A profile of 114-year-old Japanese conglomerate Hitachi, whose market cap recently hit $100B after becoming an industrial software and hardware provider (Financial Times)

Financial Times:
A profile of 114-year-old Japanese conglomerate Hitachi, whose market cap recently hit $100B after becoming an industrial software and hardware provider  —  New chief executive takes over streamlined conglomerate with most of its revenues and employees overseas

Turkish startup Agave Games, developer of Find the Cat, which has 10M+ downloads since its August 2024 release, raised an $18M Series A at a $100M valuation (Ingrid Lunden/TechCrunch)

Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:
Turkish startup Agave Games, developer of Find the Cat, which has 10M+ downloads since its August 2024 release, raised an $18M Series A at a $100M valuation  —  A startup out of Turkey that has built a hit casual mobile game where you have to find cats in Where's Wally-style drawings …

Beijing-based AI startup Zhipu, which aims to make services tailored to the China market, raised $412M, after raising $400M at a ~$3B valuation in May 2024 (Bloomberg)

Bloomberg:
Beijing-based AI startup Zhipu, which aims to make services tailored to the China market, raised $412M, after raising $400M at a ~$3B valuation in May 2024  —  Beijing-based Zhipu raised a further 3 billion yuan ($412 million) to power its artificial intelligence development efforts.

The UK's Ofcom says the Online Safety Act, passed in 2023 to govern illegal material on internet platforms, has taken effect, and plans to expand it in 2025 (Mark Bergen/Bloomberg)

Mark Bergen / Bloomberg:
The UK's Ofcom says the Online Safety Act, passed in 2023 to govern illegal material on internet platforms, has taken effect, and plans to expand it in 2025  —  - Ofcom released first guidelines for Online Safety Act  — Rules require firms to remove illegal content or face fines

Workers are adopting generative AI faster than companies can issue guidelines on how to do so; a survey says ~25% the US workforce already uses the tech weekly (Stephanie Stacey/Financial Times)

Stephanie Stacey / Financial Times:
Workers are adopting generative AI faster than companies can issue guidelines on how to do so; a survey says ~25% the US workforce already uses the tech weekly  —  Staff are adopting large language models faster than companies can issue guidelines on how to do so

Sources: Apple is working on a foldable device the size of two iPad Pros for 2028, a Magic Mouse revamp, and an AirTag with triple the range of the current one (Mark Gurman/Bloomberg)

Mark Gurman / Bloomberg:
Sources: Apple is working on a foldable device the size of two iPad Pros for 2028, a Magic Mouse revamp, and an AirTag with triple the range of the current one  —  Apple's new vision for the future of computing is a giant, iPad-like foldable device.  Also: The company rethinks the mouse …

How Sony turned itself around by innovating its games business beyond consoles and making acquisitions to expand its IP and focus on original content (John Towfighi/CNN)

John Towfighi / CNN:
How Sony turned itself around by innovating its games business beyond consoles and making acquisitions to expand its IP and focus on original content  —  The last time Sony was worth this much on the stock market, Bill Clinton was president and the PlayStation 2 was about to debut on American store shelves.

Sports stars promoting crypto coins and exchanges with little knowledge highlight the lack of mechanisms for consumers to distinguish opportunities from scams (Andrew Lawrence/The Guardian)

Andrew Lawrence / The Guardian:
Sports stars promoting crypto coins and exchanges with little knowledge highlight the lack of mechanisms for consumers to distinguish opportunities from scams  —  Sports stars are rushing to promote coins and exchanges.  But they are stepping into a world of which they often have scant knowledge

How Viam, founded in 2020 by MongoDB co-founder Eliot Horowitz, helps companies make anything "smart", including pizza buffets and bathroom lines (Isabelle Bousquette/Wall Street Journal)

Isabelle Bousquette / Wall Street Journal:
How Viam, founded in 2020 by MongoDB co-founder Eliot Horowitz, helps companies make anything “smart”, including pizza buffets and bathroom lines  —  Entrepreneur Eliot Horowitz, who founded $22 billion database company MongoDB, is betting on artificial intelligence in the physical world

Duolingo has bucked the post-pandemic blues in edtech, with its stock price up over 300% from its 2021 IPO price of $102, giving the company a ~$15B market cap (Financial Times)

Financial Times:
Duolingo has bucked the post-pandemic blues in edtech, with its stock price up over 300% from its 2021 IPO price of $102, giving the company a ~$15B market cap  —  The language learning app sees big growth opportunities ahead  —  Education technology companies became sought after properties during …

Japanese chipmaker Kioxia's dramatic valuation drop from $18B in 2018 to $5.1B in its upcoming IPO is due to its high debt and lower AI exposure than rivals (Jacky Wong/Wall Street Journal)

Jacky Wong / Wall Street Journal:
Japanese chipmaker Kioxia's dramatic valuation drop from $18B in 2018 to $5.1B in its upcoming IPO is due to its high debt and lower AI exposure than rivals  —  Kioxia is going for a discount due to its high debt and lower AI exposure than rivals  —  Japan's last blockbuster initial public offering …

A look at opposing VC models of Benchmark, which maintains its traditional small-scale approach, and Andreessen Horowitz, which pursues aggressive expansion (Erin Griffith/New York Times)

Erin Griffith / New York Times:
A look at opposing VC models of Benchmark, which maintains its traditional small-scale approach, and Andreessen Horowitz, which pursues aggressive expansion  —  Three decades ago, five men formed a venture capital firm on Sand Hill Road in Silicon Valley with a simple pitch: Small is beautiful.

Sources: Apple will begin producing AirPods in India for the first time around Q1, 2025; a Foxconn unit is already making AirPods on a trial basis in Hyderabad (Bloomberg)

Bloomberg:
Sources: Apple will begin producing AirPods in India for the first time around Q1, 2025; a Foxconn unit is already making AirPods on a trial basis in Hyderabad  —  - Partner Foxconn to begin making the product near Hyderabad  — Apple is diversifying its manufacturing network beyond China

China plans to set up a committee of 41 members, including representatives from Baidu and Peking University, to set standards for LLMs and AI risk assessment (Reuters)

Reuters:
China plans to set up a committee of 41 members, including representatives from Baidu and Peking University, to set standards for LLMs and AI risk assessment  —  China's industry ministry will set up an artificial intelligence standardisation technical committee focusing on developing industry standards …

How US SMB owners, celebrities, and retailers on TikTok are using livestreaming to boost their sales one year after TikTok Shop's launch in the country (Andrea Chang/Los Angeles Times)

Andrea Chang / Los Angeles Times:
How US SMB owners, celebrities, and retailers on TikTok are using livestreaming to boost their sales one year after TikTok Shop's launch in the country  —  From noon until midnight, Aaliyah Arnold sold products from her beauty brand, BossUp Cosmetics, during a TikTok livestream filmed in Culver City last month.