The White House is set to hold a meeting with key officials to discuss the future of TikTok, as the app faces an April 5 deadline to secure a non-Chinese buyer or face a potential U.S. ban.
China announced a series of retaliatory measures on Friday in response to President Donald Trump‘s tariffs on Chinese goods, escalating the trade conflict between the two largest global economies.
President Donald Trump‘s 25% tariffs on auto imports have sent shockwaves through the integrated North American automotive supply chain, prompting divergent responses from major manufacturers as United Auto Workers leadership criticizes job cuts.
Gaming & Smartphones
Nintendo ADR NTDOY announced key details surrounding the Switch 2 during Nintendo Direct, revealing a June 5 launch date and a $450 price tag.
The standard console will be accompanied by a $500 bundle that includes a digital copy of Mario Kart World, the first installment in the beloved franchise built exclusively for the new hardware.
Apple Inc. AAPL has officially released iOS 18.4, iPadOS 18.4, macOS 15.4, and VisionOS 2.4, bringing a range of new features to its devices.
Social Media & Auto
YouTube star Jimmy Donalson, popularly known as MrBeast, pulled a dark yet humorous April Fool’s prank that involved burning 20 million trees and blinding 1,000 kids, but it was all in jest and a reference to his past charitable efforts.
Ford F announced it will extend employee pricing to all car shoppers, a move that coincides with the implementation of new 25% U.S. tariffs on imported vehicles and auto parts.
Technology
The Senate Judiciary Subcommittee is set to hold a hearing next week to examine Mark Zuckerberg-led Meta Platforms, Inc.’s META alleged efforts to establish a presence in China and its ties to censorship tools.
Meta is reportedly gearing up to release an over $1,000 version of its smart glasses to further challenge Apple’s AR ambitions.
At Intel’s INTC Vision 2025 conference, the company revealed that it had entered the “risk production” phase for its 18A process node, reported Tom’s Hardware.
Intel’s Lip-Bu Tan made bold promises about the company’s future during his first public speech as CEO on Monday, highlighting a major cultural overhaul and signaling potential support from the Donald Trump administration.
Microsoft Corp MSFT has paused discussions and postponed the development of sites in Indonesia, the U.K., Australia, Illinois, North Dakota and Wisconsin, Bloomberg reported, citing unnamed sources familiar with the matter.
Alphabet Inc.’s Google GOOG removed the mailing list for the Bitcoin developer group Bitcoindev, citing “policy violations,” prompting Jack Dorsey to call out the company’s approach.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. TSM is reportedly set to acquire a 20% stake in a new joint venture with Intel, aimed at addressing the U.S. chipmaker’s ongoing struggles, including its $18.8 billion net loss in 2024.
Artificial Intelligence (AI)
Sentient, a San Francisco-based AI development lab backed by Peter Thiel’s Founder’s Fund, has unveiled its open-source AI search framework, positioning its work as a response to China’s DeepSeek.
OpenAI has finalized a record-setting $40 billion funding round, boosting the company’s valuation to $300 billion, with major investments from SoftBank Group SFTBF, Microsoft, and other key backers.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman announced that the company plans to release its new open-weight language model with reasoning capabilities in the coming months. This decision might have been driven by the impressive success of DeepSeek’s R1 model and the growing popularity of Meta’s Llama models.
Last week, in a direct response to growing speculation online, Perplexity CEO Aravind Srinivas took to Reddit Inc. RDDT to deny rumors that the AI search company is facing financial trouble or preparing for an imminent IPO.
As industry giants like Microsoft and OpenAI throw their weight behind a rising AI protocol, Alphabet’s CEO has offered a cryptic but telling response.
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