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☆ Mike Lynch-backed legal tech startup Luminance raises $40 million, capitalizing on AI hype
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-02 | by ( Ryan Browne | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

Mathisworks | Digitalvision Vectors | Getty ImagesLegal technology firm Luminance has raised $40 million in fresh funding from investors to grow its U.S. footprint, capitalizing on the wave of investor interest surrounding artificial intelligence. The company told CNBC that it raised the fresh capital in a Series B funding round led by U.S. venture fund March Capital. "We had lots of interest from lots of VCs," Eleanor Lightbody, CEO of Luminance, told CNBC in an interview on Tuesday. Lightbody said that businesses are investing in AI tools like Luminance's to keep a competitive edge, as well as to reduce costs. Luminance is one firm of the many generating buzz from investors thanks to the hype swirling around artificial intelligence.

Persons: Slaughter, Eleanor Lightbody, Lightbody Organizations: CNBC, U.S, National Grid Partners, National Grid, Koch Industries, Hitachi, Yokogawa, Liberty Mutual, LG Chem, BBC Studios, University of Cambridge, Companies, Mistral, Microsoft, Amazon, Investors

☆ The UK is regulating memes about crypto and other investments to curb scams from 'finfluencers'
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-27 | by ( Ryan Browne | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

Britain's financial services regulator announced guidelines for financial services companies and social media influencers making memes about cryptocurrencies and other investments in a bid to tackle a rise in scams. The Financial Conduct Authority said in a statement Tuesday that any marketing for financial products — including those expressed in memes — should be fair, clear, and not misleading. The watchdog said that financial social media influencers, or "finfluencers," must have the approval of an FCA-appointed representative before publishing advertisements and memes about financial products and services, the FCA said. We will take action against those touting financial products illegally," Lucy Castledine, director of consumer investments at the FCA, said in a statement Tuesday. The FCA said that, in 2022, it took down over 10,000 misleading adverts about financial services.

Persons: Lucy Castledine Organizations: Financial, Authority, FCA

☆ Alibaba scraps IPO of logistics unit Cainiao, says it will take full ownership
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-26 | by ( Ryan Browne | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

The Alibaba Group company logo is displayed on a screen at the New York Stock Exchange during morning trading on February 14, 2024 in New York City. Alibaba on Tuesday said it was scrapping a planned initial public offering for its smart logistics unit Cainiao, adding to recent woes for the former Chinese tech darling. The shelving of the planned IPO — which would have been a boon to Alibaba, handing it an injection of cash with a key exit deal — comes after deteriorating market conditions in China. In a press release Tuesday, Alibaba said that it was withdrawing its IPO and listing application for Cainiao, and would also buy the remaining shares of the company it does not already currently own. Cainiao, which Alibaba first launched in May 2013, provides warehousing and fulfillment services, last-mile delivery and pick-up posts, and reverse logistics to customers of Alibaba's Taobao and Tmall e-commerce sites.

Persons: —, Alibaba, Joe Tsai Organizations: Alibaba Group, New York Stock Exchange, Investors, Baidu, U.S, Dow Jones Industrial, Tech Locations: New York City, Alibaba, China, U.S, Cainiao, Hong Kong

☆ U.S. and Britain accuse China-linked hackers of ‘malicious’ cyber campaigns, announce sanctions
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-25 | by ( Ryan Browne | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

BeeBright | Getty ImagesLONDON — The U.S. and U.K. on Monday accused hackers linked to the Chinese state of being behind "malicious" cyber campaigns targeting political figures, in moves expected to stoke tensions with Beijing. The British government also alleged that China-affiliated hackers were behind an attack that saw the data of millions of voters accessed. "I can confirm today that Chinese state-affiliated actors were responsible for two malicious cyber campaigns targeting our democratic institutions and parliamentarians," British Deputy Prime Minister Oliver Dowden said in a speech to Parliament on Monday. "We want now to be as open as possible with the House and the British public," Dowden said. U.S. hits out at ChinaSeparately, the U.S. Justice Department unsealed an indictment Monday accusing Chinese state-linked hackers of being behind cyber campaigns targeting U.S. businesses, government officials and politicians.

