George Hammond / Financial Times:
A profile of Thrive Capital, whose biggest portfolio companies include OpenAI and Stripe, as rivals say the VC firm’s approach is closer to asset management — As OpenAI raced to raise almost $7bn last month, one investor was always on hand. Thrive Capital stayed close to the AI start-up’s co-founder …
Forcing Google to sell Chrome sounds good on paper but the reality of it happening is fairly small as it will be extremely messy, if not impossible to execute (M.G. Siegler/Spyglass)
M.G. Siegler / Spyglass:
Forcing Google to sell Chrome sounds good on paper but the reality of it happening is fairly small as it will be extremely messy, if not impossible to execute — If Google were to sell off Chrome, who would benefit? Anyone? — The idea that Google would be broken up as a result …
Several media and tech executives say UK VC Matt Clifford, who has advised successive Tory and Labour governments, has an outsized influence over AI policy (Anna Gross/Financial Times)
Anna Gross / Financial Times:
Several media and tech executives say UK VC Matt Clifford, who has advised successive Tory and Labour governments, has an outsized influence over AI policy — British venture capitalist has advised successive Tory and Labour governments — Last year, as thousands of customers withdrew …
Alibaba appoints Jiang Fan its new e-commerce chief in an overhaul of the struggling business; Jiang was demoted in 2020 after allegations of improper conduct (Bloomberg)
Bloomberg:
Alibaba appoints Jiang Fan its new e-commerce chief in an overhaul of the struggling business; Jiang was demoted in 2020 after allegations of improper conduct — – International chief Jiang will oversee entire commerce unit — Jiang will become one of the company’s most powerful execs
Streamlabs: Twitch accounted for 82.3% of total Q3 streaming hours, with YouTube Gaming in second place at 5.6%; Kick grew 204% from Q2 2023 to Q3 2024 (Sam Gutelle/Tubefilter)
Sam Gutelle / Tubefilter:
Streamlabs: Twitch accounted for 82.3% of total Q3 streaming hours, with YouTube Gaming in second place at 5.6%; Kick grew 204% from Q2 2023 to Q3 2024 — For years, the Logitech-owned creator dashboard Streamlabs and its data partner Stream Hatchet have compiled quarterly progress reports for the streaming industry.
The Trump administration’s promises of mass deportations may lead to increased use of spyware like Graphite; ICE has a $2M contract with Graphite maker Paragon (Ronan Farrow/New Yorker)
Ronan Farrow / New Yorker:
The Trump administration’s promises of mass deportations may lead to increased use of spyware like Graphite; ICE has a $2M contract with Graphite maker Paragon — Other Western democracies have been roiled by the use of spyware to target political opponents, activists, journalists, and other vulnerable groups.
CFPB will supervise tech companies offering digital wallets, like Apple Pay, Google Pay and Venmo, by treating companies with 50M+ annual transactions as banks (Paige Smith/Bloomberg)
Paige Smith / Bloomberg:
CFPB will supervise tech companies offering digital wallets, like Apple Pay, Google Pay and Venmo, by treating companies with 50M+ annual transactions as banks — The US Consumer Financial Protection Bureau will now treat those companies more like banks as long as they handle …
Baidu reports Q3 revenue down 3% YoY to $4.78B, net income up 14% YoY to $1.09B, and online marketing revenue up 12% YoY to $1.1B, driven by AI cloud business (Evelyn Cheng/CNBC)
Evelyn Cheng / CNBC:
Baidu reports Q3 revenue down 3% YoY to $4.78B, net income up 14% YoY to $1.09B, and online marketing revenue up 12% YoY to $1.1B, driven by AI cloud business — BEIJING — Chinese tech giant Baidu on Thursday posted a 3% annual drop in third-quarter revenue, nevertheless beating market expectations amid AI cloud growth.
Sources: Huawei plans to start mass-producing its most advanced AI chip, the Ascend 910C, in Q1 2025, even as it struggles to make enough chips due to US curbs (Fanny Potkin/Reuters)
Fanny Potkin / Reuters:
Sources: Huawei plans to start mass-producing its most advanced AI chip, the Ascend 910C, in Q1 2025, even as it struggles to make enough chips due to US curbs — China’s Huawei plans to start mass-producing its most advanced artificial intelligence chip in the first quarter of 2025 …
Q&A with Palo Alto Networks CEO Nikesh Arora about the role of the tech industry in Trump’s administration, AI, the future of cybersecurity, and more (Reed Albergotti/Semafor)
Reed Albergotti / Semafor:
Q&A with Palo Alto Networks CEO Nikesh Arora about the role of the tech industry in Trump’s administration, AI, the future of cybersecurity, and more — The Scene — While Palo Alto Networks CEO Nikesh Arora and his firm are more under the radar than Silicon Valley’s consumer companies …
