#INTU CFO says #IRS job cuts are a 'tailwind' for #Intuit 's business. "The government is focused on driving efficiency, on eliminating fraud, and on making sure that the end customer has the best tax filing experience," noting that these priorities are "in sync with our goal as a company" (Yahoo)
#BABA shares soar after #Alibaba unveils new #DeepSeek rival, QwQ-32B, “rivals cutting-edge reasoning model, e.g., DeepSeek-R1.” It is said to accomplish this with just a fraction of the data used by DeepSeek (CNBC)
A recent employer benefit manager survey re #GLP-1 shows: An increase in the number of employers covering GLP-1s for obesity in 2025 vs 2024 and increasing employee usage (Morgan Stanley)
#Tempur-Pedic and #Sealy are among the least discounted #mattress manufacturers over #PresidentsDay, at 4% and 8%, vs 8% and 19% last year, in line with the benefit of new product introductions. The new #Sealy #Posturepedic line is expected to be fully rolled out for #MemorialDay (Goldman Sachs)
#Sanas changes #callcenter workers' #accents in real time using #AI, raised $65m #SeriesB at a $500m+ valuation. Some research suggests that exposure to different accents in fact helps to combat bias. Thus, Sanas’ solutions run the risk of homogenizing workers across call centers (TechCrunch)
#AMZN #AmazonWebServices #AWS to discontinue #AmazonChime chat by 2026, making #ZM the standard for internal meetings and will also support #MSFT #Microsoft365, #CSCO #Webex and #CRM #Slack (Verdict)
Developer traffic has also 2x in the past 6 months, 5x for #OpenAI 's “reasoning” model #o3. “ #AI is going to be like cloud services. It’s going to be something that you can’t run a business that ultimately is not really running on these very powerful models underneath the surface" (3/3) (CNBC)
#OpenAI now has 2m paying enterprise users, roughly 2x from September, said COO #BradLightcap, pointing out that often employees will use #ChatGPT personally and suggest to their companies that they implement the tool (2/3) (CNBC)
#OpenAI disclosed 400 million weekly active users as of February, up 33% from 300 million in December, according to COO #BradLightcap. Lightcap pointed to the “natural progression” of #ChatGPT as it becomes more useful and familiar to a broader group of people (1/3) (CNBC)
#AMZN discontinues #TikTok -style feed #Inspire after launching in December 2022. However, the feature sparked controversy in August 2023 when #Amazon tried to attract creators to the feature by inviting select influencers to submit videos (TechCrunch)
#TikTok to expand #e-commerce in more countries as US business remains in limbo -- #TikTokShop expected to enter #Italy, #Germany, #France, #Japan and #Brazil this year (SCMP)
#Taiwan exploring buying arms worth $7-10b from the US, hoping to win support from the #TrumpAdministration as #China continues to apply military pressure on the island (Reuters)
Despite being removed from the two app stores for nearly a month, #TikTok had recovered about 90% of the traffic it was seeing prior to the law’s Jan 19 deadline (4/4) (CNBC, Cloudflare)
#DonaldTrump said on his #TruthSocial platform that he “would like the United States to have a 50% ownership position in a joint venture” in order to “save #TikTok, keep it in good hands and allow it to say up” (3/4) (CNBC)
#TikTok came back online after President #DonaldTrump said he would postpone enforcement of the ban. He signed an executive order on his first day in office to extend the law’s deadline by an additional 75 days to April 5 (2/4) (CNBC)
#TikTok returned to #AAPL #AppStore and #GOOGL #GooglePlay. It had been removed on Jan 18, in response to a national security law that went into effect the next day. Nearly a month later, TikTok is once again available for download (1/4) (CNBC)
#Trump nominates #AAPL exec #JonathanMorrison to the #NHTSA. He was NHTSA chief counsel in #DonaldTrump 's first term and informed #TSLA of inaccurate safety claims (Reuters)
#RDDT hints at expanded #AI -powered search. The company plans to achieve this by integrating #RedditAnswers — a feature that allows visitors to ask questions and receive curated summaries of relevant responses and threads from across its platform — into its existing search (TechCrunch)
#AAPL will unveil an #Android app for #AppleTV+ as early as Wednesday as it looks to boost subscriptions and compete with #NFLX & #DIS (Bloomberg)
The US government may propose a joint venture wherein #TSMC and several prominent companies invest in #INTC 's standalone foundry operations. #Intel may assume TSMC's upcoming packaging contracts for US clients, utilizing its advanced packaging expertise (Digitimes)
#AAPL is exploring both #humanoid and #non-humanoid #robots for its future #smarthome ecosystem, and are still in the early proof-of-concept (POC) stage internally. Given current progress and typical development cycles, #Apple 's robot mass production likely won't start until 2028 (Ming-Chi Kuo)
#GOOGL plans to begin testing an #ML -based model in the US this year to estimate whether a user is under 18 to help provide more “age-appropriate experiences” (Verge)
#OpenAI plans to give 10 #DeepResearch requests per month to $20/month #ChatGPTPlus users and two per month to free #ChatGPT users. This model previously cost $200 (VentureBeat)
On #Twitter / X, #SamAltman says #OpenAI #GPT-4.5 (Orion) will be OpenAI's last non-chain-of-thought model, while #GPT-5 will include #o3, which will no longer be offered as a standalone model. In a comment reply he suggests GPT-4.5 coming in 'weeks' with GPT-5 in 'months' (Twitter / X)
US #PE firms have reportedly invested in #datacenters serving #ByteDance as a tenant, some without knowing if ByteDance is using the sites to access #NVDA chips (FT)
#StateDepartment plans $400m purchase of armored #TSLA #Cybertrucks. The State Department's website has since been revised. The same line item now reads "Armored Electric Vehicles." It's still listed as a 5-year contract worth $400m. The latest version doesn't mention #Tesla (NYT, BI)
