| |
| Here's a look at today's Tech briefing: - FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried found guilty in federal fraud trial.
- Apple reports fourth-straight quarterly drop in revenue.
- Google and Lendlease end Silicon Valley development deal.
- Elon Musk's AI company will debut its first AI model.
- Jeff Bezos is relocating to Miami from Seattle.
Beth
p/beth-duckett | |
| 1 | | FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried was found guilty on all seven counts of fraud and conspiracy following his cryptocurrency exchange's collapse. A New York jury delivered the verdict on Thursday after a five-week trial, where Bankman-Fried defended himself against allegations of criminal mismanagement of FTX and his trading firm, Alameda Research. More: - Once a crypto billionaire, Bankman-Fried was accused of diverting billions from FTX customers to bolster Alameda, as well as for political donations, real estate investments, charity, and other personal expenses.
- Thursday's verdict saw the jury convict him on all seven charges, which included wire fraud, conspiracy to commit wire fraud, and conspiracy to commit money laundering.
- Bankman-Fried is expected to appeal.
- He is scheduled to be sentenced on March 28, 2024, when he faces a maximum of 110 years in prison.
Zoom out: - Bankman-Fried, also known as SBF, was arrested in December in the Bahamas and extradited to the U.S. in January.
- The 31-year-old engaged in embezzlement from FTX customers from its inception in 2019 until its bankruptcy in November 2022, prosecutors said.
- The case further damaged the crypto industry, with several other major companies collapsing or facing legal troubles in the U.S. and overseas.
|     | |
| 2 | | Apple beat Wall Street expectations in its latest earnings report Thursday, though its quarterly revenue still fell by 1%, marking its fourth consecutive sales decline. 
By the numbers: Apple's Q4 sales dipped by 1% to $89.5B, capping a fiscal year marked by quarterly sales declines. Profit for the quarter still climbed 11% to $22.96B, surpassing Wall Street's estimates of $21.77B. iPhone revenue set a September quarter record, and the company's software and services sales, including Apple Music and cloud storage, grew 16% to reach $22.3B. Sales still fell across Apple's other businesses, including Mac, iPad, Apple Watch, and AirPods, leading to a 5% drop in overall product sales. What's next: Apple doesn't expect revenue growth in the busy December quarter, with sales forecasts below Wall Street estimates due to weak demand for iPads, Macs, and wearables. CFO Luca Maestri said revenue in the period will be "similar" to the previous year, falling below analysts' expectations of around 5% growth. | | | |
| A message from our sponsor, hear.com. |  | | Get the world's first hearing aids with dual processing Improve your conversations with clear speech understanding and quick sound processing from Horizon hearing aids. - Developed by top German engineers, these tiny, medical-grade devices are ultra-discreet and backed by audiologists nationwide.
Start with a 45-day, no-risk trial today. Start Your Trial | |
|
| 3 | | Google and property developer Lendlease Group have mutually ended a deal to develop four master-planned districts in Silicon Valley. Australia's Lendlease had secured a contract with the tech giant in 2019 to develop mixed-use neighborhoods in Sunnyvale, San Jose, and Mountain View. More: - Under the plans, Lendlease would develop around 15 million square feet of residential, retail, and hospitality areas, while Google would focus on office space.
- However, the deal was scrapped this week after Google reviewed its real-estate investments.
- "The existing agreements are no longer mutually beneficial given current market conditions," Lendlease said.
- Google paid Lendlease an undisclosed break fee, covering work that included planning approval.
- A Google spokesperson said the company still plans to work with developers and capital partners to advance the projects, which could still include Lendlease.
| | | |
| 4 | | Elon Musk's AI startup, xAI, will debut its first AI model to a select group of users on Saturday. "In some important respects, it (xAI's new model) is the best that currently exists," Musk posted on X today. More: - Musk didn't offer further details on the model or its initial users.
- He unveiled xAI, his AI company with a mission to "understand the true nature of the universe," in July.
- The team has backgrounds from DeepMind, OpenAI, Google, Microsoft, Twitter, and Tesla.
- Their LinkedIn profiles, as reviewed by CNBC, show involvement in projects like DeepMind's AlphaCode AI coding engine and OpenAI's GPT-3.5 and GPT-4 chatbots.
- Earlier this year, xAI signed a contract to train its AI model on Oracle's cloud.
