~techmeme | Bookmarks (1028)

Clive Cookson / Financial Times: Researchers detail a new AI-powered Probability of Fire model, which they say could outperform the conventional danger forecasts used by wildfire trackers  —  New model takes into account weather forecasts as well as other factors such as levels of flammable vegetation and human activity

Cheng Ting-Fang / Nikkei Asia: UMC, Taiwan's second-largest chipmaker, opened a $5B plant in Singapore featuring 22nm and 28nm manufacturing technology; mass production won't start until 2026  —  TAIPEI — Taiwan's second-largest chipmaker, United Microelectronics Corp., on Tuesday opened a $5 billion plant that it describes as the …

Amy Thomson / Bloomberg: Qualcomm says it is weighing an acquisition offer for Alphawave, which has a market cap of ~$1.3B and makes high-speed semiconductor and connectivity technology  —  The San Diego-based chip firm will have to make a decision about whether to make an offer by April 29 to comply with the UK's takeover rules …

Reuters: Sources: Arm decided not to pursue a deal after recently seeking to acquire Alphawave, a UK-listed supplier of semiconductor IP that is exploring a sale  —  SoftBank-owned chip tech provider Arm Holdings (O9Ty.F) recently sought to acquire UK-based Alphawave (AWE.L) to secure a crucial technology …

Kyle Wiggers / TechCrunch: Qualcomm acquires the generative AI division of Vietnamese startup VinAI, following the acquisition of German AI and IoT company Edge Impulse in early March  —  Qualcomm has acquired the generative AI division of VinAI, an AI research company headquartered in Hanoi, for an undisclosed amount, the companies announced on Monday.

Adrian Zmudzinski / Cointelegraph: Bybit shutters its NFT marketplace, following a similar decision by NFT marketplace X2Y2; Token Terminal: daily NFT trading volume has dropped 70% YoY to $5.34M  —  Bybit is shutting down its NFT and inscription marketplaces on April 8, 2025, as part of a broader strategy to streamline its offerings amid declining market interest.

Kyle Wiggers / TechCrunch: In a new paper, Tim O'Reilly and other researchers say OpenAI likely trained GPT-4o on paywalled books from O'Reilly Media without a licensing agreement  —  OpenAI has been accused by many parties of training its AI on copyrighted content sans permission.  Now a new paper by an AI watchdog …

CJ Haddad / CNBC: Chef Robotics, which develops AI-powered robotic meal assembly systems, raised a $20.6M Series A led by Avataar Ventures, and an additional $22.5M in debt  —  As the food service industry continues to struggle with labor shortages, a Silicon Valley startup has put together artificially-intelligent robots that are ready to clock in.

Bloomberg: Sources: AI coding startup Replit is in talks with investors to raise about $200M at a $3B valuation, almost triple its last valuation  —  The new funding round would bring in about $200 million, one of the people said.  —  Replit did not respond to requests for comment.

Sergiu Gatlan / BleepingComputer: Google researchers say DPRK's IT workers are fraudulently securing positions at companies in Germany, Portugal, and the UK, after facing sanctions in the US  —  North Korea's IT workers have expanded operations beyond the United States and are now increasingly targeting organizations across Europe.

Bill Toulas / BleepingComputer: Microsoft says it used its AI-powered Security Copilot to discover previously unknown vulnerabilities in the GRUB2, U-Boot, and Barebox open-source bootloaders  —  Microsoft used its AI-powered Security Copilot to discover 20 previously unknown vulnerabilities in the GRUB2, U-Boot, and Barebox open-source bootloaders.

Alexander Maxham / Android Headlines: Leaked renders of the Google Pixel 10 Pro Fold show a design similar to its predecessor's; sources: it will feature a TSMC-made Tensor G5 chip and 16GB of RAM  —  Update: We've updated this article with the dimensions of the Pixel 10 Pro Fold. … After having released renders of the Google Pixel 10 …

Yazhou Sun / Bloomberg: Sources: Finland-based IQM, which builds full-stack superconducting quantum computers, is in talks to raise €200M+; IQM raised a €128M Series A2 in July 2022  —  IQM, a Finnish startup that builds quantum computers, is in talks to raise more than €200 million ($216 million) …

Jake Kanter / Deadline: YouTube suspends two major fake movie trailer channels from its partner program, after a report on how the AI-heavy trailers generated millions in ad revenue  —  The Google-owned video-hosting giant has turned off ad revenue on Screen Culture and KH Studio trailers after a Deadline investigation chronicled …

CNBC: Circle files for a US IPO, with plans to list on the NYSE under CRCL; Circle, which issues the USDC stablecoin, is reportedly seeking a $4B to $5B valuation  —  Circle, the company behind the USDC stablecoin, has filed for an initial public offering and plans to list on the New York Stock Exchange.

Bloomberg: Chinese startup Manus, whose AI agent service is still in the beta testing phase, announces a $39/month Manus Starter plan and an upgraded $199/month Pro tier  —  The Beijing-based startup behind Manus has set up a $39-per-month tier and a $199 upgraded option, the latter in line with OpenAI's ChatGPT Pro.

Wall Street Journal: A look at the race between China and the US to build truly useful humanoid robots, as China lists “embodied” AI as a priority for a $138B state investment fund  —  U.S. and China are racing to build a truly useful humanoid worker.  Whoever wins could gain a huge edge in countless industries.

Bloomberg: Japan earmarks up to ~$5.4B in additional aid for chipmaker Rapidus, which aims to begin mass production of 2nm chips in 2027, a highly ambitious target  —  Japan is preparing as much as ¥802.5 billion ($5.4 billion) in additional aid for chip startup Rapidus Corp. …

Isaac Schultz / Gizmodo: Report: 79% of 475 AI experts believe current public perceptions of AI do not match R&D realities, while 76% said scaling current approaches will not yield AGI  —  An extensive report on the future of AI research indicated that there's skepticism about current approaches to AGI.

Yoolim Lee / Bloomberg: South Korea-based Wrtn, a free-to-use AI platform with 5M+ users aggregating LLMs like GPT-4, Stable Diffusion 3, and Claude 3, raised a $56M Series B extension  —  Existing backers BRV Capital Management and Capstone Partners participated in the so-called extension round …

CNBC: After Trump signed an EO to end the government's DEI programs, tech firms like Google are rebranding DEI efforts, using terms like “learning” or “hiring”  —  After Google scrapped its diversity, equity and inclusion, or DEI, hiring aspirations in February …

Dia Rekhi / The Economic Times: Sources: Foxconn plans to assemble 25M to 30M iPhones in India in 2025, up from ~12M in 2024, and is conducting production trials at its new Bengaluru plant  —  Foxconn has also been conducting limited trials at its Bengaluru campus in the last three-four months, signalling swift progress …

Wall Street Journal: Sources detail tensions between Apple and Elon Musk's SpaceX over efforts to expand satellite cellphone services  —  The iPhone maker and SpaceX are competing in the race to eliminate cellphone dead spots, a rift that is set to intensify  —  Apple is clashing with Elon Musk in its push …

Counterpoint Research: Global foldable smartphone shipments increased by just 2.9% YoY in 2024, and shipments are expected to decline by about 4% YoY in 2025  —  - 2024 saw the global foldable market growing at a comparatively flat annual rate of 2.9%.  — Samsung and OPPO's unusually weak Q4 negatively impacted broader market dynamics.