Techmeme
October 2, 2024, 5:30 PM

Top News

Ina Fried / Axios:
Financial Times:
Sources: OpenAI has asked investors to avoid backing rival startups such as Anthropic and xAI, an exclusive funding arrangement to keep its generative AI lead  —  Sam Altman-led group wants exclusive arrangement as it secures $6.6bn funding round  —  OpenAI has asked investors …
Cade Metz / New York Times:
Source: Thrive invested ~$1.3B in OpenAI's $6.6B round, with an exclusive option to invest up to $1B more at the same $157B valuation through 2025  —  The A.I. start-up's valuation has risen by more than $70 billion in nine months.  —  OpenAI said on Wednesday that it had completed …
Bloomberg:
Poolside, which is building AI-assisted software development tools, raised a $500M Series B led by Bain Capital Ventures, reportedly at a $3B valuation  —  - Company hasn't released its product or given a launch timeline  — Investment shows continued investor appetite for AI startups
Daniel Thomas / Financial Times:
Amazon plans to increase the number of ads on Prime Video in 2025 after not seeing a sharp drop in subscribers since adding advertisements in January 2024  —  Ecommerce group attempting to win over more brands as it steps up push into ad-funded streaming services in 2025
Erin Griffith / New York Times:
VC firm CRV plans to return $275M from its $500M Select fund, citing worsening market conditions and high startup valuations relative to their potential payoff  —  CRV, based in Silicon Valley, plans to return to investors $275 million because the market for mature start-ups has soured.
Abner Li / 9to5Google:
Google updates Gmail for Android and iOS with new summary cards that are more glanceable and actionable and a new “Happening soon” section above the inbox  —  Gmail for Android and iOS are getting new summary cards that are more glanceable and actionable, with Google also directly surfacing them in your inbox.
Ryan McNeal / Android Authority:
Amazon announces a new lineup of Fire HD 8 tablets, with 50% more RAM than the previous models, and three new generative AI features for compatible Fire tablets  —  Amazon launches new Fire HD 8 tablets, rolls out three new AI features.  —  •  —  TL;DR  — Amazon is launching a new lineup of Fire HD 8 tablets.
Tom Warren / The Verge:
Microsoft releases a $150 standalone version of Office 2024 for consumers and SMBs, with core app updates and UI changes; the last standalone was Office 2021  —  Microsoft is releasing a new version of Office this week, designed for people that don't want to subscribe to Microsoft 365.
Emma Roth / The Verge:
Automattic demanded an 8% cut of WP Engine's monthly revenue to use the WordPress trademark in a seven-year deal proposed on September 20; WP Engine declined  —  Automattic, the parent company of WordPress.com, asked rival hosting service WP Engine to hand over 8 percent of its revenue each month …
Akila Quinio / Financial Times:
The UK FCA fines Starling Bank £29M over its “shockingly lax” controls against financial crime, like potential money laundering and sanctions breaches  —  FCA said lender's efforts to identify potential money laundering ‘did not keep pace’ with its growth
Akila Quinio / Financial Times:
Meta rolls out Fraud Intelligence Reciprocal Exchange to let UK banks share transaction intel to help catch scammers, after a pilot with NatWest and Metro Bank  —  Tech group to roll out channel for sharing of transaction intelligence  —  Facebook owner Meta is launching a data-sharing partnership …
Sebastiaan de With / Lux:
iPhone 16 Pro camera review: overall image and quality of life improvements, and Camera Control, Zero Shutter Lag, and its advanced Photographic Styles impress  —  For the first “Desert Titanium” iPhone, we took over 1000 photos and videos in the desert.  Take a deep dive into what's new — and why it's close to the last of its kind.
Kevin Roose / New York Times:
Some iOS developers worry that an iOS 18 change letting users choose contacts an app can access may make growing social apps hard; Apple says it boosts privacy  —  This year, when Apple announced iOS 18, the latest version of its mobile operating system, most of the attention went to its slate of new artificial intelligence features.
Emma Roth / The Verge:
Developer Christian Selig says Apple removed his YouTube app Juno for the Vision Pro from the App Store, after YouTube said it violated its ToS in April 2024  —  Juno, the third-party YouTube app created for the Apple Vision Pro, has been removed from the App Store.
Dylan Martin / CRN:
Accenture says it will train 30,000 employees on Nvidia technology and start a new Nvidia Business Group focused on driving enterprise adoption of AI agents  —  The global services powerhouse says its newly formed Nvidia Business Group will focus on driving enterprise adoption …
Lauren Forristal / TechCrunch:
Livestream marketplace Whatnot says its GMV passed $2B+ in 2024 and its top 500 sellers each sold $1M+ on the platform; 66% of its sellers earn $10K+ per month  —  Whatnot, the livestream marketplace platform for trading card collectors and sneakerheads alike, is offering a bit of positive news …
More: Whatnot

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