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February 5, 2025, 1:30 AM
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Top News

Alphabet Inc:
Alphabet Q4: revenue up 12% YoY to $96.47B, net income up 28% to $26.54B, Google Services revenue up 10% to $84.1B, and Other Bets revenue down 39% to $400M  —  MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. - February 4, 2025 - Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG, GOOGL) today announced financial results for the quarter and fiscal year ended December 31, 2024.
Reuters:
Alphabet expects 2025 capex of ~$75B, vs. ~$58B est., and reports Google Cloud Q4 revenue up 30% YoY to $11.96B, vs. $12.16B est.; GOOG drops 7%+ after hours  —  Alphabet (GOOGL.O) said on Tuesday it will spend $75 billion on its AI buildout this year, 29% more than Wall Street expected …
Todd Spangler / Variety:
Alphabet reports YouTube Q4 ad revenue up 14% YoY to $10.47B, vs. $10.23B est.; together, Google Cloud and YouTube ended 2024 at a $110B annual revenue run rate
Washington Post:
Google drops language from its AI Principles that said it would not pursue AI applications “likely to cause overall harm”, such as for weapons and surveillance  —  In 2018 the company updated its policies to explicitly exclude applying AI to weapons.  Now that promise is gone.
Zeyi Yang / Wired:
The USPS halts all inbound parcels from China and Hong Kong, after President Trump ended the “de minimis” exemption, sending the e-commerce industry into chaos  —  As part of new tariffs on Chinese imports, President Donald Trump eliminated an exemption for small packages …
Ian King / Bloomberg:
AMD reports Q4 revenue up 24% YoY to $7.66B, Data Center revenue up 69% to $3.86B, vs. $4.09B est., and forecasts Q1 sales of $6.8B to $7.4B, vs. $7.04B est.  —  - Results suggest the chipmaker is still lagging behind Nvidia  — Company fares better in PC market, making gains on Intel
Olivia Reingold / The Free Press:
Andreessen Horowitz hires ex-Marine Daniel Penny, who was recently acquitted in a controversial NYC subway chokehold case, to work on its American Dynamism team  —  “Daniel acted with courage in a tough situation,” said partner David Ulevitch in a statement explaining the hire.
New York Times:
Sources: the US SEC is moving to scale back a special unit of 50+ lawyers and staff members that had been dedicated to bringing crypto enforcement actions  —  Some in a special unit of 50 lawyers and staff members that had been assigned to regulate cryptocurrency are being reassigned in the agency.
Jonathan Bell / Wallpaper*:
OpenAI unveils a visual rebrand, featuring a new bespoke typeface called OpenAI Sans, a refined logo, and a new color palette  —  A new typeface, word mark, symbol and palette underpin all the ways in which OpenAI's technology interacts with the real world  — Sign up to our newsletter -
Chris Welch / The Verge:
Sources: Sonos will release an Android-based streaming box in the coming months, priced between $200 and $400, that combines content from Netflix, Max, and more  —  After the most tumultuous nine months in Sonos' history, the brand is trying to find its footing again.
Juli Clover / MacRumors:
Apple debuts Invites, an app to help plan events like birthdays, graduations, and more, with Image Playground and Writing Tools tie-ins, for iCloud+ subscribers  —  Apple today announced the launch of a new app called “Invites,” which is designed to allow users to plan events like birthday parties …
Mike Masnick / Techdirt:
Elon Musk accused an X user, who named federal staff in a post X then removed, of “a crime”, showing what actual government social media censorship looks like  —  For years, we've watched self-proclaimed “free speech warriors” hyperventilate about imaginary government control of social media content moderation.
Melissa Heikkilä / Financial Times:
Microsoft AI CEO Mustafa Suleyman poaches three Google DeepMind former colleagues, including two who built NotebookLM's Audio Overviews and worked on Astra  —  Rival companies in fierce battle for talent in race to build powerful artificial intelligence ‘agents’
Ryan Christoffel / 9to5Mac:
The Iconfactory debuts Tapestry for iOS and iPadOS, bringing Bluesky, Mastodon, RSS, YouTube, and more into one timeline, with a $1.99/month tier to remove ads  —  The Iconfactory, makers of the now-discontinued Twitterrific app, have today launched the spiritual successor to their Twitter client.
Lina M. Khan / New York Times:
Lina Khan says that DeepSeek's breakthroughs highlight how US Big Tech's monopolistic practices may actually be hampering the US' technological leadership  —  When Chinese artificial intelligence firm DeepSeek shocked Silicon Valley and Wall Street with its powerful new A.I. model …
More: Nikkei Asia.  Threads: @carnage4life.  X: @nhegde, @atabarrok, @tysonbrody, and @bigblackjacobin.  LinkedIn: Yann LeCun.  Forums: r/neoliberal
Rebecca Bellan / TechCrunch:
Memo: Cruise lays off “approximately 50%” of its staff, after GM cut robotaxi operations funding and shifts its focus to tech like hands-free driver assistance  —  Autonomous vehicle company Cruise is laying off “nearly” 50% of its workforce — cuts that extend to the CEO and several …
Juli Clover / MacRumors:
Apple raises the monthly AppleCare+ price for iPhone users by $0.50 in the US and will only offer one-time AppleCare+ purchase options in its online store  —  Apple this week increased the prices for its monthly AppleCare+ subscription prices for the iPhone, raising the cost by 50 cents for all models in the United States.
Jess Weatherbed / The Verge:
Adobe adds “contract intelligence capabilities” to Acrobat's $4.99-per-month AI Assistant, letting the PDF manager summarize complicated language in contracts  —  The new contract surfaces key terms and dates within complex agreements.  —  The new contract surfaces key terms and dates within complex agreements.
Foo Yun Chee / Reuters:
The EC releases its prohibited AI practices guidelines under the EU's AI Act, like using AI to track employees' emotions or to manipulate app and website users  —  Employers will be banned from using artificial intelligence to track their staff's emotions and websites will not be allowed …
Bloomberg:
How India kept its satellite internet market closed to Starlink, Amazon, and more, despite poor rural connectivity; a regulator is set to publish rules in 2025  —  As global resistance to Starlink dies down, Elon Musk wants to beam connectivity across the world's most populous country.
Preeti Singh / Bloomberg:
Sources: BlackRock plans to hire ~1,200 people to build its AI teams in India and will inherit ~1,500 staff in Bengaluru through its proposed Preqin acquisition  —  - Firm is bolstering artificial intelligence teams for its hubs  — Money manager leases additional office space in Mumbai
Bloomberg:
Sources: OpenAI has spent months talking about potential commercial deals for Sora with film studios, who are worried about how their data may be used and more  —  - Startup has met with Hollywood studios about commercial deals  — Studios worry about business implications of new technology

