TNB Tech Minute: AMD Invests in Drug-Discovery Company Absci
WSJ Tech News Briefing
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Here's your TMB Tech Minute for Wednesday, January the 8th. I'm James Rundle for The Wall Street Journal. We're exclusively reporting that Advanced Micro Devices is investing $20 million in drug discovery company AbSci. The investment allows AbSci to access the computing power it needs for its use of artificial intelligence at a lower cost. It will also give AMD a foothold in the life sciences market, where it aims to compete with rival Nvidia over the growing market for AI chips.
In 2023, Nvidia invested $50 million in drug discovery company Recursion Pharmaceuticals, which then used its technology to underpin its AI modeling. The deal includes AMD taking a stake in Abcide, but the chipmaker didn't disclose the amount.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman is being sued by his sister, Anne Altman, over allegations that he sexually abused her for several years when they were children. Altman denies the accusations. The lawsuit alleges that the abuse occurred at their family home in Missouri from approximately 1997 through 2006. The lawsuit requests a jury trial and damages in excess of $75,000. Sam Altman denied the accusations in a post on X yesterday and said his sister has suffered from mental health challenges.
Wall Street Journal owner News Corp has a content licensing partnership with OpenAI.
And Meta says it will run a test allowing some users in the US, France and Germany to browse listings from rival eBay on its Facebook marketplace platform. That comes after the European Union ruled that the link between its classified ads platform, Marketplace, and Facebook violated competition laws. Meta is still appealing that decision, which also levied an $825 million fine on the social media giant, but said it was working to address the points raised by regulators.
For a deeper dive into what's happening in tech, check out Thursday's Tech News Briefing podcast.