachineLearning, and r/StableDiffusion

Shaurya Malwa / CoinDesk:

Solana memecoin SLERF raised $10M in a presale, hitting $1.7B in trading volume, but the developer claims to have mistakenly “burned” tokens set for an airdrop — “This is not a joke I really f****d up and im really sorry. Was a simple mindless misclick when I was in the process of burning the the lp," the developer said

Foo Yun Chee / Reuters:

EU DMA hearing: a Meta lawyer says Meta offered to cut its EU monthly subscription for Facebook and Instagram from €9.99 to €5.99 to address regulatory concerns — Meta Platforms (META.O) has offered to almost halve its monthly subscription fee for Facebook and Instagram to 5.99 euros …

More: The Verge, TechCrunch, Neowin, Tech Startups, Proactive, European Commission, Social Media Today, and Channel NewsAsia

X: @kayjebelli, @kayjebelli, and @ttoboyle

Lynn Doan / Bloomberg:

Filing: Reddit says Nokia on March 18 accused the company of infringing some of its patents, and is evaluating Nokia's claims ahead of its planned IPO this week — Nokia Technologies, the company's licensing business, sent Reddit a letter on Monday with the claims, and Reddit is evaluating them, according to a filing made Tuesday.

More: Reuters, Proactive, TechSpot, and The Verge

Forums: Hacker News and Slashdot

Samuel Tolbert / Windows Central:

Valve debuts Steam Families in beta, which lets up to six Steam users share their PC games, manage parental controls, and more, meant to replace Family Sharing — Share your Steam games with up to five others in a Steam Family. — What you need to know — Valve is introducing …

More: Steam Community, Game Developer, PCWorld, HotHardware, ZDNet, Game World Observer, Engadget, The Verge, Ars Technica, Rock, Paper, Shotgun, Game Rant, Ghacks, KitGuru, TechSpot, VideoCardz.com, TechRaptor, Video Games Chronicle, and IGN

X: @magsapling, @steam, @imrejele, @marramgg, @timsweeneyepic, @steamdb, @steamdb, @carygolomb, @cubeapril, @tylercolp, @iokernel, @azeriath, and @thexpaw

Forums: r/gamedev and r/Kappachino

Sean Hollister / The Verge:

A look at Playtron, which raised a $10M seed to build a Linux-based, platform-agnostic gaming OS to replace Windows or SteamOS, starting with handheld consoles — The former CEO of Cyanogen has a plan for a platform-agnostic gaming operating system.

More: Dexerto, Tom's Hardware, Hackaday, Ars Technica, and MobileSyrup

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X: @road_buster84, @jeansnow, @baldlyrudy, @samsungnext, @castrojo, @lukeshortcloud, and @aegies. LinkedIn: Ray W.

Forums: r/Games and r/linux_gaming

Sam Rutherford / Engadget:

Asus Zenbook Duo review: a sleek design, gorgeous displays, and solid battery life, but pricier than a clamshell and Windows 11 isn't optimized for two screens — You get a ton of extra utility for not that much more money or bulk. — Senior Writer, Reviews

More: PCWorld and XDA Developers

Olivia Poh / Bloomberg:

Singapore-based online shopping rewards app ShopBack cuts 195 jobs, or 24% of its staff, to become self-sustainable; ShopBack raised a $200M Series F in 2022 — ShopBack, an online shopping rewards app backed by Temasek Holdings Pte, is cutting about a quarter of its workforce as it retreats from the buy-now-pay-later space.

More: ShopBack, PYMNTS.com, DealStreetAsia, and Tech in Asia

Bloomberg:

Sources: senior DOJ officials plan to hold closed-door Senate briefings on March 19 and 20 to advance a TikTok divestiture, as opposed to an outright US ban — - DOJ wants senators to pass a bill forcing TikTok sale — Effort is part of broader DoJ push on data-security measures

More: The Verge, 9to5Mac, Silicon UK, Yahoo Finance, and Defense One

X: @danprimack, @danielpflatley, and @alexbarinka

Financial Times:

Airbus ends talks with Atos on a deal worth up to €1.8B for its big data and security unit, imperiling efforts by Atos to avoid going into debt restructuring — Decision adds pressure on indebted French IT services company — Airbus has walked away from talks with Atos over a potential deal …

More: The Register, Bloomberg, and SecurityWeek

Tage Kene-Okafor / TechCrunch:

Lagos-based Moove, which offers car financing to ride-hailing drivers, raised a $100M Series B led by Uber at a $750M valuation, up from $550M in August 2023 — Moove, an African mobility fintech that offers vehicle financing to ride-hailing and delivery app drivers, has raised $100 million …

More: FinSMEs, FinTech Global, Nairametrics, Tech Funding News, Techpoint Africa, TechCabal, Moove.io, and WeeTracker. X: @ulonnaya

Kalkidan Yibeltal / BBC:

Ethiopia's central bank says “a glitch” let Commercial Bank clients withdraw more cash than was in their account for hours; local media says $40M+ was withdrawn — Ethiopia's biggest commercial bank is scrambling to recoup large sums of money withdrawn by customers after a “systems glitch”.

