Apple Sues, Microsoft’s AI Ambitions, and Nvidia’s Surprise

In this Week in Review, we have breaking news about the latest Apple antitrust lawsuit. Microsoft’s AI ambitions are also grabbing headlines, so let’s jump right into it…

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The United States joins international regulators in accusing Apple of using monopoly tactics to lock out iPhone users. In response, Apple claimed that the DOJ’s actions could completely undermine users’ enjoyment of its phones and ecosystem.

The DOJ lawsuit links Apple to the Microsoft of the 1990s, although there are some key differences between the two companies and their efforts to retain customers.

All that said, don’t expect much from this lawsuit in the short term. Experts predict it could take three to five years to reach a resolution.

But that’s not all – read on for more updates on the Reddit IPO, Nvidia’s GTC activity, and unexpected Glassdoor account changes.

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Microsoft absorbs Inflection AI’s lead: The high-profile artificial intelligence startup’s co-founder was poached by Microsoft on Tuesday, with Mustafa Suleyman becoming head of Microsoft’s consumer-facing artificial intelligence division, Karen Karén Simonyan serves as Executive Vice President and Chief Executive Officer of the same division. This all comes after Inflection raised $1.3 billion from a startup whose largest investor is, you guessed it, Microsoft.

Nvidia’s GTC event: Remember when their biggest news had to do with ray tracing? Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang dropped some surprises at the wide-ranging GTC developer conference, including a prediction that general artificial intelligence will appear in five years and news of a new humanoid robot artificial intelligence platform called GR00T.

Google Gemini AI on iPhone?: The two companies are reportedly in talks to potentially deploy Google’s artificial intelligence models to power several upcoming iOS updates, which leaves the question of whether this will work until Apple’s own artificial intelligence efforts get up to speed. Is it a stopgap solution, a long-term partnership, or just one of those negotiations that never reaches the end point.

Hacking and Privacy

Investors harmed by past malware investments: The Biden administration is forming an international coalition to combat commercial espionage, and investors are now getting on board. But TechCrunch has learned exclusively that one of the investors was previously involved in the business they are now vying for.

Hacking a $5 million tournament ‘just for fun’: Sometimes the purported reasons for hacks that take the gaming community by storm are as simple as that, coupled with highlighting to developers the exploit used to bring Apex Legends tournaments to a standstill.

Be careful with those Glassdoor reviews: Users reported that their real names were added to their profiles without their consent, and the only solution offered to them was to delete their accounts entirely. It’s time to take a closer look at that burner you created to defame your former employer!

Financing and IPOs

Reddit IPO gets off to a good start: The stock was issued at $34 per share, rose 48% on its first day of trading, and closed at $46 after Friday’s close.

Astera Labs grew 72% on day one: The company that makes connectivity hardware for cloud computing data centers has benefited greatly from the artificial intelligence boom, with revenue growing 45% last year to $115.8 million and a first-day closing price of $62.03.

The Browser Company raises US$50 million at a valuation of US$550 million: The startup behind the Arc browser has ambitious, complex and sometimes controversial ideas for replacing PCs with browsers. Amid numerous feature releases and artificial intelligence updates, the company still doesn’t know its path to profitability.

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Artificial intelligence is bad at spelling, and image generators are to blame: If you’ve ever seen bad spelling in an AI-generated image, you’re not alone. We dive into why, despite the huge potential of artificial intelligence, we still have trouble spelling the word “burrito.”

Fisker suspends production: It’s not because of electric cars, but because the company is quickly running out of money. If they are unable to raise more capital, they may cease operations entirely.

Why artificial intelligence can’t be censored, but we still try: The fact that systems like ChatGPT or Gemini are impossible to truly censor makes testing them even more important.