Persons: Oliver Dowden, Dowden, Ni Gaobin, Weng Ming, Cheng Feng, Peng Yaowen, Xiong Wang, Zhao Guangzong, Merrick B, Garland Organizations: Getty, stoke, Electoral, Electoral Commission, Embassy, Google, APT31, U.S . Justice Department, DOJ Locations: U.S, Beijing, China, Britain, APT31 ., United States

☆ Smaller climate startups face 'valley of death' as funding freezes up. This VC just raised $325 million to help
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-21 | by ( Ryan Browne | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

Venture capital firm World Fund said Friday it's closed a 300 million euro ($325 million) fund to back startups tackling climate change. World Fund, a European climate technology investor incubated by the environment-conscious search engine Ecosia, said it had raised the cash despite a challenging environment for technology investing — and, in particular, climate technology investing. Investors have reeled from riskier tech-related bets after a jump in inflation and interest rates, which has surged dramatically since the Russia-Ukraine war in 2022. Central banks have hiked rates to stem inflation, which has in turn soured investor sentiment toward tech. "They've been like, sorry this is too much, you can't raise 300 million plus," Višević told CNBC.

Persons: Višević, They've Organizations: World, Silicon Valley Bank, CNBC, Private Locations: Russia, Ukraine, Central, Silicon

☆ Grayscale CEO says fees on its bitcoin ETF will drop over time after outflows hit $12 billion
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-19 | by ( Ryan Browne | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +5 min

Grayscale CEO Michael Sonnenshein said that the crypto fund manager expects to bring fees on its Grayscale Bitcoin Trust ETF down in the coming months, as the nascent crypto ETF market matures. The FTX bankruptcy estate reportedly offloaded the majority of its shares in Grayscale's bitcoin ETF, according to January reporting from Bloomberg and CoinDesk. Grayscale also wants to introduce other ways of giving investors less costly ways of accessing its bitcoin ETF, including a "mini" version of its flagship product — the Grayscale Bitcoin Mini Trust, announced last week. The new BTC ETF would be effectively spun out of the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust ETF and seeded with an as-yet undisclosed portion of bitcoin underlying GBTC shares. The firm is currently awaiting approval from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for its Bitcoin Mini Trust ETF.

Persons: Michael Sonnenshein, Sonnenshein, GBTC, FTX Organizations: NYSE, LONDON, CNBC, Bloomberg, BlackRock, Fidelity, Vanguard, Trust, BTC, U.S . Securities, Exchange Commission, SEC Locations: Grayscale's bitcoin, solana

☆ Crypto firm Ledger to launch iPod-inspired crypto wallet in May, after months of delays
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-19 | by ( Ryan Browne | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

LONDON — Crypto wallet maker Ledger says it is set to launch its much-anticipated hardware wallet Ledger Stax, which was designed by iPod inventor Tony Fadell, in May. Ledger, which makes hardware and software wallets for crypto investors, first announced Ledger Stax in 2022 after a plunge in crypto prices in the wake of the collapse of crypto exchange FTX. Speaking with CNBC at the Blockworks Digital Asset Summit in London, Ledger CEO Pascal Gauthier said that he expects the Ledger Stax will launch soon. "Stax is coming out in two months," Gauthier told CNBC onstage Tuesday at the event. The Ledger Stax has been beset by a series of shipment delays over the past year due to issues with getting its E-ink display to work smoothly.

Persons: Ledger, Tony Fadell, Stax, Pascal Gauthier, Gauthier Organizations: LONDON, CNBC, Amazon, Asset, Ledger Locations: London

☆ ‘Wildly disappointing’: Tech exec warns web innovation is stagnating, compares it to space exploration post-1970s
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-13 | by ( Ryan Browne | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

But Blumofe, who noted he's still a believer in the web and modern technology, cautioned we could be in for stagnation. Blumofe compared the current state of the web today to the aerospace industry in the 1960s. Today, aerospace innovation has stalled, he added. "All that was in the 60s and 70s," Blumofe noted. "If someone had gone asleep in 1975 and then woke up and looked at aerospace today they would be wildly disappointed."

