(TMT2024 Global, April 22, April 22) - Today's highlights: the U.S. House of Representatives passed a new TikTok divestment bill, Huawei's smart car solution official website was launched, Apple's self-developed device-side large language model, Elon Musk's postponement of his trip to India, the total market value of the "Big Seven" of the U.S. stock market evaporated nearly $300 billion overnight, and Alibaba Cloud fully supported Llama 3 training inference.
The U.S. House of Representatives passed a new TikTok divestiture bill
Following the passage of a bill to force TikTok divestment last month, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a package of foreign aid bills on April 20, including a revised TikTok divestiture bill. The bills will then be packaged and sent to the Senate for consideration, where they are expected to pass soon. The deadline for the new law to divest TikTok has been adjusted from 165 days after it takes effect to 270 days, that is, after the US presidential election in November this year. The President may also exercise a 90-day extension if he determines that the sale is progressing. This extended the maximum period for ByteDance to sell TikTok's U.S. business to about a year.
The official website of Huawei's intelligent vehicle solution was launched
Huawei's intelligent vehicle solution announced the official launch of its official website. According to its official website, the 2024 Huawei Intelligent Vehicle Solution Conference will be held on April 24, and new products will be released at that time. Since then, Huawei's intelligent car solution official Weibo posted an article @7 brand car companies in one go. They are from BAIC, Changan, Dongfeng, and GAC, including BAIC Jihu, Changan Automobile, AVATAR, Deep Blue Automobile, VOYAH Automobile, Mengshi Technology, and GAC Trumpchi.
Huawei Pura 70 two versions of the mobile phone officially went on sale
At 10:08 on April 22, Huawei Pura70 Pro+ and Huawei Pura 70 officially went on sale. The Huawei Pura70 series is available in four versions, Standard, Pro, Pro+ and Ultra. Among them, the starting price of the standard version is 5499 yuan (12GB+256GB), and the highest price of the Ultra version is 10999 yuan (16GB+1TB).
Apple's self-developed device-side large language model
Mark Gurman, a well-known technology journalist, broke the news that Apple is developing a large language model (LLM) that runs on the device side, which will prioritize response speed and privacy protection. Gurman said the model will be the foundation for Apple's future generative AI capabilities, which will run entirely on the device, not in the cloud.
Apple's recycling robot arrives in China
Ge Yue, Apple's managing director of Greater China, announced on the occasion of Earth Day that Apple's recycling robots, Dave and Taz, have arrived in China. Apple CEO Tim Cook noted that these advanced recycling robots can help recycle precious materials such as tungsten and rare earth elements from iPhones, helping to create the next generation of Apple products. In 2023, Apple recycled nearly 40,000 tons of electronic waste. Twenty-two percent of all Apple products sold are made from recycled and renewable sources.
The European Union may approve Apple to open up NFC payment options to third parties
The European Commission approves Apple's Tap to Pay payment option "as soon as next month". Apple launched the Tap to Pay feature in February 2022, which is available in iOS 15.4. Users with supported iPhone devices can securely accept contactless payments and NFC-enabled Apple Pay credentials, and merchants can accept contactless payments without the need for additional hardware.
Musk postponed his trip to India
Tesla CEO Elon Musk has postponed his visit to India, according to people familiar with the matter. Musk responded to this on the X platform, saying, "Unfortunately, the visit to India has been postponed due to the very heavy responsibilities to Tesla, but I am very much looking forward to the visit later this year." Musk was originally scheduled to make a two-day visit to India on April 21 and 22 local time to meet with Indian Prime Minister Modi and announce Tesla's investment plans in India.
The total market value of the "Big Seven" of US stocks evaporated by nearly $300 billion overnight
The U.S. stock market suffered a sharp sell-off due to various factors, with technology stocks suffering heavy losses. On April 15, local time, the total market value of the "Big Seven" of U.S. technology stocks evaporated about $297.6 billion overnight. Nvidia fell 10%, and ultra-micro computer fell more than 23%; Arm fell more than 16%, Intel fell more than 2%, Microsoft, Apple, Google, and Tesla fell more than 1%, of which Tesla's stock price hit a new low since January 2023. This week, Microsoft, Meta, Google's parent company Alphabet and Tesla will all report their earnings reports.
