In late 2020, Silicon Valley Bank vice-president Armando Argueta offered a word of caution to any start-up founder considering loans from less-established lenders. “Many players come and go in the venture debt market, so make sure that whomever you are talking to is a long-term player. When a bank decides one day that it is…
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Tim Cook has praised Apple’s symbiotic relationship with China despite rising trade and geopolitical tensions between Beijing and the US, and the iPhone maker’s own moves to diversify from the country. In his first visit to China since the pandemic began in 2020, the Apple chief said the company would this year celebrate its 30th…
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Gordon Moore, one of the founders of US chipmaker Intel and a central figure in the history of Silicon Valley, has died at the age of 94. Moore’s early insight that the cost of electronics would plunge, turning digital technology into a part of everyday life, made his name a byword for the rapid and…
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The UK competition regulator has performed a U-turn on Microsoft’s $75bn acquisition of the Call of Duty maker Activision Blizzard, clearing a huge roadblock to the deal’s global prospects. After reviewing what it called “new evidence”, the Competition and Markets Authority said on Friday that it no longer thought there would be a “substantial lessening…
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The UK competition regulator has dropped a key concern about the impact of Microsoft’s $75bn acquisition of video game maker Activision Blizzard on rival Sony, clearing a substantial roadblock to approving the deal. After reviewing what it called “new evidence”, the Competition and Markets Authority said on Friday it no longer believes there is a…
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The UK Home Office is working with US defence start-up Anduril Industries to identify migrants crossing the English Channel, using the company’s artificial intelligence-powered surveillance technology to track small boats. Anduril, which is backed by Peter Thiel, the Silicon Valley investor and prominent supporter of Donald Trump, is best known for its work with the…
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Insurer Zurich is testing how it can use ChatGPT artificial intelligence technology in areas such as claims and modelling, as it responds to the challenge posed by start-ups and bigger rivals, including China’s Ping An. It is the latest example of long-established businesses, from law firm Allen & Overy to newspaper publisher Reach, experimenting with…
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Good morning. This article is an on-site version of our FirstFT newsletter. Sign up to our Asia, Europe/Africa or Americas edition to get it sent straight to your inbox every weekday morning Good morning. TikTok’s chief executive was grilled today by US lawmakers, who called the Chinese-owned app a “cancer” and tool of surveillance. In…
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TikTok’s chief executive has told hostile US legislators that the viral-video app will be kept “free from any manipulation by any government”, as he struggled to head off a potential US ban. Shou Zi Chew received a bipartisan pummelling from a congressional committee on Thursday that threatened to ban the Chinese-owned app as a “cancer”…
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The UK’s parliament on Thursday became the latest public organisation to ban the Chinese-owned TikTok app from its devices and networks as concern mounted about the security implications of its use. The decision by the commissions that run both the House of Commons and the House of Lords comes just a week after the UK…
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