Alan Crawford / Bloomberg:
A look at the deepening engagement of EU’s auto chipmakers with China as sales suffer in the West; McKinsey: automotive chips market will be worth $150B by 2030 — – Latest earnings show China’s EV growth as a rare bright spot — Beijing’s push for tech independence threatens foreign sales
A look at Whisper CEO Michael Heyward’s Medialab, which acquired Imgur and Genius and was sued by their founders and others for allegedly failing to honor deals (Iain Martin/Forbes)
Iain Martin / Forbes:
A look at Whisper CEO Michael Heyward’s Medialab, which acquired Imgur and Genius and was sued by their founders and others for allegedly failing to honor deals — Whisper cofounder and CEO Michael Heyward’s second company made a $1.1 billion business out of acquiring floundering startups like Imgur, Genius and Kik.
The Google monopoly ruling dealt a blow to one of Big Tech’s arguments against regulation: that 19th-century antitrust laws can’t address modern tech innovation (Washington Post)
Washington Post:
The Google monopoly ruling dealt a blow to one of Big Tech’s arguments against regulation: that 19th-century antitrust laws can’t address modern tech innovation — The first big tech-sector anti-monopoly ruling in a generation challenges the idea that the internet era has outgrown U.S. antitrust law.
CloudPay, which offers cloud-based payroll and payments services to businesses, raised $120M led by Blue Owl Capital, taking its total funding to $228M (Kyle Wiggers/TechCrunch)
Kyle Wiggers / TechCrunch:
CloudPay, which offers cloud-based payroll and payments services to businesses, raised $120M led by Blue Owl Capital, taking its total funding to $228M — In 1996, two companies, Patersons HR and Payroll Solutions, formed a venture called CloudPay to provide payroll and payments services to enterprise clients.
TikTok and Pinterest partner with Amazon to let users buy items from Amazon ads without leaving the social media apps (Theo Wayt/The Information)
Theo Wayt / The Information:
TikTok and Pinterest partner with Amazon to let users buy items from Amazon ads without leaving the social media apps — Amazon’s e-commerce business is huge but slow-growing, while shopping on social media has been taking off. That’s prompted Amazon to look for ways to team up with popular social media apps.
NYC-based Cents, which provides business management and payments services for the laundry industry, raised a $40M Series B, taking its total funding to $77M+ (AlleyWatch)
AlleyWatch:
NYC-based Cents, which provides business management and payments services for the laundry industry, raised a $40M Series B, taking its total funding to $77M+ — The garment care market is substantial, with an annual value of approximately $60B. Despite this large addressable market …
Unity reports Q2 revenue down 16% YoY to $449M, vs. $438M est., a net loss of $125.6M, vs. $192.2M in Q2 2023, and trims its FY 2024 forecast (Emily Bary/MarketWatch)
Emily Bary / MarketWatch:
Unity reports Q2 revenue down 16% YoY to $449M, vs. $438M est., a net loss of $125.6M, vs. $192.2M in Q2 2023, and trims its FY 2024 forecast — App-monetization company trims its full-year forecast, with new CEO saying ‘investments in fundamental product enhancements will take some time to manifest …
Sources: enterprise AI company Glean is in advanced talks to raise $250M led by DST Global at a $4.5B valuation, about double its valuation from February 2024 (Wall Street Journal)
Wall Street Journal:
Sources: enterprise AI company Glean is in advanced talks to raise $250M led by DST Global at a $4.5B valuation, about double its valuation from February 2024 — The $250 million investment would double the company’s valuation from six months ago, a sign of continued enthusiasm for generative AI
OpenAI rolls out the ability for ChatGPT free users to create up to two images per day with DALL-E 3, after launching DALL-E 3 to Plus subscribers in October (Jay Peters/The Verge)
Jay Peters / The Verge:
OpenAI rolls out the ability for ChatGPT free users to create up to two images per day with DALL-E 3, after launching DALL-E 3 to Plus subscribers in October — OpenAI is going to let users of ChatGPT’s free tier make up to two images per day with its DALL-E 3 model, the company announced on Thursday.
Sources: the UK is considering revisiting parts of the Online Safety Act to give authorities more power to force social media companies to curb harmful content (Bloomberg)
Bloomberg:
Sources: the UK is considering revisiting parts of the Online Safety Act to give authorities more power to force social media companies to curb harmful content — – Starmer has few existing levers to curb incendiary content — Officials consider revisiting key parts of Online Safety Act