Zoom out: | | | |
| A message from our sponsor, Zscaler. |  | | Ransomware attacks increased by over 37% in 2023, with the average enterprise ransom payment exceeding $100,0001,2,3 with a $5.3 million average demand4
Read the 2023 ThreatLabz State of Ransomware Report to learn the latest ransomware trends based on data from the world’s largest security cloud. Dive into the metrics and discover our findings, predictions, and best practices to help inform your ransomware defense strategies.
Download the report now to explore the latest ransomware insights into: - Top 2023 ransomware attack statistics by industry and ransomware family
- The evolution of ransomware and current attack sequence
- Key ransomware trends including supply chain attacks, ransomware as a service, geo-political and law enforcement attacks, and more
- How to safeguard your organization against ransomware attacks with a zero-trust strategy
- Ransomware predictions for 2023-2024
Download Now 1. Verizon Data Breach Report 2022.
2. McAfee Labs 2022 Threat Report.
3. IBM X-Force Rhreat Intelligence Index 2022.
4. Coveware Ransomware Report. | |
|
| 5 | | The Biden administration is launching an AI Safety Institute to help gauge the risks of advanced AI models and guide future rules. Vice President Kamala Harris announced the project this week during the Global Summit on AI Safety in Britain. More: - During a speech at the Summit, Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo urged experts in academia and industry to join the consortium, stressing a need for private sector involvement.
- Operating under NIST, the National Institute of Standards and Technology, members will develop safety, security, and testing standards for AI models AI-generated content.
- The institute will create technical guidance for future AI regulatory efforts, according to the White House.
Zoom out: - The project is a response to President Biden's recent AI executive order, which introduced new AI safety and security standards, including a requirement for companies to share the results of safety tests of powerful AI models.
| | | |
| 6 | Amazon founder Jeff Bezos is relocating to Miami from Seattle to be closer to family and his space venture, Blue Origin. In an Instagram post on Thursday, Bezos said he has lived in Seattle, the home of Amazon, "longer than I've lived anywhere else and have so many amazing memories here." More: - In the post, Bezos shared a video of himself in his former Seattle area garage, where he founded Amazon in 1994.
- The billionaire, who grew up in Miami, said he's moving to be closer to his parents and partner Lauren Sánchez.
- Blue Origin's operations have also been shifting to Cape Canaveral in Florida, he wrote.
- Bezos, the world's third-wealthiest man, transitioned from Amazon CEO to executive chairman in 2021, with Andy Jassy taking over as CEO.
Zoom out: - Bezos recently acquired two homes in the "Billionaire Bunker" of Indian Creek in metro Miami, spending $79M on a seven-bedroom home and another $68M on a neighboring property.
- He also owns residences in Washington, D.C., Texas, New York City, Los Angeles, and Maui.
| | | |
| 7 | | Quick Hits: - Discounts offered by each of the big three cloud providers are complex, detailed, and full of fine print. Learn how to make the most of AWS, Google Cloud, and Azure discounts in this guide from DoiT.*
- Arm acquired a minority stake in Raspberry Pi to boost its IoT presence, with deal specifics undisclosed.
- TikTok responded to criticism of its content moderation during the Israel-Hamas conflict, stating that it removed over 925,000 videos from the conflict zone and millions of other pieces of content globally.
- A new Beatles song, "Now and Then," was released Thursday across streaming services. Producers, including Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr, turned to machine learning to finish the track, which is based on an old recording by John Lennon.
- Create a winning SaaS business plan and calculate your break-even point. Join the 1-Page SaaS Blueprint Challenge to map out your startup.*
*This is sponsored content. | | | |
| Upcoming Events | | NOV
8 | | Compete Week - Competitive Intelligence Summit is back: Join top GTM leaders from Salesforce, Hubspot, Apollo and more!* | | | | | | | NOV
25 | | AI in Financial Services with Saroop Bharwani | | | | | | | NOV
25 | | The Future of Fractional Work with David Berkowitz | | | | | | * This is a sponsored event | | | |
Term of the Day Advisory board: An advisory board is a group of external individuals with expertise who provide guidance, advice, and assist with growth strategies for a company. Question of the Week What's one tool or app that has significantly made your life easier at work? Join the conversation |
INSIDE TECH LEADERBOARD (7 DAYS) |
 | AI and technology writer | | Beth is an editor and writer of Inside's AI and Tech newsletters, with a career spanning journalism since 2007. She has written for publications including The Arizona Republic and USA Today and authored a book on the solar industry in 2016. Reach her at Beth.Duckett@yahoo.com. | | This newsletter was edited by Eduardo Garcia | |
| |
| |
|
| |
|
| |
