Good morning. Sometimes a tech turnaround feels like an action scene ripped from a spy flick: a hard left on a stolen motorcycle, through a crowded market square in a faraway place, with produce and livestock flying.
Other times, it’s a slow grind toward the inevitable—a massive ocean liner trying desperately to avoid striking a looming iceberg.
Which is it for Bumble, I wonder? In March the troubled dating app (though in fairness, they all are at the moment) saw its founder, Whitney Wolfe Herd, return to take the wheel, shrink the staff, focus on its most committed customers, and engage a new generation.
Trouble is, the new plan is not working, at least not yet: In its latest quarter, Bumble saw a 9% decrease in its paid user base (basic functionality is free) even as it posted a better-than-expected revenue outlook, making investors nervous enough to send its stock down 10%, to $6.85. It endured similar pain three months ago.
AI tricks aside, I think Herd’s plan to capitalize on real connections is ultimately the right move. The question is whether she has enough room to maneuver. Will a dozen close calls end in spectacular triumph? Or is Bumble too far along a collision course to save?
Today’s tech news below. —Andrew Nusca
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DoorDash is dominant, but a bigger opportunity awaits
DoorDash beat Wall Street twice on Wednesday, reporting second-quarter revenue and a third quarter forecast that rose above analysts’ estimates.
The San Francisco delivery company reported Q2 revenue of $3.28 billion, up 25% from the same period a year ago and well above consensus estimates of $3.16 billion.
It also reported a 20% increase in total orders and Q3 gross merchandise value—the total dollar value of orders placed through the DoorDash platform—of about $24.5 billion, topping analyst estimates of $23.7 billion.
DoorDash shares reached $280 in after-hours trading, up from $258 at market close. The company’s shares started the year at $170.
It is clear that the 12-year-old company has dominated the restaurant delivery wars in the U.S. over Uber Eats and Grubhub, owning somewhere around two-thirds of the market thanks in part to its prescient move into the suburbs that was supercharged by COVID-19 lockdowns.
But if you look at DoorDash’s investment and M&A activity this year, you’ll see signs of a much grander ambition beyond restaurant delivery in the U.S.
In May, the company announced a nearly $4 billion deal for Deliveroo (which gives DoorDash a top-three meal delivery business in the U.K.) and a $1.2 billion deal for the hospitality software company SevenRooms (which makes software to help restaurants, hotels, and other hospitality businesses manage bookings).
Meanwhile DoorDash has continued to aggressively go after other types of consumer spending, signing delivery partnerships with retailers big and small across grocery, pharmacy, pet, sporting goods, and alcohol categories.
Despite a market cap above $100 billion, the company still has potential for considerable growth within its core business of restaurant delivery in markets around the world. Time will tell if the company’s ambitious vision proves prescient. —Jason Del Rey and Andrew Nusca
Apple will invest another $100 billion in U.S. manufacturing
Apple said Wednesday that it would invest an additional $100 billion in U.S. manufacturing efforts.
The news, announced alongside President Donald Trump, could help it avoid steep tariffs on its lucrative iPhones, which are currently assembled in China and India from components made in dozens of countries.
Other Apple products are assembled in other nations including Vietnam and Thailand.
The pledge raises Apple’s total U.S. commitment to $600 billion over the next four years. According to several analysts, that’s not a significant sum more than it would have already spent.
Notably, the pledge doesn’t include a promise that iPhones would be assembled in the U.S. For years, Apple CEO Tim Cook has maintained that the skill level to assemble his company’s products was “extremely high” and not easily replicated outside of China, nevermind the additional labor costs to do so.
During Wednesday’s announcement, Cook acknowledged that final assembly for iPhones would remain overseas “for awhile,” even as several components—semiconductors from Texas Instruments and others, glass from Corning, etc—were already U.S.-made.
The Trump administration previously exempted smartphones and other electronics from aggressive tariffs on Chinese imports. That changed in May, when Trump threatened Apple with a 25% duty on such goods. On Wednesday, Trump threatened a fresh 100% tariff on imported semiconductors.
Apple estimates the trade war cost it $800 million during its last fiscal quarter and predicted another $1.5 billion hit in the next one. —AN
TSMC may avoid Trump’s newest chip tariff
The world’s largest contract manufacturer of computer chips is likely to avoid an exemption from Trump’s threatened 100% tariff on semiconductors, according to the government in Taipei.
TSMC—Taiwanese chipmaking giant and partner to Apple, Nvidia, AMD, Broadcom, Qualcomm, and more—“is exempt” “because it “has factories in the United States,” National Development Council chief Liu Chin-ching reportedly said in parliament.
That doesn’t mean all of Taiwan’s chipmakers avoid the levy. Some “will be affected,” Liu added.
The silver lining? So will their competitors.
“If the leader and competitors are on the same starting line, the leader will continue to lead,” Liu said, referring to Taiwan.
The Trump administration had already imposed on the island a 20% tariff that excludes semiconductors. More than half of the world’s computer chips, and nearly all of the cutting-edge ones, are manufactured in Taiwan.
Taiwan previously pledged more U.S. investment—in the form of energy purchases and defense spending—in an attempt to avoid drawing the White House’s ire.
Meanwhile TSMC has itself promised to invest $100 billion in U.S. manufacturing in the form of three chip foundries, an R&D center, and two packaging facilities in Arizona. That pledge comes on top of a previous promise to invest $65 billion in the chip facilities. —AN
More tech
—The Palantir playbook. It’s now the world’s 23rd most valuable company, worth nearly as much as Johnson & Johnson.
—Google Search is “relatively stable.” AI is driving higher quality engagement, the AI purveyor says.
—Airbnb may not sustain growth. The company’s shares dropped 6% despite a sunny Q3 outlook.
—Tornado Cash cofounder found guilty. A jury says Roman Storm conspired to run an unlicensed money-transfer operation that laundered more than a billion dollars.
—OpenAI sells ChatGPT to U.S. agencies for $1 per year. An aggressive move to secure market share in the federal government.
—Samsung will make image sensors in Texas. A “three-layer stacked” camera component for the upcoming iPhone 18.
—Apollo will acquire majority stake in Stream Data Centers. The firm builds, leases, and operates data center campuses.
—Hulu will be “fully integrated” with Disney+. A unified streaming app will arrive next year.
—Zoox exempted from federal vehicle standards. Amazon’s robotaxi arm can no longer say that its vehicles are compliant.
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