The GameStop saga continues, Samsung is reportedly heading to Texas, and Apple will require Google to get permission before collecting personalized ad data on iOS users.
It’s all the tech news that’s popular right now. Welcome to Hashtag Trending! It’s Thursday, January 28, and I’m your host Baneet Braich.
We don’t dip our toes into finance much, but it’s been impossible to ignore what’s been happening with Gamestop. The saga continues and now Wall Street goliaths Andrew Left and Melvin Capital have taken huge losses to cover their bets. The winners in this strange battle are the smaller investors who have been congregating on Reddit and online communities to support GameStop’s stock and take a swing at the big professionals. Here’s what happened: Folks on wall street borrowed Gamestop shares and then sold them to buy them later at lower prices and pocketing in the difference. But instead of prices getting lower, stocks began increasing when a co-founder from Chewy, the online retailer of pet supplies, recently joined Gamestop to amp up its digital transformation. Then small investors pushed the stock even higher. Why did small investors join the drama? Well, experts don’t have a clear idea but most are speculating it’s all a big revenge play on Wall Street in response to Wall Street players manipulating the system by shorting stocks. All to say, Gamestops stocks are soaring, but Wall Street short-sellers are sinking. As of this recording, losses already increased to $5 billion this year according to S3 Partners. [Twitter]
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Samsung is reportedly heading to Texas to build a $10 billion Chip Factory in 2023. Once active the plant will produce logic components using a next-generation 3nm process for clients in the U.S. For a sense of the timeline, the tech giant hopes to begin construction this year by installing equipment that include extreme ultraviolet lithography (EUV) machines. If all stays on track in Texas then operations will start in 2023. While the project is projected to cost at least $10 billion, Samsung hopes to receive government support where it has even hired lobbyists to advocate and secure tax incentives and subsidies.
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You know that moment when you see an ad and feel like wow Google is really taking the time to know you? Well Apple will soon require iPhone, iPad, and Apple TV app developers to request permission from users to collect their random advertising identifier (known as the “Identifier for Advertisers” or “IDFA”). This allows advertisers to deliver personalized ads and track how well their ad campaigns did. Now there will be a prompt to allow or deny tracking. This is something Apple introduced in its App Tracking Transparency (“ATT”) policy which provides more information about privacy practices. In a blog post, Google says app developers may see a “significant impact” to their Google ad revenue on iOS after Apple’s new policy takes effect. Facebook, on the other hand, has criticized the policy claiming that it will hurt small businesses that benefit from personalized advertising.
That’s all the tech news that’s trending right now. Hashtag Trending is a part of the ITWC Podcast network. Add us to your Alexa Flash Briefing or your Google Home daily briefing. I’m Baneet Braich, thanks for listening!