Persons: Edwin E, Aldrin, Jr, we'd, underwhelmed, Robert Blumofe, Tim Berners, Lee, he's, Blumofe Organizations: United, CNBC, Boeing Locations: United States

☆ World Wide Web turns 35: Tim Berners-Lee gives predictions for future
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-12 | by ( Ryan Browne | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +10 min

Tim Berners-Lee is credited with inventing the World Wide Web in 1989. These are just some of the predictions for the future of the web from the inventor of the World Wide Web, Tim Berners-Lee, on the 35th anniversary of its invention. Tim Berners-Lee Inventor, World Wide WebBerners-Lee got to continue working on his idea for this information sharing system, and by 1991, the World Wide Web was up and running. When Tim Berners-Lee started work on the World Wide Web 35 years ago, he had no idea it was about to become the ubiquitous force it is today. Tim Berners-Lee Inventor, World Wide Web

Persons: Tim Berners, Lee, Rita Franca, Berners, Fabrice Coffrini, of Berners, Robert Blumofe, Akamai, Blumofe, we'll, Sebastian Derungs, you'll, Chintan Patel, Patel Organizations: CERN, CNBC, AFP, Getty, Microsoft, Samsung, Galaxy, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Google, Apple, Afp, Forte Ventures, Akamai, Glasswing Ventures, Cisco, Big Tech, Digital Markets Locations: Swiss, London, Berners, U.S

☆ Bitcoin hits fresh record high above $71,000 as UK opens the door to crypto exchange-traded products
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-11 | by ( Ryan Browne | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

Bitcoin prices rallied on Monday to hit a fresh record high above $71,000, after the British financial watchdog said it would allow institutions to file applications for cryptocurrency-linked exchange-traded products for the first time. Exchanges would need to ensure they have sufficient controls in place, so that trading is orderly and proper protection is afforded to professional investors. They must meet all the requirements of the U.K.'s listings regime, issuing prospectuses and ongoing disclosures. ET, hitting a fresh all-time high. Please check later for updates.

Organizations: Financial, Authority

☆ Trump says a TikTok ban would empower Meta, slams Facebook as 'enemy of the people'
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-11 | by ( Ryan Browne | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump on Monday raised concerns about efforts to ban Chinese-owned social media app TikTok in the U.S., saying it would only serve to empower Meta's Facebook platform. "Without TikTok, you can make Facebook bigger, and I consider Facebook to be an enemy of the people," Trump, who was formerly U.S. president between 2017 and 2021, said in a CNBC TV interview on Monday. Acknowledging his concerns around national security and data privacy over TikTok, Trump said "there's a lot of good and there's a lot of bad" with the platform. China's National Intelligence Law of 2017 requires organizations and citizens to "support, assist and cooperate with the state intelligence work." In 2020, the Trump administration unsuccessfully tried to have TikTok removed from app stores in the U.S. due to these concerns.

Persons: Donald Trump, Trump, ByteDance Organizations: Facebook, CNBC, Meta, National Intelligence, TikTok, Microsoft, TikTok's Locations: U.S, Beijing

☆ Microsoft destroys rival cloud firms' profit margins, Amazon-backed group alleges
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-08 | by ( Ryan Browne | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

Igor Golovniov | Sopa Images | Lightrocket via Getty ImagesMicrosoft was accused Friday of abusing the dominance of its Azure cloud computing unit to squeeze a — and, in some cases, evaporate — the profit margins of rival cloud platforms in Europe. Under those rules, Microsoft required firms to purchase a Software Assurance license and "mobility rights" if they wanted to deploy their Microsoft software on hosted cloud services offered by rival providers. It also formed the basis of an investigation from the European Commission seeking to determine whether Microsoft's cloud practices are anti-competitive. But the growth of the unnamed cloud vendor's profit margins didn't match Microsoft's, and in fact the competing cloud vendor saw their margins fall from a positive mid-twenties percentage in 2018 to double-digit negative profit margins in 2023. The biggest decline in profit margins for this cloud firm occurred in 2019, the same year Microsoft changed its licensing terms to favor licensing software on Azure, the CISPE said.

