Friday, April 25, 2025

Sources: Tencent Music is in advanced talks to buy Chinese podcasting startup Ximalaya in a $2.4B deal (Bloomberg)

Bloomberg:
Sources: Tencent Music is in advanced talks to buy Chinese podcasting startup Ximalaya in a $2.4B deal  —  An agreement could be reached as soon as the coming weeks, the people said.  —  Talks are ongoing and no final decisions have been made, the people said.



Baidu CEO Robin Li says demand for text-based models like DeepSeek's is "shrinking" and claims its model had a higher propensity for "hallucinations" (Eleanor Olcott/Financial Times)

Eleanor Olcott / Financial Times:
Baidu CEO Robin Li says demand for text-based models like DeepSeek's is “shrinking” and claims its model had a higher propensity for “hallucinations”  —  Search group's chief makes rare criticism of China's generative artificial intelligence darling



Toshiba Europe researchers say they used quantum key distribution cryptography to send messages over a 250km German commercial telecommunications network (Michael Peel/Financial Times)

Michael Peel / Financial Times:
Toshiba Europe researchers say they used quantum key distribution cryptography to send messages over a 250km German commercial telecommunications network  —  Researchers harness quantum mechanics to create communications system that can avoid being hacked  —  Scientists have sent messages …



Monday, April 21, 2025

Brand aggregator Upexi says it is raising $100M to accumulate Solana, causing its shares to surge over 400%, part of a trend of companies investing in crypto (Ryan Weeks/Bloomberg)

Ryan Weeks / Bloomberg:
Brand aggregator Upexi says it is raising $100M to accumulate Solana, causing its shares to surge over 400%, part of a trend of companies investing in crypto  —  Upexi Inc. is raising $100 million as part of a pivot that will see the company start to accumulate the cryptocurrency Solana, according to a Monday statement.



Sources: Circle, BitGo, and other firms plan to apply for bank charters or licenses, as the Trump administration pushes to bring crypto into mainstream finance (Wall Street Journal)

Wall Street Journal:
Sources: Circle, BitGo, and other firms plan to apply for bank charters or licenses, as the Trump administration pushes to bring crypto into mainstream finance  —  Circle, BitGo and other crypto firms plan to apply for bank charters or licenses  —  Crypto is pushing deeper into the banking system.



TSMC says its role in the semiconductor supply chain limits its ability to comply with export rules, after reports its tech was used in Huawei's Ascend 910B (Jane Lanhee Lee/Bloomberg)

Jane Lanhee Lee / Bloomberg:
TSMC says its role in the semiconductor supply chain limits its ability to comply with export rules, after reports its tech was used in Huawei's Ascend 910B  —  “TSMC's role in the semiconductor supply chain inherently limits its visibility and information available to it regarding …



Sunday, April 20, 2025

After lobbying US Congress to shelve the Senate-passed KOSA bill in 2024, Meta has now made headway in lobbying for an app store age-verification bill (Ruth Reader/Politico)

Ruth Reader / Politico:
After lobbying US Congress to shelve the Senate-passed KOSA bill in 2024, Meta has now made headway in lobbying for an app store age-verification bill  —  The Facebook founder is lobbying Congress to leave his firm alone — and making headway.  —  To protect kids online …



A look at the race to turn brainwaves into fluent speech, as researchers at universities in California and companies use brain implants and AI to make advances (Financial Times)

Financial Times:
A look at the race to turn brainwaves into fluent speech, as researchers at universities in California and companies use brain implants and AI to make advances  —  Californian researchers and groups such as Precision Neuroscience use implants and AI to make advances in ‘voice prosthesis’



The success of A Minecraft Movie, set to hit $700M in ticket sales globally this weekend, signals Hollywood's breakthrough in adapting video games into films (Christopher Grimes/Financial Times)

Christopher Grimes / Financial Times:
The success of A Minecraft Movie, set to hit $700M in ticket sales globally this weekend, signals Hollywood's breakthrough in adapting video games into films  —  While superhero franchises flag, ‘A Minecraft Movie’ shows the industry has finally cracked the formula for translating popular games into films



India's Open Network for Digital Commerce has struggled to break the near-duopoly of Zomato and Swiggy in online food delivery after cutting back on discounts (Krishnapriya V.S./The India Forum)

Krishnapriya V.S. / The India Forum:
India's Open Network for Digital Commerce has struggled to break the near-duopoly of Zomato and Swiggy in online food delivery after cutting back on discounts  —  A near-duopoly of Zomato and Swiggy controls almost 95% of India's digital platform-based food delivery market …



Sources: after five Thinking Machines staff left, investors are rattled, potentially impacting fundraising; two researchers quit via Slack during an all-hands (The Information)

The Information : Sources: after five Thinking Machines staff left, investors are rattled, potentially impacting fundraising; two researc...