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April 1, 2025, 8:30 AM
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Mediagazer
memeorandum
WeSmirchTop News
| CNBC: |
OpenAI closes a $40B round, the most raised by a private tech company, at a $300B post-money valuation; SoftBank led with $30B; source: ~$18B is for Stargate — OpenAI on Monday announced it had closed what amounts to the largest private tech funding round on record.
More: OpenAI, The Verge, Engadget, Fortune, Maginative, Financial Times, Reuters, Axios, Interesting Engineering, Nairametrics, Tech Xplore, StrictlyVC, Neowin, TechSpot, Forbes, Cryptopolitan, YourStory.com, SiliconANGLE, Decrypt, PYMNTS.com, San Francisco Business Times, VentureBeat, Thurrott, The Wrap, Sherwood News, TechCrunch, and Tech in Asia
Bluesky: @edzitron.com, @andrewparker, @edsbs, and @edzitron.com
X: @sama, @mikebutcher, @mikeisaac, @garymarcus, @rogoswami, @kyliebytes, @apompliano, @edzitron, @danprimack, and @gavinpurcell
LinkedIn: Hayden Field and Geoff Lewis
Forums: Hacker News, r/singularity, and r/technology
| Shirin Ghaffary / Bloomberg: |
Source: SoftBank will invest an initial $7.5B in OpenAI's $40B round, plus $22.5B by 2025's end; other backers include Microsoft, Coatue, Altimeter, and Thrive — OpenAI, the artificial intelligence company behind ChatGPT, said it has finalized a funding round that will bring in $40 billion …
More: Washington Post, Benzinga, Reuters, CNBC, Euronews, Silicon Republic, PitchBook, Tech Funding News, New York Times, Blockonomi, Pulse 2.0, Proactive, Business Today, YourStory.com, Times of India, The Guardian, TNGlobal, The Information, Financial Express, Australian Financial Review, Wall Street Journal, CRN, Hindustan Times, Verdict, The Crypto Times, Nikkei Asia, The Japan Times, and DigiTimes
Forums: r/Economics and Beehaw
| Ivan Mehta / TechCrunch: |
OpenAI's new GPT-4o-powered image generator is now available to all users; Sam Altman last week mentioned a limit of three images per day for free-tier users — OpenAI's new image generator, powered by its GPT-4o model, is now available to all users, CEO Sam Altman said in a post on X … | Kyle Wiggers / TechCrunch: |
Sam Altman says OpenAI plans to “release a powerful new open-weight language model with reasoning in the coming months”, its first open-weight model since GPT-2 — OpenAI says that it intends to release its first “open” language model since GPT‑2 “in the coming months.”
More: OpenAI, Business Standard, Tom's Guide, WinBuzzer, Reuters, Silicon UK, CoinGape, The Indian Express, The Crypto Times, Cointelegraph, Digit, SiliconANGLE, Benzinga, Analytics India Magazine, VentureBeat, Neowin, CNET, Business Insider, Decrypt, The Information, and Wired
X: @sama, @joheidecke, @clementdelangue, @joheidecke, @garrytan, @dorialexander, @thexeophon, @gdb, @altcap, @levie, and @sama
LinkedIn: Jake Saper and Romain Huet
Forums: r/LocalLLaMA and Slashdot
| Sean Endicott / Windows Central: |
Microsoft expands Copilot+ PC features like Live Captions and Cocreator, previously exclusive to models with Snapdragon chips, to models with AMD or Intel chips — Staggered feature releases make me ask “what even is a Copilot+ PC?” — Microsoft has a big update for Copilot+ PCs powered by Intel or AMD processors.
More: Windows Experience Blog, Tom's Hardware, Ghacks, TechRadar, Business Standard, BetaNews, The Verge, Guru3D, Digital Trends, TechPowerUp, Cryptopolitan, MakeUseOf, Liliputing, CRN, VideoCardz.com, XDA Developers, Neowin, Thurrott, and KitGuru
X: @zacbowden, @pavandavuluri, @windowsblog, @sasamarinkovic, @dylanonchips, @yusuf_i_mehdi, @amdryzen, and @dylanonchips. LinkedIn: Mark Linton
| Ian King / Bloomberg: |
At the Intel Vision conference, CEO Lip-Bu Tan says Intel plans to spin off non-core assets, create new products including custom semiconductors, and more — Intel Corp. Chief Executive Officer Lip-Bu Tan said the chipmaker will spin off assets that aren't central to its mission and create …
More: Wall Street Journal, Reuters, Financial Times, Intel, Capacity Media, TrendForce News, Business Insider, Benzinga, MarketWatch, Nikkei Asia, Wall Street Journal, Tech in Asia, CRN, PCWorld, Barron's Online, Intel on YouTube, and Thurrott
Threads: @sung.kim.mw. X: @greengart, @intelnews, @iancutress, @iancutress, @greengart, @firstadopter, @underfox3, @underfox3, @intelnews, @iancutress, @intelnews, @intelnews, @iancutress, and @iancutress
| Wall Street Journal: |
Sources: in recent weeks, Meta executives including Mark Zuckerberg have pressed US trade officials to oppose an impending EU fine and cease-and-desist order — Facebook owner presses trade officials to push back against European law that could undermine its ad business
More: The Verge
| Bloomberg: |
Sources: US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick signals withholding promised CHIPS Act grants as he pushes companies to substantially expand their US projects — Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick has signaled he could withhold promised Chips Act grants as he pushes companies in line … | Takashi Mochizuki / Bloomberg: |
Ahead of the Switch 2, Nintendo is branching out to use its characters in cinema, theme parks, and merch in a Disney-like way to create more consistent revenue — Tech Across the Globe … Sequoia Capital and Spark Capital are in talks to co-lead the round. — Revalued
