Tage Kene-Okafor / TechCrunch: Riyadh-based BNPL startup Tabby raised a $200M Series D at a $1.5B valuation, bringing its total funding to over $950M; CEO Hosam Arab says Tabby is profitable  —  The past year and a half have witnessed multiple startups facing valuation cuts as funding from VCs waned in an environment of rising interest rates. Lees verder op Tech Meme

Financial Times: Ahead of the UK’s AI summit, Chinese scientists warn of AI’s “existential risk to humanity”; sources: the UK plans to announce South Korea as Summit’s 2024 host  —  Attendees of Bletchley Park gathering convened by UK premier Rishi Sunak warn of ‘existential risk to humanity’ Lees verder op Tech Meme

Bloomberg: US v. Google: Google internally declared “Code Yellow” emergency in February 2019 for seven weeks to figure out why user search queries have slowed down  —  – Search executive said team was ‘getting too involved with ads’  — Company declared emergency in 2019 over slow query growth Lees verder op Tech Meme

New York Times: Check Point details a monthslong espionage campaign by Iranian hackers targeting countries, including Israel, underscoring Iran’s improved hacking capabilities  —  A monthslong hacking campaign targeted the governments of regional rivals, including Israel, and marked a turn, a new report says … Lees verder op Tech Meme

Nilesh Christopher / Rest of World: Ahead of India’s 2024 elections, politicians are using voice cloning tools to deliver personalized messages, as AI-generated songs featuring Modi gain traction  —  AI-generated songs, like the ones featuring Prime Minister Narendra Modi, are gaining traction ahead of India’s upcoming elections. Lees verder op Tech Meme

Wall Street Journal: Executives at Intel, TSMC, and Samsung say the global chip industry is bottoming out; IBS: the chip market is expected to grow in 2024 after shrinking in 2023  —  Intel, Samsung and others see a semiconductor rebound as tech demand starts to recover  —  The global semiconductor industry … Lees verder op Tech Meme

Olivia Poh / Bloomberg: Google, Temasek, and Bain report: Southeast Asia online spending will rise ~11% in 2023 to $218B, down from 20% in 2022, slowing to its lowest rate since 2017  —  – Region’s digital economy cools as consumers curb spending  — Researchers cut near-term e-commerce growth estimate by 13% Lees verder op Tech Meme