Welcome back to your daily memorandum talking tech, business, AI, markets, and more. 🗞️

In today’s edition, we are tackling the following:

📱 China smartphone sales fall 13% as memory costs limit 618 discounts.
🤖 Google quietly opts users into AI training with new privacy settings.
👥 Microsoft cuts 4.8k jobs across Xbox & commercial sales divisions.
💰 SK Hynix begins $28B U.S. share sale amid surging global AI demand.
🏦 Klarna applies for U.S. bank charter to expand beyond BNPL.

TECHNOLOGY

• China smartphone sales fall 13% as memory costs limit 618 discounts (Reuters)
  ^{_{More: AOL, Business Times}}

  • Huawei was the only major brand with growth during the shopping festival, Counterpoint says.

  • Honor sales dropped 33% and Xiaomi fell 24% as brands cut promotions from last year.

  • Apple ranked second after iPhone 17 Pro discounts, while shipments face double-digit annual decline.

• Virtual taekwondo grows into structured sport ahead of Asian Games debut (AP)
  ^{_{More: Yahoo!, The Independent}}

  • Vietnamese champion Nguyen Thanh Hien Linh went from confusion in 2024 to gold in Malaysia.

  • World Taekwondo and Refract Technologies co-developed the sport, blending VR with traditional techniques.

  • Competitors wear headsets and motion sensors to control avatars in noncontact matches with health bars.

• Google quietly opts users into AI training with new privacy settings (TechCrunch)
  ^{_{More: Tech Buzz, MSN}}

  • Updated Search privacy settings let Google store images, files, audio, and video for AI training.

  • Change arrived via an under-the-radar June update, announced in a customer email to users.

  • Users are automatically opted in unless they manually adjust settings to exclude their uploaded media.

BUSINESS

• Microsoft cuts 4.8k jobs across Xbox & commercial sales divisions (NY Post)
  ^{_{More: Inc.com, Yahoo!, TechCrunch}}

  • Layoffs affect around 4.8k roles, or 2.1% of Microsoft's global workforce, announced Monday.

  • Xbox loses 1.6k staffers, making it among the hardest hit alongside commercial sales teams.

  • Executive Amy Coleman said roles "are not being replaced by AI" but work is changing.

• SK Hynix begins $28B U.S. share sale amid surging global AI demand (CNA)
  ^{_{More: Reuters, TechCrunch, CTech}}

  • South Korean chipmaker will sell 17.79M new shares as Nasdaq-listed American depositary receipts.

  • Baillie Gifford, Coatue Management funds, and Situational Awareness Partners indicated interest worth up to $7B.

  • 10 ADRs will represent one common share, with final pricing due Thursday before Friday trading.

• Klarna applies for U.S. bank charter to expand beyond BNPL (CNBC)
  ^{_{More: Yahoo!, MSN}}

  • Swedish fintech filed to establish an FDIC-insured bank in Utah, pending regulatory approval.

  • Charter would let Klarna fund loans with deposits and reduce reliance on partner banks.

  • Filing follows Mercury's conditional approval, signaling a fintech shift toward owning bank charters.

MARKETS

WORLD

• Tanker catches fire after projectile strike in Strait of Hormuz (AP)
  ^{_{More: The Hill, Seattle Times, Yahoo!}}

  • British military said the vessel was struck early Tuesday off Oman's coast, igniting a fire.

  • Iranian state TV said the LNG tanker ignored warnings but did not directly claim responsibility.

  • U.S. seeks talks to reopen the strait and end the war launched February 28.

• NATO plans 'big reveal' of arms deals to prove firepower (Washington Post)
  ^{_{More: AP, Straits Times}}

  • Leaders will announce tens of billions in defense contracts at the Turkey summit Tuesday.

  • Trump has branded NATO a "paper tiger" reliant on American weapons and leadership.

  • Secretary-General Mark Rutte pitched 'The Trump Trillion' chart showing $1.2T in allied spending.

• Apple restores card payments for Apple Account purchases in India (Firstpost)
  ^{_{More: TechCrunch, Yahoo!}}

  • Users can add eligible Visa and Mastercard cards for App Store purchases and subscriptions.

  • Apple suspended card payments in May 2022 after India changed its recurring payments framework.

  • The move reflects Apple adapting its services to country-specific rules, reshaping payments in global markets.

