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Recent Articles about Tencent

Poolside co-founder Jason Warner. Photo via Getty.

OpenAI’s GPT-4.5 Underwhelms; Is Poolside Worth $5 Billion?

By Stephanie Palazzolo, Aaron Holmes and Sri Muppidi · Mar 3, 2025 7:00am PST · 1 comment

I enjoyed meeting many of you at AI Agenda Live in San Francisco last week! Thank you for coming. Next up is our April 28 event in New York on how the AI boom is being financed. Right on cue, my colleagues just published articles about the tens of billions of dollars that SoftBank and CoreWeave are hoping to borrow to develop artificial... I enjoyed meeting many of you at AI Agenda Live in San Francisco last week! Thank you for coming....

Art by Clark Miller

How Runway Hopes to Outrun OpenAI, Google in the AI Video Race

By Gary Rivlin · Feb 28, 2025 6:00am PST · 2 comments

There are two basic ways for startup founders to respond when much larger competitors encroach on their realm. They can soldier on with heads down and voices low, in silent determination. Or they can do as the founders of Runway did when the likes of Google and OpenAI entered the AI video field Runway helped pioneer: They can respond with... There are two basic ways for startup founders to respond when much larger competitors encroach on...

DeepSeek founder Liang Wenfeng. Photo via Getty.

DeepSeek Weighs Raising Outside Money For First Time

By Juro Osawa and Qianer Liu · Feb 19, 2025 6:00am PST · 2 comments

DeepSeek’s sudden rise to artificial intelligence stardom has created a dilemma for the Chinese startup: whether to raise money. A two-year-old offshoot of a Chinese quantitative hedge fund, DeepSeek so far has not raised outside funding, partly to avoid pressure from investors to commercialize its products too quickly. But since its AI chatbot... DeepSeek’s sudden rise to artificial intelligence stardom has created a dilemma for the Chinese...

Art by Mike Sullivan.

Apple Partners With Alibaba to Develop AI Features for iPhone Users in China

By Qianer Liu and Jing Yang · Feb 11, 2025 6:00am PST · 1 comment

Art by Mike Sullivan.

Apple Partners With Alibaba to Develop AI Features for iPhone Users in China

By Qianer Liu and Jing Yang · Feb 11, 2025 6:00am PST · 1 comment

Apple has recently started working with Chinese internet and e-commerce giant Alibaba Group to roll out artificial intelligence features in China, according to one person with direct knowledge of the decision. The move is part of Apple’s strategy to offer more compelling software features to counter declining sales in the country, where it faces... Apple has recently started working with Chinese internet and e-commerce giant Alibaba Group to...

Art by Clark Miller

Why Debanking Fears Could Benefit Trump

By Abram Brown · Feb 1, 2025 7:01am PST

Welcome, Weekenders! In this newsletter:• The Big Read: As Microsoft and Google move in, a battle over hallowed ground erupts• The Arena: The NFL and Netflix likely share a supersize dream• Artificial Intelligence: our new Glossary of AI Jargon • Plus, our Recommendations: Trackers of Gilded Age glam; requiem for the rock stars;... Welcome, Weekenders! In this newsletter:• The Big Read: As Microsoft and Google move in, a ...

Art by Mike Sullivan

DeepSeek’s Success Contrasts With China AI Startups’ Struggles

By Juro Osawa · Jan 31, 2025 6:00am PST · 4 comments

DeepSeek has shaken up Silicon Valley and Wall Street with its stunning advances in artificial intelligence. But its technological success doesn’t mean China’s AI industry has figured out how to make money. The rise of DeepSeek contrasts with the struggles of other Chinese competitors, especially the best-known AI unicorns dubbed the... DeepSeek has shaken up Silicon Valley and Wall Street with its stunning advances in artificial...

Photo via Getty

What Stargate Means and What It Doesn’t

By Amir Efrati and Anissa Gardizy · Jan 22, 2025 7:00am PST

Ten months ago, we broke the story that OpenAI and Microsoft were discussing “Stargate,” an unprecedented $100 billion data center supercomputer to take artificial intelligence to new heights. On Tuesday, Stargate finally became official—but largely without Microsoft.At the White House on Tuesday, the leaders of OpenAI, Oracle and SoftBank said... Ten months ago, we broke the story that OpenAI and Microsoft were discussing “Stargate,” an...

ByteDance’s Singapore office. Photo by Claudio Schwarz.

ByteDance Is a Steal Even Without TikTok

By Juro Osawa and Jing Yang · Jan 21, 2025 6:00am PST · 5 comments

ByteDance’s Singapore office. Photo by Claudio Schwarz.

ByteDance Is a Steal Even Without TikTok

By Juro Osawa and Jing Yang · Jan 21, 2025 6:00am PST · 5 comments

TikTok might have restarted operations in the U.S., but investors in the app’s parent company, ByteDance, remain in the dark about its future. For those debating buying into ByteDance shares, however, it doesn’t matter. Whatever happens, ByteDance stock is severely undervalued. Even if TikTok were to disappear entirely from the U.S.,... TikTok might have restarted operations in the U.S., but investors in the app’s parent...

Photo via Getty

TikTok Users’ Move to Chinese App RedNote Alarms Beijing’s Censors

By Qianer Liu and Juro Osawa · Jan 16, 2025 5:51am PST · 4 comments

A pending ban of TikTok in the U.S. is prompting a flood of TikTok users to try out Chinese social media app RedNote. Chinese regulators aren’t happy. The Cyberspace Administration of China, the country’s Internet watchdog, is concerned that English-language content showing up on RedNote may contain politically sensitive posts that... A pending ban of TikTok in the U.S. is prompting a flood of TikTok users to try out Chinese...

Photos of Zhang Yiming by Getty. Art by Mike Sullivan

TikTok’s Fate Rests With ByteDance’s Elusive Founder

By Juro Osawa, Jing Yang and Qianer Liu · Jan 9, 2025 6:18am PST · 3 comments

The business world is watching to see whether the Supreme Court—or possibly Donald Trump—saves TikTok. But another man may be more important to the app’s fate: Zhang Yiming, the elusive founder of TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance. Zhang holds supervoting shares that give him effective control over ByteDance and its... The business world is watching to see whether the Supreme Court—or possibly Donald...

Screenshot via Meta

Meta’s Seismic Shift

By Martin Peers · Jan 7, 2025 5:00pm PST · 1 comment

The year is just a week old and already things are getting shaken up. Meta Platforms’ announcement on Tuesday that it was eliminating its fact-checking program in favor of an X-like community notes feature is a seismic event for social media. No longer will Meta, owner of Facebook, Instagram and Threads, try to pretend it has a monopoly on... The year is just a week old and already things are getting shaken up. Meta Platforms’ ...

Art by Mike Sullivan via Midjourney

Runway Shows There’s Money to Be Made in AI Video Too; ‘Scaling Laws’ and Reasoning Dominate NeurIPS

By Stephanie Palazzolo · Dec 16, 2024 7:20am PST

Art by Mike Sullivan via Midjourney

Runway Shows There’s Money to Be Made in AI Video Too; ‘Scaling Laws’ and Reasoning Dominate NeurIPS

By Stephanie Palazzolo · Dec 16, 2024 7:20am PST

AI-generated video seems to be having somewhat of a renaissance this month: OpenAI released its long-awaited Sora video model last Monday and startup Pika released an updated version of its video AI on Friday.Still, the question remains as to whether video model developers can make money off such tools, especially given how expensive and finicky... AI-generated video seems to be having somewhat of a renaissance this month: OpenAI released its...