Out of focus: Snapchat’s losses keep mounting

8/30/22 8:00PM

Snap Inc., the parent company of Snapchat, is reportedly set to layoff 20% of their employees, putting 1,200+ people at risk of losing their jobs. Snap's core business — selling ads — has matured significantly in the last 7 years. In 2015 the company made just a few cents from every user, but last year they made more than $3 per quarter for each active Snapchatter. That growth took Snap to more than $4bn a year in revenue, but other projects and runaway expenses have seen the company notch a net loss in 29 of the last 30 quarters.

‍Out of focus‍

‍Snap has been spending big on other projects, many of which appear likely to bear the brunt of the impending layoffs. The company's AR smartglasses, Spectacles, received heavy investment as did Pixy — the company's camera drone which was discontinued after just a few months. Both fell under Snap's grand plan to reinvent the camera — an ambition that so far has contributed to a cumulative net loss of $8.9 billion since 2015.Snap is not the first, and certainly won't be the last, tech company to announce layoffs. Ad giant Facebook saw their ad business shrink for the first time last quarter, and spending on digital ads is likely to continue to soften if the economic headlines remain as gloomy as they have been.

Anthropic: Our new “Mythos” model is so powerful, we can’t release it

The unusual announcement of the model highlights its alarming new cybersecurity capabilities.

Jon Keegan13h

Jon Keegan15h

Bloomberg: Apple’s foldable iPhone is on track for September after all

Scratch that... Actually, Apple’s foldable iPhone may be on track to debut later this year after all.

Hours after a report from Nikkei Asia said Apple was encountering engineering problems with the novel design that could lead to a delayed launch, Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman reports that sources within Apple say the premium foldable iPhone is still on track to launch in September, alongside the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Max.

Shares of Apple had plunged more than 5% on word of a possible delay, but pared losses on Gurman’s story.

According to the report, the foldable iPhone will cost more than $2,000 and will be a key part of the company’s plan to revamp the iPhone lineup.

Apple’s Foldable iPhone Remains on Track for September Debut

Shares of Apple had plunged more than 5% on word of a possible delay, but pared losses on Gurman’s story.

According to the report, the foldable iPhone will cost more than $2,000 and will be a key part of the company’s plan to revamp the iPhone lineup.

Jon Keegan17h

Bezos poaches xAI cofounder from OpenAI for his Project Prometheus startup

The competition among AI startups for poaching top talent has a new contender.

The Financial Times reports that xAI cofounder Kyle Kosic has been poached from OpenAI by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos for his new AI industrial manufacturing startup, Project Prometheus.

Kosic was one of the original 11 cofounders of xAI and worked on the Colossus data center. Kosic left xAI in 2024 to return to OpenAI. Elon Musk is the last xAI cofounder still working for the company.

According to the report, Kosic will work on AI infrastructure in his new role at Project Prometheus, which has reportedly hired hundreds of staff in San Francisco, London, and Zurich.

Jeff Bezos’s new lab hires xAI co-founder from OpenAI

According to the report, Kosic will work on AI infrastructure in his new role at Project Prometheus, which has reportedly hired hundreds of staff in San Francisco, London, and Zurich.

Jon Keegan19h

Report: Apple’s foldable iPhone may be delayed by engineering troubles

One of Apple’s key product launches for 2026 might be facing delays.

The company’s planned foldable iPhone has run into engineering problems during testing, and mass production could be delayed as a result, according to a report from Nikkei Asia.

The complexity of the novel design is reportedly taking longer than expected to perfect, and could push back the product’s launch by months.

Per the report, Apple planned to initially produce 7 million to 8 million of the foldable iPhones, which it intends to position as a premium entry in the new iPhone lineup.

This would be the second Apple foldable product that has faced delays due to engineering problems, as Bloomberg reported that a $3,000 foldable iPad would be delayed until 2029 or later.

Apple shares were down sharply in early trading.

Foldable iPhone hits engineering snags, shipment delays possible: sources

The complexity of the novel design is reportedly taking longer than expected to perfect, and could push back the product’s launch by months.

Per the report, Apple planned to initially produce 7 million to 8 million of the foldable iPhones, which it intends to position as a premium entry in the new iPhone lineup.

This would be the second Apple foldable product that has faced delays due to engineering problems, as Bloomberg reported that a $3,000 foldable iPad would be delayed until 2029 or later.

Apple shares were down sharply in early trading.

Jon Keegan4/6/26

Report: Some of Meta’s new AI models will eventually be open-source

Axios reports that Meta is close to releasing its first new AI models after setting up its “superintelligence” team led by former Scale.AI CEO Alexandr Wang, and some of the models will eventually be released with an open-source license.

Per the report, Meta sees an opportunity to focus on consumers, rather than the lucrative enterprise market that both OpenAI and Anthropic have been focusing on.

Meta had previously embraced open-source AI with its Llama models, with CEO Mark Zuckerberg writing a manifesto declaring open-source AI as “the path forward.” Axios says that Meta will be pursuing more of a hybrid strategy of proprietary and open-source models going forward.

The New York Times previously reported that Meta was delaying the launch of its new AI model because of performance issues.