Plus: BYD’s overseas push drives quarterly profit growth. And Google will change how it ranks certain websites in most of Europe to appease antitrust regulators. Julie Chang hosts.
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[00:00:01] Here's your afternoon TNB Tech Minute for Friday, August 28th. I'm Julie Chang for The Wall Street Journal. We exclusively report that VC firm Andreessen Horowitz raised over a billion dollars for its first dedicated hardware infrastructure fund. Dubbed Machine Age, the fund will focus on AI processors, memory chips, networking equipment, data storage, and robotics.
[00:00:25] Though Andreessen Horowitz previously invested in hardware firms like SpaceX and Anduril, software has always been its main focus. A general partner at the firm said it raised the fund due to growing bottlenecks in AI infrastructure and an influx of founders building in the space. China's BYD, the world's top EV seller, may have turned a corner with the help of its rapid expansion overseas.
[00:00:49] BYD has been focusing on exports following an intense price war and slowing demand in the world's largest auto market. Its exports now account for a rising share of total sales volume, especially in Europe and Latin America. BYD's second quarter net profit rose 30%, despite a roughly 3% revenue decline. The company's first half net profit fell 21% to $1.8 billion, with revenue dropping over 7%.
[00:01:17] And Google will adjust how it ranks search results featuring third-party content in Europe to appease antitrust regulators and avoid potential fines. The company in 2024 introduced a policy to hide parts of websites or entire pages in search results if it was determined that parts of the site didn't comply with Google's spam policies.
[00:01:38] But the European Commission found Google demoted websites from news organizations and other publishers containing commercial partner content, which could be a breach of the Digital Markets Act. Google said starting August 30th, its site reputation policy enforcement will no longer impact search results for users in all EU member states as well as Iceland, Liechtenstein, and Norway. News Corp, owner of Dow Jones Newswire and the Journal, has a commercial agreement to supply content on Google platforms.
[00:02:08] And that's your TNB Tech Minutes this week. Tune in Monday morning for another quick tech update.