Persons: Igor Golovniov, Redmond, Brad Smith, CISPE, Frederic Jenny, Jenny Organizations: Ofcom, Microsoft, Getty, European Union, Software Assurance, Google, Italy's, Big Tech, European Commission, CNBC, Amazon, Windows, ESSEC Business School Locations: Europe, CISPE, Washington, Italy's Aruba, Paris

☆ Big Tech goes from 'teenager' to 'grown-up' under landmark EU law. Here's what you need to know
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-07 | by ( Ryan Browne | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

Justin Tallis | AFP via Getty ImagesAn EU law that seeks to rein in large digital companies has officially kicked in, spelling big changes for primarily U.S. tech giants. CNBC runs through how the law impacts large U.S. tech companies — as well as consumers in the EU. The EU Digital Markets Act primarily impacts U.S. tech giants — the likes of Alphabet , Amazon , Apple , and Meta . The rules have already sparked big changes for tech giants in how they serve customers in the EU. It's likely more adjustments will come, as competitors to Big Tech firms aren't happy with the proposals put in place so far.

Persons: Justin Tallis, Bill Echikson, Echikson, ByteDance, Apple Organizations: Apple, Facebook, Microsoft, Getty, Digital Markets, European Commission, Center for, CNBC, Big Tech, EU Digital Markets, Meta, Google, Companies, EU, Spotify Locations: EU, U.S, iPhones

☆ British neobank Monzo raises $430 million in Alphabet-led round to relaunch in the U.S.
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-05 | by ( Ryan Browne | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

British digital bank Monzo on Tuesday raised $430 million in fresh capital from investors to help it relaunch its services in the U.S.Monzo raised the money in a new funding round led by CapitalG, the independent venture arm of Google parent company Alphabet . HongShan, the Chinese venture capital firm that split from Sequoia Capital last year, also backed the round, alongside existing backers Tencent and Passion Capital. Monzo, which is one of the U.K.'s most popular app-only banks, said the fresh cash would be used to accelerate its expansion plans, including a renewed attempt at expanding its service to the U.S."With backing from global investors, we have the rocket fuel to go after our ambitions harder and faster, building Monzo into the one app that sits at the centre of our customers' financial lives," Monzo CEO TS Anil said in a statement. "Each milestone we've reached to this point has given us more strength and speed to make strides towards our mission — now we'll scale to even greater heights and seize the huge opportunity ahead."

Persons: Monzo, CapitalG, Tencent, Anil Organizations: Google, Sequoia Capital, Passion Locations: U.S

☆ Apple iPhone sales plunge 24% in China as Huawei smartphone business resurges, report says
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-05 | by ( Ryan Browne | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

Sales of Apple's iPhone plunged in China in the first six weeks of 2024, according to a Counterpoint Research report. The analyst firm said in a note on Tuesday that iPhone sales plunged 24% in the period, as Apple faced stiff competition from local smartphone firms like Huawei, Oppo, Vivo, and Xiaomi. In particular, Apple came under major pressure from Chinese tech giant Huawei, whose consumer business is experiencing a resurgence in China after the launch of its Mate 60 smartphone. Oppo's smartphone shipments dropped 29% year-on-year, while Vivo and Xiaomi logged drops of 15% and 7%, respectively, according to Counterpoint Research. Huawei smartphone unit shipments rose 64% year-over-year in the first six weeks of 2024, according to Counterpoint Research.

Persons: Apple, Neil Shah, Shah, Arjun Kharpal Organizations: Apple, Research, Huawei, Oppo, Counterpoint Research, CNBC Locations: Yantai, East China's Shandong, China, Vivo, U.S, iPhones

☆ SpaceX-backed startup says preorders for its $300,000 futuristic flying car have reached 2,850
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-04 | by ( Ryan Browne | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

watch nowBARCELONA, Spain — Alef Aeronautics, a SpaceX-backed flying car firm, says it has reached 2,850 preorders for its futuristic electrical vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) vehicle. Dukhovny calls Alef's vehicle the "first flying car in history." "But we always had the idea that it has to be a car, a physical car, a regular car, as you can see it's an eVTOL, an electric car. Alef's car is mainly designed to be driven on the road, but will be able to take to the skies, too. To drive on the road, the car uses four small engines in each of the wheels, and will drive similar to a normal electric car.

