Plus, Ford is shrinking its electric vehicle rollout plans. And tech giants Alibaba and Tencent lead the charge in investing in Chinese AI startups. Zoe Thomas hosts.
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[00:00:01] Here's your TNB Tech Minute for Wednesday, August 21. I'm Zoe Thomas for The Wall Street Journal.
[00:00:08] The U.K.'s Antitrust Authority has closed investigations into Google's Play Store and Apple's App Store for now.
[00:00:15] The Competition and Markets Authority says it expects to consider competition concerns around the app stores again under new regulations passed in May.
[00:00:24] The CMA had been looking into whether Google and Apple separately were using their market positions to set terms that were unfair to app developers.
[00:00:32] The new legislation gives the CMA powers to promote competition and introduce requirements on companies if they are deemed to have strategic market status for digital activity.
[00:00:43] The regulator said that could allow it to consider competition issues from a more global perspective.
[00:00:49] Google and Apple didn't respond to requests for comment.
[00:00:53] Ford is shrinking its plans for electric vehicle rollouts.
[00:00:57] The carmaker canceled plans for an electric three-row SUV, citing tough pricing pressure.
[00:01:02] Ford says it expects to take nearly $2 billion in related special charges and write-downs as a result.
[00:01:09] It plans to offer gas-electric hybrid versions of future large SUVs instead.
[00:01:14] The company also pushed back the launch of a new electric pickup truck by a year.
[00:01:18] And Alibaba and Tencent are leading the charge in investing in Chinese AI startups.
[00:01:25] The tech giants have invested in most of the companies included in a group dubbed China's Six Little Artificial Intelligence Dragons.
[00:01:33] Each of these startups have been valued at more than $1 billion since 2023.
[00:01:38] Alibaba's and Tencent's interest in AI has intensified, even as both have dramatically reduced their overall investments over the past two years.
[00:01:46] Neither Alibaba nor Tencent responded to requests for comment.
[00:01:50] For a deeper dive into what's happening in tech, check out Thursday's Tech News Briefing podcast.
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