This Week in Tech (Week Ending Apr 11, 2025)
TL;DR - ⭐️Would you like a side of tariffs with that?; 🤝M&A; 🐺Dire wolves!
Hey folks!
Alot has happened! Catch up below -
TL;DR -
⭐️Trump’s tariffs were the main star of this week - causing a rollercoaster of a market. Alot of whiplash from fake news, then real news, on tariff rollbacks and escalating trade wars. A few positives included slightly lower inflation and stronger than expected job growth late last week.
🤝Some M&A action: OpenAI discussing acquiring a startup Sam Altman has been working on with ex-Apple designer Jony Ive’s studio; Nvidia acquired Lepton AI, a two-year-old startup that rents out servers powered by Nvidia’s artificial intelligence chips; Ripple is acquiring Hidden Road, a crypto and FX prime brokerage; Lyst, a high-end fashion marketplace, was acquired by Japanese Zozo for $154 million in cash; Prada acquired Versace for $1.38 billion.
GoT pets anyone? 🐺 Colossal Biosciences, a Texas company attempting to bring back extinct animals, announced the revival of the once long-gone dire wolf.
remember - be cool guys
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🌎 Macro (Economic) and Trends
⭐️Trump's tariffs are revealing a split between himself and some of his tech titan supporters who helped shape his agenda. Many tech investors are speaking out on Twitter against the tariffs, including Brad Gerstner of Altimeter Capital and Balaji Srinivasan. On the other side sit "America First" believers like Steve Bannon, who hold deep suspicion for the tech titans and see tariffs as the world's comeuppance for screwing America's working class.
🐻 📉Markets: If last week was a bloodbath, this week was, confusing?
U.S. inflation lowered to 2.4 percent in the year through March, but policymakers and economists warn the latest data is only a temporary reprieve as tariffs could stoke higher inflation.
US job growth, announced Friday, was stronger in March than expected. The report provided some good news as markets reeled from worries about escalating tensions over tariffs.
We all knew this was going to come back to bite us somehow: The Associated Press apparently angered the White House because it refused to call the Gulf of Mexico by President Trump's preferred name for it: the Gulf of America. As a result, Trump had barred the AP journalists from the Oval Office, a move that a federal judge on Tuesday ruled as unlawful.
🤯🇬🇱 And in case that geopolitical snafu wasn’t enough, it turns out Trump has a REAL plan to acquire Greenland.
More than 1,200 "Hands Off!" protests happened across the US over the weekend, protesting the policies of President Trump, Elon Musk and DOGE.
🌧️ Kentucky is experiencing intense rain, resulting in widespread flooding.
🇰🇷 South Korea’s president was permanently removed from office after declaring martial law in December
So that’s how it happened: Apparently an iPhone auto-suggest feature is to blame for how a journalist got added to a high-stakes security group chat.
At least it’s starting to trend down? The probability of a recession in the U.S. this year as measured by prediction market Kalshi peaked at 70% on Sunday afternoon, after China announced its retaliatory tariffs but is currently at ~54%.
✨The Business of fame: a report on the creator economy. 💎Gems: 57% of Gen Zers aspire to be influencers; Goldman Sachs estimates the creator economy market size will reach half a trillion dollars within the next three years, up from about $250 billion in 2023; The balance between relatability and aspiration will shape the next chapter of influence.
🔬 Micro (Tech Companies)
President Trump on Friday delayed the Tiktok ban by 75 days.
📰 Washington Post technology workers are forming a collective bargaining group to negotiate for greater job security, increased compensation and more flexibility toward remote work. It is the first public union drive at the paper since it was purchased by Bezos in 2013.
Instagram has turned off livestreaming for teens under unless they get parental permission. The new safety measure is an expansion of major changes that impacted millions of accounts starting last year as part of the company's push to better protect young users
🙂↔️ This is why I haven’t ridden in one yet: Waymo is exploring using rider data captured with in-car cameras to train generative AI. An unpublished version of the robotaxi app Waymo One’s privacy page asks users if they accept that “interior camera data” may be used to personalize ads. The company plans on offering riders the choice to opt-out of data collection but said there are no plans to use this data for targeted ads.
Amazon is broadening its Temu bargain shopping competitor, Haul, to offer a wider variety of goods, including name-brand items from Amazon’s own inventory that it ships from U.S. warehouses.
