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April 1, 2025, 3:15 PM
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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, Investor's Business Daily, Neowin, Financial Times, Reuters, Global Corporate Venturing, Laptop Mag, Wall Street Journal, InfoRiskToday.com, Nairametrics, Digital Trends, Fortune, Sherwood News, GZERO, Maginative, VentureBeat, TechSpot, StrictlyVC, Cryptopolitan, Analytics India Magazine, Forbes, Axios, Tech in Asia, The Guardian, Tech Xplore, TechCrunch, SiliconANGLE, Decrypt, San Francisco Business Times, AIN, Thurrott, The Wrap, and Nikkei Asia
Bluesky: @carnage4life, @edzitron.com, @andrewparker, @edsbs, and @edzitron.com
X: @sama, @mikeisaac, @mikebutcher, @kyliebytes, @apompliano, @danprimack, @garymarcus, @rogoswami, @edzitron, and @gavinpurcell
LinkedIn: LinkedIn, Hayden Field, and Geoff Lewis
Forums: Hacker News, r/OpenAI, r/singularity, and r/technology
| Shirin Ghaffary / Bloomberg: |
More: Fox Business, Nikkei Asia, Crunchbase News, Entrepreneur, DatacenterDynamics, Android Headlines, Reuters, MarketWatch, New York Post, New York Times, PitchBook, Global Corporate Venturing, Silicon Republic, Proactive, Tech Funding News, Barron's Online, Blockonomi, The Decoder, Washington Post, TNGlobal, Digital Music News, Pulse 2.0, Arabian Business, Quartz, Interesting Engineering, Euronews, WinBuzzer, Benzinga, Wall Street Journal, Business Today, YourStory.com, Verdict, The Crypto Times, Yahoo Finance, Hindustan Times, Financial Express, Neowin, Times of India, The Information, Australian Financial Review, PYMNTS.com, CRN, Sherwood News, The Japan Times, VC News Daily, and DigiTimes
Forums: r/Economics and Beehaw
| Jess Weatherbed / The Verge: |
Google rolls out a new Gmail encryption model for enterprises in beta that doesn't require senders or recipients to use custom software or exchange certificates — The beta feature for enterprise accounts allows Gmail users to simply toggle encryption for external emails.| 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, New York Post, PYMNTS.com, Fresno Bee, Cryptopolitan, Newsmax, The Independent, WinBuzzer, and Hindustan Times
| Kendra Barnett / Adweek: |
Google is bringing its immersive Rewarded Video ads to Roblox, letting users watch ads in exchange for in-game benefits like virtual currency or power-ups — Advertisers can buy Rewarded Video ads on Roblox via Google Ad Manager, the company announced Tuesday| 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 … | Kurt Wagner / Bloomberg: |
Meta VP of AI Research Joelle Pineau says she plans to leave in May 2025 after nearly eight years; she has led the FAIR group since early 2023 — Joelle Pineau, the VP running Meta's FAIR group, to depart company in May — Meta Platforms Inc.'s head of artificial intelligence research plans … | Bloomberg: |
With the Switch 2, Nintendo must do what it has rarely done before: follow one hit console with another; Nintendo sold 150M+ Switch units since its 2017 launch — The Japanese gaming giant is about to release its latest console. The stakes have never been higher to end the boom-bust cycle that's plagued the company for years.
More: Tech Advisor, Screen Rant, Comic Book, TheGamer, Forbes, Gameranx, The Indian Express, Digital Trends, Tech4Gamers, Tom's Guide, CNET, Laptop Mag, T3, and Engadget
| The Information: |
OpenAI says ChatGPT has hit 20M paid subscribers, up from 15.5M at the end of 2024, suggesting the company is making at least $415M in monthly revenue — Before today's main column about the AI attention war between OpenAI and Google, there's OpenAI news from my colleague Natasha … | Financial Times: |
TTP: Apple's and Google's app stores host popular “private browsing” apps operated by Shanghai-listed Qihoo 360, sanctioned by the US in 2020 for military ties — New findings reveal free ‘private browsing’ apps popular with US users have ties to blacklisted Qihoo 360| Financial Times: |
Current and former Google DeepMind scientists say a tougher vetting process and more bureaucracy at the Google 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
More: WinBuzzer, Sherwood News, and TipRanks Financial
X: @clementdelangue, @tanarrowz, and @aiamblichus
Forums: Slashdot and Ars OpenForum
| Financial Times: |
Sources: a16z is in talks to join the Oracle-led frontrunner bid for TikTok's US arm, after being approached along with Blackstone Group and others — Venture capital group could join last-gasp bid by allies of Donald Trump to take control of video app owned by ByteDance| Sean Endicott / Windows Central: |
Microsoft expands Copilot+ PC features exclusive to Snapdragon, like Live Captions, Cocreator, Restyle Image, and Image Creator, to PCs 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, HotHardware, Tom's Guide, MobileSyrup, Tom's Hardware, The Verge, BetaNews, Ghacks, PCWorld, TechRadar, Cryptopolitan, WinBuzzer, Beebom, Business Standard, Guru3D, Digital Trends, TechPowerUp, MakeUseOf, Liliputing, CRN, VideoCardz.com, XDA Developers, Neowin, and Thurrott
X: @dylanonchips, @windowsblog, @yusuf_i_mehdi, @dylanonchips, @pavandavuluri, @sasamarinkovic, @amdryzen, and @zacbowden. LinkedIn: Mark Linton
| Nicole Sperling / New York Times: |
In a new strategy, Amazon plans to release 14 to 16 movies per year in theaters, rivaling other major studios, with most running for 45 days before streaming — The streaming giant is planning to release at least 14 movies a year in theaters around the country, rivaling other major studios.