FUTURISM

• Apple enables Siri pace & expressivity controls in iOS 27 beta (TechCrunch)
  ^{_{More: Tom's Guide, 9to5Mac}}

  • iOS 27 beta 3 activates voice settings previously labeled 'Coming soon' in earlier developer releases.

  • Controls form part of Apple's push to rebuild Siri around generative AI with natural speech.

  • ChatGPT offers deeper customization, adding warmth, enthusiasm, style, and tone options in December 2025.

• Starship Technologies pulls delivery robots from all U.S. college campuses (Futurism)
  ^{_{More: AOL, FOX, Yahoo!}}

  • Company will redeploy over 1k robots, shifting focus to grocery chains and city restaurants.

  • CEO Ahti Heinla said Starship is targeting the vertical offering the most client value.

  • Starship debuted at George Mason University in 2019, later partnering with over 60 universities.

• Agility Robotics goes public via SPAC while CEO tempers home expectations (TechCrunch)
  ^{_{More: Yahoo!, Tech Buzz}}

  • SPAC merger with Churchill Capital values Agility at $2.5B and raises over $620M in proceeds.

  • Deal makes Agility the first pure-play humanoid robotics company traded on public markets.

  • Rivals AI2 Robotics, Apptronik, and Figure AI raised huge rounds amid a sector funding boom.

• Hunting for AI roles eats hours across careers pages, internal referrals, group chats, and a dozen overlapping boards*

  • The Athyna AI Job Board does the watching for you and matches openings to your profile in the background.

  • When a role hits a 75% matching index or higher, we notify you with details and a direct apply link.

CONTENT

• Paul Orlando explains how good timing makes or breaks startups (The Startup Podcast)

  • Accelerator founder Paul Orlando built four programs supporting over 300 companies across three continents.

  • His book examines why some ideas succeed while near-identical predecessors failed years earlier.

  • Episode covers five timing drivers: technology, social change, regulation, installed base, and crisis.

• Chris Hladczuk says 'human duct tape' manages $100T in assets (This Week in Startups)

  • Hanover Park CEO says accountants patch together legacy tools like QuickBooks and Excel manually.

  • Startup grew from overseeing $1B to $20B in assets within just 15 months.

  • Episode includes a March 2020 flashback with Figma co-founder Dylan Field on go-to-market strategy.

• USV partner Mike Mignano says now is the app layer's time (20VC)

  • Mignano joined Union Square Ventures after backing AI companies Granola and Suno at Lightspeed.

  • He argues the AI infrastructure phase is over, with applications now driving the opportunity.

  • Episode covers open weights, human-aligned agents, recursive self-improvement, and shrinking engineering teams.

EXTRAS

• Synopsys to end chip fab control software in AI shift (Reuters)
  ^{_{More: Investing.com}}

  • Company informed over 10 chipmakers including Samsung, SK Hynix, Kioxia, and Qorvo since April.

  • Software monitors and detects production anomalies during chip manufacturing at global semiconductor plants.

  • 'End of life' move means no new versions, with only maintenance obligations continuing forward.

• Stalled Waymos worsen San Francisco gridlock during July 4 celebrations (Futurism)
  ^{_{More: NBC, MSN}}

  • Several robotaxis were towed after batteries died during one of the city's worst traffic days.

  • Resident Dave Guingona waited two hours as frustrated drivers yelled at the driverless vehicles.

  • One Waymo drove straight over lit fireworks, exposing an edge case in training data.

• Even Realities hits $1B valuation after $150M Meituan & Tencent round (TechCrunch)
  ^{_{More: Yahoo!}}

  • A Shenzhen startup raised $150M in pre-Series B funding led by Meituan and backed by Tencent.

  • CEO Will Wang bets on display-first glasses over camera-equipped rivals from Meta and Snap.

  • Founded by ex-Apple engineers in 2023, launching lightweight Even G1 waveguide glasses in 2024.

AND MORE

• Reddit turns to LLMs to fix a problem LLMs largely created.

• Nobel Prize winner says AI won't restore era of rapid growth.

• Explore all the tools and more here to outperform the competition.*

• The 'first' AI-run ransomware attack still required human involvement to work.

• Bookshop.org confirms Kobo eReader support will finally arrive later this year.

• Chinese firms shift from NVIDIA to local AI suppliers, survey shows.

• Netflix pioneered binge-watching but may now be moving beyond the model.