Epic Games says Fortnite on iOS will be offline worldwide "until Apple unblocks it" after Apple rejected its latest submission to the US App Store (Dominic Preston/The Verge)

Dominic Preston / The Verge:
Epic Games says Fortnite on iOS will be offline worldwide “until Apple unblocks it” after Apple rejected its latest submission to the US App Store  —  Epic says that the game is ‘offline’ on iPhones everywhere after Apple rejected its App Store resubmission.

Hacking group DragonForce says it stole UK retailer Co-op's customer data and planned to deploy ransomware, but Co-op quickly shut down its systems, unlike M&S (Joe Tidy/BBC)

Joe Tidy / BBC:
Hacking group DragonForce says it stole UK retailer Co-op's customer data and planned to deploy ransomware, but Co-op quickly shut down its systems, unlike M&S  —  Co-op narrowly averted being locked out of its computer systems during the cyber attack that saw customer data stolen …

YouTube announces Peak Points, a pilot Gemini AI feature that lets advertisers target ads to viewers when they are most engaged with a video (Zach Vallese/CNBC)

Zach Vallese / CNBC:
YouTube announces Peak Points, a pilot Gemini AI feature that lets advertisers target ads to viewers when they are most engaged with a video  —  YouTube on Wednesday announced a new tool that will allow advertisers to use Google's Gemini AI model to target ads to viewers when they are most engaged with a video.

Filing: GD Culture Group, a struggling China-linked company that has only eight staff, plans to buy $300M in BTC and $TRUMP, creating clear ethical conflicts (New York Times)

New York Times:
Filing: GD Culture Group, a struggling China-linked company that has only eight staff, plans to buy $300M in BTC and $TRUMP, creating clear ethical conflicts  —  The firm, which produces content for TikTok, recorded no revenue last year, but it announced this week that a mysterious stock sale …

Foxconn reports Q1 revenue up 24% YoY to ~$54B, net profit up 91% YoY to ~$1.38B, above est.,; cloud and networking, like AI servers, was 34% of its Q1 revenue (Sherry Qin/Wall Street Journal)

Sherry Qin / Wall Street Journal:
Foxconn reports Q1 revenue up 24% YoY to ~$54B, net profit up 91% YoY to ~$1.38B, above est.,; cloud and networking, like AI servers, was 34% of its Q1 revenue  —  The company still expects AI servers to be a growth driver this year  —  Foxconn Technology Group reported strong first-quarter results …

SoftBank reports Q4 net profit up 124% YoY to ~$3.5B, a surprise profit and above a ~$182M loss est., due to improving valuations of Alibaba, T-Mobile, and more (David Keohane/Financial Times)

David Keohane / Financial Times:
SoftBank reports Q4 net profit up 124% YoY to ~$3.5B, a surprise profit and above a ~$182M loss est., due to improving valuations of Alibaba, T-Mobile, and more  —  Analysts had predicted a small quarterly loss at Japanese tech investment group  —  Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT …

How President Trump is leveraging the US' dominance in AI chips to secure strategic deals with Middle Eastern oil-rich countries like Saudi Arabia and the UAE (New York Times)

New York Times:
How President Trump is leveraging the US' dominance in AI chips to secure strategic deals with Middle Eastern oil-rich countries like Saudi Arabia and the UAE  —  As the president heads to the Middle East, America's dominance over A.I. chips has become a powerful source of leverage for the president.

How India aims to become a regional data center hub, leveraging its low energy pricing and AI-skilled workforce; power supply constraints pose a major challenge (Financial Times)

Financial Times:
How India aims to become a regional data center hub, leveraging its low energy pricing and AI-skilled workforce; power supply constraints pose a major challenge  —  Domestic demand is rising fast and international cloud providers are looking to expand footprints  —  Krishn Kaushik and Chris Kay in Chennai

Q&A with Whitney Wolfe Herd about returning as Bumble CEO, Tinder lawsuit, being bullish about using AI in dating apps, funding for female founders, and more (Lulu Garcia-Navarro/New York Times)

Lulu Garcia-Navarro / New York Times:
Q&A with Whitney Wolfe Herd about returning as Bumble CEO, Tinder lawsuit, being bullish about using AI in dating apps, funding for female founders, and more  —  Devin Oktar Yalkin for The New York Times  —  It feels like a lifetime ago, but when Whitney Wolfe Herd co-founded her first company …

As the consumer metaverse falters, the World Economic Forum projects the industrial metaverse will reach $100B by 2030, led by platforms like Nvidia Omniverse (Nicole Kobie/Wired)

Nicole Kobie / Wired:
As the consumer metaverse falters, the World Economic Forum projects the industrial metaverse will reach $100B by 2030, led by platforms like Nvidia Omniverse  —  Forget Mark Zuckerberg's vision of VR meetings; the industrial metaverse bridges digital and physical worlds in a way that's actually useful.

Sources: OpenAI is negotiating with Microsoft to enable a future IPO; Microsoft offers to cut its equity stake for continued access to OpenAI tech beyond 2030 (Financial Times)

Financial Times:
Sources: OpenAI is negotiating with Microsoft to enable a future IPO; Microsoft offers to cut its equity stake for continued access to OpenAI tech beyond 2030  —  High-stakes talks to revise terms of multibillion-dollar partnership are key to plans to adopt for-profit model

Q&A with Anthropic co-founder Jack Clark on the parts of the economy AGI will affect last, why he's relatively bearish on AI-fueled economic growth, and more (Tyler Cowen/Conversations with Tyler)

Tyler Cowen / Conversations with Tyler:
Q&A with Anthropic co-founder Jack Clark on the parts of the economy AGI will affect last, why he's relatively bearish on AI-fueled economic growth, and more  —  And the inevitable future of AI-enhanced parenting  — SUBSCRIBE - Apple - Google - Stitcher - Spotify - YouTube

Pope Leo XIV says he chose his name to honor Pope Leo XIII's work during the first industrial revolution, as AI poses challenges in a new industrial revolution (Lauren Kent/CNN)

Lauren Kent / CNN:
Pope Leo XIV says he chose his name to honor Pope Leo XIII's work during the first industrial revolution, as AI poses challenges in a new industrial revolution  —  Pope Leo XIV indicated on Saturday that his papacy will follow closely in the footsteps of the late Pope Francis …

The UK stopped asking Uber to pay VAT on the full cost of rides, instead collecting VAT only on its commission, after a setback in a similar dispute with Bolt (Financial Times)

Financial Times:
The UK stopped asking Uber to pay VAT on the full cost of rides, instead collecting VAT only on its commission, after a setback in a similar dispute with Bolt  —  HMRC has stopped demanding ridesharing company pay VAT on the full cost of rides after legal setback in related matter

A look at Microsoft's Threat Intelligence Center, staffed largely by ex-intelligence and military personnel, which has become a key pillar of US cyber defense (Bloomberg)

Bloomberg:
A look at Microsoft's Threat Intelligence Center, staffed largely by ex-intelligence and military personnel, which has become a key pillar of US cyber defense  —  Over the past decade, the software company has become a pillar of US cyber defenses — a position that could become more complicated under Trump.