Meta Platforms will lay off an additional 10,000 employees, or 12% of its full-time workforce, over the coming months as part of a broad restructuring, according to CEO Mark Zuckerberg. The first round of job cuts will be announced this week and affect Meta's recruiting organization. More: - The second and third waves of job cuts will take place in April and late May, affecting tech and business roles, respectively.
- “In a small number of cases, it may take through the end of the year to complete these changes," Zuckerberg explained in a letter to employees posted online today.
- In addition, Meta is closing 5,000 additional open roles it hasn't filled yet.
- Over the next couple of months, leaders will unveil restructuring plans to flatten their organizations, he wrote.
- Meta will also reduce hiring rates and cancel low-priority projects.
- Zuckerberg added that Meta may need to prepare for “the possibility that this new economic reality will continue for many years.”
Zoom out: - The layoffs come after Meta cut over 11,000 workers in November, which was about 13% of its workforce at the time.
- In Meta's Q4 earnings call last month, Zuckerberg described 2023 as the “year of efficiency," in which Meta will focus on "becoming a stronger and more nimble organization.”
- Meta, Google, Amazon, and other tech companies eliminated over 95,000 positions in 2022 and about 120,000 in the first two months of 2023.
THE NEW YORK TIMES 
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Microsoft has signed a 10-year agreement to bring its Xbox PC games to the cloud gaming service Boosteroid. The deal will also ensure that "Call of Duty" and other Activision Blizzard titles come to Boosteroid, should Microsoft's acquisition of the video game publisher go through. More: - Microsoft is facing regulatory scrutiny over its plans to purchase Call of Duty publisher Activision Blizzard for $68.7B.
- In an effort to address concerns about competition, the company has announced licensing and distribution deals with Nvidia, Nintendo, and Steam owner Valve.
- The latest to sign a deal is Ukraine-based Boosteroid, the world's largest independent cloud-streaming company, with about 4 million users.
- If Microsoft’s takeover is cleared, Boosteroid customers will be able to stream Call of Duty and other Activision titles.
- Microsoft has offered a similar 10-year license to Playstation maker Sony, which has so far declined.
- Sony is worried that Microsoft could raise the price of or restrict Call of Duty for Playstation, among other concerns.
Zoom Out: - Microsoft's takeover is undergoing probes in the EU, the U.S., and the U.K.
- The European Commission and the U.K.'s regulator have set deadlines of late April to decide if they will approve the acquisition.
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
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 Amazon revealed new satellite antennas that will connect customers to its future Project Kuiper internet network in space. Amazon plans to launch the first two prototype satellites later this year aboard United Launch Alliance's new Vulcan Centaur rocket. More: - Amazon plans to kick off mass production of the satellites in late 2023. It plans to launch production versions into space in the first half of 2024.
- Once in orbit, the satellites will beam down internet service to the first commercial customers. The customer ground terminals, revealed today, will communicate with the satellites.
- The terminals include a "standard" design that can deliver speeds of up to 400 megabits per second (Mbps), along with an ultra-compact terminal and the largest "pro" model for non-residential customers.
- Each will cost less than $400 to produce. Amazon said all the terminals will be powered by its own baseband chip, codenamed “Prometheus."
Zoom Out: - Amazon is investing over $10B to grow the Kuiper network to 3,236 satellites in low Earth orbit over the next few years.
SPACE NEWS
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Volkswagen AG said it plans to invest nearly $200B through 2027 to help electrify and digitize its fleet, among other projects. The 5-year investment budget includes $131B to develop electric vehicles and digital technologies. Up to $16B will go toward raw material sourcing and battery production. More: - The German automaker said it's focused on expanding in China and the U.S., where it has so far failed to gain the market share it has in Europe.
- The company plans to double down on its strategy for electric vehicles, which now make up 16% of its order book.
- The new investment plan comes as Volkswagen announced plans for its first North American battery cell factory, which will be located in St. Thomas, Ontario, Canada.
- It's also planning a factory in South Carolina to produce electric pickup trucks and SUVs as part of its Scout brand.
- Volkswagen wants to launch a more affordable EV at a price point under $30,000 by 2025.
CNBC
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Event software provider Cvent Holding Corp. will go private again as part of a $4.6B acquisition deal from buyout firm Blackstone. Cvent was valued at $5.3B in 2021, when it went public via a merger with a blank-check acquisition company. More: - Virginia-based Cvent, which provides cloud-based software for live and virtual event management, was last purchased by Vista Equity Partners for $1.65B in 2016.
- Vista will now sell its remaining shares of Cvent to an affiliate of Blackstone-managed private equity funds.
- An Abu Dhabi Investment Authority subsidiary is also involved as a significant minority investor.
- Under the deal, Cvent shareholders will receive $8.50 a share in cash.
- The deal, expected to close in mid-2023, will see Cvent become a privately listed company again.
Zoom Out: - As valuations of tech companies plunge, private equity firms are seeking to take advantage.
- PE firms spent close to $300B on these deals in H1 2022, up nearly 40% from the same period in 2021.
- On Monday, it was reported that software company Qualtrics agreed to be acquired by private equity firm Silver Lake and Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPP Investments), Canada’s largest pension fund, valuing Qualtrics at $12.5B.
BLOOMBERG
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 "A Girl With Glowing Earrings" The Netherlands' Mauritshuis museum is facing criticism for featuring an AI-created portrait inspired by Johannes Vermeer's "Girl with a Pearl Earring." Berlin-based digital artist Julian van Dieken said he used the Midjourney AI tool and Photoshop to create his work, "A Girl With Glowing Earrings." More: - Van Dieken's work was one of five artworks chosen as part of a museum contest that saw nearly 3,500 submissions.
- The contest called on artists to reimage Vermeer's famous 1665 painting while the original is on loan at Amsterdam's Rijksmuseum, the national museum of the Netherlands.
- Van Dieken said he was transparent about his use of AI in the submissions, reflecting on how AI tools may alter creative processes.
- However, his AI-generated work has drawn criticism from some in the art world. Dutch artist Iris Compiet called the selection "an insult to the legacy of Vermeer and also to any working artist. Coming from a museum, it's a real slap in the face."
- A Mauritshuis spokesperson said it is "not the museum to discuss if AI belongs in an art museum."
THE ART NEWSPAPER
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- Microsoft-backed AI research company announced GPT-4, the latest version of its GPT series of AI models. Unlike its predecessors, GPT-4 expands beyond accepting written prompts from users to also accepting images, though the latter capability is in research preview and not available to the public.
- Apple's AR/VR headset launch is reportedly being pushed out due to "huge pressure to ship."
- Nvidia GTC online event will feature more than 650 sessions, including 70 covering generative AI. The conference runs from March 20 to 23.
- Ghost kitchen operator NextGen Food Robotics Corp. is now working on an AI-powered mobile app that features a chatbot for online food ordering.
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 |  | Beth is a writer and editor at Inside.com covering artificial intelligence and daily technology news. She has written the Inside AI newsletter since 2019. You can reach her at Beth.Duckett@inside.com. |   | | Editor | Eduardo Garcia is a writer and editor based in New York. He is the author of "Things You Can Do," an illustrated book about climate action. Bylines in The New York Times, The Guardian, Slate, Scientific American, and others. In one of his previous lives, Eduardo worked as a Reuters correspondent in Latin America for nearly a decade. | |
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