Christmas Shopping By Numbers

Just a decade ago, the world’s biggest tech beast was a relative minnow. Microsoft had become notorious for disappointing product launches, stagnant innovation, and losing top talent. The first true software giant was becoming a big tech dinosaur. Fast forward to 2024 and Microsoft is the planet’s most valuable business. Under the leadership of CEO Satya Nadella, stock has soared by over 1,000% in 10 years.

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) has indicated it will increase the cost of chips made outside of Taiwan as the company reacts to pressures on its profitability. The world’s largest maker of advanced chips for customers like Apple Inc. and Nvidia Corp., has sounded its price warning as government and big tech firms are cognizant of the geopolitical risks of having more than 90% of the world’s chips made in the country.

Apple has, on orders from China’s government, removed the social networking apps WhatsApp and Threads from the App Store serving that country. Both applications are owned and administered by Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram. The two applications had already been blocked by Chinese authorities, but still they saw heavy use, mainly from those who accessed them with a virtual private network that masked their internet protocol address and allowed users to sign in as if they were in another country. “We are obligated to follow the laws in the countries where we operate, even when we disagree” Apple said in a statement to CNN.

TikTok is still on the brink of being banned in the United States after House Republicans included the proposed legislation in a package of bills which would secure foreign aid for Israel and Ukraine. The threat from US lawmakers to ban the Chinese-owned video-sharing app unless owners ByteDance divest majority control of the company, elsewhere. Back in March, the TikTok legislation passed the House and it has significant support in both chambers, whilst President Biden has indicated he will approve it if the bill lands on his desk.

Gamblers in North Carolina staked a total bet value of $659.3 million (£528.7m) during the first month of legal sports betting in the state. As of 11 March, the regulated sports betting market was opened in the Tar Heel State with the disclosed figures from the North Carolina State Lottery Commission covering the period up to the end of the month. Promotional wagers from sportsbook operators are said to have accounted for $202.6m of the overall total revenue figure, with gamblers earning back around $590.8m in wins.

Meta is making a significant stride in the AI space this week, expanding the reach of its AI assistant across all of Metaverse’s social media platforms, including Instagram, Facebook, Messenger, and WhatsApp. The company’s site heralded the announcement alongside the development of the flagship artificial intelligence model Meta Llama 3. Meta’s new AI assistant At the heart of the Meta AI assistant is the powerful Meta Llama 3, a large language model (LLM).