| |  | Oct 06, 2025 | | | | | | Welcome back! Apple removes an app that helps users track the location of ICE agents from its app store after pressure from the Department of Justice. A group of Tesla shareholders urges a vote against Elon Musk's pay package. OpenAI buys an investing app startup.
| | | | Apple has taken down an app used to track the location of ICE agents from its app store after pressure from officials from the Department of Justice, Fox News Digital reported. "We reached out to Apple today demanding they remove the ICEBlock app from their App Store — and Apple did so," Attorney General Pam Bondi told the news organization, arguing that the app put law enforcement officers at risk. Joshua Aaron, the creator of ICEBlock disputed the idea that the app caused harm to officers and condemned Apple's actions. "Capitulating to an authoritarian regime is never the right move," he said in a statement to Fox. The move is the latest example of the Trump administration pressuring tech companies over various issues. In recent months, President Trump called on Microsoft to fire its head of global affairs, and demanded that the CEO of Intel resign, although Trump later changed his mind about the Intel CEO. | | | | A group of Tesla shareholders is urging investors to vote against CEO Elon Musk's proposed pay package, which could be worth up to $1 trillion, at the electric automaker's annual meeting next month, according to a letter included in a regulatory filing. The shareholders, which include officials from several U.S. states who oversee pension funds, said Musk's proposed pay package risks significantly diluting shareholders and fails to incentivize him to focus on Tesla over other projects like xAI. The package would award Tesla shares worth up to $1 trillion if Musk meets several ambitious goals, including increasing Tesla's market capitalization to $8.5 trillion. "We are concerned that the Board remains fixated on pleasing Mr. Musk, rather than responsibly addressing his many varied pursuits, at least some of which have come at the expense of Tesla shareholders," the group said. In addition to rejecting Musk's proposed pay package, the group urged shareholders to vote against the re-election of board members Ira Ehrenpreis, Joe Gebbia and Kathleen Wilson-Thompson. Shareholders who signed the letter include the treasurers of Connecticut and Nevada, as well as the American Federation of Teachers. | | | | OpenAI has bought investing app startup ROI and hired its CEO and co-founder, Sujith Vishwajith, to join its technical staff, a spokesperson for the ChatGPT maker said. ROI said it will shut down the app. Since ChatGPT's early days, financial firms such as J.P. Morgan and Morgan Stanley have used the AI-powered chatbot to answer employees' financial questions, and consumers use it for all manner of personal and professional financial planning and guidance. But OpenAI hasn't yet launched any dedicated finance-related products or features. Vishwajith and Chief Product Officer Chip Davis started ROI in 2021 and raised $3.6 million in 2023 from investors led by Spark Capital and including Google's Gradient Ventures and basketball star Kevin Durant's VC firm, according to PitchBook. The app offered a personalized view of a subscriber's investments, including assets in various crypto wallets. OpenAI isn't buying any intellectual property with the deal, whose terms were not disclosed. Representatives for the startup didn't return requests for comment. | | | | A new artificial intelligence hardware startup founded by Naveen Rao is in talks to raise $1 billion at a $5 billion valuation, according to a person with knowledge of the discussions. The round would rank as one of the most highly valued for a months' old startup with no product or revenue. Investors have been particularly willing to award high valuations to young AI startups if they're led by serial entrepreneurs or top researchers. Techcrunch first reported details of the round. Since Databricks two years ago paid $1.3 billion for MosaicML, the AI startup Rao co-founded, he had been vice president of AI at the database management company. Last month he transitioned to an advisory role to work on his new startup, according to his LinkedIn. Last week, Rao said in a post on X that the startup, Unconventional, would be "rethinking the foundations of a computer." Andreessen Horowitz, Lux Capital and Lightspeed Venture Partners are in talks to invest, according to the person. Databricks will also invest. (This article has been updated to confirm the talks and with details on the investors.) | | | | Anduril CEO Brian Schimpf said that the partial government shutdown could "stall progress for the year" across the defense sector in an interview that aired Friday on The Information's TITV. "For a company like us, we're in a pretty good spot working a lot of continuing programs," he said. "The bigger issue is when you're in rapid growth and you need these new things to go, that is very, very painful. And so I think it probably impacts a lot of the newer defense players a lot more than it hits us." Schimpf also discussed Anduril's expected doubling in revenue this year, why he's predicting more regional instability and the future of the richly valued company's product pipeline. | | | | Chipmaker Cerebras Systems said in a securities filing on Friday that it was withdrawing its plans to go public. The news comes just days after the upstart looking to take on Nvidia announced it had officially closed a $1.1 billion fundraise from private investors that it had been putting together over the summer. That round represented an apparent pivot from the earlier plan its CEO, Andrew Feldman, outlined in May, when he said the company would aim to make its public debut this year once it had secured regulatory approval to sell shares to Middle East investors, according to The Information. The company's exposure to the Middle East has been a big sticking point with investors. According to its now-withdrawn IPO filing last September, Group 42 Holding, the parent of G42, accounted for the majority of Cerebras' revenue in 2023 and the first half of 2024. When asked in a Sept. 22 interview on The Information's TITV about whether its revenue is still so heavily concentrated, Feldman declined to answer, saying "they'll continue to be a very, very large customer." | | | | Rob Williams, an Amazon executive in the company's devices division and a member of the company's elite management group known as the S-team, is leaving the company, Reuters reported Friday. Williams, who has worked at Amazon since 2013, confirmed his departure in a LinkedIn post Friday. Tapas Roy, who previously led product and engineering for Amazon Fire TV, will take over Williams's role, said Panos Panay, the executive who leads Amazon's devices business, in a memo this week, Reuters reported. In the memo, Panay said Williams will remain an advisor to him and on the S-team through the end of this year. Amazon unveiled a revamped range of smart home and consumer devices at a launch event in New York on Tuesday, including new Ring home cameras, Kindle tablets and Echo speakers. The new devices all incorporate Alexa+, the updated version of Amazon's longtime voice assistant, which Amazon has been trying to boost adoption of this year. | | | | Coinbase said Friday it is seeking a charter with a federal banking regulator that will allow it to expand its crypto custody business and enter into payments services. The largest U.S. crypto exchange is applying for a national trust charter with the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, it said in a blog post Friday. It has "no intention of becoming a bank," it added. The charter does not allow companies to take deposits or make loans as regular banks do. Coinbase joins other crypto and fintech firms, including Circle, Ripple and Stripe, in pursuing a federal trust charter under the Trump administration, which has been far friendlier to crypto companies than the last administration. Coinbase currently has a license for custody and a virtual currency business license with the New York state's financial regulator, but a federal charter will allow it to provide services nationwide without the need for state licenses. | | | Popular articles
By Stephanie Palazzolo, Amir Efrati and Cory Weinberg
By Valida Pau, Cory Weinberg, Katie Roof and Kevin McLaughlin
| | | | | Opportunities Empower your teams to stay ahead of market trends with the most trusted tech journalism.
Learn more
Reach The Information's influential audience with your message. Connect with our team | | | | | |
0 comentários:
Postar um comentário