~techmeme | Bookmarks (1039)

Wen-Yee Lee / Reuters: TrendForce: China's share of global mature node manufacturing capacity in 2024 was 34%, vs. Taiwan's 43%; China's share is forecasted to exceed Taiwan's by 2027  —  When Taiwan's Powerchip Technology entered a deal with the eastern Chinese city of Hefei in 2015 to set up a new chip foundry …

Kelcee Griffis / Bloomberg: T-Mobile's satellite texting feature, currently in beta and powered by SpaceX's Starlink, will cost customers $15/month starting in July for users on most plans  —  - Anticipated upgrade goes into a free beta period until July … The service is in beta mode now and users can sign up online to participate …

Alice Robb / Bloomberg: A look at the debate over how much authors should get paid for licensing books to train AI; Microsoft offered HarperCollins $5K/title, of which authors get 50%  —  Most experts agree that tech companies should pay creators whose work is used to train artificial intelligence.

Sam Altman: Observations on AI and how it may change society, the likely uneven impact of AGI, which could mess up the balance of power between capital and labor, and more  —  Our mission is to ensure that AGI (Artificial General Intelligence) benefits all of humanity.

Financial Times: Macron announces that companies have agreed to invest €109B in AI projects in France in the coming years, saying it's France's equivalent to Stargate for the US  —  French president speaks ahead of AI summit in Paris involving executives such as OpenAI's Sam Altman

New York Times: Chainalysis: just under 700K wallets recorded gains on $TRUMP, 810K+ have lost money, and $6.6B has been secured in cashed-out profits, mostly by early buyers  —  Some traders made tens of millions off a new cryptocurrency launched by President Trump and his sons.  Many others lost out.

Ashley Carman / Bloomberg: Edison: despite Spotify's video push, only two of the top 10 US podcasts post videos on Spotify; 37 of the top 50 US podcasts regularly post videos on YouTube  —  Popular programs like New Heights and Club Shay Shay have yet to put their videos on the streaming service  —  Hello, and welcome back to Soundbite.

Nitasha Tiku / Washington Post: How DeepSeek's R1 led to more chatbots' “chains of thought” being shown to users; an expert says seeing a chatbot's supposed inner monologue can trigger empathy  —  How Chinese start-up DeepSeek triggered a rush to launch chatbots that “reason.”

Benj Edwards / Ars Technica: A look at WikiTok, a site that lets users vertically swipe through an endless stream of random Wikipedia article stubs without an algorithm that tracks the user  —  On Wednesday, a New York-based app developer named Isaac Gemal debuted a new site called WikiTok, where users can vertically swipe through …

Belle Lin / Wall Street Journal: An analysis of US DOL data: the IT sector unemployment rate rose from 3.9% in December to 5.7% in January, with the number of unemployed rising from 98K to 152K  —  Artificial intelligence continues to impact the technology labor market  —  The unemployment rate in the information technology sector rose …

The Economic Times: Indian Electronics and Semiconductor Association projects India's chip market, valued at $52B in 2024-2025, to grow to $103.4B at a CAGR of 13% through 2030  —  India's semiconductor consumption market, valued at $52 billion in 2024-25, is expected to grow at a 13% CAGR through 2030.

Bloomberg: Crypto.com and Kalshi launched sports wagers tied to the Super Bowl in 50 US states, creating a turf war with the sports betting industry and state regulators  —  Crypto.com and Kalshi have made an end-run around state regulators to allow wagers on the NFL championship, the biggest betting day in American sports.

Wall Street Journal: Source: TikTok CEO Shou Chew proposed to senior White House officials a US-based joint venture between US investors and TikTok that would oversee data security  —  Vance tapped to help oversee negotiations, with companies including Oracle and Amazon signaling interest while TikTok officials hope to avoid a sale

Nikou Asgari / Financial Times: Data from crypto security company Coinkite shows that 78 listed companies globally are following Strategy's example in buying bitcoin to hold in place of cash  —  Firms buy ‘kryptonite for short sellers’ as they try to emulate US software group's success  —  Software business-turned-bitcoin …

Fei-Fei Li / Financial Times: Three fundamental principles for the future of AI policymaking: have a clear view of reality, be pragmatic instead of ideological, and empower the AI ecosystem  —  It is possible to develop a model with the best intentions, and for that model to be misused later on

Cheng Ting-Fang / Nikkei Asia: Sources: TSMC is informing Chinese customers using its 16nm or better tech that it cannot ship orders unless they use a US “white list” chip packaging supplier  —  TAIPEI — The latest U.S. export controls on China's chip sector are causing more disruption than the industry expected …

Monique Mulima / Bloomberg: CoinMarketCap: Circle's USDC market cap reached a new high of $56.2B on February 9, after dropping to $24.5B in 2023 in the months following FTX's collapse  —  USDC reached a market value of $56.2 billion on Friday, after falling to $24.5 billion in 2023, according to data from CoinMarketCap.

Jay Peters / The Verge: PlayStation Network has been experiencing a multi-hour outage, affecting account management, gaming and social, and PlayStation Video, Store, and Direct website  —  PSN has been experiencing a multi-hour outage.  You might have trouble loading purchased digital games or seeing which friends are online.

James Hunt / The Block: Nikkei: Japan's financial regulator asks Apple and Google to remove apps from Bybit, MEXC Global, LBank Exchange, KuCoin, and Bitget; Apple has removed the apps  —  - Japan's Financial Services Agency has reportedly requested Apple and Google to block five unregistered overseas crypto exchange apps in the country.

Thomas Germain / BBC: An Adalytics report shows how ad systems run by Google, Amazon, Microsoft and others inadvertently placed ads on a website that hosts CSAM  —  Some of the biggest tech companies in the world served ads on a website featuring images of child abuse, helping to fund its operations.

Brian Krebs / Krebs on Security: Chat logs reveal DOGE member Edward Coristine's ties to cybercrime community The Com, and a Telegram handle linked to him sought a DDoS-for-hire service in 2022  —  Wired reported this week that a 19-year-old working for Elon Musk's so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) …

Financial Times: Docs: Palantir has won $2.7B+ in US contracts since 2009, including $1.3B+ in Pentagon contracts, and spent $5.8M in lobbying in 2024, up from ~$1M in 2015  —  Peter Thiel-chaired group has Washington and Westminster network that helped secure around $3bn in official contracts

Bloomberg: Sources: Island, which makes secure browsers for businesses, is raising money at a $4.5B valuation in a round led by Coatue; it was valued at $3B in April 2024  —  Valuation jump shows VCs are still enthusiastic for cybersecurity deals.  —  Enterprise software and security startup Island Technology Inc …

Financial Times: Sources: Klarna is targeting an IPO in the US in April with a valuation of up to $15B and is preparing to unveil its listing plans as soon as next month  —  Valuation of up to $15bn would make it one of the biggest listings this year  —  Swedish fintech Klarna is targeting an IPO in the US …