More: Nairametrics, CNBC, and Finextra

Mastodon: @GossiTheDog@cyberplace.social. X: @cymrurouge, @bbcafrica, @gergelyorosz, @gergelyorosz, and @rabdianalyst

Forums: r/worldnews and Slashdot

Lex Fridman:

Q&A with Sam Altman on OpenAI's board saga, Ilya Sutskever, Elon Musk's lawsuit, Sora, GPT-4, Q*, GPT-5, raising $7T, Google and Gemini, AGI, aliens, and more — - Watch the full YouTube version of the podcast — Table of Contents — Here are the loose “chapters” in the conversation.

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From Mediagazer

Ellise Shafer / Variety:

Memo: the BBC says it will cut 550 jobs including in its news and content divisions by the start of FY 2027-2028 in the first phase of a plan to save $670M

Thomas Escritt / Bloomberg:

Viktor Orban's media empire collapses two months after his election defeat; about 400 journalists at Mediaworks outlets have been given notices of termination

Zoe Engels / Mediaite:

Kara Swisher says she'll leave CNN as soon as she can if the Ellisons acquire WBD, the network's parent company; she's under contract until the end of 2026

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Casey Hall / Reuters:

Source: Ant Group CEO and Chair Eric Jing says Han Xinyi will be named president and some units plan to set up their own boards to operate more independently

More: South China Morning Post

Bloomberg:

Xiaomi reports Q4 revenue up 11% YoY to ~$10.2B, vs. ~$10.1B est., net income up 50% YoY to ~$653M, and aims for its SU7 to become one of China's top luxury EVs

More: Xiaomi

Richard Waters / Financial Times:

On the first day of his trial, US prosecutors portray Mike Lynch as “a controlling, dominating, intimidating boss” and “driving force behind [a] massive fraud”

More: The Guardian, Bloomberg, Channel NewsAsia, Reuters, iTnews, Associated Press, Daily Mail, BusinessLIVE, and Proactive

Allie Garfinkle / Fortune:

Q&A with Lila Tretikov, who just joined NEA as a partner and head of AI strategy; Tretikov was previously Microsoft's deputy CTO and Wikimedia Foundation's CEO

Dean Takahashi / VentureBeat:

Unity's 2024 Gaming Report: the number of multiplatform games is up 40% since 2021, in-app ad revenue grew 26.7% YoY, 62% of studios use AI tools, and more

More: Developer Tech News, Eurogamer.net, 80 Level, Unity Technologies, Game Rant, Cybernews.com, Pocket Gamer.biz, Game Developer, Pocket Gamer.biz, and GamesIndustry.biz

X: @unitygames and @mrsambarlow

Forums: r/gamingnews and r/Games

Barry Schwartz / Search Engine Land:

Google promotes Liz Reid to Head of Search and names Cheenu Venkatachary as the lead of Search quality and ranking, among other executive Search team changes

More: The Verge, MediaPost, and Search Engine Roundtable

X: @rustybrick and @mmitchell_ai. LinkedIn: Elizabeth Reid

Nikkei Asia:

Sources: TSMC and Intel suppliers have delayed building plants in Arizona, citing surging construction costs, labor shortages, and weak local chipmaker demand

More: The Register, Tom's Hardware, and Benzinga

Earlier Picks

Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The Verge:

The Connectivity Standards Alliance launches a cybersecurity standard that aims to provide a globally recognized security certification for consumer IoT devices

More: 9to5Mac, CSA-IOT, ITPro, and PCMag. X: @csaiot

George Hammond / Financial Times:

Hippocratic AI, which is building an LLM for health care, raised a $53M Series A co-led by Premji Invest and General Catalyst at a $500M valuation

More: Pulse 2.0, HIT Consultant, Hippocratic AI, and Perspectives

Olga Kharif / Bloomberg:

Crypto trading platform Bakkt names Andy Main as CEO and president, as the company faces being dropped by the NYSE for failing to maintain listing requirements

More: Bakkt Holdings, Inc., Cryptopolitan, Cryptonews, The Crypto Times, CoinGape, CoinDesk, and The Block

Abhinaya Prabhu / Tech Funding News:

Carlsmed, which is developing an AI-powered personalized surgery tool, raised a $52.5M Series C co-led by B Capital and US Venture Partners

More: Carlsmed, Tech Startups, Pulse 2.0, and VC News Daily

The Verge:

Microsoft plans to hold a Windows and Surface AI event on May 20; sources say the event will include the consumer versions of the Surface Pro 10 and Laptop 6

More: Engadget, Windows Central, Windows Report, Engadget, XDA Developers, TechRadar, MSPoweruser, Mashable, Lifewire, Neowin, MobileSyrup, and Thurrott

X: @tomwarren. Forums: r/technology and r/Surface

Reuters:

After hearing oral arguments, SCOTUS appeared wary of curbing US government contacts with social media platforms to remove posts deemed misinformation

More: Associated Press, Vox, SiliconANGLE, Platformer, Route Fifty, Semafor, The Daily Caller, Inc.com, STAT, Missouri Independent, CyberScoop, Reason, NBC News, Reclaim The Net, The Verge, The Guardian, New York Post, Roll Call, Politico, CBS News, USA Today, Washington Times, Newser, Washington Post, New York Times, and Forbes

Threads: @crumbler, @brian.fishman.5, @info_rosalie, @b_fung, @b_fung, @soupsoup, @alex.stamos, and @renee.diresta. Mastodon: @willoremus@mastodon.social. X: @therecount. Forums: Slashdot