GEOPOLITICS

That Was One Year Ago?

Today’s an important anniversary for Chinese telco Huawei, but not the kind with ice cream cake. One year ago, the U.S. added Huawei to its Entity List, restricting the company’s access to U.S. technologies and essentially barring it from doing business with American companies. 

• If you feel like that happened a decade ago, join the club. 

How’s the U.S. celebrating?

By re-upping the bad memories with more restrictions. On Friday, the U.S. Commerce Department announced an export rule amendment that bans foreign companies from supplying chips to Huawei using American equipment or software without a license. TSMC, the world’s largest contract chipmaker, has halted orders from Huawei (its second largest customer) in response to the U.S. export controls, Nikkei reported today. 

“Despite the Entity List actions the Department took last year, Huawei and its foreign affiliates have stepped-up efforts to undermine these national security-based restrictions through an indigenization effort. However, that effort is still dependent on U.S. technologies,” U.S. Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross said.

This is like any acrimonious divorce

So, naturally, both sides are angling for the final word. China will take “all necessary measures” to protect Huawei, the country’s commerce ministry said yesterday. That could mean retaliation against Apple, which is doubling down on investments in its Asian supply chain. Countermeasures for U.S. companies could be like a “nuke bomb,” according to Chinese state media. 

• Apple and Qualcomm lost $14 billion in market cap on Friday due to concerns about Chinese retaliation. 

Even after a rough year snarled by the U.S., Huawei has notched some recent victories. It was No. 2 in global smartphone shipments in 2019, and the firm’s network gear business is booming as China races to capture 70% of the world’s 5G smartphone connections by the end of 2020.

Bottom line: Huawei and the U.S. are never, ever, ever getting back together. As for hopes that the virus would cool tech and trade tensions between the U.S. and China...well, instead they seem to be growing by the day.

AR/VR

3D Zoom

Spatial is a startup making mixed reality (MR) workplace collaboration software—think Slack on steroids. The company says it had originally catered its software to enterprise customers that used AR and VR headsets...until it saw a 1,000% surge in interest during the pandemic from corporations, startups, schools, and hospitals. 

Now Spatial has opened a free version of its MR product to everyone. It’s also expanded support to desktop browsers, which allows users without a headset to join a meeting in 2D. 

When I tried Spatial on a Microsoft HoloLens 2 headset in November, I was able to move objects, photos, and a digital Mars rover around in 3D. It felt like an imperfect beta of a futuristic Ready Player One-type tool for workplaces focused on manufacturing, modeling, or 3D design. The experience is better with a high-caliber device, but since most workers don’t have $3,500 AR headsets, Spatial is widening its potential user base at just the right time. 

Bottom line: Spatial is showing how productivity tools could extend beyond chat or videoconferencing in a post-pandemic world with fewer colocated employees.

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Athletic Greens is the tasty green powder made up of, frankly, an outrageous amount of things that are good for you. (Can you tell we aren’t doctors?) It’s developed from a complex blend of 75 vitamins, minerals, and whole food-sourced ingredients. 

What are we waiting for? Let’s meet the ingredients!

• Vitamins and minerals. These guys get all the glory, and for good reason: They’re crucial for a well-functioning nervous system and immune support.

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• Digestive enzymes and mushroom complex. Rounding out this A-list cast, these babies bolster the digestive process and enhance nutrient absorption.

And if you weren’t good at biology in school, here’s a translation: You’d be hard-pressed to find something more complete than Athletic Greens.

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M&A

Memes Worth Millions

On Friday, Facebook said it was buying Giphy, a GIF search engine and pivotal player in the meme economy. Axios put the price tag at $400 million, a haircut for the popular website that was last valued at $600 million. 

Giphy has already achieved an impressive feat: It’s the second most popular search engine in the world, according to cofounder Alex Chung. And though Giphy may have struggled to monetize its platform, the service could be very valuable for FB. The social media giant's properties account for 50% of Giphy’s traffic. The search engine is also embedded across major rival social and messaging services. 

• For its part, Giphy said it will continue supporting “the wider ecosystem.”
• With Giphy, FB can see aggregate usage patterns across other services, which could let it spot up-and-coming apps. 

Bottom line: The rise of Giphy shows we’re increasingly communicating using visual cues. FB paid big bucks for that, dropping the same amount on Giphy as Alphabet did in 2015 to acquire advanced AI research lab DeepMind.

BITS & BYTES

Stat: Facebook will help build 2Africa, a subsea cable bringing more internet capacity to Africa and the Middle East. At 37,000 kilometers, 2Africa will be one of the longest subsea cables in the world.

Quote: “As we shake off the aches of too many weeks with too little motion, and the sun starts to shine, and cities from New York to Milan to Vilnius talk of blocking off streets to make room for people on foot and on bikes, let’s make this our summer of the humble, free, and better-than-ever walk.”—John Hanke, CEO of Pokémon Go parent Niantic, waxes poetic about the joys of walking. 

Read: Facebook’s VP for special gaming initiatives describes to Protocol the tech required to get top-tier video games on VR headsets.

SPONSORED BY WEWORK

Work is going to be different. And yet, nothing can replace collaboration and human connection. That’s why WeWork is rethinking their offices with your safety in mind, including enhanced cleanliness standards and more personal space. It’s a better, safer workspace for you and your team. Learn more about WeWork’s commitment to the future of work .

WHAT ELSE IS BREWING

• General Atlantic, an NYC private equity firm, will invest $870 million in Jio Platforms, India’s massively popular telecom. Facebook recently announced a $5.7 billion investment in Jio. 
• Bolt, an e-scooter startup, will expand to 45+ cities this summer. Bolt is not to be confused with Bolt Mobility, the scooter startup cofounded by Usain Bolt. 
• Tesla will build its next factory in or near Austin, TX, Electrek reports. Hook ’em, if true. 
• Hackers infected European supercomputers being used to research COVID-19 with cryptocurrency mining malware.
• Yandex has evolved from being Russia’s Google to the country’s Amazon during the pandemic.

COVID-19 AND AI ADOPTION

One last reminder: Emerging Tech Brew is hosting a free virtual event today at 4pm ET. I’ll be talking with Future Today Institute Founder Amy Webb and SoftBank Partner Giles Whiting about the future of AI. 

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WHAT’S BREWING THIS WEEK

Besides Emerging Tech Brew’s event…

Monday: The WHO meets to discuss coronavirus; SoftBank earnings

Tuesday: Microsoft Build runs virtually through Thursday; earnings (Baidu)

Wednesday: Earnings (Lenovo, Xiaomi)

Thursday: Earnings (Best Buy)

Friday: Earnings (Nvidia, Alibaba, Pinduoduo); Memorial Day weekend begins

TECH THINGAMABOBS

Food for thought: The average NYC company spends $17,000 a year per employee on office space, according to real estate company Squarefoot. I bet you’ll see more tech companies follow in the footsteps of Twitter, which has said most employees can WFH forever if they’d like. 

For those dissecting back-to-work roadmaps: Self-driving startup Argo shared its return-to-road testing playbook, which focuses on safe and socially distant operations, rigorous cleaning, PPE, physical barriers between seating areas, and new air filtration systems. 

For muggles: Cryptocurrency Twitter tried to explain bitcoin to J.K. Rowling and it didn’t go very well.