Plus: Australians latest push to get tech companies to pay local media outlets. And BYD’s quarterly profit slides 55% as domestic competition ramps up. Imani Moise hosts.
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[00:00:00] [SPEAKER_00] Hey, this is Julie Chang, host of The Journal Podcast, our show about money, business, and power. If you're looking for more deeply reported stories like we share every day, consider becoming a subscriber to The Wall Street Journal. Visit subscribe.wsj.com slash the journal, all lowercase, to subscribe now.
[00:00:20] [SPEAKER_01] Here's your morning TNB Tech Minute for Tuesday, April 28th. I'm Imani Moise for The Wall Street Journal. We exclusively report that OpenAI recently missed its own internal targets for weekly users and revenue, raising concern among company leaders about whether it will be able to support its massive spending on data centers. People familiar with the matter say CFO Sarah Fryer has told other company leaders that she's worried the company might not be able to pay for future computing contracts if revenue doesn't grow fast enough.
[00:00:48] [SPEAKER_01] Board directors are also questioning CEO Sam Altman's efforts to secure even more computing power, despite the business slowdown. In a joint statement, Altman and Fryer called any suggestion that they are at odds, quote, ridiculous, and said they remain totally aligned on buying as much computing capacity as possible. News Corp., the owner of The Wall Street Journal, has a content licensing partnership with OpenAI.
[00:01:11] [SPEAKER_01] Australia's federal government released a draft of a new law today that would tax major tech companies if they don't agree to pay local media outlets for news distributed on Facebook, Google and TikTok. Australian authorities say the 2.25 percent levy would only apply to companies making over 180 million U.S. dollars in local revenue. The prime minister said any revenue generated by the tax would go to media providers.
[00:01:34] [SPEAKER_01] Australia has been trying to make tech companies pay local media for years, arguing that investment in journalism is critical to a healthy democracy. Meta called the latest proposal a digital service tax. Google said it rejects the need for the tax and that it already supports Australian journalism through existing licensing agreements. TikTok owner ByteDance didn't immediately respond to a request for comment on the proposal.
[00:01:56] [SPEAKER_01] And Chinese auto giant BYD, the world's largest EV maker, reported a 55 percent slide in net profit in the first quarter as weak performance in its home market offset growth overseas. Revenue dropped 12 percent despite a surge in exports primarily to Europe, where high gas prices caused by the war in the Middle East is rekindling demand for electric vehicles. The results highlight how China's fiercely competitive EV market is eroding profitability even for industry leaders. That's your TNB Tech Minute.
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