Big Tech eclipses EU-US talks

The United States and the EU officially pledged Tuesday in Brussels “to promote innovation and leadership of American and European companies”, but America fears that this does not include its biggest technology companies: Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Microsoft.

The United States, in fact, has warned the EU against pursuing “protectionist” technology policies that exclusively target American companies, ahead of Joe Biden’s first presidential visit to Brussels, according to this FT scoop.

The National Security Council wrote last week complaining about the tone of recent comments on the EU’s digital markets law – the bill that seeks to limit the power of big techs. “We are particularly concerned by the recent comments by the European Parliament’s rapporteur on the Digital Markets Law, Andreas Schwab, who suggested that the DMA should definitely target only the five largest US companies,” said the NSC. .

He may have been reassured by today’s deal “Establish a joint EU-US dialogue on technological competition policy that would focus on approaches to competition policy and its application, and increased cooperation in the technology sector”.

In addition, in a move seen as thwarting China’s technological advances, today’s Brussels meeting established a high-level EU-US Trade and Technology Council, with the goals of ” avoid new unnecessary technical barriers to trade. . . to facilitate regulatory policy and enforcement cooperation and, where possible, convergence ”.

As a first step, the working groups will focus on technology standards for AI and the Internet of Things, and on strengthening supply chains. “In particular, we commit to establishing an EU-US partnership on rebalancing global semiconductor supply chains with a view to improving the respective security of supply of the EU and the US as well than the ability to design and produce the most powerful and resource efficient semiconductors, ”their joint statement said.

It looks like the Biden administration will fight for the Big Five to be treated fairly in Europe, while also giving them a hard time at home. Today, the Senate confirmed White House candidate Lina Khan – a vocal critic of Amazon – as a new member of the Federal Trade Commission. Lex says it could shape a new era of antitrust policy, although the breakup of tech companies isn’t inevitable.

The Internet of (five) things

1. From Russia with lies
A meeting with Vladimir Putin in Geneva on Wednesday marks the final stop on President Biden’s European tour. Today’s big read looks at a new era of information warfare, with the United States convinced that Russia is using disinformation to weaken support for democracy.

2. Sire of NFT offspring from the Web
Sir Tim Berners-Lee is auctioning off his original source code for the web in the form of a “non-fungible token” as digital collectibles continue to make millions of dollars. The auction at Sotheby’s will be the first time Berners-Lee has been able to raise funds directly from one of the greatest inventions of the modern era, with the proceeds going to initiatives he and his wife Rosemary support.

3. VC spring for Chinese start-ups
After two years of struggling to raise funds, Chinese start-ups are seeing the interest of venture capitalists pick up again, as the boom in the United States crosses the Pacific. The number of venture capital transactions in China increased 56% in the first quarter compared to the previous year, the fourth consecutive quarter of increased activity, with start-ups attracting Rmb 354 billion (Rmb 55 billion dollars) of investment.

4. Hopin collection for the founder
The founder of Hopin, one of the fastest growing tech start-ups of all time, has sold around £ 100million of shares in the past year as the video conferencing firm’s valuation exploded. Johnny Boufarhat, who started Hopin two years ago, has sold nearly 17% of his stake for between £ 96 million and £ 130million, according to an FT analysis of public documents.

5. Vivendi arouses the interest of activists
Activist investor Third Point has taken a stake in Vivendi, the media group controlled by French billionaire Vincent Bolloré. Lex says one of the attractions could be the hostility of some independent shareholders to Vivendi’s plans for a complicated split from the world’s largest music label, Universal Music Group.

Technical tools – Realme 5G GT

The Chinese Realme today unveiled a new list of products, led by its flagship smartphone. The 5G GT has allusions to fast cars and its need for speed means that a top-notch processor is incorporated and makes the selling point of what Realme says is “the most affordable Snapdragon 8-powered smartphone launched in the world – at from 369 € “. It also has a 6.4-inch Super AMOLED display, a Sony 64MP triple camera, and a full 35-minute battery charge. The phone is available from next Monday, but from tomorrow you can pick up the company’s two new budget smartwatches, the Watch 2 Pro for £ 69.99 and the Watch 2 for £ 49.99. Also available from June 16, Realme hopes to clean up with a € 299 robot vacuum.