π China's Tech Dominance, Apple & Google Probed, DeepSeek AI
Good morning. Itβs Thursday, January 23. Today we are covering:
China's overlapping tech-industrial ecosystems
UK opens investigations into Apple and Google's mobile ecosystems
How Chinese A.I. Start-Up DeepSeek Is Competing With OpenAI and Google
Subaru Security Flaws Exposed Its System for Tracking Millions of Cars
TikTok Deal Could Stop Short of Full US Sale, Shareholder Says
Letβs dive in
China's overlapping tech-industrial ecosystems
By Kyle Chan via High Capacity
China's overlapping tech-industrial ecosystems drive compounding growth, leveraging strengths in supply, demand, technology, and scale across industries like smartphones, batteries, and EVs.
The electric vehicle (EV) sector thrives by integrating advancements in lithium batteries, industrial automation, and consumer electronics, highlighting China's strategy of industrial coevolution.
Tech-industrial convergence blurs lines between industries, with companies like Xiaomi, DJI, and Huawei expanding into adjacent fields, creating versatile, multi-domain tech leaders.
π: βChina doesnβt just have a smartphone industry or a battery industry or an electric vehicle industry. It has all of these industries and more. Chinaβs strength across multiple overlapping industries creates a compounding effect.β - Jonathan Cheng (@JChengWSJ)
UK opens investigations into Apple and Google's mobile ecosystems
By Ryan Browne via CNBC
The U.K. Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has launched dual probes into Apple and Google to assess their "strategic market status" under the new Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act (DMCC), targeting operating systems, app stores, and browsers.
The investigations aim to explore potential anti-competitive practices, including leveraging market power and stifling competition, with the CMA emphasizing the need for more competitive mobile ecosystems to drive innovation and growth.
Both companies defended their ecosystems, with Apple highlighting the economic impact of its iOS app economy, while Google emphasized Android's role in promoting choice and affordability through its open-source platform.
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How Chinese A.I. Start-Up DeepSeek Is Competing With OpenAI and Google
By Cade Metz via The New York Times
DeepSeek, a Chinese A.I. start-up, unveiled DeepSeek-V3, a system matching top-tier chatbots like OpenAI and Googleβs, using only 2,000 specialized chips and $6 million in computing powerβ10 times less than competitors like Meta.
U.S. chip restrictions pushed DeepSeek to innovate with efficient training methods, highlighting China's resourcefulness and sparking debate on the unintended consequences of trade controls.
DeepSeek's open-source approach positions China as a potential leader in A.I. research, fueling global collaboration and intensifying competition with U.S. tech giants.
π: "The DeepSeek model raises questions about the unintended consequences of the American governmentβs trade restrictions. The controls have forced researchers in China to get creative with a wide range of tools that are freely available on the internet." - Jeff (Gutenberg Parenthesis) Jarvis (@jeffjarvis)
Subaru Security Flaws Exposed Its System for Tracking Millions of Cars
By Andy Greenberg via WIRED
Security researchers Sam Curry and Shubham Shah uncovered vulnerabilities in Subaru's Starlink system, allowing unauthorized access to remotely control vehicles, track precise locations, and view up to a year's worth of location history.
While Subaru patched the flaws, the researchers highlighted broader privacy concerns, as Subaru employees retain access to detailed location data, raising alarms about the car industry's lack of safeguards for user privacy.
This discovery is part of a pattern of systemic security flaws across automakers, with similar vulnerabilities affecting brands like Honda, Toyota, and Kia, exposing millions of drivers to tracking and hacking risks.
π: Security flaws in a Subaru web portal let hackers unlock, start ignition or access a year of detailed location history for millions of cars.The flaws are now patched. But they revealed powerful tracking abilities that Subaru employees can still access. - Andy Greenberg (@agreenberg at the other places) (@a_greenberg)
TikTok Deal Could Stop Short of Full US Sale, Shareholder Says
By Jack Sidders via Bloomberg
ByteDance is exploring options to keep TikTok operating in the U.S. without a full sale, potentially involving a local change of control to comply with U.S. legislation, according to board member Bill Ford.
General Atlantic, a private equity firm and ByteDance stakeholder, is working with TikTok to navigate U.S. regulatory demands under scrutiny from the Trump administration.
The move reflects ByteDance's efforts to maintain TikTok's presence in the U.S. market while addressing national security and compliance concerns.
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