TikTok still going, $500 billion Stargate project, Google buys HTC VR Tech

TikTok survives the week. On January 19, 2025, TikTok’s 170 million US users woke up to a new world after ByteDance shut down the app in compliance with PAFACA, which ordered the sale of its US operations to a US-based company by that date. By midday, President-elect Donald Trump said he planned to issue an executive order to give ByteDance time to work with the new administration on a long-term solution. Apple and Google, however, will keep the app out of their stores for now. Companies could face billions of dollars in fines for prematurely restoring the app to their stores if the executive order is overturned. TikTok competitors Instagram Reels and YouTube Shorts wasted no time joining popular TikTok influencers with money to move to their platforms.

A day after taking office, US President Donald Trump announced Project Stargate, a $500 billion AI infrastructure initiative backed by OpenAI, SoftBank and Oracle. The companies pledged an initial investment of $100 billion, which they say will create 100,000 US jobs and build 20 massive data centers, starting in Texas. Apparently the $500 billion will also finance their energy needs, but the parties did not address this. Masayoshi Son of SoftBank credited Trump’s re-election for the deal while Sam Altman of OpenAI praised Trump’s role. Altman later clashed with conspicuously absent tech boss Elon Musk, who balked at the deal. “They don’t actually have any money,” Musk wrote on X. He is trying to prevent OpenAI, which he co-founded, from transitioning from a nonprofit to a for-profit company that would compete with Musk’s company. Xai. Microsoft, OpenAI’s biggest investor and its main cloud partner, is losing its designation as the exclusive provider of computing capacity to the artificial intelligence startup.

Google is buying HTC VIVE VR engineering talent and licensing its intellectual property in a deal worth $250 million. Google released Android XR, a new operating system for headphones and smart glasses in December 2024. Developed in collaboration with Samsung and Qualcomm, it integrates Google’s Gemini AI. Therefore, it seems unlikely that the deal is about software. Hardware development and production, on the other hand, is notoriously slow and expensive, and Google, having killed off its AR Project Iris, Google Glass, and Google Daydream, may be looking for help in this area. But why? Google bought HTC’s mobile business years ago to make its popular Pixel smartphones. So they must have manufacturing expertise. It doesn’t make sense. The Google/Samsung/Qualcomm collaboration for a mixed reality headset, Project Moohan, was officially unveiled by Samsung yesterday. It will use Google’s new Android XR system. The Meta Quest 3 had disappointing holiday sales, and the disappointing Apple Vision Pro has ceased production. I thought Google’s game was owning the XR OS to counter Apple’s and Meta’s XR OS, but something else is also happening now. Since the details of the deal are not public, where that leaves HTC is also a mystery for now.

DeepSeek’s AI model challenges OpenAI’s o1. Chinese AI research firm DeepSeek has unveiled DeepSeek-R1, an open-source reasoning model that is said to match OpenAI’s o1 performance on specific benchmarks using far less computation. Despite US export restrictions on advanced AI chips, Chinese firms have rapidly advanced their AI capabilities. Tech CEOs have argued for the imposition of AI

Trump pardons Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht. He had been serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole since his conviction in 2015 on charges including drug trafficking, money laundering and computer hacking. Famously, Silk Road used cryptocurrency to keep transactions private. At the time of his arrest, the thieving Ulbricht was hiring a hitman to take out a rival.

Mistral AI will go public, leading a new wave of tech IPOs. With a valuation of around $2 billion after its December funding round, the French company’s IPO could be the first of many in what is shaping up to be a strong year for tech public offerings. The ongoing AI boom, coupled with improving market conditions, suggests that other high-growth startups may soon follow suit. As the industry heads toward commercialization, Mistral’s success or struggles in the public market could set a precedent for the next generation of AI firms. In a booming market, this could be just the start of a wave of AI and tech IPOs.

The whole story of how NFL QB Jayden Daniels trains with VR is in this Twitter thread. Not exactly breaking news. The NY Times wrote about it in October. The “QB flight simulator” that the star QB relies on is in the news again this week as Daniels leads the Washington Commanders into the NFC Championship game on Sunday, January 22nd. In 2015, QB Carson Palmer of the Arizona Cardinals used a VR system from SRTRIVR that used 360 video. This simulation is more like a video game. It’s from a European company, Cognilize, which previously focused on soccer coaching.

Cinematic AI

Created using Google Veo 2, this AI short film delivers visuals so realistic you’ll think you’re watching a Hollywood blockbuster. The results are truly amazing!

This column is also a podcast hosted by its author, Charlie Fink, Ted Schilowitz, former studio executive and co-founder of Red Camera, and Rony Abovitz, founder of Magic Leap. This week our guest is Elizabeth Baron, Founder, Immersionary Enterprises, LLC, Senior Advisor, Intelligent Immersive Simulation, UNMC iEXCEL. Former global leader, immersive reality for Ford Motor Company product development. We can be found on Spotify, iTunes and YouTube.

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