The U.S. government has reportedly stopped issuing licenses to American companies to export technology to Huawei. Additionally, U.S. officials are considering cutting off the Chinese telecom equipment giant from all U.S. suppliers, though no such decision has been announced yet. The moves come as the Biden administration further tightens rules covering U.S. technology exports to China. Background: - In 2019, the Trump administration added Huawei to the entity list, barring U.S. exports to the Chinese firm without a license.
- The entity list targets companies that could pose a risk to foreign policy interests and national security.
- In the case of Huawei, the company was suspected of having deep ties to the Chinese government and using 5G equipment for spying.
- Since then, Qualcomm and other companies have been granted licenses to sell some non-5G-related technologies, such as 4G chips for smartphones.
Next steps: - The Biden administration now appears to be expanding the restrictions.
- The U.S. Department of Commerce has notified some American companies — including Qualcomm and Intel — that it's time to slow down sales to Huawei and it will no longer approve licenses.
- Some officials are also calling for a total ban on sales to Huawei, citing national security concerns.
- In response, a spokesperson for China's foreign ministry claimed the moves would “violate international economic and trade rules" and called it "an example of U.S. technological hegemony."
FINANCIAL TIMES 
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 Sony has reportedly halved its sales projections for the PlayStation VR2 headset following lower-than-expected pre-orders. The second-generation headset, due out on Feb. 22, was slated to have an initial run of 2 million units for the first launch quarter, which has now been reduced to 1 million. More: - PSVR 2 preorders first opened up in November. Based on those figures, Sony has now informed display panel partners to plan for a reduction in orders.
- The company expects to sell around 1.5 million PSVR 2 units from April 2023 through March 2024.
- This is compared to the 2 million units it initially expected to sell.
- The original PSVR, launched in 2016, sold about two million units after 14 months.
- The Meta Quest 2, the most popular VR headset, has sold an estimated 10 million to 15 million units since its 2020 launch.
- Sony's upgraded PSVR 2 headset is selling for $550 and requires a Playstation 5 console to use. It will have eye tracking, 3D audio, refresh rates of up to 120Hz, and a display resolution of 2000 x 2040 pixels per eye.
BLOOMBERG
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 A message from LACEWORK Discover cloud insights and harden your security posture In the latest installment of the Cloud Threat Report series, Lacework Labs covers the significant increase in efficiencies used by cybercriminals. Get insights into these trends that cover how: - Attackers are automating key discovery and exploits, taking advantage of momentary mistakes
- Simple mistakes turn into misconfigurations that attackers use to compromise your cloud identity infrastructure
- Vulnerabilities continue to stick around for months (sometimes even years) and attackers quickly exploit any new vulnerabilities
- Cryptojacking continues to be a staple in cybercriminal tool belts
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Hammered by a drop in PC and smartphone demand, Samsung Electronics reported a 69% decline in operating profit last quarter, the weakest since 2014. The South Korean chip maker said it expects demand to begin making a recovery in the second half of 2023. More: - In the last three months of 2022, Samsung's operating profit fell 69% to $2.5B, and its revenue fell 8% to $57.3B.
- For all of 2022, it reported $35B in operating profit, down $6.9B from 2021. Its annual revenue for 2022 was $245.4B, a record high.
- Samsung cited "weak demand amid a global economic slowdown," including a sharp drop in demand in its memory-chip business.
- Unlike its peers Micron and Western Digital, Samsung has not cut down capital expenditures for 2023.
Related: - Samsung will also host its Unpacked event tomorrow, Feb. 1, when it's expected to unveil its Galaxy S23 flagship smartphone series.
- These include the standard Galaxy S23, the S23 Plus, and the high-end S23 Ultra.
- It could also announce up to five laptops, possibly called the Galaxy Book 3, Book 3 360, Book 3 Pro, Book 3 Pro 360, and Book 3 Ultra.
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
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 Nothing, the consumer tech startup led by Oppo co-founder Carl Pei, plans to launch a second-generation smartphone in the U.S. later this year. Pei said the Phone 2 will be a more premium version than its Phone 1, which launched in Europe and Asia last year and in the U.S. this month. More: - Now, the company has decided that the U.S. will be its No 1 priority market, Pei told Inverse.
- After building its team and products, the company is on more solid ground and "can take a step forward," he said.
- The Phone 1, a rival to Apple's iPhone SE, has a 6.55-inch OLED display, 120Hz adaptive refresh rate, and a transparent back revealing electronic components.
- It's powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 778G Plus.
- Nothing released its first product, wireless earbuds, in 2021. About one-third of the earbud sales are from the U.S., Pei noted.
INVERSE
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 A message from 360LEARNING How to Create the Flexible Working Culture Your Teams Need to Thrive Work has changed. Employee expectations have changed. People long for systems of trust and flexibility, but organizations are still unwilling to offer it, despite the many studies that tell us that employees are more productive at home. At 360Learning, we’ve developed our Convexity culture—a system to deliver fully flexible lifestyles for employees without compromising on business impact. Now, we’re sharing our best kept secrets on flexible working. - How to make remote, asynchronous, and autonomous work a reality
- How to enable flexible learning and self-directed career development
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Check out our playbook for building a flexible work culture. Read the playbook
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In its Q4 earnings released Tuesday, Spotify reported strong user growth but an operating loss driven by investments in hiring, podcasts, and audiobooks. The streaming-audio service is the first to surpass 200 million paid subscribers. It now has nearly 500 million monthly active users. More: - As of Dec. 31, Spotify's premium subscribers rose to 205 million, up by up 10 million from last quarter and a 14% jump year-on-year.
- Paid subscribers account for most of its revenue.
- Spotify's monthly active users rose 20% to 489 million.
- Both figures beat Wall Street expectations and its guidance from the previous quarter.
- However, Spotify's quarterly operating loss was around $250M. The company attributed the figure to "higher personnel costs primarily due to headcount growth and higher advertising costs," as well as currency fluctuations.
- Last week, Spotify announced that it is laying off 6% of its staff, affecting about 600 employees, as part of cost-cutting measures and a broader organizational restructuring.
THE VERGE
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Chinese search-engine giant Baidu plans to launch an AI chatbot service with similarities to ChatGPT. The tool is set to debut as a standalone app in March. Baidu plans to gradually incorporate the conversational technology into its search engine, the most powerful in China. More: - As a result, Baidu users who make search requests will receive not just links but chatbot-powered results, such as answers to questions.
- The service will initially launch to users in China. The company plans to restrict the chatbot's results to abide by the country's internet censorship rules.
- Baidu's system is reportedly based on its Ernie AI model that specializes in natural language generation and understanding.
- OpenAI's ChatGPT, is officially unavailable in China, though internet users can access it using a VPN and a foreign phone number.
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 |  | Beth is a writer and editor at Inside.com covering artificial intelligence and daily technology news. 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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360Learning is the LMS for collaborative learning that enables companies to upskill from within. | |
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