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Apple CEO Tim Cook says tariffs to add only $900M in costs in Q3
TechCrunch· 2025-05-01 21:46
Apple CEO Tim Cook commented on the impact of President Trump’s tariffs during Thursday’s second-quarter earnings call with investors. While the iPhone maker saw only “limited impact” from tariffs in the March quarter, Cook said Apple couldn’t forecast what that would mean for the coming quarter. However, if things remained the same, the company estimates tariffs will only add $900 million to its costs.The news was a relief to investors, with one even calling it a “pretty good outcome.” However, investors w ...
Apple CEO Tim Cook says tariffs to add $900M in costs in Q3, but future uncertain
TechCrunch· 2025-05-01 21:46
Apple CEO Tim Cook offered the company’s first comments on the impact of President Trump’s tariffs during Thursday’s second-quarter earnings call with investors. While the iPhone maker saw only “limited impact” from tariffs in the March quarter, Cook said Apple couldn’t forecast what that would mean for the coming quarter. However, if things remained the same, the company estimates tariffs will only add $900 million to its costs in Q3.The news was a relief to investors, with one even calling it a “pretty go ...
Instacart acquires Wynshop to provide tools for grocers and retailers
TechCrunch· 2025-05-01 14:38
Group 1 - Instacart announced the acquisition of Wynshop, a cloud-based e-commerce solutions provider for grocers, to enhance its enterprise solutions and improve online experiences for retailers [1] - Wynshop, launched in 2020, offers online storefronts and AI-powered personalization tools, and will operate as a wholly owned subsidiary of Instacart [2] - This acquisition marks Instacart's sixth acquisition, following previous purchases including Caper AI and Eversight [3] Group 2 - The integration of Wynshop's technology is expected to strengthen Instacart's e-commerce, advertising, fulfillment, and in-store offerings over time [2] - Instacart is set to report its first-quarter 2025 financial results after the market close [3]
Tesla's board reportedly sought a successor while Musk wheeled around Washington
TechCrunch· 2025-05-01 04:37
Core Insights - Tesla's board has initiated a search for Elon Musk's potential successor due to concerns over his divided attention and the company's declining performance [1][2] - Musk's involvement in government work has contributed to Tesla's first annual sales decline in over a decade, with the company's market value dropping from $1.5 trillion to approximately $900 billion [3] - Despite reporting a 71% profit decline and a 9% revenue drop, Musk remains optimistic about Tesla's future, assuring investors that the company is not in a critical state [4] Group 1 - The board's concerns about Musk's focus led to discussions about succession planning [1][2] - Musk's government activities have negatively impacted Tesla's brand image and sales performance [3] - The current status of the succession planning process is unclear, including Musk's awareness of it [4] Group 2 - Tesla's market value has significantly decreased, reflecting investor concerns [3] - The company reported a substantial decline in profits and revenue during the latest earnings call [4] - Musk's commitment to allocate more time to Tesla starting in May indicates a potential shift in focus [2]
Meta forecasted it would make $1.4T in revenue from generative AI by 2035
TechCrunch· 2025-05-01 01:38
Core Insights - Meta predicts its generative AI products will generate between $2 billion and $3 billion in revenue by 2025, and between $460 billion and $1.4 trillion by 2035 [1][2] Group 1: Revenue and Financial Projections - The company has revenue-sharing agreements with certain firms that host its open Llama collection of models [3] - Meta's generative AI budget was over $900 million in 2024 and is expected to exceed $1 billion in 2025, excluding infrastructure costs [4] - Meta plans to spend $60 billion to $80 billion on capital expenditures in 2025, primarily for new data centers [4] Group 2: Legal and Ethical Considerations - The court documents reveal that Meta is facing lawsuits from book authors who claim unauthorized training of AI on their works [2][5] - Meta allegedly considered spending over $200 million to acquire training data for Llama, with around $100 million allocated for books, but opted for alternative methods [5]
Epic Games just scored a win against Apple
TechCrunch· 2025-05-01 01:29
In Brief Epic Games notched a win in an ongoing legal dispute with Apple. The result could be Fortnite returning to the U.S. iOS app store as early as next week.Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers said in a ruling Wednesday that Apple was in “willful violation” of a 2021 injunction that prohibited the company from anticompetitive pricing. Apple won many of the arguments in the Epic Games trial. One notable exception was a ruling that prohibited Apple from collecting fees on purchases made outside of the apps them ...
