Techmeme: SoftBank reports a $4.6B gain on its Vision Fund in the fiscal year to March 2024, the first gain since 2021, after ByteDance and DoorDash rose in value (Arjun Kharpal/CNBC)

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May 13, 2024, 8:05 AM

Top News

Jason Koebler / 404 Media:

US farmers had to halt their planting operations after the solar storm broke critical GPS and precision farming functionality in tractors and other equipment — The accuracy of some critical GPS navigation systems used in modern farming have been “extremely compromised,” a John Deere dealership told customers Saturday.

More: Engadget, Silicon Republic, The Verge, New York Times, John Deere, and The Overspill

X: @agarri_fr, @dbeyer123, @jason_koebler, @weldpond, @dancow, @ericgeller, @josephfcox, @jason_koebler, @robotbeat, @tolstoybb, and @jason_koebler

Forums: Hacker News, r/interstellar, and r/PrepperIntel

Javier Espinoza / Financial Times:

Sources: the EU is set to issue new antitrust charges against Microsoft over concerns over undermining Teams competitors, despite Microsoft offering concessions — Tech group's effort to avoid action by unbundling videoconferencing app from its other software appears to have failed

More: BetaNews and The Verge

Mastodon: @1br0wn@eupolicy.social. X: @florian4gamers

Paul Alcorn / Tom's Hardware:

Top500: the Intel-powered Aurora supercomputer, not yet fully operational, came second behind the AMD-powered Frontier, but did come top in an AI benchmark — Aurora faces stability issues from hardware failures, cooling malfunctions, and operational errors.

More: TOP500, The Register, Network World, LUMI, HPCwire, TechPowerUp, Phoronix, insideHPC, Wccftech, and OC3D

X: @hpc_guru, @glennklockwood, @mobile_dom, @cscfi, @glennklockwood, @bmabey, @simonmcs, @glennklockwood, @hpc_guru, and @hpc_guru

Charlotte Trueman / DatacenterDynamics:

Isambard-AI, the UK's fastest supercomputer that cost £225M and ranks 129th on the Top500 list, comes online; the system will contain 5,448 Nvidia GH200 chips — Ranks second for energy efficiency on Green500 list — The UK's fastest supercomputer, Isambard-AI, has come online.

More: University of Bristol and The Stack

Lucas Shaw / Bloomberg:

Sources: Apple has met with Hollywood talent representatives to propose a new performance-based compensation regime, as Amazon and Netflix work on similar plans — Apple builds a bonus system around sign-ups, viewer loyalty and production costs. — Good afternoon from 30,000 feet.

More: 9to5Mac, The Information, PhoneArena, and Associated Press

Threads: @carnage4life, @carnage4life, and @lucas_shaw. Forums: r/television

Akash Sriram / Reuters:

Squarespace says private equity firm Permira plans to take the company private in a $6.9B all-cash deal, or $44 per share, a 15.2% premium on Friday's close — Private equity firm Permira will take Squarespace (SQSP.N) private in an all-cash deal valued at about $6.9 billion, the website-design platform said on Monday.

More: TechCrunch and Squarespace

Matthew Green / @matthew_d_green:

Following attempts to malign Signal as insecure by Telegram's CEO and Elon Musk, a look at why Signal is widely regarded by experts as more secure than Telegram — Telegram has launched a pretty intense campaign to malign Signal as insecure, with assistance from Elon Musk. The goal seems to be to get activists to switch away from encrypted Signal to mostly-unencrypted Telegram. I want to talk about this a bit. 1/

More: Financial Express, Benzinga, and Business Insider

Threads: @renee.diresta, @renee.diresta, @renee.diresta, and @renee.diresta

X: @elonmusk, @nicoleperlroth, @huntclancy, @jamesstout, @aukehoekstra, @jack, @mer__edith, @zarawesome, @matthew_d_green, @deftechpat, @matthew_d_green, @nkulw, @matthew_d_green, @thebluematt, @matthew_d_green, @samadlerbell, @erratarob, and @vitalikbuterin. Forums: Hacker News

Bloomberg:

The EU designates Booking as a DMA gatekeeper, saying “holidaymakers will start benefiting from more choice and hotels will have more business opportunities” — - Travel site is designated as a ‘gatekeeper’ under EU's DMA — X avoids rules for now as officials open probe into its status

More: Reuters and The Verge

Bluesky: @hern.bsky.social. X: @kayjebelli, @adamkovac, @lewis_crofts, @mseltzermayr, @eu_competition, and @eu_commission

Keith Laing / Bloomberg:

The US NHTSA opens an investigation into Amazon's Zoox after two automated SUVs braked unexpectedly, both causing collisions with motorcyclists — - Bikers rear-ended Zoox SUVs that suddenly, unexpectedly braked — US agency estimates 500 vehicles are subject to investigation

More: Reuters

Arjun Kharpal / CNBC:

SoftBank reports a $4.6B gain on its Vision Fund in the fiscal year to March 2024, the first gain since 2021, after ByteDance and DoorDash rose in value — SoftBank posted a 724.3 billion Japanese yen ($4.6 billion) gain on its Vision Fund in the fiscal year ended March …

More: Associated Press, Financial Times, Benzinga, RTÉ, Financial Times, Reuters, and Bloomberg

Saritha Rai / Bloomberg:

