Good morning. Word on the street is that Snapchat-maker Snap seeks to raise $1 billion to double down on its Spectacles.
It’s not hard to imagine the urgency CEO Evan Spiegel must feel. The L.A. company made a big bet on augmented reality glasses way back in 2016; today it’s working on its sixth generation—while drafting behind perpetual rival Meta as that company’s twist on Ray-Bans (b. 2021) consume a majority share in the category.
I know The Social Reckoning is already in production, but a plea to Aaron Sorkin: Can we get a flick for this unending rivalry? Call it Social Anxiety.
Today’s tech news below. —Andrew Nusca
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Trump pardons ex-Binance CEO 'CZ'
Donald Trump has pardoned the man who pleaded guilty to money laundering after creating the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange.
That man is Binance co-founder Changpeng Zhao, known better as “CZ.” Zhao served four months in prison for failing to stop criminals from using his company’s platform to move money tied to all sorts of illicit activities, including child sex abuse, drug trafficking, and terrorism.
As part of a 2023 plea deal, Binance agreed to pay $4.3 billion to settle charges with the U.S. Department of Justice. Following Zhao’s resignation as CEO, Binance installed Richard Teng, a former financial regulator in the UAE and Singapore, as head of the company to telegraph to authorities that the exchange was focused on compliance.
The decision comes after months of reports that Trump was weighing whether to pardon Zhao, who has supported some of the Trump family's crypto enterprises since his release from prison.
“We thank President Trump for his leadership and for his commitment to make the U.S. the crypto capital of the world,” said a spokesperson for Binance in a statement to Fortune.
The price of BNB, the cryptocurrency closely associated with Binance, rocketed 15% shortly after the news broke Thursday morning, notching a high of more than $1,150. —Ben Weiss and Andrew Nusca
Intel beats Q3 revenue estimates
Intel shares jumped 7% after the American chipmaker posted third-quarter revenues of $13.7 billion, handily beating estimates of $13.1 billion.
What’s more, the Silicon Valley icon posted a $4.1 billion profit—quite a different story than the almost $17 billion loss during the same quarter last year.
There’s a lot going into those results.
Demand has returned for its x86 processors, outpacing supply—a trend expected to carry on through next year. A $5 billion investment from its erstwhile rival, Nvidia, certainly helped.
And then there’s the matter of that $5.7 billion infusion from the U.S. government. (“There is limited precedent for the accounting treatment of such transactions,” Intel said. Um, ya.)
There’s also been quite a bit of slash and burn. Intel now counts 88,400 employees—down from 124,100 this time last year.
The wild card, as it has been for years, is Intel’s Foundry. A major customer for the chip-manufacturing unit remains elusive thus far, even as the business requires tens of billions of dollars of additional capital investment.
The entirety of the group’s $4.2 billion in sales came from Intel’s own chips. Silicon Valley always did like “dogfooding,” eh? —AN
Apple's Houston factory opens ahead of schedule
In the U.S. lately, it’s build, baby, build.
No, I’m not talking about the White House’s under-construction ballroom. (Though it’s worth noting that Amazon, Apple, Google, and Meta are on the donor list.)
I’m talking about factories in the United States. As part of its four-year, $600 billion commitment to domestic manufacturing, Apple has been plowing toward the 2026 completion of a 250,000 sq. ft. plant in Houston, Texas, that would make AI servers for its domestic data centers.
Turns out it’s finished ahead of schedule and already shipping the servers, which will support Apple Intelligence services on consumer devices like iPhones, according to a new Fox Business report.
Under pressure from a tariff-happy White House committed to reshoring manufacturing, Apple has promised to move several processes back to the U.S. It’s making more chips locally (Arizona and Texas). It’s sourcing cover glass (Kentucky) and FaceID lasers (Texas), too.
But it’s a long road. Ninety-five percent of the components of an iPhone, for example—a product family that generates half of Apple’s total revenue—come from overseas, and the vast majority of them are assembled in China. —AN
More tech
—Trump abandons sending National Guard to SF after conferring with “great people like Jensen Huang, Marc Benioff, and others.”
—Meet Microsoft’s Mico. A Clippy-esque character for Copilot's voice mode.
—OpenAI acquires Software Applications Inc. The Sam Altman-backed startup is behind Sky, an AI-infused natural language interface for macOS.
—EA and Stability AI partner to build smart game developer tools.
—Microsoft’s AI chief: No erotica, thanks. “Other companies will build that,” Mustafa Suleyman says.
—What caused the AWS outage? A rare software bug and “faulty automation,” per Amazon.
—Cybersecurity director charged with selling secrets to Russia. The U.S. says Australian national Peter Williams, formerly of L3Harris, stole trade secrets from companies.