Good morning. With so many layoffs recently, is the gaming industry—as in pew pew, not ka-ching ka-ching—going through a temporary reset or a secular decline?
Yesterday I caught up with Matt Bromberg, CEO of Unity, the gaming engine that underpins popular titles like Pokémon GO, Hearthstone, and Cuphead, to get his take on the state of play—ahem—in the industry.
Demand for games isn’t declining, he said, just shifting to new distribution channels. A new innovation cycle is underway. And though technology like AI is making it easier than ever to generate good ideas for a gaming experience, execution is still what separates industry n00bs from the pros.
“The ability to realize ideas is what it’s all about,” he told me. “What matters ultimately is the quality of how you deliver it. No different than it’s ever been. Ideas are cheap, though brilliant people are not. Ideas take on meaning through your ability to make them real. AI accelerates it.”
Today’s tech news below. —Andrew Nusca
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Nvidia breaks the $4 trillion ceiling
Nvidia stock rose so high during trading yesterday that it took the company’s market capitalization oh so briefly past $4 trillion.
It’s the first member of the Magnificent 7 tech firms to achieve the feat, making Nvidia the world’s most valuable company.
Interestingly, it’s the first trillion-dollar market cap milestone where Apple wasn’t the company to manage it.
Readers of this newsletter will hardly be surprised at either of those statements.
Nvidia, of course, is far and away the leader in supplying the chips powering the AI revolution. Meanwhile Apple has struggled to find its AI footing, to the point where it has begun to hurt iPhone sales.
What’s remarkable is how fast Nvidia managed to get there. The Silicon Valley chipmaker reached every trillion-dollar market cap milestone in a tick over two years’ time.
Apple and Microsoft, the only two companies to have reached $3 trillion in market value, took up to seven years to climb the trillion-dollar ladder.
It’s not all sunshine and rainbows for Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, though. Geopolitical tensions have made growth in China—its third largest market and 13% of total revenue—difficult and rival chipmakers are keen to erode its lead. —AN
OpenAI is reportedly working on an AI-powered web browser
The convergence of search and AI continues.
OpenAI is reportedly planning to release an AI-powered web browser to take on the world’s most popular one: Google Chrome. Reuters adds that the unnamed browser will launch “in the coming weeks.”
Why would OpenAI do something so…’90s? In a word, data.
OpenAI is hoping to take the consumer success of its chatbot ChatGPT—500 million weekly active users and counting—and expand that into a familiar place for users. (Chrome’s user base? More than three billion.)
Along the way, OpenAI would collect and control more information about users’ intent and start to build products that siphon dollars from Google’s lucrative ad business—something observers have been calling for as the company burns through extraordinary amounts of cash in pursuit of revenue.
OpenAI offers free access to its ChatGPT smarts alongside $20/month “Plus” subscriptions that afford those individuals priority access. It also sells subscriptions for small teams and large enterprises.
It’s worth noting that Alphabet-owned Google has been making similar moves in the opposite direction. In March, the company announced AI Overviews and “AI Mode,” powered by its Gemini AI, in its search products. —AN
Linda Yaccarino exits from X
The CEO of the company formerly known as Twitter is stepping down.
After two years at the helm, Linda Yaccarino announced her resignation on Wednesday in a post on the service now known as X, expressing pride in the company’s turnaround and gratitude to owner Elon Musk for entrusting her with the role.
Yaccarino did not specify a reason for her departure. But her exit comes just a day after X’s Grok AI chatbot was found posting antisemitic material, reigniting scrutiny over the platform’s content moderation policies.
While it is unclear if the incident directly prompted her resignation, Yaccarino had faced sustained pressure from the advertising industry amid ongoing controversies involving Musk and the platform’s handling of hate speech and misinformation.
Major brands including Disney, Apple, and IBM pulled advertising from X in November 2023 as a direct result of X’s proximity to antisemitic content.
Yaccarino joined X in May 2023 after a long tenure running NBCUniversal’s ad business. She was Musk’s first permanent CEO hire after his 2022 acquisition of the platform.
Yaccarino’s resignation adds uncertainty to X’s future as it continues to grapple with advertiser skepticism. —Ashley Lutz
More tech
—Samsung unveils Galaxy Z Fold7. Thinner, lighter, and a long-awaited refresh of its foldable smartphone.
—Manus moves HQ to Singapore. But the Chinese AI startup’s parent will remain on the mainland.
—The price to poach AI talent? Reportedly $200 million, at least for Meta and Apple AI model leader Ruoming Pang.
—Hertz is using scanners to detect rental car damage. Some customers aren’t thrilled with their nitpicking nature.
—Andreessen Horowitz moves to Nevada. Well, its state of incorporation, anyway. The VC firm complained of Delaware’s bias “against technology startup founders.”
—Will Amazon invest more in Anthropic? It’s already put in $8 billion, but competition is fierce.
—YouTube moves against AI slop. New policy guidelines add precision to what can and can’t be monetized.
—Apple races after F1. The success of the movie may lead the company to secure the sport’s U.S. Streaming rights.
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