Potential layoffs: Microsoft is weighing whether to lay off middle managers and nontechnical staff in the coming months.
🐺 Colossal Biosciences, a Texas company attempting to bring back extinct animals, announced the revival of the once long-gone dire wolf.
🤖 AI News
👀 Democratic lawmakers are probing whether deals signed by Microsoft and Google to invest in AI startups including OpenAI and Anthropic have violated antitrust laws.
Anthropic announced a new subscription plan for its AI chatbot Claude, called Max. Max comes with higher usage limits than Anthropic’s $20-per-month Claude Pro subscription, as well as priority access to the company’s newest AI models and features.
Andreessen Horowitz is raising $20 billion, its largest fund in the firm’s history, to back mature artificial intelligence companies,
Elon Musk’s breach of charitable trust lawsuit against OpenAI will go to trial in March 2026.
🎭 OpenAI countersued Elon Musk, saying Musk has harmed the ChatGPT maker by using Musk’s X network to conduct “malicious campaigns,” unfairly disrupted its business and issued a “sham bid” to acquire OpenAI.
OpenAI has launched its first large-scale brand campaign, targeting college students across the U.S. and Canada with an offer for free ChatGPT Plus.
Shopify’s CEO, Tobi Lütke, shared in a memo sent to employees that teams should demonstrate first whether AI can do a job before asking to increase headcount.
Does AI writing have a tell? Some people think so. The em dash (—) is frequently used in OpenAI outputs but the real reason for AI’s em dash habit is because the AI models were trained on years of em dash-laden blog posts written by young em dash-obsessed millennial writers.
🤝 Select M&A, Fundraises, IPO, Partnerships
M&A
OpenAI in recent weeks discussed acquiring a startup its CEO Sam Altman has been working on with ex-Apple designer Jony Ive’s studio, which is developing an artificial intelligence-powered personal device. io Products is reportedly developing AI-powered personal devices and household products, including a "phone without a screen" concept.
Nvidia has closed its acquisition of Lepton AI, a two-year-old startup that rents out servers powered by Nvidia’s artificial intelligence chips.
Ripple is paying $1.25 billion to acquire Hidden Road, a crypto and FX prime brokerage that has become popular for financing trading by institutions.
Lyst, a high-end fashion marketplace, was once valued at $700 million. Now, it’s being acquired by Japan-based fashion business Zozo for $154 million in cash.
Prada reportedly cut its proposed takeover bid for Versace by more than $200 million, to $1.38 billion, because of uncertainty over President Trump’s trade war, and the deal was announced Thursday.
Fundraising
Moonvalley, which creates AI tools for video creation, has raised $43 million.
Cato Networks, an Israel-based seller of network security software valued at $3 billion in September 2023, has talked to potential investors about raising funding that could value it at $4.5 billion.
Glossier, skincare and cosmetics startup, is in talks to raise a new round of funding that could cut the company’s valuation nearly in half.
⚱️ Gold Panning - For those who reached the bottom
🏆🏀 NCAA championships: UConn won the women’s, and the University of Florida won the men’s championships. yay uconn!
🏒Alex Ovechkin of the Washington Capitals became the top goal scorer in NHL history this past week, beating Wayne Gretzky's record.
📸 Clever: Some UCLA grads created a “high-angle” photo booth and Gen Z loves it. People love its flattering overhead angles and fashion editorial-style prints
omg: Hawk Tuah Girl has been cast in Glen Powell’s Chad Powers TV series.
🎶 Track Star is the new it show: only 2 yrs old, it’s a music trivia show on Tiktok and the star, Jack Coyne, plays song clips and contestants have to the name the artist. If you guess correctly, you win money. Coyne has had famous guests like Charli XCX and Olivia Rodrigo on his show.
👨🎨🎨 Art things: Meow Wolf, an art collective in Santa Fe that started in 2008, is an art exhibit with immersive experiences. It’s expanding to LA and NYC.
Move over comic books IP: "A Minecraft Movie" set records over the weekend with the biggest box office debut for any video game adaptation in history.Why it matters: Video games may be the new Hollywood template, replacing superhero comics.
🎥 More movie news: Greta Gerwig is directing The Chronicles of Narnia! But people are annoyed that she’s considering casting Meryl Streep for Aslan. 🤷🏻♀️
So excited for this - Mission Impossible’s new trailer drop for the last MI movie premiering next month.
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