Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella is far less vocal about his worldviews than Palantir’s Alex Karp. And yet, France is taking steps to reduce its reliance on Windows, while its domestic intelligence agency recently renewed its contract with the increasingly controversial data analytics company. This paradox is representative of Europe’s messy breakup with U.S. tech. After…
China’s top economic planner, the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), said on Monday it has blocked Meta’s $2 billion acquisition of Manus, an agentic AI startup founded by Chinese engineers that relocated to Singapore before Mark Zuckerberg scooped it up late last year. The move marks one of China’s most significant interventions in a…
After expanding into podcasts, audiobooks, video, and even physical books, Spotify on Monday announced its next big category: fitness content. The company is building on its reputation as a hub for energizing playlists for your workout to actually become the home to your workout itself. To do so, Spotify has partnered with a number of…
Alison DeNisco Rayome/ZDNET As a parent, I’m always looking for ways to keep my young kids entertained and expelling energy. The Nex Playground is a tiny gaming device that does both exceedingly well, using your body motion to play the games and effectively turning your living room into an arcade — with no controllers required. …
The race to secure electricity for AI models has reached new heights: Meta has signed an agreement with the startup Overview Energy that could see a thousand satellites beam infrared light to solar farms that power data centers at night. In 2024, Meta’s data centers used more than 18,000 gigawatt-hours of electricity—roughly enough to power…
Truecaller is one of the world’s most widely used caller identification platforms, with more than 500 million users. Now it’s entering a more challenging phase as growth slows in its largest market and competition intensifies across telecom networks and smartphone platforms. Much of Truecaller’s growth has been driven by India, which accounts for over 350…
Denis Medvedev via iStock / Getty Images Plus Follow ZDNET: Add us as a preferred source on Google. ZDNET’s key takeaways There’s a big mismatch between demand and rewards in cyber. Working pressure is only likely to increase due to the use of AI. Security staff should focus on strategy and communication skills. Almost 20%…
Theo Baker is graduating from Stanford this spring with something most seniors don’t have: a book deal, a George Polk Award that he received for his investigative reporting as a student journalist, and a front-row account of one of the most romanticized institutions in the world. His forthcoming How to Rule the World: An Education…
Amazon’s podcasting business has transformed over the past six months, according to The New York Times. Back in August 2025, the company reportedly eliminated more than 100 jobs from its podcast studio Wondery. At the time, Amazon insisted it was not shutting Wondery down, and that appears to be technically true — it still uses…
After 15 years as Apple’s CEO, Tim Cook will be stepping down from the role in September. On the latest episode of TechCrunch’s Equity podcast, Kirsten Korosec, Sean O’Kane, and I discussed Apple’s big announcement. We reflected on how Apple has changed since Cook took over from Steve Jobs in 2011, and what challenges incoming…