Fintech
1. Nigerian judge sets Binance tax evasion trial for October
A Nigerian court will begin a trial against cryptocurrency exchange Binance over tax evasion charges on 11 Oct., the judge hearing the case said on Friday. (The Star)
IT infrastructure
2. CapCut will stop offering free cloud storage from 5 August
ByteDance’s video editing app CapCut will stop offering free cloud storage to host creative assets starting 5 August. (TechCrunch)
3. Data centre operator Equinix mulls minority stake sale in Hong Kong assets
Global data centre operator Equinix is considering a sale of a minority stake in its Hong Kong facilities, valuing the assets at about $2 billion, two sources said. (Business Times)
4. AT&T paid a hacker $370,000 to delete stolen phone records
US telecom giant AT&T, which disclosed Friday that hackers had stolen the call records for tens of millions of its customers, paid a member of the hacking team more than $300,000 to delete the data and provide a video demonstrating proof of deletion. (Wired)
Tech trends
5. SpaceX rocket grounded after failure dooms some Starlink satellites
SpaceX’s workhorse Falcon 9 rocket was grounded by the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) on Friday after one broke apart in space and doomed its payload of Starlink satellites, the first failure in more than seven years of a rocket relied upon by the global space industry. (CGTN)
6. Vietnam’s VinFast delays US electric car plant amid market slowdown
Vietnamese electric vehicle (EV) maker VinFast is delaying the launch of its planned $4 billion factory in North Carolina to 2028 and cutting its delivery forecast for this year by 20,000 units amid uncertainties in the global EV market. (TEMPO)
7. South Korea’s SK On in talks to supply prismatic EV batteries as it seeks turnaround
South Korean EV battery maker SK On is in talks with automakers to supply prismatic batteries, expanding from its existing pouch-type batteries, a senior executive said, as it scrambles to turn around amid slowing global electric vehicle demand. (Reuters)
8. US court rejects challenges to FCC approval of SpaceX satellites
A US appeals court on Friday upheld the decision of the Federal Communications Commission to approve a SpaceX plan to deploy thousands of Starlink satellites to provide space-based broadband internet service. (WestLaw Today)
9. Meta drops restrictions on Trump’s Facebook and Instagram accounts
Former President Donald Trump will no longer be subject to extra severe penalties for content rule violations on his Facebook and Instagram accounts, Meta said on Friday. (The Verge)
10. Google reportedly in talks to acquire cloud security company Wiz for $23B
The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reports that Alphabet is in advanced talks to acquire Wiz for around $23 billion. While the deal isn’t finalised, the WSJ says it could come together soon. Wiz offers an all-in-one approach to cloud security, ingesting data from Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud, and other cloud platforms, then scanning it all for security risk factors. (TechCrunch)
11. Whistleblowers accuse OpenAI of ‘illegally restrictive’ NDAs
Whistleblowers have accused OpenAI of placing illegal restrictions on how employees can communicate with government regulators, according to a letter obtained by The Washington Post. (TechCrunch)
12. OpenAI whistleblowers ask SEC to investigate alleged restrictive non-disclosure agreements
OpenAI whistleblowers have filed a complaint with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, calling for an investigation over the artificial intelligence company’s allegedly restrictive non-disclosure agreements. (mint)
