☕️ Amazon buys Globalstar for $11.6B to rival Starlink

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In today's Techpresso:

🛰️ Amazon buys Globalstar for $11.6B to rival Starlink

👑 Meta overtakes Google in global ad revenue

🤖 Microsoft is working on OpenClaw-like agent

🔥 OpenAI accuses Anthropic of inflating revenue by $8 billion

🔍 Google Search flags 'back button hijacking' as spam

💻 Microsoft raises Surface PC prices by $500 amid RAM shortage

🎁 + 15 other news & articles you might like

🧰 + 6 trending tools

📚 + 3 trending papers & reports

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• Amazon announced a deal to buy satellite company Globalstar for $11.5 billion, paying $90 per share, in a move that strengthens its position against Elon Musk's SpaceX in the satellite internet market.
• Amazon recently rebranded its satellite internet service from Project Kuiper to Leo and has launched more than 240 low Earth orbit satellites since last April with partners like United Launch Alliance and SpaceX.
• The company first announced plans six years ago to build a constellation of thousands of satellites offering high-speed, low-latency internet to consumers, corporations, and governments through square-shaped terminals.

• Meta is forecast to pass Google in global ad revenue by the end of 2026, generating US$243 billion compared to Google's US$239.5 billion, according to Emarketer's latest outlook.
• Meta's growth rate is expected to hit 24.1% in 2026, nearly double Google's 12%, while Google's share of global digital ad spend has been declining since 2021.
• Emarketer analysts credit tools like Advantage+ and AI-generated ads for pulling more ad dollars to Meta, saying advertisers follow performance rather than reacting to legal risks.

• Microsoft is building an agent with features similar to the open source OpenClaw tool and plans to integrate it into its existing Microsoft 365 Copilot product for enterprise customers.
• The company already offers cloud-based agents like Copilot Cowork and Copilot Tasks, but the new project may run locally on a user's computer, much like OpenClaw does.
• Microsoft told The Information the agent would be an always-working version of 365 Copilot that completes multistep tasks over long periods, and it may appear at Build in June.

• OpenAI's chief revenue officer Denise Dresser accused Anthropic in an internal memo of overstating its $30 billion run rate by about $8 billion by booking gross revenue from cloud-partner sales through AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud.
• Both gross and net accounting methods comply with US GAAP, but OpenAI says its own net reporting of Microsoft sales is closer to public-company standards, a distinction that could matter as both firms prepare for dual IPOs.
• Ramp corporate-card data shows Anthropic at 30.6 percent of enterprise AI-paying customers versus OpenAI's 35.2 percent, with a projected crossover within two months, adding pressure behind the timing of Dresser's memo.

• Google Search has updated its spam policy to treat back button hijacking — where sites prevent users from returning to the previous page — as a violation that can lower a site's ranking.
• Pages caught using this deceptive practice will face manual spam actions or automated demotions, with Google noting it has seen a rise of this type of behavior across the web recently.
• Site owners have until June 15, 2026, to remove any scripts or advertising platform code responsible for back button hijacking, including third-party libraries that may cause the problem without their knowledge.

• Microsoft has increased prices on all Surface PCs by up to $500, with the flagship Surface Laptop 7 and Surface Pro 11 now costing far more than their original 2024 launch prices.
• Sources say the price increases are driven by recent spikes in RAM and component costs, and the Surface Laptop 7 at $1,499 is now $400 more expensive than the new MacBook Air.
• Microsoft's upcoming wave of refreshed Surface PCs, expected over spring and summer, will likely maintain or even increase these starting prices if component pricing does not improve soon.

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• OpenAI has bought AI personal finance startup Hiro LINK

• Amazon Leo Shows Off In-Flight Wi-Fi Antenna That Will Take on Starlink LINK

• Wegovy-maker Novo Nordisk partners with OpenAI to speed drug development LINK

• Booking.com confirms hackers accessed customers’ data LINK

• Microsoft admits Game Pass may have gotten too expensive LINK

• Small Missouri town ousts half its city council after $6 billion AI data center approval LINK

• Stanford report highlights growing disconnect between AI insiders and everyone else LINK

• China has spent 3.6 times more than the US on chipmaking subsidies over the past decade LINK

• ‘I’m not going to force you’: Duolingo CEO backs off from evaluating employees on their AI usage LINK

• OpenAI's leaked memo says new "Spud" model will make all its products "significantly better" LINK

• This bot only bets ‘No’ on Polymarket, and its creator keeps losing money LINK

• How vibe coding app Anything is rebuilding after getting booted from the App Store twice LINK

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📚 Trending papers & reports

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