The U.S. state of Washington has sued T-Mobile over allegations the phone giant failed to secure the personal data of millions of state residents prior to an August 2021 data breach, which went on to affect more than 79 million customers across the United States.In a statement announcing the lawsuit, Washington attorney general Bob Ferguson said T-Mobile “knew for years about certain cybersecurity vulnerabilities and did not do enough to address them.” Ferguson said the suit seeks financial damages under th ...

Meta has appointed three new members to its board of directors, the company announced Monday: UFC president and CEO Dana White, European investment company Exor CEO John Elkann, and tech investor and entrepreneur Charlie Songhurst. In a press release, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said that White, Elkann, and Songhurst “will add a depth of expertise and perspective” that’ll help Meta “tackle the massive opportunities ahead with AI, wearables, and the future of human connection.” White was named CEO of UFC in 20 ...

At CES 2025 in Las Vegas, AMD unveiled a slew of new chips destined for devices ranging from desktops to gaming handhelds.AMD is riding high coming into this year’s CES. The company commanded a 28.7% share of the desktop CPU segment in Q3 2024, up 9.6 percentage points compared to the same quarter the year prior. In mobile, AMD held 22.3% of the chip market as of last Q3, a 2.8-percentage-point uptick from the previous fiscal period. The company isn’t resting on its laurels, though. AMD’s 2025 strategy is ...

Google is forming a new team to work on AI models that can simulate the physical world. Tim Brooks, one of the co-leads on OpenAI’s video generator, Sora, who left for Google’s AI research lab, Google DeepMind, last October, will lead the new team, he announced in a post on X. It’ll be a part of Google DeepMind. “DeepMind has ambitious plans to make massive generative models that simulate the world,” Brooks wrote Monday morning. “I’m hiring for a new team with this mission.”According to job listings Brooks ...

Online spending rose 3% to a record $1.2 trillion globally over the holiday period, with U.S.-sales, specifically, growing 4% to $282 billion. That’s according to a new report from Salesforce, which aggregated data from across its various cloud services, including Agentforce, Commerce Cloud, Marketing Cloud, and Service Cloud, to garner insights into spending activity spanning 1.5 billion shoppers across dozens of countries from November 1 through December 31, 2024. Overall, the figures fall slightly shor ...

In a surprising deal announced on Monday, Disney is set to combine its Hulu Live TV business with Fubo, the live TV streaming service known for its extensive sports coverage. Under the terms of the deal, Disney will own about 70% of Fubo, which will continue to be available to viewers as a separate offering.   This new deal is expected to shake up the streaming TV business as the combined Fubo and Hulu Live TV player will let it take on major competitor YouTube TV, which has over 8 million subscribers. Hulu ...

Microsoft's AI Investment Strategy - Microsoft has allocated $80 billion in fiscal 2025 to build AI-enabled data centers, with over half of the investment focused in the United States [1] - The data centers are designed to train AI models and deploy AI and cloud-based applications globally [1] - Microsoft's fiscal year 2025 ends in June [1] AI's Economic Impact and Global Leadership - AI is expected to drive innovation and boost productivity across all economic sectors, positioning the United States at the forefront of this technological wave [2] - Microsoft emphasizes the importance of leveraging US strengths and international partnerships to maintain leadership in AI [2] Microsoft's AI Infrastructure Developments - Microsoft and OpenAI were in discussions in April regarding the construction of a $100 billion AI supercomputer facility named Stargate [2] - Microsoft later referred to OpenAI as a "competitor" in an SEC filing, indicating a shift in their relationship [2] Challenges in AI Infrastructure - The increasing electricity demand from AI operations is expected to lead to potential power shortages for data centers in the coming years [3]

Core Viewpoint - PayPal is facing a lawsuit from Nisha Desai, founder of Andav Capital, who alleges racial discrimination in the company's diversity and equity program, claiming she was excluded due to her Asian ethnicity [1][7]. Group 1: Lawsuit Details - The lawsuit was filed in a New York federal court, where Desai claims that PayPal's program is racially exclusionary, focusing primarily on Black and Hispanic-led businesses [4][7]. - Desai asserts that she applied for PayPal's $530 million commitment aimed at supporting minority-led businesses but was overlooked because the program prioritized Black and Hispanic firms [2][5]. - The suit alleges that PayPal's executives explicitly stated a preference for Black and Hispanic-led firms over other races, including Asian Americans [5][6]. Group 2: Financial Impact - Desai claims that her exclusion from the investment program resulted in significant financial losses for her firm, which she estimates to be "vital capital worth millions of dollars" [6]. - The lawsuit highlights that recipients of PayPal's funding were able to leverage those awards for additional investments and resources, while rejected funds like Desai's suffered from negative perceptions [6]. Group 3: Legal Representation and Context - Desai is represented by Consovoy McCarthy, a legal firm known for challenging race-based programs, including previous cases against Pfizer and educational institutions [8]. - The lawsuit is part of a broader trend where individuals and organizations are contesting diversity initiatives that they claim discriminate against non-Black and non-Hispanic groups [10].

Company Strategy - ByteDance plans to spend $7 billion on Nvidia chips in 2025, potentially becoming one of the world's top owners of these chips [1][3] - The company is technically adhering to U S restrictions by storing the chips in data centers located in regions like Southeast Asia rather than directly bringing them to China [4] Product and Market - ByteDance operates Doubao, China's "hottest" AI chatbot with 51 million active users [2] Regulatory Environment - The U S announced export restrictions on certain kinds of AI chips to countries including China in 2022, and these restrictions have been tightened multiple times since [5] Media Engagement - TechCrunch reached out to ByteDance for more information regarding their plans [6]

Company Strategy - ByteDance plans to spend $7 billion on Nvidia chips in 2025, potentially becoming one of the world's top owners of these chips [1] - The company is technically adhering to U S restrictions by storing the chips in data centers located in regions like Southeast Asia rather than directly bringing them to China [2] Industry Context - The U S announced export restrictions on certain kinds of AI chips to countries including China in 2022, and these restrictions have been tightened multiple times since [3] Product and Market - ByteDance operates Doubao, China's "hottest" AI chatbot with 51 million active users [6]