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Here’s what you need to know
Chipmaking giant TSMC expects to pocket even more AI profits. The world’s most important semiconductor foundry predicted that its second-quarter sales could rise by up to 30%.
The World Health Organization is rebranding COVID and other respiratory illnesses. The virus, along with influenza, measles, Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS), and tuberculosis, will now be called “pathogens that transmit through the air.” Separately, the WHO now has an AI bot.
Tesla stock hit its lowest point in a year yesterday. Shares sunk on Deutsche Bank’s buy to hold downgrade, a change that made Mark Zuckerberg richer than Elon Musk. Meanwhile, Musk apologized for ‘incorrectly low’ severance packages after mass layoffs.
JPMorgan had some harsh words for Bitcoin investors ahead of its “halving” event. The bank predicted the value of the world’s largest cryptocurrency will decline due to overbought market conditions.
Walmart-backed digital rewards company Ibotta went public yesterday. Its shares closed at $103, up 17%. We spoke to its CEO about riding the tech IPO wave.
Amazon’s “Project Curiosity,” by the digits
The Wall Street Journal broke yesterday that Amazon allegedly started a fake business called Big River Services International to spy on rivals such as Walmart, eBay, and FedEx.
The operation, “Project Curiosity,” reportedly started in 2015 as a way to compare the experiences of third-party sellers on Amazon to those of e-commerce rivals. Amazon told Quartz the allegations were false and that it uses the project (now called Small Business Insights) to better understand how third parties experience its own platform more so than rivals.
Here’s what to know about Big River, by the digits:
$125,000: Revenue Big River made from selling items on Walmart.com in 2023
5: Number of countries where Big River had warehouses
75%: How much of Big River is owned by Amazon, according to a corporate filing in the United Kingdom
$463,000: Expected costs of operating Big River in India in 2019, while revenues were projected to be $165,000
Cocoa prices are the highest they’ve ever been
Things are not so sweet in candy commodity markets. Futures prices for cocoa were up almost 6% in Thursday trading to nearly $10,700 per metric ton. Futures are having a better year than Bitcoin, up more than 150% this year.
A couple factors are at play here. Quartz’s Melvin Backman explains.
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Surprising discoveries
A jar of oysters, a ceramic cat, and a frontal hair toupee all have something in common. They’re among items that Uber riders have left behind.
Humans sheltered for thousands of years in a lava tube. Umm Jirsan is a nearly mile-long cave that is north of Medina in Saudi Arabia.
Motorola’s plan to sell smartphones overseas includes wood and fake leather. The finishes aren’t the only thing the smartphone maker is betting on.
An 11-year-old found the fossil of a gigantic ocean reptile. The dinosaur-era Ichthyotitan severnensis is believed to have been about 82 feet (25 meters) long, about the size of a blue whale.
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Our best wishes for a productive day. Send any news, comments, jars of oysters, and wooden phones to talk@qz.com. Today’s Daily Brief was brought to you by Morgan Haefner.