close
close
numb-two

Apple withdraws from OpenAI funding round

Heory
Apple withdraws from OpenAI funding round

According to Friday’s Wall Street Journal, Apple withdrew from consideration of participating in the OpenAI financing round, which is expected to generate approximately $6.5 billion.

Takeaway points:

  • As the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday, Apple has concluded negotiations to participate in the OpenAI financing round, which is expected to raise approximately $6.5 billion.
  • A complaint against Apple for allegedly collecting personal information from iPhone, iPad and Apple Watch users through proprietary programs including the App Store, Apple Music and Apple TV has been upheld by a federal judge.
  • The unspecified damages lawsuit is one of many accusing tech companies such as Apple, Alphabet’s Google and Facebook’s Meta Platforms of allowing user data to be collected without consent.

Apple suspends financial negotiations with OpenAI

The tech giant recently withdrew from talks in the round, which is scheduled to end next week, the newspaper reported, citing a person familiar with the matter.

Other companies such as Microsoft and Nvidia are also in talks to participate in the conference, the report said, adding that Microsoft was expected to invest around $1 billion after already injecting $13 billion into the company.

Last month, the Journal first reported that Apple was in talks for a new fundraising effort by OpenAI that could value the ChatGPT maker at more than $100 billion.

The high valuation is the result of the AI ​​arms race OpenAI spearheaded the launch of ChatGPT in late 2022, prompting companies across industries to invest billions in the technology to stay ahead of the competition and gain market share.

A federal judge said Apple must face a narrower privacy lawsuit over its apps

A federal judge narrowed the scope of the lawsuit, accusing Apple of violating the privacy of iPhone, iPad and Apple Watch users by collecting their personal information through proprietary apps such as the App Store, Apple Music and Apple TV.

U.S. District Judge Edward Davila in San Jose, California, rejected almost all claims based on the “Allow apps to request tracking” setting on Apple mobile devices, but allowed some claims to proceed using the “Share Analytics (devices)” setting.

Mobile device users said Apple violated their user agreements and several privacy and consumer protection laws by ensuring that turning off settings would limit the collection, storage and use of their data – and then ignore their choices and collect, store and use that data.

The unspecified damages lawsuit is one of many accusing tech companies such as Apple, Alphabet’s Google and Facebook’s Meta Platforms of allowing user data to be collected without consent.

In a 39-page decision issued late Thursday, Davila said Apple made clear to users that the “Allow apps to request tracking” setting applies to “third-party apps and websites.”

He said this made it “implausible” for reasonable people to believe that by opting out, they were withdrawing consent for Apple to collect their data through its own apps.

However, the judge found that users plausibly argued that they withdrew such consent by turning off the “Share Analytics (Devices)” option, citing Apple’s disclosure that users can “completely disable Device Analytics sharing.”

The Cupertino, California-based company said it collects data through this setting to improve its products and services.

Lawyers for the plaintiffs did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Friday. Apple and its lawyers did not immediately respond to similar requests.

The case is Apple Data Privacy Litigation, U.S. District Court, Northern District of California, No. 22-07069.