The collapse of Supermicrocomputer's stock price led Nvidia to plummet
Super Micro Computer's uncharacteristically late failure to report preliminary earnings ahead of time could mean weaker-than-expected quarterly results. In recent quarters, Supermicro has been pre-disclosing its impressive sales and profit performance. Supermicro Computer closed down 23.14% on April 19, driving its closely related NVIDIA to close down 10%, with a market value of less than $2 trillion and a closing market value of $1.91 trillion. After TSMC lowered its growth forecast for the chip market, global semiconductor stocks retreated, and investors rushed to lock in profits.
Ericsson laid off 240 employees in China
Ericsson has laid off 240 employees in China as part of the company's restructuring in China, which will affect one of the world's largest research centers. Ericsson said the layoffs were in line with the company's efforts to diversify its R&D efforts to better align with its global sales. A spokesperson for Ericsson said the affected employees would be from Ericsson's core network R&D department in China.
Intel Releases Large Neuromorphic System
Intel has released a large neuromorphic system, codenamed Hala Point. The system is based on the Intel Loihi 2 Neuromorph Processor and is designed to support cutting-edge research in brain-inspired AI and address current AI challenges in terms of efficiency and sustainability. With a total of 1.15 billion neurons, Hala Point has improved its architecture by more than 10x and 12x more performance based on Intel's first-generation large-scale research system, Pohoiki Springs.
Meta VR头显Quest 2再次降价
Meta had announced a price reduction for the Quest 2 and its related accessories at the end of 2023, effective January 1, 2024. Among them, the 128GB version has been reduced from $299.99 to $249.99, while the 256G version has dropped from $349.99 to $299.99. Meta has once again announced further price reductions for the Quest 2 and its related accessories. Of these, the 128GB version currently costs only $199. However, there is no mention of the 256G version, which is relatively tight in stock.
Alibaba Cloud fully supports Llama 3 training inference
Meta open-sourced the latest Llama 3 series, and all 4 models were put on the shelves for the first time by the Alibaba Cloud Magic Community. Alibaba Cloud Bailian Large Model Service Platform announced the launch of a limited-time free training, deployment, and inference service for the Llama 3 series, which enables enterprises and developers to build their own exclusive large models on Alibaba Cloud from now on. Llama 3 is a new generation of open-source large language models launched by Meta, with 8 billion and 70 billion parameter versions, the training data is 7 times larger than Llama 2, and the performance has also been greatly improved.
UMC withdrew from Novatek's Board of Directors
Novatek, a major display driver IC manufacturer, recently announced the list of candidates for the next 8 directors, and UMC, the current corporate director, was not listed. UMC has been a member of Novatek's Board of Directors since its establishment in 1997. Novatek was originally spun off in 1997 from the Electronic Products Division of Uninovatek. In this regard, Novatek said that the list of director candidates this time is to work in the direction of corporate governance and increase the proportion of independent directors and women.
Sony and Apollo negotiate a joint acquisition of Paramount
Apollo Global Management and Sony Group are considering joining forces to buy film and television giant Paramount Global, possibly competing with David Ellison. Sony Pictures Entertainment CEO Tony Vinciquera has been discussing the partnership with Apollo this past week, but no formal offer has been made. Paramount, the parent company of CBS, MTV and other film and television networks, is in exclusive talks with Skydance Media, an independent film and television company led by Ellison. The Sony-Apollo consortium will trade cash for Paramount shares, privatizing Paramount through a joint venture.
Indian ride-hailing company Ola Cabs plans an IPO
SoftBank-backed Indian ride-hailing company Ola Cabs plans an IPO, seeking to raise $500 million at a valuation of nearly $5 billion, according to people familiar with the matter. Ola Cabs is in talks with investment banks such as Goldman Sachs, Bank of America, Citigroup, Kotak and Axis, and plans to appoint an IPO adviser within a month, with a target of submitting application documents to the Indian market regulator within three months.
The first version of the 6G global standard is expected to be finalized in 2030
At the Global 6G Technology Conference, 3GPP, a global mobile communications standards development organization, revealed the latest progress of 6G. Release 21 (R21) is expected to be the first set of 3GPP 6G technical specifications, and according to 3GPP's plan, the specific discussion timeline for R21 will be determined by June 2026 to meet the International Telecommunication Union's planning requirements for 6G. R18 is the first 5G Advanced specification, while R18, R19 and R20 will be the transition to the 6G standard. Among them, R20 will collect initial ideas on 6G and 6G architecture, and R21 will become the world's first 6G standard specification, which is expected to be frozen in 2030.