Techmeme: Isambard-AI, the UK's fastest supercomputer that cost £225M and ranks 128th on the Top500 list, comes online; the system will contain 5,448 Nvidia GH200 chips (Charlotte Trueman/DatacenterDynamics)

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May 13, 2024, 10:30 AM

Top News

Jason Koebler / 404 Media:

Many US farmers had to halt their planting operations after a solar storm broke critical GPS and precision farming functionality in tractors and other equipment — The solar storm that brought the aurora borealis to large parts of the United States this weekend also broke critical GPS …

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

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

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 of undermining Teams competitors, despite the company offering concessions — Tech group's effort to avoid action by unbundling videoconferencing app from its other software appears to have failed

More: Thurrott, Benzinga, Computerworld, 9to5Mac, BetaNews, and TechRadar

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

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 …

More: Squarespace, TechCrunch, CNBC, The Verge, Quartz, Benzinga, DealStreetAsia, and Financial Times

Paul Alcorn / Tom's Hardware:

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

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

X: @hpc_guru, @glennklockwood, @mobile_dom, @cscfi, @glennklockwood, @bmabey, @simonmcs, @glennklockwood, @hpc_guru, and @hpc_guru. Forums: r/hardware

Charlotte Trueman / DatacenterDynamics:

Isambard-AI, the UK's fastest supercomputer that cost £225M and ranks 128th on the Top500 list, comes online; the system will contain 5,448 Nvidia GH200 chips

More: Tom's Hardware, University of Bristol, and The Stack. X: @bristoluni

Qianer Liu / The Information:

Sources: in recent months, China asked ByteDance, Tencent, Alibaba, Baidu, and others to cut back on Nvidia purchases in favor of chips made by local companies — Chinese authorities have a message for the local tech industry: Buy Chinese. — Officials with government agencies in recent months …

More: Silicon Valley Business … and The Motley Fool

Wall Street Journal:

Sources: Intel is in advanced, exclusive talks for a deal in which Apollo Global Management would supply $11B+ to help the chip giant build a plant in Ireland — The investment firm is in exclusive talks to supply the chip giant with cash for a new plant.

More: Reuters, Silicon Republic, Barron's Online, Bloomberg, Benzinga, Amwal Al Ghad, Irish Examiner, Investing.com, and Channel NewsAsia

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: Euractiv, European Commission, TechCrunch, Reuters, and Tech Xplore

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

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, PhoneArena, The Information, and Associated Press

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

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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

Alex Sherman / CNBC:

Sources: ESPN will call its forthcoming flagship streaming app ESPN; the cheaper option will still be ESPN+, which doesn't include the most-watched live games

Andrew Marchand / New York Times:

Sources: YouTube is favored to stream the NFL's opening week Friday night game, its first exclusive NFL broadcast, which may be available globally for free

New York Times:

Tufts student Rumeysa Ozturk, who co-authored an op-ed criticizing Israel in a student newspaper last year, is released from ICE custody after a judge's order

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More News

Mark Bergen / Bloomberg:

Abu Dhabi's Technology Innovation Institute releases Falcon 2 11B, an open-source LLM to compete with Llama and Gemini that supports five European languages

More: Reuters and The Technology Innovation …

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, Blockworks, Benzinga, CoinGape, Tech Xplore, Axios, The Decoder, Nikkei Asia, Financial Times, 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: Cybernews.com, UPI, 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, The Guardian, Reuters, Financial Times, Benzinga, and The Verge

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

More: Associated Press, Financial Times, Benzinga, Financial Times, Proactive, Reuters, Tech in Asia, Bloomberg, and RTÉ

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

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

More: EU-Startups. 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: Microsoft, Business Today, Reuters, PYMNTS.com, DatacenterDynamics, CNBC, TNW, Tech Funding News, Neowin, TechRadar, Proactive, Benzinga, 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, The Sunday Times, City A.M., TechNode, The Guardian, and Proactive

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

More: Cryptopolitan and Benzinga

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

Forums: Hacker News and r/LocalLLaMA

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, @motorcityadam, @karaswisher, @yonetteajoseph, @markjacobnews, 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, r/musked, 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: @henrymance, @henrymance, @alecmuffett, @soph_butch, @henrymance, @livingstone_s, @mollyroseorg, @henrymance, @cooksimon, @katebevan, and @ciesiolkiewicz. LinkedIn: Sonia Livingstone

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

More: Business Insider, Financial Express, and Benzinga

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

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