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| Welcome to the latest Tech newsletter! Here are today's top stories: - Google to cut jobs in its recruiting division.
- Arm starts trading on the Nasdaq.
- Apple will debut its mixed-reality headset in early 2024.
If you find this newsletter useful, please consider sharing it with your friends and colleagues. Thank you! Beth
p/beth-duckett | |
| 1 | | Google announced more job cuts in its recruiting division after the company eliminated 12,000 jobs, or roughly 6% of its workforce, earlier this year. Google said it's cutting its recruiting staff due to reduced demand for its services but is still committed to investing in technical talent. More: - Google confirmed it is reducing its global recruiting team by a few hundred members, but will keep most of the team to hire for critical roles like engineers.
- The exact number of layoffs was not disclosed.
- In July's earnings call, Google's CEO Sundar Pichai said the company was still reducing both its expenses and hiring rate as it works to stabilize the business.
Zoom out: - Google is the first major tech company to initiate layoffs this quarter, following similar actions by Meta, Microsoft, and Amazon earlier this year.
- Google's parent, Alphabet, had 190,234 employees at the end of 2022. By the end of June, its headcount had dropped to 181,798.
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| 2 | | Arm raised $4.87B in its record-breaking IPO, with an initial valuation of around $54B. The British chip design firm made its highly-anticipated U.S. trading debut on Thursday, the largest U.S. initial public offering of the year and one of the biggest tech IPOs of all time. 
What happened: Arm, owned by SoftBank Group Corp., sold 95.5 million American depositary shares at the upper end of the $47 to $51 range. Shares began trading on Thursday at $56.10, rising to $58.86 by mid-day in New York, putting Arm's potential market cap at $61B. Some of Arm's major customers, including Intel Corp., Apple Inc., Nvidia Corp., Samsung Electronics Co., and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., were investors in the IPO, with over $700M worth of stock reserved. SoftBank, which bought Arm for $32B in 2016, will retain roughly 90% of the shares. Why it matters: Arm's listing is the largest in the U.S. since Rivian's $13.7B offering in October 2021. It is set to rank among the tech industry's largest-ever IPOs, with the potential to trigger IPO activity from numerous tech startups and companies that have been waiting on the sidelines. In the past month, grocery delivery startup Instacart and marketing analytics firm Klaviyo also filed for IPOs, hinting at a potential end to the drought. | | | |
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| 3 | | Apple CEO Tim Cook has officially announced that the Apple Vision Pro, the company's first spatial computing device, is set to launch in early 2024. The mixed-reality headset will run VisionOS, a specialized operating system created by Apple exclusively for spatial computing. More: - VisionOS is set to feature its own App Store, expanding the ecosystem for Apple's latest device.
- Apps developed for the iPhone and iPad will be automatically made available on the App Store for the Vision Pro.
- Since its introduction, Apple has released several developer betas of VisionOS to fine-tune the platform.
- Relatedly, Apple's iPhone 15 Pro will feature the ability to capture 3D "spatial videos," designed to be viewed on the headset.
Q: Are you excited about the prospect of a mixed-reality headset from Apple? Why or why not? Join the conversation here. | | | |
| 4 | | Databricks, a data analytics software company, has secured over $500M in funding, valuing the company at $43B. The latest funding round has made Databricks the world's eighth most valuable private company, per Crunchbase data. More: - The Series I round was led by T. Rowe Price, with participation from Nvidia, Capital One Financial, and others.
- In August 2021, Databricks raised $1.6B at a $38B valuation. The company's increased valuation in the current market is linked to its strong financial performance, with sales up 50% YoY and a revenue run rate of over $1.5B in Q2 2023.
- The company, founded in 2013, has gained recognition for its cloud-based data processing software.
- It recently acquired generative AI startup MosaicML for $1.3B, further expanding its AI capabilities.
- In June, Databricks introduced LakehouseIQ, an AI assistant that understands natural language queries.
Zoom out: - CEO Ali Ghodsi stated that this funding won't affect Databricks' IPO timeline, which is being closely monitored as an IPO market indicator.
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| 5 | | iFixit is now selling original parts for Google's Pixel Tablet released in June. Google partnered with iFixit in 2022 to offer official parts to self-repair Pixel phones. More: - Starting this week, authentic Pixel Tablet parts are now available on iFixit's website, along with repair guides.
- The guides offer step-by-step instructions for replacing the battery, enclosure, rear camera, screen, speakers, and USB-C Port.
- To perform the repairs, Tablet owners will need to remove the screen, which is adhesive-secured, requiring tools like a heat gun.
Zoom out: - iFixit, a leading Right to Repair advocate, has also collaborated with brands like Microsoft, Valve, Logitech, and Samsung, which launched a DIY repair program for Galaxy devices last year.
- Apple stands out with its in-house Self Service Repair program.
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| 6 | | Amazon is launching a generative AI tool for sellers that creates product listing content based on a few words or sentences. The tool, called Generative Listing Content, can generate a title, product description, bullet points, and more. More: - The feature, unveiled at the Amazon Accelerate conference, aims to improve and speed up the seller experience on Amazon's third-party marketplace.
- Powered by a large language model, the tool was tested by sellers in recent months.
- Most of them use the generated content without revisions, according to Amazon.
- The company previously launched AI-generated summaries of reviews, which produce one-paragraph recaps of what people like and dislike about a product with clickable keywords.
- Competing platforms like eBay and Shopify have also introduced generative AI tools for product listings and content creation.
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- After France's suspension of iPhone 12 sales due to radiation concerns, Belgium has decided to open its own investigation into all Apple smartphones.
- Alibaba is opening its AI model, Tongyi Qianwen, to the public after gaining Chinese regulatory approval.
- Based on leaked code, Valve is reportedly preparing to unveil a new Steam Machine to make wireless VR more affordable for entry-level users.
- The freelance job market is experiencing a surge in AI-related opportunities, with generative AI job postings rising nearly 250% on Indeed from July 2021 to July 2023.
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Term of the Day Keyword stuffing: Keyword stuffing involves the inclusion of keywords into a website’s content unnaturally or repetitively to manipulate search engine algorithms. Question of the Week Do you share details about your salary with your coworkers? Join the conversation |
INSIDE TECH LEADERBOARD (7 DAYS) |
 | AI and technology writer | | Beth is the writer of Inside's AI and Tech newsletters, with a career spanning journalism and editing since 2007. She has written for publications including The Arizona Republic, USA Today, and others, and authored a book on the solar industry in 2016. Reach out to her at Beth.Duckett@yahoo.com. | | This newsletter was edited by Eduardo Garcia | |
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