In its latest attempt to erode the protections of strong encryption, the U.K. government has reportedly secretly ordered Apple to build a backdoor that would allow British security officials to access the encrypted cloud storage data of Apple customers anywhere in the world.The secret order — issued under the U.K.’s Investigatory Powers Act 2016 (known as the Snoopers’ Charter) — aims to undermine an opt-in Apple feature that provides end-to-end encryption (E2EE) for iCloud backups, called Advanced Data Pro ...

On the same day that President Donald Trump delayed ending a trade exemption targeting certain Chinese imports, ecommerce company Shopify published a blog post making its stance on U.S. trade policy clear.In the post, Shopify endorsed “open trade,” calling for regulators to give online merchants the “freedom to expand without constraints imposed by geopolitical brinkmanship.” “Without small-business protections, legitimate entrepreneurs suffer under policies intended to curb exploitation,” the post read. “ ...

Amazon is the latest tech company to remove references to “inclusion and diversity” from its 10-K report. The filing has removed reference to diversity and inclusion as it pertains to the workplace.In its 2023 10-K form, the company had a sentence that read “As we strive to be Earth’s best employer, we focus on investment and innovation, inclusion and diversity, safety, and engagement to hire and develop the best talent.” In its 2024 10-K, that sentence was greatly reduced to simply read “We strive to be Ea ...

In Brief Government officials in the United Kingdom have reportedly secretly ordered Apple to build a backdoor that would give its authorities access to users’ encrypted iCloud data.The Washington Post reports that the demand was issued in January under the U.K.’s Investigatory Powers Act 2016, also known as the Snoopers’ Charter. Officials demanded “blanket” access to end-to-end encrypted files uploaded to its cloud by any user worldwide, according to the report, rather than asking for narrow access to spe ...

Despite all the buzz last week that DeepSeek would herald in an era of lower AI budgets, there is zero sign that Big Tech is slowing down. Instead, they’re ramping things up. Amazon is the latest tech giant to announce a massive AI spending plan with well over $100 billion in predicted capital expenditures for 2025. The “vast majority” of that $100 billion will go toward AI capabilities for its cloud division AWS, CEO Andy Jassy said during Amazon’s fourth-quarter earnings call Thursday.  (More specificall ...

Ford CEO Jim Farley has a question about President Donald Trump’s threatened tariffs on imports from Mexico, Canada, and China: Why stop there?Farley said in a conference call Wednesday that Trump’s selective approach “doesn’t make sense.” “Why are we having this conversation while Hyundai-Kia is importing 600,000 units in the U.S. with no incremental tariff? And why is Toyota able to import a half a million vehicles in the U.S. with no incremental tariffs?” Farley questioned. “If we’re going to have a tar ...

Core Insights - The AI budget growth is under scrutiny due to concerns about competition from cheaper AI models, particularly from DeepSeek, which impacted Nvidia's stock [1] - Alphabet plans to significantly increase its capital expenditures to $75 billion this year, marking a 42% increase to enhance its AI initiatives [2] - The company believes that lower AI costs will drive demand for its services, leveraging its large user base to benefit from increased usage [3] - Alphabet's CEO emphasized the potential for extraordinary use cases in AI as costs decrease, indicating a strong commitment to investing in this area [4] - Despite uncertainties, major tech companies are currently able to sustain their AI investments, with no clear indication of when spending might slow down [5]

AMD says that it plans to launch its next major data center GPUs, the AMD Instinct MI350 series, sooner than originally announced.During the company’s Q4 2024 earnings call Tuesday, AMD CEO Lisa Su said AMD plans to sample the MI350 with “lead customers” this quarter, and “accelerate” production shipments to “mid-year.” “So, we had previously stated that we thought we would launch [the MI350] in the second half of [2025],” Su said. “And frankly, that bring-up has come up better than we expected, and there’ ...

In Brief Google removed a pledge to not build AI for weapons or surveillance from its website this week. The change was first spotted by Bloomberg. The company appears to have updated its public AI principles page, erasing a section titled “applications we will not pursue,” which was still included as recently as last week.Asked for comment, the company pointed TechCrunch to a new blog post on “responsible AI.” It notes, in part, “we believe that companies, governments, and organizations sharing these value ...

Renewables notched another win as Amazon signed contracts to buy 476 megawatts of wind and solar on the Iberian Peninsula. The power purchase agreements with multinational utility Iberdrola should help Amazon feed new data centers it has planned in the region. Last May, the company said it would invest $17 billion in infrastructure projects, including data centers, in Spain. Amazon’s power bill has been soaring lately as it adds data centers to deal with rising demand for AI and cloud services.One of the p ...