Amazon submits bid for TikTok as ban deadline nears

Amazon has submitted a bid to the White House to purchase the social media app TikTok from its Chinese owners.

The company sent its proposal in a letter this week to Vice President JD Vance and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, according to a source familiar with the matter who asked not to be named.

The parties aren't treating the bid seriously, however, given that it was submitted just days before a deadline staving off a U.S. ban is set to expire.

Meanwhile, the Trump administration, which has been trying to shepherd a deal to shift control of the Chinese-owned app to an American company, says it is "fully aware" of AppLovin's interest in TikTok, sources familiar with the situation told CNBC's David Faber on Wednesday.

It's unclear whether any of the U.S. parties interested in Tiktok will be able to take control of the non-Chinese part of the company's business. As the weekend deadline for TikTok to find a buyer approaches, bidders for the short-video social media site are piling up.

Amazon and, separately, a consortium led by Onlyfans founder Tim Stokely are just the latest to throw their hats into the ring.

Reference Sources

1. cnbc - Amazon submits bid for TikTok as ban deadline nears
2. cnbc - Applovin in negotiations for potential TikTok bid, sources say
3. bussinesstimes - TikTok bidders pile up as deadline looms with Amazon, OnlyFans founder in mix - The Business Times
4. cna - Amazon bids to buy TikTok as deadline looms, US administration official says
5. latimes - Amazon places bid on TikTok as deadline looms

Microsoft will announce AI next steps at anniversary

(Source: Microsoft)

Microsoft is celebrating its 50th anniversary with an employee-only event at its headquarters in Redmond, Washington.

The tech giant is also preparing to announce next steps for its consumer AI initiatives and updates regarding the company’s AI assistant, Microsoft Copilot.

The event comes on the heels of recent rumors that Microsoft is in the works to produce in-house artificial intelligence models, including reasoning models like OpenAI’s O1 which the company incorporated into its copilot products earlier this year, in an effort to wean off its reliance on OpenAI.

Both Bloomberg and the information reported last month that a number of these ai models, which Microsoft has dubbed mAI, produced results that proved competitive with rival products from OpenAI and Anthropic on accepted benchmarks.

The models were also tested to see if they could power Copilot tasks currently executed using OpenAI models.

Microsoft is OpenAI’s core investor, and used to be its exclusive compute provider until January 2025 when the companies announced a new agreement that allows OpenAI to partner with competing cloud providers.

Microsoft, however, still has right of first refusal.

Microsoft is also testing out models from Meta, Deepseek, and Elon Musk’s xAI as potential replacements for OpenAI.

Reference Sources

1. quartz - Microsoft will announce AI next steps at anniversary tomorrow. Here's what to expect

China, EU agree to promptly restart price commitment talks regarding EUs anti-subsidy case involving Chinese EVs: MOFCOM

(Source: Reuters)

China and the European Union (EU) have agreed to resume their negotiations on a price commitment plan regarding the EU's anti-subsidy probe into Chinese electric vehicles (EVs), according to China's Ministry of Commerce.

The resumption of talks is part of efforts to foster a stable environment for investment and industrial collaboration between Chinese and EU enterprises.

The remarks were made by ministry spokesperson He Yadong at a press conference. On March 28, Chinese Commerce Minister Wang Wentao met visiting European Trade and Economic Security Commissioner Maros Sefcovic, and both sides conducted frank, in-depth, and pragmatic discussions on China-EU economic relations and mutual trade concerns, reaching several important consensus points. Both sides recognized that the current international situation remains complex and volatile.

Reference Sources

1. xinhua - China, EU agree to resume price commitment talks on EV anti-subsidy probe
2. globaltimes - China, EU agree to promptly restart price commitment talks regarding EUs anti-subsidy case involving Chinese EVs: MOFCOM

The CommonWealth English daily news digest is a service curated by the CommonWealth English team with the help of AI tools.

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