More: Engadget, Los Angeles Times, The Hollywood Reporter, Axios, and Deadline
Forums: r/boxoffice and r/movies
| Aisha Malik / TechCrunch: |
TikTok is shutting down its Instagram competitor, TikTok Notes, on May 8, directing users to Lemon8, a similar ByteDance-owned app — TikTok is shutting down its Instagram competitor, TikTok Notes, on May 8. The photo-sharing app launched in testing in Canada, Australia, and Vietnam last year.| 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 …
More: The White House, The Register, The Stack, Reuters, The Information, Cryptopolitan, Tech in Asia, and Bloomberg
| 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, Thurrott, SammyGuru, and SamMobile
| Ufonobong Umanah / Bloomberg Law: |
A US judge rules Arkansas' Social Media Safety Act, which requires minors have parental permission before creating social media accounts, infringes on 1A rights — Arkansas' youth-focused Social Media Safety Act infringes on the First Amendment rights of internet users and is unconstitutionally vague …
More: Western District of Arkansas and MLex
Bluesky: @rahaeli and @paultaske
X: @netchoice, @senatorshoshana, and @swiftstories
| Kyle Wiggers / TechCrunch: |
Similarweb: Gemini's web app had 10.9M average daily visits in March, up 7.4% MoM; Sensor Tower: Claude and Gemini saw activity jump after flagship model debuts — OpenAI's ChatGPT may be the world's most popular chatbot app. But rival services are gaining, according to data from analytics firms Similarweb and Sensor Tower.| Zoë Schiffer / Wired: |
The USPTO suspends xAI's Grok trademark application, saying the name could be confused with companies Groq and Grokstream; startup Bizly claims it owns “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: WinBuzzer. Bluesky: @elleisanisland, @destroyer267, @mikewilsoninoz, and @paleofuture
Forums: r/NewsOfTheStupid and r/inthenews
| 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 — Agency responds to criticism and rapidly evolving technology by cutting back initiatives — Britain's flagship artificial intelligence agency … | New York Times: |
Xiaomi says it is cooperating with a Chinese police probe into a fatal crash by a car using its autonomous features; its stock is down 10%+ over the past week — A popular electric vehicle made by the Chinese consumer electronics giant Xiaomi crashed into a concrete guardrail while deploying its autonomous driving feature.Sponsor Posts
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UiPath:
UiPath Unveils 10 Innovations that Will Shape the Agentic Future — Orchestration engine, API workflows and agentic testing among key features of new UiPath Platform™ for agentic automation, launched at UiPath DevCon 2025
UiPath Unveils 10 Innovations that Will Shape the Agentic Future — Orchestration engine, API workflows and agentic testing among key features of new UiPath Platform™ for agentic automation, launched at UiPath DevCon 2025
Zoho:
Leveraging design tool extensions in Cliq: A designer's guide to Figma, Lucidchart, and Miro — Picture this: you're deep in a pixel-perfect Figma mock-up, bouncing between chats and emails, when someone pings you for feedback on a Lucidchart workflow.
Leveraging design tool extensions in Cliq: A designer's guide to Figma, Lucidchart, and Miro — Picture this: you're deep in a pixel-perfect Figma mock-up, bouncing between chats and emails, when someone pings you for feedback on a Lucidchart workflow.
IDrive:
Protecting your Cloud Applications Data — Backing up Office 365, Google Workspace, Dropbox & Box data is critical to preventing data loss or corruption, complying with laws and avoiding critical downtime in case of a disaster.
Protecting your Cloud Applications Data — Backing up Office 365, Google Workspace, Dropbox & Box data is critical to preventing data loss or corruption, complying with laws and avoiding critical downtime in case of a disaster.Featured Podcasts
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