| |  | Oct 23, 2025 | | | | | | Happy Thursday! Meta Platforms is cutting about 600 employees from Meta Superintelligence Labs. Tesla's net profit drops 37% in the third quarter. Andreessen Horowitz is raising $10 billion in new funds.
| | | | Meta Platforms is cutting about 600 employees from its artificial intelligence organization, Meta Superintelligence Labs, a spokesperson said. The layoffs come after the unit, which had about 3,400 employees as of this summer, restructured itself in August. The cuts will affect the organization's teams for product and applied research and infrastructure, as well as its Fundamental AI Research lab. They will not impact the organization's new AI lab, TBD Lab. "By reducing the size of our team, fewer conversations will be required to make a decision, and each person will be more load-bearing and have more scope and impact," Alexandr Wang, Meta's chief AI officer, wrote in an internal post reviewed by The Information. Meta has told employees in the organization that it is encouraging those affected by the cuts to apply for other jobs within the company and is expecting most will find another role internally. Axios first reported on the cuts. | | | | Tesla's net income fell 37% year-over-year to $1.4 billion in the third quarter, the company said Wednesday, attributing the decline to factors including tariffs and increased research and development spending. Meanwhile, revenue grew 12% year-over-year to $28.1 billion due in part to a surge in vehicle sales as buyers rushed to snap up cars before the $7,500 U.S. tax credit for electric vehicles expired at the end of September. Its automotive revenues grew 6%, while higher growth in Tesla's battery business and services also boosted revenue, the company said. CEO Elon Musk's artificial intelligence company xAI is a major Tesla battery customer. Tesla shares were down 2% in after-hours trading on Wednesday. Tesla also gave an update on its Optimus robot, which is falling behind on ambitious production goals set by Musk. Tesla had publicly set a goal of building 5,000 robots this year but abandoned plans to do so after encountering technical problems, The Information has reported. In a shareholder presentation on Wednesday, Tesla said "first generation production lines for Optimus are being installed in anticipation of volume production," but did not say when volume production would begin. Tesla's Cybercab, Tesla Semi and Megapack 3 battery will begin volume production in 2026, Tesla said. | | | | Andreessen Horowitz is raising $10 billion for several funds that would give it more firepower to make investments in artificial intelligence startups and increase its stakes in startups it's previously backed, the Financial Times reported. The firm, which has been one of the most active investors in AI startups over the last two years, is seeking to raise about $6 billion to invest in more mature companies, $1.5 billion each for AI applications and AI infrastructure funds and more than $1 billion for its "American Dynamism" defense and manufacturing focused fund, the report said. Last year, it raised $7.2 billion via several funds. The new target, if hit, would top the $9 billion raised in 2022 during the low-interest rate period. Andreessen Horowitz has led investments in open source model developer Mistral, coding assistant Anysphere and has invested in OpenAI's SoftBank-led funding round that values the company at $260 billion before the investment. A spokesperson couldn't immediately be reached for comment. | | | | Venture capitalist Vinod Khosla predicted that 2% to 3% of AI startups will account for 85% to 90% of the valuation of companies by 2035. In an interview on The Information's TITV, Khosla also said that venture capital firms which don't have early access to those companies but buy in later at higher prices will suffer lower returns. Khosla's firm, Khosla Ventures, was an early investor in OpenAI, among other companies. Khosla's comments follow an opinion article he wrote for The Information last month where he urged investors to be selective in buying into AI firms. On Wednesday on TITV, he said that some valuations in robotics were "getting bonkers," adding that "95% of those startups will lose money." Khosla also played down concerns about the circular financing deals that have become more common in AI, as companies like Nvidia invest money in companies buying its chips. He pointed out that financing companies is common in other industries, noting that GM finances purchases of its cars. The issue to watch for is "taking on what part of the risk," which is a detail hidden in contracts that aren't publicly available. That is the "key question before one can opine." | | | | The Trump administration is in talks to take equity stakes in quantum computing companies in exchange for federal funding for those firms, The Wall Street Journal reported. The Commerce Department is discussing such arrangements with several quantum computing firms, including IonQ, Rigatti Computing and D-Wave Quantum, according to the Journal. Deputy Commerce Secretary Paul Dabbar, a former quantum computing executive, is leading the funding discussions, the report said. The talks are the latest example of how Washington is looking to deepen its involvement in critical areas of technology. In August, President Donald Trump announced that the government would take a 10% stake in Intel to become the struggling chipmaker's largest shareholder. | | | | The UK Competition and Markets Authority said on Wednesday that Google and Apple had "strategic market status" for their dominance over the mobile phone markets, opening the two tech companies up to stricter regulation. The CMA said in a statement that both platforms have "substantial, entrenched market power." UK smartphone users use either Apple or Google's mobile platforms and are unlikely to switch between them. While the designation itself isn't a finding of wrongdoing, it enables the CMA to "consider proportionate, targeted interventions" to promote competition. Companies can be fined up to 10% of their global revenue for breaching a conduct rule. The finding comes as Google and Apple face mounting antitrust challenges around the world. Last month, the CMA gave Google the same designation in search and search advertising. | | | | Microsoft raised CEO Satya Nadella's total compensation for the year ending in June to $96.5 million, up from $79.1 million last year, the company said in a filing. Most of the increase came from his stock awards, which rose to over $84 million from $71 million last year, while his base salary remained the same at $2.5 million. Nadella's pay rose because he "positioned Microsoft as a clear artificial intelligence leader for this generational technology shift," the Microsoft board wrote in the filing. Microsoft's shares have risen over 23% this year, and revenue in its Azure unit has grown steadily. The board also increased CFO Amy Hood's pay to $29.5 million, while Judson Althoff, who was recently appointed CEO of Microsoft's commercial business, and president Brad Smith were both paid $28.2 million. | | | | Alt5 Sigma, a Nasdaq-listed company amassing a digital store of a cryptocurrency backed by the Trump family, said on Wednesday it suspended its CEO with immediate effect. The move represents further turbulence for the company that in August struck a deal to raise $1.5 billion to buy tokens issued by World Liberty Financial, a crypto project founded by the Trump family and others. As part of the deal, Eric Trump, the son of President Donald Trump, was set to become a board director of Alt5 Sigma. A month later, Alt5 Sigma said Eric Trump would no longer join the board following a consultation with the market operator, Nasdaq. Alt5 Sigma said its suspended CEO Peter Tassiopoulos and replaced him on an interim basis with the firm's CFO, Jonathan Hugh. The company did not say why it removed Tassiopoulos, who is continuing to be paid. Shares in Alt5 Sigma have fallen more than 70% to $1.86 since the deal with World Liberty Financial was announced. In late August, Alt5 Sigma said its Canadian subsidiary was found criminally liable by a Rwandan court for offenses including illicit enrichment and money laundering. The company said it was appealing the matter. At the time, Alt5 Sigma said it had appointed lawyers and advisors to conduct a review of other issues, including but "not limited to, potential misstatements or omissions in the financial statements of the company and omissions of material information by certain members of management and personnel of the company." | | | | | | | 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