Thursday, July 20, 2023

A US House committee plans to investigate GGV, GSR, Walden International, and Qualcomm Ventures over their VC investments in China in AI, chips, and quantum (Wall Street Journal)

Wall Street Journal:
A US House committee plans to investigate GGV, GSR, Walden International, and Qualcomm Ventures over their VC investments in China in AI, chips, and quantum  —  House select committee says American firms' investments contributed to China's military buildup and rights abuses



Used car retailer Carvana reaches a deal to restructure its debt to lower interest payments and reports a $105M loss in Q2, down from a $439M loss in Q2 2022 (New York Times)

New York Times:
Used car retailer Carvana reaches a deal to restructure its debt to lower interest payments and reports a $105M loss in Q2, down from a $439M loss in Q2 2022  —  Most of the company's bondholders have agreed to accept bonds that are worth less than what they were owed but that are secured against real estate and other assets.



TSMC reports Q2 revenue down 10% YoY to ~$15.68B and net profit down 23.3% YoY to ~$5.9B, the first quarterly decline since 2019, as all non-AI chip sales lag (Nikkei Asia)

Nikkei Asia:
TSMC reports Q2 revenue down 10% YoY to ~$15.68B and net profit down 23.3% YoY to ~$5.9B, the first quarterly decline since 2019, as all non-AI chip sales lag  —  Taiwan chipmaker logs quarterly net profit drop on consumer electronics slump  —  Sluggish demand for smartphones …



Here’s when OnePlus may launch OnePlus 12 smartphone

OnePlus will soon launch its first foldable smartphone -- OnePlus Open. However, the company is also gearing up for the launch of its flagship smartphone OnePlus 12. Now a new leak has surfaced online revealing the likely launch timeline of the smartphone. https://ift.tt/zG97Wkw

Pokémon Sleep now available on the App Store and Google Play Store

Pokémon has announced the debut of its Pokémon Sleep game app. The sleep tracker app that turns sleep into entertainment is now available in the App Store for iOS and Google Play for Android in Australia, Canada, Latin America and New Zealand. The company also shared the debut of its app on Twitter. Here are the details https://ift.tt/krgXVoM

Wednesday, July 19, 2023

Unity launches PolySpatial, announced in conjunction with Vision Pro at WWDC to help developers port and create a 3D experience for Apple's visionOS, in beta (Brian Heater/TechCrunch)

Brian Heater / TechCrunch:
Unity launches PolySpatial, announced in conjunction with Vision Pro at WWDC to help developers port and create a 3D experience for Apple's visionOS, in beta  —  Unity this morning announced that it has opened the beta version of its development platform for visionOS.



Tecno Pova 5 Pro smartphone to launch in India soon

Tecno is all set to launch its new Pova series smartphone in India. Tecno has confirmed that it will soon launch the new Tecno Pova 5 Pro smartphone in India. The company has also teased the design of the upcoming smartphone which looks inspired by the recently launched Nothing Phone (2). https://ift.tt/1Egs9rj

The FTC and the DOJ release draft changes to US merger review guidelines, introducing potentially comprehensive changes for the first time in more than a decade (Brian Fung/CNN)

Brian Fung / CNN:
The FTC and the DOJ release draft changes to US merger review guidelines, introducing potentially comprehensive changes for the first time in more than a decade  —  The Justice Department and the Federal Trade Commission on Wednesday released a set of long-anticipated draft updates …



The UK CMA provisionally clears Broadcom's $61B acquisition of VMware, after finding that the deal would not harm competition; the deal still needs US approval (Katharine Gemmell/Bloomberg)

Katharine Gemmell / Bloomberg:
The UK CMA provisionally clears Broadcom's $61B acquisition of VMware, after finding that the deal would not harm competition; the deal still needs US approval  —  - CMA looks to clear technology deal after an in-depth review  — The decision follows a green light from its EU counterpart



Twitter’s former employee is suing the company, here's why

The lawsuit, filed in Delaware federal court by former Twitter senior engineer Chris Woodfield, is the latest in a series of cases filed against the social media company. The ex-employee alleges that the company targeted older workers for layoffs – a claim that has not been made in the other pending cases, news agency Reuters reported. https://ift.tt/Mrvj5Rd

Tuesday, July 18, 2023

Filling: Celsius agrees to settle with Series B holders to distribute $25M from the sale of crypto custodian GK8; Galaxy Digital bought GK8 from Celsius in 2022 (Sam Reynolds/CoinDesk)

Sam Reynolds / CoinDesk:
Filling: Celsius agrees to settle with Series B holders to distribute $25M from the sale of crypto custodian GK8; Galaxy Digital bought GK8 from Celsius in 2022  —  Mike Novogratz's Galaxy Digital purchased self-custody platform GK8 from Celsius in December as part of bankruptcy proceedings.



South Korea-based internet group Naver plans to release its HyperCLOVA X AI model this summer, as Google cuts into its core domestic search engine business (Kotaro Hosokawa/Nikkei Asia)

Kotaro Hosokawa / Nikkei Asia:
South Korea-based internet group Naver plans to release its HyperCLOVA X AI model this summer, as Google cuts into its core domestic search engine business  —  Partnership with Samsung to develop chips for data processing servers  —  Naver is leveraging a massive database of Korean-language content …



Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 5 tipped to big cover display with widget-based interface

Samsung is all set to host its Galaxy Unpacked event by the end of this month. Samsung has confirmed that it will host the Galaxy Unpacked event in Seoul, South Korea on July 26. The smartphone maker is expected to launch its upcoming foldable smartphones and smartwatch series at the event. Now, a new leak has surfaced online revealing some details about the upcoming Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 5 smartphone. https://ift.tt/aCuI2w6

The FCC unveils the US Cyber Trust Mark, a voluntary cybersecurity label for smart devices that will signify that devices meet NIST-set security standards (Wes Davis/The Verge)

Wes Davis / The Verge:
The FCC unveils the US Cyber Trust Mark, a voluntary cybersecurity label for smart devices that will signify that devices meet NIST-set security standards  —  The Biden Administration is unveiling a new cybersecurity label for smart devices today.  In a press briefing, Federal Communications Commission …



Leeds-based chip designer Optalysys, which is developing optical chips that use light instead of electricity to perform calculations, raised a £21M Series A (Tim Bradshaw/Financial Times)

Tim Bradshaw / Financial Times:
Leeds-based chip designer Optalysys, which is developing optical chips that use light instead of electricity to perform calculations, raised a £21M Series A  —  Leeds-based company pushes its innovative technology to unlock one of greatest challenges in data security



Disney, Fox, and WBD say they have agreed to discontinue their Venu Sports streaming joint venture and will focus on existing products and distribution channels (Alex Weprin/The Hollywood Reporter)

Alex Weprin / The Hollywood Reporter : Disney, Fox, and WBD say they have agreed to discontinue their Venu Sports streaming joint venture...