Tech Meme

Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch: Blackbird Labs, which makes a blockchain-based payment loyalty app for restaurants, raised $50M led by Spark Capital, taking its total funding to $85M  —  A founder who has carved out a name for himself building products to help restaurants connect better with would-be diners has raised $50 million … Lees verder op Tech Meme

Eliza Strickland / IEEE Spectrum: A look at the state of AI in 2025 across training and inference costs, carbon footprint, US vs. China, investment activity, bills proposed in the US, and more  —  Stanford’s AI Index tracks performance, investment, public opinion, and more  —  If you read the news about AI … Lees verder op Tech Meme

Reuters: Sources: Micron has told US customers that it plans to impose a surcharge on some products like SSDs from April 9 to account for President Trump’s tariffs  —  U.S. memory chipmaker Micron Technology (MU.O) has told U.S. customers it plans to impose a surcharge on some products from Wednesday … Lees verder op Tech Meme

Ben Weiss / Fortune: Internal memo: the DOJ has disbanded the National Cryptocurrency Enforcement Unit, established by Biden in 2021, as the DOJ is “not a digital assets regulator”  —  The U.S. Department of Justice notified staff on Monday evening that the agency was disbanding a unit dedicated to crypto-related investigations. Lees verder op Tech Meme

Reuters: Sources: US officials say DOGE is using AI to surveil at least one federal agency’s communications for anti-Trump sentiment; a source says DOGE is using Signal  —  Trump administration officials have told some U.S. government employees that Elon Musk’s DOGE team of technologists … Lees verder op Tech Meme

Financial Times: Analysts: the original Switch’s huge success has given Nintendo a high mountain to climb, and the Switch 2 is a massive bet that fans want more of the same  —  The new console carries the hopes of a company and a sector, but has already been thrust into a gathering trade war Lees verder op Tech Meme

Bloomberg: Interviews with 40 sources describe concerns about Helsing, Europe’s most valuable defense tech startup, including whether it can live up to its €5B valuation  —  Europe’s biggest defense tech company is facing allegations of overpriced drones and glitchy software.  The firm stands by its products. Lees verder op Tech Meme

Mike Butcher / TechCrunch: Turkish startup Sipay, which bills itself as “Stripe for emerging markets”, raised a $78M Series B at an $875M valuation to expand outside of Turkey  —  Billing itself as “Stripe for emerging markets,” Turkish Fintech Sipay has raised a $78 million Series B funding round, claiming a valuation of $875 million in the process. Lees verder op Tech Meme

Cecilia Kang / New York Times: Tech CEOs who spent big on Trump’s inauguration are yet to see the investment pay off; Amazon, Apple, Google, Meta, and Microsoft are down 22% since January 20  —  With inauguration donations and Mar-a-Lago visits, leaders of the biggest tech companies sought favor with the president … Lees verder op Tech Meme

Katie Roof / Bloomberg: Toronto-based Tailscale, which helps set up corporate VPNs, raised $160M led by Accel, a source says at a $1.5B valuation, up from $1B in May 2022  —  Tailscale Inc., a security startup based in Toronto, has raised $160 million from investors — a significant haul for the Canadian company. Lees verder op Tech Meme