Persons: Jim Dukhovny, Dukhovny, David Zorrakino, Tim Draper, Elon Organizations: Spain — Alef Aeronautics, SpaceX, Alef Aeronautics, Boeing, Airbus, Joby Aviation, CNBC, Mobile, Europa Press, Getty, SKTelecom Locations: BARCELONA, Spain, San Mateo , California, Alef, Germany, Korean

☆ Telcos are barely done rolling out 5G networks — and they're already talking about '5.5G'
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-04 | by ( Ryan Browne | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +10 min

And yet bosses of major carriers are already talking about building something called "5.5G," or "5G Advanced." Carriers in China, South Korea, the United States, and Europe, properly got underway with launches of 5G networks in 2019. 5G Advanced, or the name for the next stage of 5G, is the next evolution of mobile networks. 5G advanced — 5G standalone, that's absolutely fine. Telcos haven't yet revealed how much more a 5G Advanced data plan will cost compared with 5G.

Persons: Angel Garcia, it's, GSMAi, Milind Kulkarni, Howard Watson, 5.5G, Watson, execs, Mats Granryd, Granryd, Karen Tso, Telcos, Philip Song Organizations: Bloomberg, Getty, Spain — Telecom, Mobile, Congress, MWC, Deutsche Telekom, Telefonica, BT, Vodafone, Facebook, YouTube, Netflix, Apple, Apple Vision, Meta Quest, Telecommunications, 3GPP, CNBC, telco, Huawei, 5G, 5.5G Locations: BARCELONA, Spain, Barcelona, Orange, China, South Korea, United States, Europe, East, Asia Pacific, America

☆ Salesforce's top AI ethics leader says she's 'optimistic' on the path to U.S. regulation
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-01 | by ( Ryan Browne | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

BARCELONA — A top executive at Salesforce says she is "optimistic" that U.S. Congress will make new laws to regulate artificial intelligence soon. She noted that the need to consider guardrails has become a "bipartisan" issue for U.S. lawmakers and highlighted efforts among individual states to devise their own AI laws. "It's very important to ensure U.S. lawmakers can agree on AI laws and work to pass them soon," Goldman told CNBC. And I think it's very important that we have a set of guardrails around the technology," Goldman added. Goldman sits on the U.S. National AI Advisory Committee, which advises the Biden administration on topics related to AI.

Persons: Paula Goldman, guardrails, Goldman, We've, we're, that's, Biden Organizations: U.S . Congress, BARCELONA, CNBC, Mobile, Congress, Senate, U.S, National AI Advisory Locations: Barcelona, Spain, United States, EU

☆ British telco giant BT expects to launch 5G standalone — or 'true' 5G — later this year
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-01 | by ( Ryan Browne | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

Jason Alden | Bloomberg | Getty ImagesBARCELONA — British telecommunications giant BT says it expects to launch its first so-called "standalone 5G" network in 2024. Howard Watson, BT's chief technology officer, told CNBC that the telco group plans to switch on its standalone 5G network, which is often referred to in the industry as "true" 5G, later this year. "We've already been ensuring that the SIM cards that our customers have in their current 5G devices can do 5G standalone," Watson added. 5G standalone is different from 5G Advanced, though. 5G standalone refers to the development of a 5G network that isn't being built on top of 4G cores.

Persons: Jason Alden, Howard Watson, Watson, Milind Kulkarni, Kulkarni Organizations: BT Group, Bloomberg, Getty, BT, CNBC, Mobile, Congress, Swedish, Ericsson, Qualcomm, Apple, Samsung Locations: Reading, BARCELONA, British, Barcelona, Europe

☆ Give us your nominations: CNBC is listing the world’s top fintech companies
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-28 | by ( Ryan Browne | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

For a second year, CNBC and independent research firm Statista are working together to identify the world's top fintech companies, to be named in a published CNBC report this July. Nominations are now open for the top global fintech companies list. You can check out last year's list of the top 200 fintech companies, which includes the likes of Chinese tech giants Ant Group and Tencent, U.S. fintech firms PayPal and Stripe, and European companies like Klarna and Revolut. In addition to the fintech list, CNBC is also launching a separate list showing the top insurance technology (insurtech) companies globally, planned to be published in August. Insurance has proven a market ripe for digital disruption, as a wave of new digital-native companies have done away with the paper-based processes that previously dominated the industry.

