Top stories today:

1. TikTok ban expected to be passed by House this week
2. OpenAI responds to Elon's lawsuit: “there is no Founding Agreement”
3. Telegram reaches 900M MAUs, exploring IPO at $30B+ valuation
4. Oracle's revenue +7% to $13.3B, stock +13%
5. Airbnb is banning indoor security cameras

1. TikTok ban expected to be passed by House this week, as Trump now calls it “tough decision”

• Accelerated voting requires a 2/3 majority to pass.

• Trump ally Elise Stefanik (R-NY) is one of the bill's co-sponsors.

• She's one of the favorites to become Trump's VP.

4. Telegram reaches 900M MAUs, exploring IPO at $30B+ valuation

• IPO likely before Mar. 2026, to trigger conversion into equity of Telegram's convertible bonds.

• $100M's in revenue from ads and premium subscriptions.

• ~$630M in expenses.

• “Hoping to become profitable next year, if not this year.”

• ~50 full-time employees.

• Slight beat: Actual EPS of $1.41 / revenue $13.30B, ahead the expected $1.38 / $13.29B.

6. Airbnb is banning indoor security cameras

• Apr. 30: when it goes into effect.

• Customer privacy is the announced reason for the policy change.

• Outdoor cameras still allowed, now requiring full disclosure.

• “Basically a large language model (LLM), but for robot language,” said co-founder Peter Chen.

• UC Berkeley spinout.

• Currently deployed on industrial robotic arms, not yet on humanoids.

• Target industries: manufacturing, food processing, and more.

9. Other headlines

AI

• Midjourney can now generate consistent characters across AI images.

• Apple testing AI-powered ad product.

• Microsoft Copilot GPT builder available to all Pro subscribers.

• DeepMind, Stanford use sketches as instructions for robots.

• Cohere launches new enterprise models, with no comparison to GPT-4.

• HubSpot: download the guide on how to use AI for better results, for free.*

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Tech

• TikTok working on Instagram-like photo sharing competitor.

• a16z led 100 million investment to save Kickstarter.

• Xiaomi to launch EV on Mar. 28.

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

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Tech & law

• South Korean chipmakers stop selling used equipment to avoid U.S. backlash.

• Meta sues former employee to left to start stealth startup.

Biotech

• Varda hopes to leverage microgravity to create better medicines: look at.

• Ultraprocessed foods now linked to mental health problems.

• Cognition Therapeutics: $11.5 million public offering announced.

• Methadone clinics’ strict rules jeopardize opioid recovery patients.

Business

• Boeing whistleblower who raised issues at 787 factory found dead.

• BYD running into problems regarding overseas expansion.

• Car makers share large amounts of driver data with insurers.

Crypto

• Nigeria continues to detain 2 Binance execs without charge.

• Monad Labs in talks to raise $200M, led by Paradigm.

• Eclipse Labs raises $50M in Series A funding.

• 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.*

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U.S. politics

• Biden's budget: $7.3T for next year, $5.5T in tax increases.

• U.S. steel union urges Biden to probe into Chinese shipbuilding.

• RNC fires 60+ staffers after Lara Trump becomes co-chair.

• Trump's ‘Employee 5’: I unknowingly helped move classified docs.

World

• Haiti's PM resigns as gangs take over capital.

• Andrew Tate detained in Romania, handed UK arrest warrant.

• Europe says they have foiled several terror plots recently.

• 2 Ukraine-based groups claim to have launched incursion into Russia.

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