More: PCMag
| Bloomberg: |
More: Tech4Gamers, Tom's Guide, Comic Book, CNET, Laptop Mag, T3, and Engadget
| Juli Clover / MacRumors: |
Apple releases iOS 18.4 with Priority notifications for Apple Intelligence, which gets support for eight more languages, and Ambient Music via Control Center — Apple today released iOS 18.4 and iPadOS 18.4, the fourth major updates to the iOS 18 and iPadOS 18 operating system updates …
More: 9to5Mac, Apple, MacRumors, MacRumors, Mirror, Neowin, Emojipedia, AppleInsider, WebKit, O'Grady's PowerPage, The Hindu, MacRumors, MacStories, TechCrunch, Stephen Robles on YouTube, YouTube, Brandon Butch on YouTube, zollotech on YouTube, Cult of Mac Today, iDeviceHelp on YouTube, CNET, AppleInsider, Laptop Mag, mjtsai.com, Axios, Ars Technica, 9to5Mac, Appleosophy, 9to5Mac, Digital Trends, MacRumors, PhoneArena, Daring Fireball, 9to5Mac, AppleInsider, Thurrott, iDownloadBlog.com, 9to5Mac, TechRadar, Engadget, BGR, The Mac Observer, The Mac Observer, The Mac Observer, The Mac Observer, The Apple Post, The Verge, Macworld, iPhone in Canada Blog, The Mac Observer, Forbes, AppleInsider, AppleInsider, Cult of Mac, and CNET
Bluesky: @sdw. Mastodon: @viticci@mastodon …, @GossiTheDog@cyberplace.social, and @Kierkegaanks@beige.party. Threads: @danawollman. X: @markgurman
LinkedIn: Eric Gourlaouen and Christopher B. Neubauer
Forums: r/OpenCoreLegacyPatcher, r/iphone, r/apple, r/MacOS, MacRumors Forums, and MacRumors Forums
| Chance Miller / 9to5Mac: |
| Bloomberg: |
Builder.ai lowers H2 2024 revenue estimates by ~25% after some sales channels “did not come through” and says a full audit report is expected by summer 2025 — The London-based company, which has raised more than $450 million, dropped its revenue estimates for the second half … | Yoolim Lee / Bloomberg: |
Samsung says TM Roh, who oversees mobile, will temporarily step into a broader role overseeing its consumer electronics, after the death of co-CEO Han Jong-Hee — Roh will fill the vacancy at the top of Samsung's Device Experience group until the company's board approves a formal successor to Han …
More: Samsung Newsroom and SamMobile
| Financial Times: |
The Alan Turing Institute, the UK's flagship AI agency, plans to focus on defense, environment, and health, after staff criticized its leadership in December — Chief of Britain's flagship AI agency says ‘big strategic’ shift is needed — Britain's flagship artificial intelligence agency … | Wency Chen / South China Morning Post: |
Microsoft closes its IoT & AI Insider Lab in Shanghai, opened in May 2019, reflecting a broader pullback from China amid geopolitical tensions with the US — The IoT & AI Insider Lab in the Zhangjiang hi-tech zone likely closed in January or February, nearby workers say| Zoë Schiffer / Wired: |
USPTO suspended xAI's Grok trademark application, saying the name could be confused with companies Groq and Grokstream; startup Bizly claims rights to “Grok” — Elon Musk said he borrowed the name from a 1960s science fiction novel, but another AI startup applied to trademark it before xAI launched its chatbot.
More: eWeek. Bluesky: @paleofuture, @destroyer267, @mikewilsoninoz, and @elleisanisland
Forums: r/NewsOfTheStupid and r/inthenews
| Financial Times: |
Current and former Google DeepMind scientists say a tougher vetting process and more bureaucracy at Google's AI arm have made it harder to publish AI research — Google's AI arm led by Demis Hassabis makes it harder for its researchers to publish studies in major change in approach| Marcus Hutchins / MalwareTech: |
The US needs a new cybersecurity strategy, but offensive cyber operations are unlikely to deter Chinese state-sponsored hacking and come with significant risk — Ever since China's ‘Salt Typhoon’ hacking operations against US telecom networks was uncovered, there's been a lot of discussion about “hacking back”.
More: Cybersecurity Insiders, Decrypt, and The Maritime Executive
Bluesky: @malwaretech.com, @malwaretech.com, and @swiftonsecurity.com
| Stephen Nellis / Reuters: |
Lightmatter, which uses silicon photonics to move data in chips via light, unveils an interposer and chiplet for AI chips; the startup has raised $850M so far — Lightmatter, a startup valued at $4.4 billion, on Monday released two pieces of technology aimed at speeding up the connections between artificial intelligence chips.
More: Network World and SiliconANGLE
| Megan Specia / New York Times: |
How some UK parents created a “Smartphone Free Childhood” pledge, signed by 124K+ people, after the UK government watered down a bill banning phones in schools — In Britain, amid growing evidence of harm to young people from extreme content online, a “Smartphone Free Childhood” campaign is going viral.| Lam Le / Rest of World: |
A look at Shanghai municipal government-backed SpaceSail, a satellite internet company that has launched ~90 satellites so far and plans to have 15,000 by 2030 — The Shanghai satellite company is launching deals in countries where Starlink, X or Tesla are creating friction.
More: Benzinga, GSMArena.com, TechCabal, Wall Street Pit, PhoneArena, iPhone in Canada Blog, and Cult of Mac
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