Good morning. With all this talk about smart glasses and wearables, I couldn’t help but wonder: Just how many people wear prescription glasses in the United States?
Answer: More than 3 in 5 U.S. adults (63.7%, or 166.5 million people) wear prescription lenses, according to industry advocacy group The Vision Council.
That’s more than I would have guessed who are used to wearing things on their face and paying hundreds of dollars for the pleasure. Maybe Meta and Snap are onto something after all. —Andrew Nusca
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Silicon Valley’s veto dance
Much of Silicon Valley rejoiced at California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s veto this weekend of a so-called AI safety bill that would have placed restrictions on the rapidly developing technology. Many in the tech industry had lobbied against the legislation, SB 1047, over what it described as its potential to stifle innovation.
Left largely unsaid: Billions of dollars were also riding on the outcome.
Garry Tan, CEO of startup accelerator Y Combinator, went on social media service X to express his gratitude to Newsom for the veto and gave “huge thanks” to his allies “for rallying since June to advocate for responsible AI development without stifling startups.”
Meanwhile, Anthropic cofounder Jack Clark said SB 1047 was imperfect but “a promising first step towards mitigating potentially severe and far reaching risks associated with AI development.”
And Andrew Ng, a cofounder of Coursera, and formerly of Baidu AI and Google Brain, simply proclaimed, “we won! 🎉” —Jenn Brice
Epic's battle royale with Google and Samsung
Epic Games is going after Google’s monopoly again—and this time, Samsung is in its crosshairs, too.
The antitrust lawsuit Epic filed in federal court on Monday focuses on Google’s Android operating system, Samsung’s Auto Blocker feature, and “scare screens”—a lengthy series of security warnings presented when a user tries to download an app from an unauthorized (not Samsung, not Google) source.
The Fortnite maker says the “onerous” process unfairly deters players from downloading its games from places other than the Google Play Store (like its Epic Games Store). Epic also alleges there’s no process to become an authorized source.
Hurdles to a “sideloading” process were a recurring complaint from Epic attorneys when they made, and ultimately won, their case against Google’s monopoly over Android gaming last year. Now Epic CEO Tim Sweeney is back for more.
Can he pull off a double pump? We’ll find out. —JB
SoftBank wants a piece of OpenAI, too
SoftBank is reportedly planning to become an OpenAI investor.
The Japanese conglomerate has lately been going all in on artificial intelligence, with a firm financial footing that is itself largely a product of the AI boom—SoftBank owns most of Arm, the chip architecture company that’s been raking it in recently.
Now, according to The Information, SoftBank’s Vision Fund has agreed to put $500 million into OpenAI.
OpenAI is currently raising a new round that could run as high as $6.5 billion, giving it a valuation of $150 billion.
The round would feature some returning investors—most notably Thrive Capital, which is lined up to contribute $1 billion, but also Microsoft, Tiger Global Management, and Coatue Management.
Nvidia and Apple have apparently also been in discussions about joining the round, but the Wall Street Journal reported on the weekend that Apple was out.
The final lineup should become apparent when the round closes, perhaps later this week. —David Meyer
Battle of the face computers
Meta’s introduction of computerized eyewear last week, including augmented reality glasses and a cheaper mixed reality headset, was bad news for another tech giant: Apple.
They show that Apple’s Vision Pro, a bulky headset that debuted in February, will face an uphill battle with consumers unless they are radically overhauled and priced lower than its current $3,500, says influential Bloomberg Apple reporter Mark Gurman.
“There’s little reason for someone to buy a Vision Pro instead of a computer, and the drawbacks are too big to ignore,” he wrote. Ouch.
Gurman says the debut of Meta’s updated Ray-Ban smart sunglasses and its latest Quest mixed reality headset at its Connect conference put Apple’s shortcomings in sharp focus. So too do Meta’s Orion augmented reality glasses, a prototype that may not go on public sale for years, that he nevertheless described as a “masterstroke.”
Apple’s Vision Pro pales in comparison, Gurman concluded. And the stakes, he said, are huge. If Apple fails to right the ship, it “will risk losing out on a product category that could transform the way people use technology.” —Verne Kopytoff
DirecTV is in private equity hands now
AT&T has spent the last decade creating more spinoffs than the Marvel multiverse. Its latest: Selling its remaining 70% stake in DirecTV to TPG for $7.6 billion.
The Texas private equity firm had already owned 30% of the satellite TV provider, which it acquired from AT&T in 2021.
AT&T CEO John Stankey has not been shy about getting the U.S. telecom giant back to its core business of connecting people. This is, after all, the man who offloaded WarnerMedia to Discovery in 2022.
DirecTV’s divestiture is part of that. Satellite TV’s future was already dimming—thanks, cord cutters!—when Stankey’s predecessor picked up DirecTV in 2015 for $48.5 billion. But its content and customer base were still attractive to a company pushing to diversify. That’s no longer the strategy.
DirecTV celebrated its new ownership situation Monday by turning around and buying rival Dish—a deal the FCC blocked back in 2002—from Echostar for $1 and $9.8 billion in debt in an attempt to fortify itself against streamers.
As for AT&T? It’s more than happy to sell Internet service to whoever wins. —Andrew Nusca
More data
—Verizon endures massive U.S. outage. In the words of Wiz Khalifa: Don’t text, don’t call.
—Binance founder CZ is out of jail. He served four months for not implementing anti-money laundering controls at the crypto exchange.
—California’s new law safeguards "neural data." Yes, even your memory of that one time at band camp is protected.
—Netflix subscribers drop after cofounder backs Harris. What a symbolic protest looks like when there are no DVDs to steamroll.
—YouTube blocks major artists in U.S. in legal dispute. Another example of a blackout-as-negotiation-tactic on a digitally native platform.
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