Author: GT

In the opening 90 minutes of the evening session, U.S. stock futures are up marginally – S&P500 is up 0.1% while Nasdaq 100 is up 0.2%.  Earlier on Tuesday, Consumer Discretionary and Communications Services were the best performing sectors in the S&P500 – Google (GOOGL),  Meta (META), and Netflix (NFLX) had over 1% gains among the mega-caps – while defensively-oriented Healthcare and Utilities underperformed.    Investors have also shrugged the disappointing Consumer Confidence data with sentiment turning more upbeat on expectations of a more tempered tariff implementation by the White House and translating into 3rd consecutive session of gains. In…

A view of the 23andMe headquarters in Sunnyvale, California, on March 25, 2025.Tayfun Coskun | Anadolu | Getty Images23andMe co-founder Linda Avey took to social media on Wednesday to express frustration about the fate of the once-thriving genetic testing company that spiraled into Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection this week.Avey helped launch 23andMe in 2006 alongside Paul Cusenza and Anne Wojcicki, who resigned as CEO on Friday. The company went mainstream due to its popular at-home DNA testing kits, but struggled in recent years to generate recurring revenue, stand up viable therapeutics and research businesses and assuage privacy concerns.”My time at…

Bradley Tusk, co-founder and managing partner at Tusk Venture Partners, told TechCrunch in today’s episode of Equity that VC as we know it is dead. And it has been for the last four years.  “Maybe there’s some VC that I’ve never heard of that’s awash with liquidity the last couple of years, but we haven’t returned $1 in capital to our LPs in four years,” Tusk said.  VC has had a rough couple of years thanks to higher interest rates, crashed startup valuations from 2021 highs, and stymied IPO and M&A transactions.  Many investors had been holding their breath for…

NEW YORK (AP) — A federal judge has ruled that The New York Times and other newspapers can proceed with a copyright lawsuit against OpenAI and Microsoft seeking to end the practice of using their stories to train artificial intelligence chatbots.U.S. District Judge Sidney Stein of New York on Wednesday dismissed some of the claims made by media organizations but allowed the bulk of the case to continue, possibly to a jury trial. “We appreciate Judge Stein’s careful consideration of these issues,” New York Times attorney Ian Crosby said in a statement. “As the order indicates, all of our copyright…

Muhammed Selim Korkutata | Anadolu | Getty ImagesPresident Donald Trump said he may reduce tariffs on China to facilitate a deal that would result in ByteDance selling the U.S. operations of TikTok.China “is going to have to play a role” in approving a TikTok-related divestiture, Trump said in a press conference Wednesday. “Maybe I’ll give them a little reduction in tariffs or something to get it done,” Trump said. “TikTok is big, but every point in tariffs is worth more than TikTok.”Although a national security law requires ByteDance to divest TikTok’s U.S. operations or face an effective ban in the…

A complaint about poverty in rural China. A news report about a corrupt Communist Party member. A cry for help about corrupt cops shaking down entrepreneurs. These are just a few of the 133,000 examples fed into a sophisticated large language model that’s designed to automatically flag any piece of content considered sensitive by the Chinese government. A leaked database seen by TechCrunch reveals China has developed an AI system that supercharges its already formidable censorship machine, extending far beyond traditional taboos like the Tiananmen Square massacre. The system appears primarily geared toward censoring Chinese citizens online but could be…

Bitcoin’s (BTC) rise following GameStop’s Tuesday bitcoin treasury strategy announcement halted just shy of the $89,000 level and things are now headed decidedly lower during U.S. trading hours Wednesday. Just after the noon hour on the east coast, bitcoin has pulled back about 3% from overnight highs to $86,500. The broad-market crypto benchmark CoinDesk 20 Index was 1.9% lower through the past 24 hours, with ether (ETH), solana (SOL) and AAVE declining around 3%-4% during the same period. The price action happened with U.S. risk assets showing weakness. The S&P500 and Nasdaq indexes were down 0.8% and 1.6%, respectively, erasing…

Elon Musk’s rocket company SpaceX has allowed Chinese investors to buy stakes as long as the funds are routed through the Cayman Islands or other offshore hubs, according to reporting from ProPublica.  SpaceX is a defense contractor for the Pentagon, one that handles sensitive work like building a classified spy satellite network. Investment from China raises national security concerns, as it could grant a foreign adversary access to sensitive military technology, intelligence, or supply chains.  The insight into SpaceX’s investment approach surfaces new questions around Musk’s own ties with China, particularly amid reports that the Pentagon briefed Musk on a…

Strategy, formerly called MicroStrategy, could increase its Bitcoin holdings to surpass 1 million Bitcoin and hold about 5% of Bitcoin’s total supply, according to analysts at Bernstein. The research note, led by Gautam Chhugani, predicts a bull case updated its prediction based on Strategy’s Q4 financial results and recent Bitcoin purchases. Bernstein has an “outperform” rating on the stock and a $600 price target, implying 75% upside. Based on long-term price scenarios and debt structure, a 55% premium is assigned to the Bitcoin treasury. MicroStrategy’s stock MSTR is trading at $335.26, down by 2.09% since the last day. Bernstein believes…

Vin Gupta, Chief Medical Officer at Amazon Pharmacy, speaks during Amazon’s “Delivering the Future” event at the company’s BFI1 Fulfillment Center, Robotics Research and Development Hub in Sumner, Washington on October 18, 2023. Jason Redmond | Afp | Getty ImagesAmazon has lost the chief medical officer of its pharmacy division after five years at the company.Dr. Vin Gupta, who most recently served as the medical chief of Amazon Pharmacy, joined Amazon in 2020 as the company was in the early stages of a multi-year effort to build out a health-care business.Gupta has joined Manatt, Phelps & Phillips, LLP, a professional services firm,…