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| Here’s a look at today's tech briefing: - U.S. awards Samsung $6.4B to expand chip production in Texas.
- Tesla to lay off more than 10% of workforce.
- Samsung overtakes Apple as top phonemaker.
- Salesforce in advanced talks to acquire Informatica.
- Hong Kong regulators approve first spot Bitcoin and Ether ETFs.
Beth
p/beth-duckett | |
| 1 | | The Biden administration will award up to $6.4B in grants to Samsung to expand chip manufacturing in Texas. The South Korean firm will use the Chips Act funding to expand its plants in Austin, Texas, and build new facilities in nearby Taylor, Texas. More: - Samsung's Taylor plants will start producing 4-nanometer and 2-nanometer chips in 2026 and 2027.
- The semiconductors would support the automotive, communications, and defense industries.
- Samsung will also build an "advanced packaging" facility and an R&D center in Texas.
- The projects are expected to create 17,000 construction jobs and 4,500 manufacturing jobs.
- Samsung plans to invest about $45B in the expansion through 2030.
Zoom out: - Samsung is the third largest Chips Act grantee after Intel was awarded $8.5B and TSMC $6.6B.
- The awards support domestic chipmaking. The U.S. chip supply chain is highly vulnerable due to its concentration in Asia, Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said.
- Lawmakers warn that relying on Taiwan's TSMC for chips is risky due to China's territorial claim and potential force to retake the self-governed island.
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| 2 | | Tesla will lay off over 10% of its 140,000-person workforce. Tesla needs to "reorganize and streamline" roughly every 5 years "for the next phase of growth," CEO Elon Musk wrote on X. More: - It's not clear which teams will be affected.
- Tesla SVP Drew Bagliano, an 18-year veteran, is also leaving, along with Rohan Patel, its VP of public policy and business development.
- The automaker has doubled its headcount since 2020, reaching over 140,000 employees as of January.
Zoom out: - The layoffs come after Tesla reported its first decline in deliveries since Q2 2020.
- Tesla delivered 386,810 vehicles in Q1 2024, down 20% from the previous quarter and an 8.5% drop year-over-year
- The company recently canceled plans for a cheaper "Model 2" EV in favor of a robotaxi, which it will reveal on Aug. 8.
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| 3 | | Apple iPhone shipments fell 9.6% in Q1, according to preliminary data from IDC. As a result, Samsung reclaimed its position as the top smartphone seller in the first quarter, overtaking Apple. 
What the numbers show: Apple shipped 50.1 million iPhones in Q1, down from 55.4 million the year before. Apple's market share for the quarter fell to 17.3%, lower than Samsung's 20.8%. Chinese giant Xiaomi, the third largest manufacturer, saw its sales surge nearly 34% to 40.8 million units, while Transsion's shipments soared 85% to 28.5 million. The bigger picture: Xiaomi and Transsion's growth drove overall smartphone shipments up 7.8% to 289.4 million units. It was the third straight quarter of growth, signaling that the smartphone market's recovery "is well underway" despite ongoing macroeconomic challenges, according to IDC. What's next: Looking ahead, growth in value and selling prices is expected as consumers choose pricier phones that they can use for longer. IDC also expects shifts among the top smartphone brands, with Xiaomi recovering and Transsion expanding internationally. | | | |
| 4 | | CRM giant Salesforce is in advanced talks to buy data-management firm Informatica. The deal would be Salesforce's largest since it acquired Slack for $27.7B in 2021, More: - The discussed price is below Informatica's current $38.48 share price, per the Wall Street Journal.
- Private equity firm Permira and the Canadian Pension Plan Investment Board control over 75% of Informatica.
- The Redwood City, California-based firm provides subscription-based cloud data management services and automates data management tasks for customers.
Zoom out: - Bloomberg Intelligence's Sunil Rajgopal believes the deal could draw regulatory scrutiny.
- Informatica is a competitor to MuleSoft, which Salesforce acquired for $6.5B in 2018.
- Salesforce also bought data visualization firm Tableau for $15.7B in 2019.
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| 5 | | Hong Kong regulators approved the city's first spot Bitcoin and Ether ETFs. The move allows mainstream investors to buy and sell the cryptocurrencies with the same ease as stocks and mutual funds. More: - ChinaAMC, Harvest Global, and Bosera International received approval from Hong Kong's Securities and Futures Commission to issue ETFs.
- While mainland China has banned crypto trading, Hong Kong is positioning itself as a regulated crypto hub.
- It remains uncertain if mainland Chinese investors can the ETFs
Zoom out: - The move comes after the U.S. SEC approved spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds in January.
- Bitcoin has surged over 50% this year, peaking at $73,805 in March. It was trading at around $63,500 on Monday
- As of March, the global crypto ETF industry was valued at $85B.
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| 6 | | Instagram is testing AI technology in its search to surface content. Entering a search query directs users to a direct message conversation with Meta AI, its AI-powered chatbot. More: - In the direct message, Instagram users can ask questions or choose from pre-loaded prompts.
- Users can ask the chatbot to search for Reels, the platform's short-form videos.
- The company is testing these types of generative AI-powered experiences in limited public trials.
Zoom out: - Meta is also testing Meta AI with WhatsApp, Instagram, and Messenger users in India and certain African regions.
- India is Meta's biggest market, with over 360 million Instagram users, 367 million Facebook users, and over 487 million WhatsApp users.
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- X, formerly Twitter, could charge new users a "small fee" for posting to combat bots, according to Elon Musk.
- Meta Platforms will pause its Threads platform in Turkey to comply with an interim order. The country's competition watchdog is investigating Meta over alleged abuse of its market dominance.
- The U.S. surpassed China as Taiwan's largest export market for the first time since 2003, driven by high demand for AI technology and microchips.
- Apple removed a Game Boy emulator from the App Store for cloning another emulator.
- Sony's upcoming PS5 Pro, possibly due out this year, includes an upgraded CPU and GPU for improved ray tracing and performance.
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 | AI and technology writer | | Beth is a contributing editor and writer of Inside's AI and Tech newsletters. She has written for publications including USA Today, the Arizona Business Gazette, and The Arizona Republic, where she received recognition with a Pulitzer Prize nomination and a First Amendment Award for collaborative reporting on state pension cost increases. You can reach her at Beth.Duckett@yahoo.com. | | This newsletter was edited by Beth Duckett | |
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