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From Mediagazer

Filip Timotija / The Hill:
Source says “most” journalists at Voice of America were put on administrative leave, a day after Trump signed an EO aimed at eliminating the USAGM

Michael Schaffer / Politico:
How The Dallas Express scooped the DC press corps on a congresswoman's dementia, highlighting the importance of local outlets in DC even as their numbers fall

Tara Bennett / AV Club:
How Looney Tunes' first original animated feature got released, as WBD's legacy franchise is at a crossroads, all but abandoned by the studio it helped define

More News

Jonathan Vanian / CNBC:
Snap reports Q4 revenue up 14% YoY to $1.56B, vs. $1.33B est., global DAUs up 9%, issues light Q1 guidance, names Ajit Mohan as CBO; SNAP jumps 10%+ after hours
Associated Press:
A US judge says Elon Musk's claims of harm from OpenAI are a “stretch”, but she wouldn't stop the case from moving to trial as soon as next year

Earlier Picks

Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Mark Zuckerberg says users on Threads can now make their custom feeds public and follow custom feeds made by others
Kyle Wiggers / TechCrunch:
ByteDance researchers demo OmniHuman-1, an AI system trained on 19K hours of video from undisclosed sources and that appears to beat prior deepfake techniques
Dominic Preston / The Verge:
Opera launches Opera Air, a free browser focused on mindfulness and mental well-being, including break reminders and ambient soundscapes, for Windows and macOS
Financial Times:
Sources: China is looking at launching a formal probe into Intel; a source says whether such a probe is officially launched could depend on US-China relations
Mark Keierleber / Wired:
An investigation into 300+ cyberattacks against US K-12 schools since 2020 shows how they can withhold details from students and parents whose data was stolen
More: CBS News and The 74
Bluesky: @zackwhittaker and @dell.  Mastodon: @douglevin@infosec.exchange.  LinkedIn: Nicole Ridgway
Zachary Small / New York Times:
An interview with The Sims designer Will Wright on the virtual dollhouse game turning 25, its mechanics, infusing it with chaos, ants, The Sims Online, and more
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