Meta will reduce the pace of its investments, presumably in areas like the metaverse, amid slowing business growth, according to CEO Mark Zuckerberg. In its Q1 2022 earnings on Wednesday, Meta reported a net income of $7.5B, down 21% year over year. More: - Revenue rose only 7% for the quarter, the slowest revenue growth since Meta went public in 2012.
- The past two quarters were Meta's first consecutive profit declines in more than a decade, attributed in part to more competition in the social networking space and challenges it faces in its transition toward the metaverse.
- Its digital advertising business has also been hurt by the changes to Apple Inc.'s ad-tracking policies, limiting Meta's ability to target ads.
- In Q1, Meta did report per-share earnings of $2.72, higher than the ~$2.56 expected by analysts.
- Across its platforms including Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, Meta's daily active users rose to 2.87 billion, up only slightly from 2.82 billion.
Zoom-out: - On Wednesday, Zuckerberg said Meta will “slow the pace of some of our investments” due to its current growth levels, which may include its spending on software and hardware for the metaverse.
- The company has spent heavily on its Reality Labs division, which makes its VR headsets formerly under the Oculus brand.
- In Q1, Reality Labs generated $695M in revenue but reported a loss of nearly $3B.
- The unit lost $10.2B in 2021, and analysts predict it will take a decade before Meta fully realizes its AR and VR ambitions.
- Zuckerberg said he doesn't expect the company's XR investments to flourish until the 2030s, when the metaverse and XR are "more established as the primary computing platform at that point."
THE VERGE 
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 Astronauts from NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA) successfully docked at the International Space Station on Wednesday aboard a SpaceX Dragon capsule. The Crew-4 astronauts performed post-docking checks before greeting the existing crew of 11 people aboard the ISS, their new home for the next six months. More: - SpaceX launched its seventh human spaceflight and fourth operational crew to orbit on Wednesday morning, using the Falcon 9 rocket.
- The crew, comprised of NASA astronauts Kjell Lindgren, Bob Hines, Jessica Watkins, and ESA astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti, docked at the ISS 16 hours later, while the spacecraft was 261 miles above the Pacific Ocean.
- The astronauts will conduct more than 200 science experiments involving materials, health technologies, and plant science to prep for "human exploration beyond low-Earth orbit," NASA said.
- They will also attempt at least two spacewalks.
NASA BLOGS
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Samsung reported record revenue of $61.4B in the last quarter, driven by strong sales of its memory chips and flagship smartphones. It marked the third consecutive quarter of record profits for the South Korean company, which is the world's largest maker of smartphones and TVs. More: - In Q1, Samsung posted an operating profit of $11.2B, a 51% increase YoY.
- Sales of its memory chips reached $15.8B, up 40% from the year-ago period.
- Its mobile division profited from strong sales of its new flagship Galaxy S smartphones, a competitor to Apple's iPhone 13.
- Forecasts predict Samsung will sell ~30 million of the Galaxy S22 devices this year.
- The company also plans to launch a new foldable phone model in the second half of the year.
- Samsung intends to make foldable smartphones a “main column" next to its Galaxy S series.
- The company still warned about potential heightened impacts on its operations from the Ukraine war, growing inflation, and ongoing COVID outbreaks.
- Due to the uncertainties, Samsung declined to offer a financial forecast for the rest of the year.
BLOOMBERG
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 Amazon-backed Agility Robotics announced a $150M funding round that will enable it to scale production of its working bipedal robots. The company plans to open a 200,000-plus-square-foot robotics factory in its home state of Oregon by 2024. More: - Founded in 2015, Agility Robotics makes robots for tasks as part of a "blended human-robot workforce."
- Agility's flagship robot, Digit, is capable of navigating semi-autonomously, climbing stairs, and picking up and stacking boxes, making it primed for tasks in areas like warehouse operations and last-mile logistics.
- The robot has attracted the attention of Ford, which has used Digit to research last-mile package delivery, and Amazon, which invested in Agility via its newly announced $1B Amazon Industrial Innovation Fund (AIIF).
- Agility's latest $150M Series B round, led by DCVC and Playground Global, included funds from the AIFF.
- Using the capital infusion, Agility plans to accelerate R&D, double its headcount, expand offices, and establish a base in Pittsburgh, where its CEO Damion Shelton is based.
AUTOEVOLUTION
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A judge has sided with Tesla CEO Elon Musk in an investor lawsuit challenging Tesla's $2.6B acquisition of SolarCity. Shareholders argued the purchase was a bailout orchestrated by Musk. But a Delaware judge on Wednesday ruled in favor of Musk, saying that Tesla's board "meaningfully vetted" the transaction. More: - The investors claimed SolarCity was insolvent and Musk arranged a bailout to save the failing company from financial distress.
- They argued that Musk strong-armed the Tesla board to approve the 2016 purchase of SolarCity, of which Musk was the largest shareholder at the time, and misrepresented the value of SolarCity’s technologies for Tesla.
- However, Musk argued that he did not view it as a financial gain and denied placing pressure on Tesla's board.
- In his ruling, Vice Chancellor Joseph R. Slights said Musk was more involved in the deal than should be given his conflicting interests, but ultimately did not interfere in the Tesla board's appraisal of the deal.
- If he had lost, Musk may have been ordered to pay close to $2B. Shareholders could potentially appeal to the Delaware Supreme Court.
TECHCRUNCH
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Microsoft announced that the Xbox & Bethesda Games Showcase will take place on June 12. The showcase will reveal upcoming games for Xbox, including planned releases to Game Pass on Xbox and PC. More: - It's likely the event will demonstrate the first gameplay of Bethesda’s upcoming RPG "Starfield," due out on Nov. 11.
- It will stream starting at 10 a.m. PT across multiple platforms, including YouTube, Twitch, and TikTok.
- Last year's showcase saw demos of games including "The Outer Worlds 2" and "Forza Horizon 5."
- It's the second major gaming event to be announced for this summer after this year's Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) was canceled.
- The Entertainment Software Association, which puts on E3, said its showcase will return in 2023 with "an all-new format and interactive experience."
- The online Summer Game Fest, organized by video-game journalist Geoff Keighley, will also take place in June.
IGN
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- The EU is expected to formally announce anticompetitive charges against Apple, accusing the tech giant of unfairly monopolizing the iPhone mobile wallet system by restricting access to PayPal and other third-party service providers.
- CNN+ will shut down today, April 28, two days earlier than planned and only a month after launching. Ths streaming service attracted fewer than 100,00 subscribers, the WSJ reported.
- Amazon will introduce an Alexa feature that alerts security camera or video doorbell users when there is a person or package at the door.
- G/O Media Inc, the publisher of tech news website Gizmodo, plans to acquire business news site Quartz.
- A group of Democratic Senators has urged Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg to consider creating a regulatory framework for autonomous vehicles.
- An AI-assisted feature in Google Docs is drawing criticism for suggesting edits that are overly inclusive or not fitting for the context.
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 |  | Beth is a writer and analyst at Inside.com covering artificial intelligence and daily tech news. Since starting work at Inside, she has covered various topics including virtual reality, drones, and e-commerce. Prior to that she was a public policy and investigative reporter for The Arizona Republic, where she won a Pulitzer Prize nomination and First Amendment Award for reporting on the rising costs of pensions. Reach her at Beth.Duckett@inside.com. |   | | Editor | Eduardo Garcia is a writer and editor based in New York. He is writing an illustrated book about climate change that will be published by Ten Speed Press, an imprint of Penguin Random House. 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. | |
Laika is a unified compliance platform that automates workflows for audits, infosec monitoring, and vendor due diligence in a single, collaborative space. | |
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