Organizations: CNBC, Ant Group, PayPal, Insurance

"Normal people do not use OpenAI's products in this way," OpenAI wrote in the filing. The news outlet's lawsuit, filed in December, seeks to hold Microsoft and OpenAI accountable for billions of dollars in damages. In the past, OpenAI has said it's "impossible" to train top AI models without copyrighted works. "We expect our ongoing negotiations with others to yield additional partnerships soon," OpenAI wrote in the filing. But in the filing, OpenAI says the content is vital to training today's AI models.

Persons: Sam Altman, OpenAI, Altman, Axel Springer, — CNBC's Ryan Browne Organizations: Economic, The New York Times, New York Times, Microsoft, House, Times, Bloomberg, CNN, Fox Corp, CNBC PRO Locations: Davos, Switzerland, Manhattan

☆ EToro wants to bring its trading app to Apple Vision Pro and Meta Quest headsets
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-27 | by ( Ryan Browne | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

An Apple Vision Pro mixed reality (XR) headset is seen at Apple store in New York, United States on Feb. 3, 2024. Online brokerage firm eToro is exploring ways to bring its retail trading app to augmented and virtual reality headsets from Apple and Meta, the company's CEO Yoni Assia told CNBC exclusively. EToro, which operates a trading platform on which users can buy and sell a range of assets ranging from stocks and exchange-traded funds to cryptocurrencies like bitcoin, is looking at ways of launching on Apple Vision Pro and Meta Quest. "We are planning to look at how we think about eToro with natural language, with voice, but actually also in the realm of AR VR, during 2024," Assia told CNBC last week. However, he suggested it will be a serious focus for the firm in 2024.

Persons: Yoni Assia, eToro, Assia Organizations: Apple, Meta, CNBC, Apple Vision, Vision Locations: New York, United States

☆ Smartphone makers are dreaming of a 'supercycle' driven by AI. Analysts disagree
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-27 | by ( Ryan Browne | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +6 min

Samsung has gone big on generative AI with its Galaxy S24 Ultra smartphone. When was the last smartphone supercycle? Smartphone makers have been dreaming of a "supercycle" in their industry, driven by AI, after a bruising few years that saw device sales slow aggressively. 'AI phone era'Major smartphone players are betting that a supercycle is about to happen thanks to AI. "We're right now at the dawning of an entirely new era, an AI phone era," Kitto said.

Persons: Kim Hong, they're, Francisco Jeronimo, Jeronimo, Ben Wood, Wood, James Kitto, Kitto, Brian Rakowski, Rakowski, We've Organizations: Samsung Electronics, Reuters, Reuters BARCELONA –, Samsung, Google, Galaxy, Apple, Financial Times, Mobile, Congress, Huawei, Qualcomm, IDC, Twitter, CNBC, 3G, CCS, Samsung's, Google's, Android Locations: Seoul, South Korea, Reuters BARCELONA, Chertsey , England

☆ Google expects its more advanced large language models to arrive on Android phones next year
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-26 | by ( Ryan Browne | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Google is bullish on the prospect of its more advanced artificial intelligence models coming to smartphones in the next year. The internet giant expects that its currently available Gemini large language model (LLM), which competes with Microsoft-backed OpenAI's most powerful GPT-4 AI model, will begin to get embedded into devices starting next year. Google already offers Gemini Nano, which is the company's most efficient model for "on-device" AI, across its Pixel devices and on all other capable Android devices. "There are smaller versions of our Gemini model on the cloud," Rakowski told CNBC. Large language models, or LLMs, are AI models capable of understanding and generating language in a humanlike way.

Persons: Brian Rakowski, Rakowski Organizations: Google, Microsoft, Gemini, Google's, CNBC

☆ 'We definitely are eyeing the public markets': eToro CEO considers IPO after scrapped SPAC deal
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-26 | by ( Ryan Browne | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

"We definitely are eyeing the public markets," Assia told CNBC in an exclusive interview last week. "I definitely see us becoming eventually a public company." EToro has already put the work in toward becoming a public company, he suggested, and the question of listing is more a matter of when, not if. Retail investors come to eToro to buy shares of a public company. EToro now has 35.5 million registered users, and over 3 million funded accounts.

Persons: Yoni Assia, Assia, EToro, eToro Organizations: Stock, CNBC, Nasdaq, eToro, EToro Club Locations: Lisbon, Portugal

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