Why it matters: A slew of tech giants just delivered solid earnings, providing at least some answers to burning questions about how the industry is faring in the midst of President Trump's trade war.
Venture capitalists are in an odd spot: Financially motivated to pump billions of dollars into AI startups that could hasten their own extinction.
But not everyone is fretting propagation of the sector.
Driving the news: Marc Andreessen said on a recent podcast that he could envision venture capital being "one of the last remaining fields that people are actually doing."
Mark Zuckerberg and Meta are pitching a vision of AI chatbots as an extension of your friend network and a potential solution to the "loneliness epidemic."
Why it matters: Meta's approach to AI raises the broader question of just whose interest chatbots are serving — especially when the bot has access to the details of your life and the company's business depends on constantly boosting the time you spend with it.
Apple on Thursday reported quarterly earnings slightly ahead of expectations, lifted by stronger-than-expected revenue from its services business.
Why it matters: The earnings reports come amid concerns over how the company will be affected by trade tensions with China and just after a scathing ruling from a federal court over its App Store practices.
The White House's reaction to reports that Amazon was planning to itemize tariff pricing — which Amazon later denied — shows how tricky the current political landscape is for American businesses.
Why it matters: This kerfuffle highlights the potential blame game between corporations and the administration, should prices rise.
Corporate America will continue to serve two antitrust masters, after Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) yesterday backed off a plan to remove the FTC's antitrust authority and consolidate (most of) those powers in the Justice Department.
Why it matters: This illustrates how antitrust politics have changed in the past 100 days.
Soon online shoppers will be able to make purchases straight from their chatbots, which could drive the biggest shift in shopping since Amazon or the iPhone.
Why it matters: Shopping has fueled every internet boom from the dot-com to mobile to social.
World, the eyeball-scanning identity management platform co-founded by Sam Altman, is bringing its technology to the U.S., while announcing partnerships with Match Group, Razer and others.
Why it matters: The move opens up one of the biggest and most lucrative technology markets for World, which says its biometric verification system is the key to proving humanity in a world where people and bots operate side-by-side.
Apple must stop levying 27% commissions on sales that take place when apps point users to websites beyond Apple's App Store, a federal judge ordered Wednesday.
The intrigue: In a scorching ruling that called Apple's response to a previous order "an obvious cover-up," Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers also referred Apple's behavior to federal prosecutors to investigate whether to bring criminal contempt of court charges.
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