- Discord plans to roll out third-party ads on its mobile apps, starting with a mobile pilot for Video Quests, which let users earning rewards, in June 2025 (Jess Weatherbed/The Verge)
- Sources: Apple TV+ is losing $1B+ annually even as its subscriptions grew to ~45M in 2024; one source says Apple has spent $5B+ on content since its 2019 launch (Wayne Ma/The Information)
- Q&A with Sam Altman on the path to OpenAI, its origin story, building a consumer tech company, ads, competition, hallucinations, regulation, and the AI outlook (Ben Thompson/Stratechery)
- Trump eliminating the USAGM cut the budget of the Open Technology Fund, launched in 2012 to let 24M+ people living in repressive regimes access the internet (Pranshu Verma/Washington Post)
- Temu-owner PDD reports Q4 revenue up 24% YoY to ~$15.3B, below est., and net income up 18% YoY to ~$3.8B, after intensifying domestic competition and US tariffs (Luz Ding/Bloomberg)
- Huawei unveils the 6.3" Pura X, which folds to a square clamshell with a 3.5" display, its first flagship running HarmonyOS 5, launching in China for ~$1,036 (Bloomberg)
- How Nvidia, SK Hynix, TSMC, and ASML, with a combined $4T+ market cap, dominate the AI supply chain, each having an 80% to 100% market share in their fields (Mark Bergen/Bloomberg)
- A profile of longtime Elon Musk loyalist Steve Davis, who effectively runs DOGE after SpaceX, Boring Company, and X stints, based on interviews with 22 sources (New York Times)
- US schools spending billions on laptops, an idea supported by technologists and computer makers, has led to students' worsening social skills and test scores (Michael R. Bloomberg/Bloomberg)
- Michael Seibel says he is leaving YC after 12+ years and moving to a "Partner Emeritus" role, after stepping back from "leadership responsibilities" in 2024 (Connie Loizos/TechCrunch)
- A profile of Skydio, the US' largest drone maker, after its first batch of drones proved disappointing in Ukraine and it competes with Chinese makers like DJI (Bloomberg)
- Chip design software maker Synopsys unveils AgentEngineer, initially letting engineers give AI agents instructions with plans to expand to helping make chips (Stephen Nellis/Reuters)
- Bakkt names ex-SoftBank rainmaker Akshay Naheta as co-CEO to help turn around the struggling US crypto trading and custody platform; BKKT is down 62%+ in 2025 (Anto Antony/Bloomberg)
- The UK's NCSC urges large entities, including energy and transport firms, to introduce "post-quantum cryptography" by 2035 to protect against quantum hackers (Dan Milmo/The Guardian)
- Crypto-friendly stablecoin legislation is poised to pass the US Senate with support from some pro-crypto Democratic Senators, including Kirsten Gillibrand (Steven T. Dennis/Bloomberg)