Monday, June 23, 2025

Study: only 32 countries, mostly in the Northern Hemisphere, host AI data centers, with the US, China, and the EU controlling 50%+ of the world's top facilities (New York Times)

New York Times:
Study: only 32 countries, mostly in the Northern Hemisphere, host AI data centers, with the US, China, and the EU controlling 50%+ of the world's top facilities  —  Only 32 nations, mostly in the Northern Hemisphere, have A.I.-specialized data centers.  —  E.U. 28  —  China  —  Other  —  Europe



Sources: Apple is locked in last-minute EU negotiations over App Store changes to avoid fines set for this week, and is expected to offer "steering" concessions (Barbara Moens/Financial Times)

Barbara Moens / Financial Times:
Sources: Apple is locked in last-minute EU negotiations over App Store changes to avoid fines set for this week, and is expected to offer “steering” concessions  —  Tech group must make concessions to comply with Digital Markets Act or be hit by escalating levies from Thursday



How Walmart, seeking to compete with e-commerce rivals like Amazon, built a multibillion-dollar HQ in Bentonville, aiming to attract workers and woo shoppers (Kevin Draper/New York Times)

Kevin Draper / New York Times:
How Walmart, seeking to compete with e-commerce rivals like Amazon, built a multibillion-dollar HQ in Bentonville, aiming to attract workers and woo shoppers  —  The retailing giant is spending billions to attract workers to a new headquarters and woo shoppers with drone delivery and a broader range of items …



Tesla quietly launches its robotaxi service in Austin, with ~10 vehicles and a human safety driver; Elon Musk says customers will pay "a $4.20 flat fee" (Financial Times)

Financial Times:
Tesla quietly launches its robotaxi service in Austin, with ~10 vehicles and a human safety driver; Elon Musk says customers will pay “a $4.20 flat fee”  —  Self-driving technology on which Elon Musk has staked the future of his company debuts in Texas



Sunday, June 22, 2025

Texas enacts legislation, effective September 1, requiring a permit to operate self-driving vehicles, just before Tesla's planned robotaxi trial in Austin (Reuters)

Reuters:
Texas enacts legislation, effective September 1, requiring a permit to operate self-driving vehicles, just before Tesla's planned robotaxi trial in Austin  —  Texas Governor Greg Abbott, a Republican, has signed legislation requiring a permit to operate self-driving vehicles …



Purism's $1,999 security-focused Liberty Phone, assembled in the US with decade-old specs and some US-made parts, exposes the gaps in US phone manufacturing (Ben Raab/Wall Street Journal)

Ben Raab / Wall Street Journal:
Purism's $1,999 security-focused Liberty Phone, assembled in the US with decade-old specs and some US-made parts, exposes the gaps in US phone manufacturing  —  Despite the president's domestic manufacturing push—and the Trump Organization's launch of an ostensibly U.S.-made phone—the challenges remain massive



A look at the US Army Reserve's Detachment 201, which lets tech executives, like Meta's Bosworth, give advice as senior officers while keeping their day jobs (Steven Levy/Wired)

Steven Levy / Wired:
A look at the US Army Reserve's Detachment 201, which lets tech executives, like Meta's Bosworth, give advice as senior officers while keeping their day jobs  —  Meta CTO Andrew “Boz” Bosworth and leaders from OpenAI and Palantir have joined a detachment intended to make the US Armed Forces “leaner, smarter, and more lethal.”



Saturday, June 21, 2025

Experts say China-linked groups have repeatedly hacked Russian companies and government agencies in search of military secrets since the war in Ukraine began (Megha Rajagopalan/New York Times)

Megha Rajagopalan / New York Times:
Experts say China-linked groups have repeatedly hacked Russian companies and government agencies in search of military secrets since the war in Ukraine began  —  Since the war in Ukraine began, analysts have monitored a series of intrusions aimed at stealing information about weaponry and warfighting.



A look at "Generative Engine Optimization" startups like Profound and Bluefish AI, which help businesses improve content to appear in AI search summaries (Rashi Shrivastava/Forbes)

Rashi Shrivastava / Forbes:
A look at “Generative Engine Optimization” startups like Profound and Bluefish AI, which help businesses improve content to appear in AI search summaries  —  Businesses are scrambling to be cited in AI-generated answers on Google, Perplexity and ChatGPT.



Kantar: the share of Indians consuming media exclusively on mobile phones grew to 23% in Q1 2025, up from 15% in Q1 2023, as TVs stay unaffordable for many (Satviki Sanjay/Bloomberg)

Satviki Sanjay / Bloomberg:
Kantar: the share of Indians consuming media exclusively on mobile phones grew to 23% in Q1 2025, up from 15% in Q1 2023, as TVs stay unaffordable for many  —  The number of users who only use digital channels ballooned to 23% in the March quarter of 2025, according to market research firm …



Microsoft suspending an ICC judge's email account raised alarms across EU about how dependent its governments, businesses, and citizens are on US tech companies (New York Times)

New York Times:
Microsoft suspending an ICC judge's email account raised alarms across EU about how dependent its governments, businesses, and citizens are on US tech companies  —  To comply with a Trump executive order, Microsoft recently suspended the email account of an International Criminal Court prosecutor …



Docs: Israeli AI chip startup Hailo is pursuing an urgent IPO via a SPAC merger at a valuation of less than $500M; it was last valued at $1.2B in 2024 (Meir Orbach/CTech)

Meir Orbach / CTech : Docs: Israeli AI chip startup Hailo is pursuing an urgent IPO via a SPAC merger at a valuation of less than $500M; ...