Hi there, this is your daily ☕️ Techpresso.

In today's Techpresso:

👀 Musk asked Zuckerberg to join $97B OpenAI takeover

🛑 Nvidia halts production of H20 AI chips for China

⚖️ Musk and X to settle $500 million lawsuit over Twitter firings

💥 Y Combinator backs Epic in appeal against Apple

🔄 Bank rehires workers replaced by AI after "lying" about chatbot success

🏛️ Google launches Gemini for government at 47 cents

☁️ Meta clinches mega $10 billion cloud deal with Google

🎁 + 15 other news you might like

🔮 + 5 handpicked research papers and tools

FROM OUR PARTNER

• Elon Musk asked Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg for help financing an unsolicited $97.4 billion offer to purchase OpenAI, according to a court filing from the AI company.
• The document reveals neither the chief executive nor his firm signed a letter of intent, ultimately declining to join the bid to purchase the ChatGPT maker.
• OpenAI now argues this secret request to a main rival weakens Musk's legal claims that its Microsoft partnership violated the organization's original charitable mission.

• Nvidia directed suppliers Amkor Technology and Samsung Electronics to pause manufacturing of its H20 chips for China, following a government order for local tech companies to halt purchases.
• This directive comes as China's Cyberspace Administration reviews the H20 chips for security risks, specifically concerns that they might contain "backdoors" or tracking technology for remote operation.
• The move casts doubt on the chip's future in China, even after Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang worked to secure US export licenses and assured Beijing the hardware has no "backdoors."

• Elon Musk's X is tentatively settling a class action lawsuit from former Twitter staff who claim they did not receive the complete severance pay promised after the 2022 layoffs.
• The lawsuit argues Musk's three-month severance offer was lower than a 2019 plan that guaranteed senior employees up to six months' base pay, plus one week per year of service.
• After a U.S. District Judge first ruled against the workers, the plaintiffs appealed, leading both parties to negotiate a deal ahead of a court of appeals hearing next month.

• Y Combinator filed an amicus brief stating Apple's 27% fee on external transactions was a penalty meant to inhibit competition, which the court's recent Enforcement Order correctly identified and stopped.
• The startup accelerator claims the Link Entitlement Program's commission would have deterred investors from backing new app-based companies, resulting in fewer American businesses being created in the future.
• The filing disputes the value of the App Store Small Business Program, arguing startups seek exponential growth, making the temporary 15% fee a rounding error for their long-term business models.

• The Commonwealth Bank of Australia fired 45 workers, claiming its new AI chatbot had reduced call volumes by 2,000 a week, a statement employees called "an outright lie."
• In reality, call volumes were increasing at the time, forcing the bank to offer staff overtime and even have management help answer the phones just to keep up with demand.
• After being brought to a fair work tribunal, the bank admitted the roles were not redundant, apologized, and offered to rehire the workers or provide them with exit payments.

• The General Services Administration announced that federal agencies can now access Google's suite of artificial intelligence services, called Gemini for Government, for only 47 cents each through 2026.
• The GSA previously added Google's Gemini, OpenAI's ChatGPT, and Anthropic's Claude to its purchasing system, following moves by competitors to offer their AI products to the government for $1.
• Building on a past discount for its Workspace tools, Google's new offer gives federal employees access to tools like NotebookLM and Veo, which are powered by its latest models.

• Meta has agreed to a six-year deal to spend at least $10 billion on Google Cloud services, marking the first major cloud partnership between the two technology industry giants.
• The company plans to use Google Cloud servers and storage to support its AI infrastructure, despite also investing heavily in building out its own collection of over 20 data centers.
• This agreement adds Google to Meta's existing multicloud strategy for external capacity, as the social networking giant already works with cloud competitors like AWS and Microsoft Azure for services.

Other news & articles you might like

• FTC Chair warns tech firms not to weaken data privacy to comply with EU, UK laws LINK

• Tesla faces U.S. auto safety probe over faulty crash reporting LINK

• OpenAI announces New Delhi office as it expands footprint in India LINK

• Meta poaches yet another AI researcher from Apple, the sixth in seven weeks LINK

• Apple TV+ price jumps 30% to $12.99 monthly LINK

• Report: Anthropic eyes $10bn raise after strong investor interest LINK

• Russia orders state-backed Max messenger app to be pre-installed on new phones LINK

• One of China's Largest Tech Companies Just Copied Apple's Biggest Flop LINK

• DeepSeek hints latest model will be supported by China's 'next generation' homegrown AI chips LINK

• Digital euro may launch on Ethereum or Solana as Brussels scrambles for sovereignty LINK

• Tesla may tap DeepSeek and Doubao for in-car AI assistant LINK

• Trump to appoint Airbnb co-founder Gebbia to remake government websites LINK

• Google: Pixel Will Never Be a Major Player in the Smartphone Market LINK

• Dev gets 4 years for creating kill switch on ex-employer's systems LINK

• Nonprofit search engine Ecosia offers $0 for control of Chrome LINK

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