On Our "Virtual Route 66" (Final Month-End Edition): On the Tech Prowl

 

We present a sampling of what was going on in the Tech Scene as we look forward to the privilege to serve and as we look forward to living up to Fuchan Yuan's admonition:

1 Microsoft today announced its new Surface Pro tablet and Surface Laptop alongside other AI-ready PCs from Acer, ASUS, Dell, HP, Lenovo, and Samsung. Microsoft dubbed the devices "Copilot+ PCs," its new line of Windows devices featuring built-in AI hardware and minimum spec requirements. More: To be branded as "Copilot+," PCs must have at least 16GB of RAM, 256GB of SSD storage, and a neural processor that can power AI tasks on the device. The first such branded PCs are Microsoft's Surface Laptop and Surface Pro tablet, which feature a Qualcomm chip capable of running AI tasks offline. CoPilot+ PCs with Intel and AMD processors will launch later from partners including HP, Acer, Asus, Dell, Lenovo, and Samsung. Microsoft expects 50 million Copilot+ PCs will be sold over the next year Zoom out: Features of a Copilot+ PC include "Recall," a tool for users to search through all user activities and data on the PC. GPT-4o, the latest chatbot technology from OpenAI, will also launch for Microsoft Copilot. Microsoft is expected to reveal other AI offerings for consumers, developers, and businesses at its Build Conference starting tomorrow, May 21.

2 TikTok and the U.S. Justice Department asked a court to speed up a review of the U.S. law that bans TikTok if the app isn't sold before Jan. 19. The parties petitioned the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia to rule on the matter by Dec. 6, which would grant enough time for a potential Supreme Court review. More: The DOJ and TikTok asked the appeals court to speed up its consideration of legal challenges to the law. The legislation grants ByteDance a nine-month window to complete a sale, with a potential 90-day extension. An appeals court ruling by Dec. 6 would meet the deadline for a Supreme Court review filing. "In light of the large number of users of the TikTok platform, the public at large has a significant interest in the prompt disposition of this matter," the DOJ and TikTok petitioners said. Zoom out: After President Biden signed the law in April, TikTok, ByteDance, and TikTok creators sued to block it on First Amendment grounds. The creators argue that "a 'qualified divestiture' of TikTok as defined in the statute is not commercially, technologically, or legally feasible."

3 New York's attorney general announced a $2B settlement with crypto lender Genesis to repay defrauded investors. Genesis filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in January 2023. The settlement creates a fund for over 29,000 New Yorkers who invested over $1.1B in Genesis via the Gemini Earn program. More: In the now-defunct Gemini Earn, customers lent digital assets to Genesis in exchange for interest payments. In October, New York Attorney General Letitia James filed a lawsuit against Digital Currency Group (DCG) its Genesis subsidiary, and Gemini Trust for deceiving investors about Gemini Earn. In February, the lawsuit was expanded, accusing DCG and Genesis of defrauding investors of over $2B. Despite DCG's legal challenge, a bankruptcy court approved the lender’s repayment plan, which includes the settlement between James' office and Genesis. The settlement orders the funds be returned to Genesis investors and bars the company from operating in New York.

4 Israeli security giant CyberArk will acquire Venafi for $1.54B. Thoma Bravo-backed Venafi is a cybersecurity company specializing in machine identity management. More: Venafi provides solutions to safeguard user identities from physical machines, IoT systems, and software. It offers private Public Key Infrastructure (PKI), certificate lifecycle management, IoT identity management, and cryptographic code signing. CyberArk will acquire Venafi for about $1B in cash and $540M in stock. The deal will merge Venafi's machine identity management with CyberArk’s security to create a unified enterprise-scale identity security platform. Zoom out: Private equity firm Thoma Bravo acquired a controlling stake in Venafi in 2020, valuing the company at $1.15B. There are now an estimated 40 machines per human on enterprise networks, boosting business for identity security companies.

5 Crypto startup funding rebounded in Q1 2024, spurred by lower interest rate expectations and the launch of the first U.S. bitcoin spot ETF. What the numbers show: Crypto startups generated $2.4B across 518 deals in Q1, marking increases of 40.3% and 44.7%, respectively, from the previous quarter. According to PitchBook, quarterly crypto deal value rose for the first time since 2021. The biggest transaction was a $106M investment in the decentralized cloud platform Together AI, led by Salesforce Ventures, which valued the firm at $1.25B. Zoom out: The SEC's approval of spot bitcoin ETFs in January is driving the asset class's legitimacy, pushing bitcoin to record highs. The approval marked a major shift in cryptocurrency investing, giving investors bitcoin exposure without directly holding it. It also signaled that mainstream financial institutions are still open to engaging with digital currencies, despite a turbulent two years marked by bankruptcies of crypto exchanges, lenders, and brokerages. According to PitchBook analyst Robert Le, growing institutional adoption and public token recovery will continue to boost VC funding in crypto startups this year.

6 U.S. media giant Gannett is using AI technology to generate summaries of news articles. The "key points" feature has started appearing directly below some stories' headlines. More: Gannett, the largest U.S. newspaper publisher by circulation, owns USA Today and over 100 other daily newspapers. Its new AI-generated bullet points are now active on some USA Today online stories. The articles with the summaries include a disclaimer reading: "The Key Points at the top of this article were created with the assistance of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and reviewed by a journalist before publication." The disclaimer also notes that no other parts of the story were generated with AI. Zoom out: The rollout comes after Gannett reversed its decision to experiment with an AI sports writing tool. The company last year paused the "LedeAI" tool to write recaps of high school sports after readers complained they were poorly written.

7 QUICK HITS: Google plans to invest $1.1B to expand its Finnish data center, leveraging the region's renewable energy. Online pharmacy Hims & Hers Health will offer non-FDA-evaluated alternatives to weight loss drugs Ozempic and Wegovy. Britain's competition regulator will not investigate Microsoft's partnership with startup Mistral AI, saying it doesn't meet the criteria for a probe under U.K. merger laws. Nintendo emulator Delta redesigned its logo after Adobe threatened legal action, claiming it too closely resembled the Photoshop maker's "A" design. ChatGPT maker OpenAI disbanded its "superalignment" team for managing long-term AI risks following the resignations of its two leaders. OpenAI co-founder Ilya Sutskever and executive Jan Leike announced their departures last week.