Reading List

The most recent articles from a list of feeds I subscribe to.

Microsoft says "aggregate sales quotas for AI products have not been lowered", following a report that some units lowered sales growth targets for AI products (Reuters)

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Netflix sells game studio Spry Fox back to its co-founders, David Edery and Daniel Cook; the streamer has shrunk its six-studio gaming operation down to three (Stephen Totilo/Game File)

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Micron says it will exit its Crucial consumer business, as it doubles down on advanced memory chips used in AI data centers amid a global supply shortage (Arsheeya Bajwa/Reuters)

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Apple interface design chief Alan Dye is leaving the company to join Meta; Apple longtime designer Stephen Lemay will replace Dye (Mark Gurman/Bloomberg)

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Sources: Stripe is paying ~$1B to acquire Metronome, and the deal is expected to be predominantly cash; PitchBook: Metronome was valued at $470M in February (Alex Konrad/Upstarts Media)

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OpenAI's nonprofit foundation announces it's awarding $40.5M in grants this year to 208 nonprofits across the US; the nonprofit donated only $7.5M in 2024 (Shirin Ghaffary/Bloomberg)

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OpenAI agrees to buy Poland-based Neptune, which makes tools for analyzing progress during AI model training; the transaction will be in stock (Dina Bass/Bloomberg)

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IoT security device maker Verkada hit a $5.8B valuation after new funding, source says totaling $100M, led by CapitalG; it passed $1B in annualized bookings (Jaures Yip/CNBC)

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Russia's Roskomnadzor blocks access to Roblox, claiming that it is "rife with inappropriate content" and distributing extremist materials and "LGBT propaganda" (Reuters)

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India says it revoked an order to smartphone makers to preload state-run cybersecurity app Sanchar Saathi on all new smartphones, after protests from lawmakers (Reuters)

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Amazon adds an Alexa+ feature to Fire TV that lets Prime Video users skip to movie scenes using natural language descriptions, character names, or famous quotes (Lucas Manfredi/The Wrap)

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After a backlash, Amazon Prime Video removes AI-generated English and Spanish dubs that it had quietly rolled out in beta for several anime films and series (James Whitbrook/Gizmodo)

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Decentralized exchange Ostium raised a $20M Series A led by General Catalyst and Jump Trading, a source says at a ~$250M valuation, after previously raising $8M (Ben Weiss/Fortune)

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TikTok plans to invest $37.7B+ to build a data center near Brazil's port of Pecém, partnering with Omnia and Casa dos Ventos, its first project in Latin America (Bloomberg)

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Sources: Microsoft units lowered how much salespeople are supposed to grow sales of certain AI products, a rare move for Microsoft, after missing growth targets (Aaron Holmes/The Information)

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Q&A with Valve executive Pierre-Loup Griffais, who helped architect SteamOS and the Steam Deck, on quietly funding open-source tech to play Windows games on ARM (Sean Hollister/The Verge)

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Spotify unveils 2025's top 50 most popular US podcasts, led by The Joe Rogan Experience for the fifth consecutive year; 24 of the top 50 now offer video content (Todd Spangler/Variety)

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Spotify releases Wrapped 2025, which adds features like Wrapped Party, its first live interactive experience, Top Song Quiz, Listening Age, and Wrapped Clubs (Sarah Perez/TechCrunch)

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Uber partners with Avride to launch robotaxi rides in Dallas, marking Uber's fourth US city to offer autonomous ride options, after Phoenix, Austin, and Atlanta (Natalie Lung/Bloomberg)

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Sources and docs: Palantir's Immigration OS helps ICE track undocumented immigrants and deport them; a decade ago, Alex Karp said Trump's plans made "no sense" (Eva Dou/Washington Post)

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