Microsoft expects some AI capacity constraints this quarter
TechCrunch· 2025-04-30 23:02
Microsoft customers could encounter service disruptions when using AI services due to demand outpacing the company’s ability to bring data centers online, an executive warned during the company’s earnings callMicrosoft’s EVP and CFO Amy Hood said during the company’s fiscal 2025 third-quarter earnings call Wednesday the company may face AI capacity constraints as early as June because demand is higher than its data centers can handle. “We had hoped to be in balance by the end of Q4 but we did see some inc ...
Amazon updates Q Business to let companies build public-facing chatbots
TechCrunch· 2025-04-30 20:00
Core Insights - Amazon has announced that its Q Business AI assistant now supports anonymous user access, allowing companies to create public-facing chatbots for various applications [1][2] - The new feature enables guest users to utilize Amazon Q Business for quick access to product information, technical answers, and troubleshooting without requiring user authentication [2] - Q Business applications with anonymous access will operate on a consumption-based pricing model [3] Company Developments - Q Business was launched two years ago at the AWS re:Invent conference and has since been rebranded with enhanced features, including the ability to perform tasks across third-party applications [4] - Amazon's CEO Andy Jassy highlighted that the company is developing over 1,000 generative AI applications, with AI revenue growing at "triple-digit" year-over-year percentages, contributing to a "multi-billion-dollar annual revenue run rate" [5]
Apple notifies new victims of spyware attacks across the world
TechCrunch· 2025-04-30 18:01
Core Insights - Apple has notified several individuals that they were targeted by government spyware, continuing its practice of alerting users about potential cyber threats [1][6] - The notifications were sent to affected users in 100 countries, indicating a widespread issue [3] - Two individuals, Ciro Pellegrino and Eva Vlaardingerbroek, have publicly confirmed receiving these notifications [2][4] Group 1: Notifications and Responses - Pellegrino, an Italian journalist, received an email and text from Apple indicating he was targeted with spyware, and he noted that he was not the only one [2] - Vlaardingerbroek, a Dutch activist, shared her notification on social media, interpreting it as an attempt to intimidate her [4] - Apple expressed high confidence in the detection of the spyware attack, emphasizing the seriousness of the warning [4] Group 2: Context of Spyware Attacks - The specific spyware campaign related to the notifications remains unclear, but Apple has previously alerted users about similar threats [6] - Pellegrino is the second Italian journalist this year to be notified about being targeted by spyware, highlighting a concerning trend [7] - WhatsApp had previously notified Pellegrino's colleague about a spyware attack linked to Paragon Solutions, an Israeli company [7][8]
Meta's LlamaCon was all about undercutting OpenAI
TechCrunch· 2025-04-30 00:15
Group 1 - Meta held its first AI developer conference, LlamaCon, announcing a consumer-facing AI chatbot app and a developer-facing API for Llama models [1] - The releases aim to expand the adoption of Meta's open Llama AI models, with a primary goal of competing against OpenAI [2][5] - The AI chatbot app features a social feed for sharing AI chats and offers personalized responses based on user activity within Meta apps [3] Group 2 - The Llama API simplifies app development by allowing developers to connect to Llama models with a single line of code, reducing reliance on third-party cloud providers [4] - Meta's strategy includes undercutting proprietary AI model providers like OpenAI, with executives previously focused on surpassing OpenAI's GPT-4 [5] - Meta views any AI lab that makes its models openly available as allies against closed model providers, emphasizing the value of open-source models [6][7] Group 3 - Meta's approach may also be influenced by regulatory considerations, as the EU AI Act provides advantages to companies distributing "free and open source" AI systems [7] - The company appears willing to launch AI products that bolster the open model ecosystem, even if it means not delivering the most advanced models [8]