A look at 01.AI, which is launching Wanzhi, a free generative AI assistant focused on the Chinese market; CEO Kai-Fu Lee says 01.AI is nearing profitability — - His startup 01.AI is introducing its first consumer AI app — China needs a catalyst in the same way ChatGPT fueled the US

More: Cryptopolitan and Benzinga

X: @sbeastwindy, @marikakatanuma, @01ai_yi, @saritharai, @_philschmid, and @dorialexander

Forums: Hacker News and r/LocalLLaMA

The Sunday Times:

Sources: Cambridge-based Raspberry Pi is finalizing plans to float on the London stock market this month in a deal that could value the company at up to £500M — The Cambridge business sells cheap, credit-card-sized computers and was originally set up to help get children into coding

More: Tom's Hardware and City A.M.

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This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 8:05 AM ET, May 13, 2024.

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.

From Mediagazer

CNN:

Haberman-Swan book: Trump wanted to make Fox News “beg” for a presidential interview, he almost settled for $3M with ABC instead of $16M, and more

Andrew Cohen / InvestmentNews:

Robinhood plans to shutter the Sherwood News site in favor of newsletters and the Robinhood app; at least three reporters were cut in company layoffs this week

Erik Hayden / The Hollywood Reporter:

A report by LA officials estimates that the Paramount-WBD deal places about 2.5K jobs in LA and 6K jobs globally at risk due to duplicative roles

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More News

Eva Dou / Washington Post:

The US and China are set to hold their first high-level AI talks on May 14 in Geneva, as the governments seek to prevent disastrous accidents and unintended war

More: Reuters, Benzinga, Axios, Nikkei Asia, Financial Times, The Decoder, and Nextgov/FCW

Zachary Small / New York Times:

Christie's confirms eight auctions will proceed this week after a “technology security issue” on May 9 knocked its website offline, the second breach in a year

More: The Guardian, New York Times, and Bloomberg

Stuart Condie / Wall Street Journal:

An Australian judge refuses the eSafety commissioner's request to extend an order for X to hide a video of a religious leader's stabbing, without giving reasons

More: Associated Press, Forbes, Reuters, The Guardian, Financial Times, The Verge, Social Media Today, and Benzinga

Bloomberg:

The US, the EU, and other superpowers have funneled nearly $81B towards supporting chip companies, the first wave of ~$380B earmarked by global governments

More: MIT Technology Review and International Business Times

X: @mackhawk and @scottlincicome

Financial Times:

How GPS warfare is affecting civilian populations; an analysis finds ~40M people lived in areas with unreliable GPS for at least half of the past six months

X: @_nickrogers_ and @snellarthur. LinkedIn: Katherine Dunn

Washington Post:

A look at the growing number of startups offering AI deepfake detection services, with some claiming startling levels of accuracy despite untested capabilities

Heather Somerville / Wall Street Journal:

As VC firms pivot to investing in startups developing defense tech for the US and its allies, some of their business ties with China still linger

X: @tomaxwell and @jchengwsj

Earlier Picks

Sudip Kar-Gupta / Reuters:

Brad Smith says Microsoft plans to invest €4B in France, mostly focused on AI, and the company will set up a data center in the city of Mulhouse

More: DatacenterDynamics, Neowin, TechRadar, RTÉ, Proactive, and Bloomberg

Reuters:

Sources: Shein steps up preparations for a London listing amid regulatory hurdles for a New York IPO; a source says Shein plans to file in London as soon as May

More: Watcher Guru, TechNode, Proactive, The Sunday Times, City A.M., and The Guardian

New York Times:

A look at how Elon Musk uses X to support right-wing world leaders like Narendra Modi who could help secure advantages for his businesses

Threads: @karaswisher, @yonetteajoseph, @motorcityadam, @markjacobnews, @karaswisher, and @lorakolodny

Bluesky: @rmac.bsky.social, @delexical.bsky.social, and @kateconger.bsky.social

X: @ryp__, @flitteronfraud, @rmac18, @rmac18, @ericgeller, @kateconger, and @markjacob16

Forums: Hacker News, r/RealTesla, and r/inthenews

Melissa Korn / Wall Street Journal:

A look at the rise and fall of 2U, which provides online degree programs for top US universities and is currently valued at ~$30M, down from $5B+ in 2018

More: Livemint. X: @melissakorn and @jillbarshay

Henry Mance / Financial Times:

Researcher Sonia Livingstone says constraining tech companies and empowering young people and parents are better alternatives to banning kids from social media

X: @mollyroseorg, @cooksimon, @henrymance, @soph_butch, @henrymance, @katebevan, @henrymance, @henrymance, @alecmuffett, @livingstone_s, and @ciesiolkiewicz. LinkedIn: Sonia Livingstone

Bloomberg:

A look at professor-led crypto projects EigenLayer and Babylon, which seek to generate yield from cryptocurrencies, as “professor coins” spur investor interest

More: CryptoGlobe, Cryptopolitan, and CoinGape. X: @crypto

Mark Gurman / Bloomberg:

A look at the potential successors to Apple's top executives across all major divisions, including SVP Sabih Khan in operations and VP Kevan Parekh in finance

More: Benzinga and iMore

Threads: @marcslove. X: @james_abev and @markgurman. Forums: r/apple