Chinese Robotics Stocks React as Humanoid Robot Marathon Sparks Competition Concerns 
NVIDIA Acquisition Rumors Dismissed by Morgan Stanley as Strategically Flawed 
Anthropic Discusses Frontier AI Model Mythos With Trump Administration Despite Pentagon Ban 
Apple Wins ITC Ruling, Keeping Blood-Oxygen Feature on Apple Watch 
Greg Abel Sells Berkshire Hathaway Stocks Managed by Former Investment Manager Todd Combs 
Elliott Investment Takes ~3% Stake in Daikin, Pushes for Buybacks and Strategic Overhaul 
Huawei Expands Vietnam Presence Through Strategic Partnership with SHB Bank 
Sam Altman Moves to Dismiss Punitive Damages in Sister's Sexual Abuse Lawsuit 
SK Hynix Launches 192GB SOCAMM2 Memory for Nvidia’s Next-Gen AI Chips 
Meta Is Building an AI Version of Mark Zuckerberg to Interact With Employees 
China Food Delivery Stocks Dip as Regulators Crack Down on “Ghost Deliveries” 
Anthropic Nears $800 Billion Valuation as Investor Confidence Surges 
Eli Lilly in Talks to Acquire Kelonia Therapeutics for Over $2 Billion 
Want to cut your energy bills? Here’s how five experts are doing it 
Samsung Races to Deliver Next-Gen HBM4E Memory Samples to Nvidia 
TSMC Posts Record Q1 Profit Fueled by AI Chip Demand 
ASML Raises 2026 Revenue Outlook as AI Chip Demand Surges 
Google confirmed, shortly after it leaked, that several projects of its in-house incubator Area 120 have been cancelled. The tech giant says the remaining projects will be aligned to its AI push.
The cancellation of Area 120 projects was first revealed by TechCrunch with the publication reporting that half of the incubator’s projects will no longer proceed. There were 14 projects in the incubator before the cuts.
“We’ve recently shared that Area 120 will be shifting its focus to projects that build on Google’s deep investment in AI and have the potential to solve important user problems,” Google said upon confirming the project cuts. “As a result, Area 120 is winding down several projects to make way for new work.”
Google added that it would provide “dedicated support” so that affected Googlers at Area 120 would find new jobs within the Alphabet Inc.-owned company. But the same report said that the affected employees would be terminated if they were unable to find new positions within Google by the end of January 2023.
TechCrunch’s source said Qaya was one of Area 120’s cancelled projects. Qaya was launched last December, but the Area 120 website indicates it is still in the early access phase. It offers services to digital creators to help them set up a hub for all their social media links that also serve as a storefront for their merch. Google also reportedly cancelled projects that were exploring Google Sheets financial accounting, a product for AR/VR analytics, and three climate-related projects.
The Area 120 shakeup happened after Google CEO Sundar Pichai reportedly told employees in July that they will slow down hiring for the rest of the year. In the same memo, Pichai mentioned Google will consolidate overlapping investments and redeploy its resources.
It was also recently reported that Google disbanded a team working on what would have been the next Pixelbook even though the product was already in the latter stages of development. Before its cancellation, the company supposedly planned to launch the device in 2023.
Photo by Marco Verch from Flickr under Creative Commons (CC BY 2.0)
