Author: GT

Spotify is planning to raise subscription prices in the U.S. in the first quarter of next year, according to a new report from the Financial Times. The move will mark the streaming service’s first price rise in the U.S. since July 2024. The company recently raised prices in several other countries, including the U.K., Switzerland, and Australia. A Spotify subscription currently costs $11.99 a month in the U.S. When the service first launched in the country 14 years ago, it cost $9.99 per month. The report says JPMorgan analysts have estimated that a $1-per-month price increase in the U.S. could…

Speechify has largely been a tool that helps you listen to articles, PDFs, and documents. The company is now adding voice detection features to its Chrome extension, including voice typing and a voice assistant that answers your questions. In the last 12 months, there has been a proliferation of voice detection tools, thanks to overall quality improvement in speech recognition models. Speechify is hitching its wagon to this train and launching its own dictation tool with support for English. Just like other dictation tools, Speechify’s voice typing corrects errors and removes filler words. In my short test of just more…

Malaysia has captured 32% of Southeast Asia’s total AI funding – equivalent to US$759 million – between H2 2024 and H1 2025, establishing itself as the region’s dominant destination for artificial intelligence investment as massive infrastructure expansion and high consumer adoption converge to reshape the country’s technology landscape, according to the e-Conomy SEA 2025 report released by Google, Temasek, and Bain & Company.The Malaysia AI investment increase is underpinned by an expansion in physical infrastructure that sets the country apart from regional competitors. Data centre capacity rose from 120 megawatts in 2024 to 690 MW in the first half of…

India has granted legal status to millions of gig and platform workers under its newly implemented labor laws, marking a milestone for the country’s delivery, ride-hailing and e-commerce workforce — yet with benefits still unclear and platforms beginning to assess their obligations, access to social security remains out of reach. The recognition stems from the Code on Social Security — one of four labor laws the Indian government brought into effect on Friday — more than five years after the parliament first passed them in 2020. It is the only part of the new framework that addresses gig and platform…

HONG KONG (AP) — China’s Alibaba Group posted a 34% jump in revenue from its cloud business in its most recent quarter, buoyed by the boom in artificial intelligence.But overall revenue at the Chinese tech group for the July-September quarter increased by just 5% year-on-year to 247.8 billion yuan ($35 billion), and profit fell 52% from last year, as a fierce price war in China’s e-commerce landscape — including in the food delivery segment — eroded into short-term profitability. JD.com, its e-commerce rival, reported a 55% net profit drop in the same quarter.Alibaba started out in e-commerce and later turned…

“When people see it, they say, ‘that’s it?… It’s so simple.’” That’s how OpenAI CEO Sam Altman describes how he thinks people will respond to seeing the company’s forthcoming AI hardware device for the first time. The device is the result of the collaboration between OpenAI and Apple’s former chief designer Jony Ive. Not much is known yet about the product except that it’s rumored to be “screenless” and pocket-sized. Earlier this year, OpenAI acquired Ive’s design startup, io, to bring AI to the masses through some sort of tech gadgetry. This weekend, Altman and Ive talked more about their…

Google has partnered with Accel to find and fund India’s earliest-stage AI startups in a first-of-its-kind collaboration for the Google AI Futures Fund, launched earlier this year. On Tuesday, Accel and Google announced a partnership to jointly invest up to $2 million in each startup through Accel’s Atoms program, with both firms contributing up to $1 million. The 2026 cohort will focus on founders in India and the Indian diaspora building AI products from day one. “The thought process is building AI products for billions of Indians, as well as supporting AI products built in India for global markets,” Prayank…

Alibaba showcase its AI technology application achievements from Alibaba Cloud at the World Artificial Intelligence Conference in Shanghai, China on July 26, 2025.Cfoto | Future Publishing | Getty ImagesAlibaba delivered better than expected revenue in its fiscal second quarter as sales in its key cloud computing division accelerated.Alibaba’s New York-listed shares were around 4.3% higher in premarket trade as investors looked past a plunge in profitability. Here’s how the company did in its fiscal second quarter ended Sept. 30 versus LSEG estimates:Revenue rose 5% to 247.8 billion Chinese yuan ($34.8 billion) versus 242.65 billion yuan the previous year. Investors are…

Nuclear startup X-energy raised $700 million in a Series D round, the company told TechCrunch. The new fundraise comes less than a year after it expanded its Series C from $500 million to $700 million, bringing the total raised in the last year or so to $1.4 billion, a sizable amount even in the heady world of nuclear power startups. X-energy has raised $1.8 billion, to date. X-energy said the new infusion will help build the supply chain for its small modular reactors (SMR). So far, the startup says it has orders for 144 SMRs capable of generating 11 gigawatts…

Jensen Huang, NVIDIA founder and CEO, has a Q&A session at a press conference during the APEC CEO summit on October 31, 2025 in Gyeongju, South Korea.Woohae Cho | Getty Images News | Getty ImagesNvidia shares fell on Tuesday after The Information reported that Meta is considering using chips designed by Google. Shares of Nvidia were 3.6% lower in premarket trade. Google-parent Alphabet was trading 2.6% higher. On Monday, The Information reported that Meta is considering using Google’s tensor processing units (TPUs) in its data centers in 2027. Meta may also rent TPUs from Google’s cloud unit next year, the…