Top stories today:

1. TikTok ban bill sees unanimous 50-0 House committee vote
2. Inflection 2.5 launches, underperforms GPT-4 in testing scores
3. Huawei 7nm chip breakthrough in 2023 relied on U.S. technology
4. Rivian announces R2/R3 electric SUVs, $45K+, coming 2026+
5. Instagram surpasses TikTok in worldwide downloads

0. Data and calendar

1. TikTok ban bill sees unanimous 50-0 House committee vote

The vote follows a lobbying effort by TikTok, which included sending prompts to users urging them to contact their member of Congress:

• The House Energy & Commerce Committee voted 50-0 to pass legislation to force ByteDance to divest TikTok within 165 days or face a U.S. ban.

• Some lawmakers said they had to turn their phones off, due to an extremely high number of calls.

2. Inflection 2.5 launches, underperforms GPT-4 in testing scores

• 1M DAUs, 6M MAUs.

• In contrast, Anthropic’s Claude 3 and Google’s Gemini have caught up to OpenAI’s GPT-4.

Our view: GPT-5 is the most likely candidate to significantly improve upon GPT-4

• Llama 3 is also a possibility, although most likely they will just become the top open-source LLM.

• Significant improvements upon the Transformers architecture are likely necessary to achieve anything close to an actual AGI.

4. Huawei 7nm chip breakthrough in 2023 relied on U.S. technology

• The chip relied on U.S. tech from Lam Research and Applied Materials.

• SMIC got this equipment before a U.S. ban in October 2022.

• China appears to not have an alternative to ASML’s ultraviolet lithography systems.

5. Rivian announces R2/R3 lineup of electric SUVs, $45K+, coming 2026+

Read more: The Verge.

6. Instagram surpasses TikTok in worldwide downloads

This makes it more unlikely to see TikTok flipping Instagram as the world’s most-used video-based social network

7. X launches Articles, allowing for long-form text-based content

• 100K character limit, vs. 25K for “longer posts” feature.

• Our view: after coming for videos, X now wants text-based creators to start posting directly on the platform. Tweets with links already have limited reach, and we expect that trend to continue.

8. DocuSign’s revenue +8% to $712M in Q4 FY24, as 87% of revenue comes from larger, direct sales

• 4% net income margin ($27M).

• Stock +10% in the pre-market.

9. Interesting videos, posts, and memes

10. Other headlines

AI

• OpenAI probe likely to link CTO Mira Murati to Altman’s firing.

• Pixel 8 won’t get Gemini Nano due to “hardware limitations.”

• Microsoft announces “New Era of Work” event on Mar. 21.

• TSMC’s revenue +9% to $12.6B in Jan.-Feb.

Tech

• VisionOS 1.1 launches with improved personas.

• Reddit IPO expected for late March, pricing on 20th.

• Broadcom's revenue +34% to $11.96B, stock -3% on lower guidance.

• Amazon to stop underwriting loans for sellers in $140B Marketplace business.

• LinkedIn premium subs did $1.7B in revenue in 2023.

• Discord likely to go public, revenue at $600M.

• citizenM has 14 tech-ready hotels stateside for the best night's sleep of your life.*

• BetterHelp: professional online therapy to help you win at work.*

• HubSpot: download the 2024 Sales Trends Report, for free.*

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Tech & law

• China raising $27B for new, largest chip fund to counter U.S.

• Chinese cranes in U.S. ports found to contain potential espionage modems.

• Apple to make it easier to switch to Android due to EU’s DMA.

• Adult content companies sue EU over obligation under DSA.

Biotech

• Kids’ ER visits linked to melatonin +5.2x from 2009-2020.

• Biogen’s Alzheimer’s pipeline includes tau, anti-inflammation, orals.

• Sitting, mortality link still under debate.

Business

• Powell: “not far” from being appropriate to cut rates.

• Disney sells out ad inventory for Oscars, ~$2M/30sec.

• Boeing pay to be more tied to safety.

Crypto

• CBDC “nowhere near” being pursued: Powell.

• Do Kwon to be extradited to Korea, not U.S., as court reverses decision.

• Uniswap: making it easier to buy, sell and trade tokens on Ethereum.*

• tea Protocol: click to subscribe to tea's newsletter and learn more about how to get rewards for your open-source contributions.*

*Sponsored.

U.S. politics

• Biden’s SOTU address: attacks on “predecessor,” higher taxes on rich.

• House passes bill requiring detention of migrants who commit theft.

• Sinema joins Haley, Manchin in ruling out 3rd-party run.

• No Labels expected to launch independent bipartisan ticket soon.

• Trump’s request to delay $83M payment to Carroll denied.

• George Santos to run for another NY House seat.

World

• Gaza port to be built by U.S. military in weeks.

• EU, U.S. to launch maritime corridor to deliver aid to Gaza.

• U.S. Embassy in Russia warns of terrorist attacks in next 48 hours.

• Evan Gershkovich and family: TIME profile.

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