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      Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger Steps Down Amid Chipmaker’s Struggles

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      Pat Gelsinger stepped down after nearly four years at the helm of the company, Intel said Monday.Intel’s chief executive officer, Pat Gelsinger, stepped down after nearly four years leading the semiconductor company, Intel announced Monday, a surprise leadership change as the chipmaker has struggled in recent months.Mr. Gelsinger, who took the helm in 2021, also resigned from the company’s board of directors. He will be replaced in the interim by two Intel executives, David Zinsner and Michelle Johnston Holthaus. The company said it would continue its search for permanent replacements.The leadership change signals Intel’s growing urgency to turn around its business, which has been left in the dust during the lucrative artificial intelligence boom that has turned its rival chipmaker, Nvidia, into one of the world’s most valuable companies. Intel recently cut 15,000 jobs, and its revenue declined more than 30 percent from 2021 through 2023.Shares of Intel rose about 5 percent in premarket trading, before paring back some of those gains, after the company announced Mr. Gelsinger’s retirement. A loss in market share and struggles in the A.I. market have contributed to a 52 percent slump in the company’s stock price so far this year.“We have much more work to do at the company and are committed to restoring investor confidence,” Frank Yeary, who will serve as the company’s interim executive chair on the board, said in a statement.Mr. Gelsinger said in the statement that the move was bittersweet. “It has been a challenging year for all of us as we have made tough but necessary decisions to position Intel for the current market dynamics,” he added.Mr. Gelsinger first joined Intel in 1979, eventually ascending to become the company’s chief technology officer during his initial 30-year stint at the chipmaker. He led the cloud computing company VMware before rejoining Intel as chief executive in early 2021.For decades, Intel was the industry’s leading chip company. Its semiconductors were the digital engines in more than 80 percent of personal computers, and it later adapted that technology for larger computers in data centers.But in recent years, Intel lost its one-time dominance. It was too wedded to its highly lucrative PC-era technology, analysts say, as others — most notably, Nvidia — pioneered new designs. In manufacturing, Intel steadily lost its lead to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company.As chief executive, Mr. Gelsinger focused on restoring the company’s onetime lead in chip manufacturing technology, but longtime company watchers said Intel badly needed more popular products — such as A.I. chips — to bolster declining revenue.The company had faced a number of recent setbacks, including the Biden administration last week saying it would reduce the total amount of money granted to Intel under the CHIPS Act. Intel had extended timelines for some projects beyond a government deadline of 2030.In October, the company posted a $16.6 billion quarterly loss — its biggest in its 56-year history.Steve Lohr More

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      Canada Accuses Google of Creating Advertising Tech Monopoly

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      The case largely echoes an antitrust action in the United States and seeks to force Google to sell off sections of its online ad business.Canada’s competition authority on Thursday accused Google of abusing its tools for buying and selling online advertising to create a monopoly, and filed a complaint seeking to force the company to sell two of its main advertising technology services.The case strikes at the heart of Google’s business and echoes an ongoing U.S. antitrust lawsuit against the Silicon Valley giant.Both cases come amid four other lawsuits filed in the United States against Google since 2020 and other efforts by officials around the world to reign in the power that large technological companies like Google, Amazon and Apple hold over information and commerce online.Canada is also attempting to use new laws to limit harms caused by social media and to require tech companies to compensate traditional news organizations.In a statement, Canada’s Bureau of Competition Policy, a law enforcement agency, charged that Google has used its position as the largest provider of software for buying and selling ads, its marketplace for ad auctions and its services for showcasing the ads to illegally dominate the sector.The company’s conduct, it said, ensured that the Alphabet-owned Google “would maintain and entrench its market power,” adding that it “locks market participants into using its own ad tech tools, prevents rivals from being able to compete on the merits of their offering.”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos Exchange Posts About Trump on X

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      The world’s two richest men are longtime business rivals, but now one of them has the ear of the next president of the United States.A few months ago, a three-post exchange between Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk on Mr. Musk’s X would have passed for petty sniping between billionaire rivals.But times have changed.“Just learned tonight at Mar-a-Lago that Jeff Bezos was telling everyone that @realDonaldTrump would lose for sure, so they should sell all their Tesla and SpaceX stock,” Mr. Musk wrote Wednesday night, referring to two of his companies. He added an emoji for a snickering face, with a hand covering the mouth.“Nope. 100% not true,” Mr. Bezos responded on Thursday morning.“Well, then, I stand corrected,” Mr. Musk wrote back, with a laughing-crying emoji.With President-elect Donald J. Trump’s history of animosity toward Mr. Bezos, the posts carried an unspoken message about Mr. Musk’s growing power within the incoming administration.The exchange — brief, brassy and fairly typical of Mr. Musk’s overwhelming presence on X — could foreshadow a bumpy next few years for Mr. Bezos and the companies he started, Amazon and the rocket maker Blue Origin. It was also a reminder that the power dynamics in the longtime rivalry between the world’s two richest men changed on Nov. 5.Plenty of tech executives have drawn Mr. Trump’s wrath over the last few years. Perhaps none more than Mr. Bezos, largely because he owns The Washington Post, which has frequently written critically about Mr. Trump. (The Post did not endorse a presidential candidate this year, a decision that angered many of its readers and that Mr. Bezos publicly defended.)We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      U.S. Plans to Propose Breakup of Google to Fix Search Monopoly

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      In a landmark antitrust case, the government will ask a judge to force the company to sell its popular Chrome browser, people with knowledge of the matter said.The Justice Department and a group of states plan to ask a federal court late Wednesday to force Google to sell Chrome, its popular web browser, two people with knowledge of the decision said, a move that could fundamentally alter the $2 trillion company’s business and reshape competition on the internet.The request would follow a landmark ruling in August by Judge Amit P. Mehta of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia that found Google had illegally maintained a monopoly in online search. Judge Mehta asked the Justice Department and the states that brought the antitrust case to submit solutions by the end of Wednesday to correct the search monopoly.Beyond the sale of Chrome, the government is set to ask Judge Mehta to bar Google from entering into paid agreements with Apple and others to be the automatic search engine on smartphones and in browsers, the people said. Google should also be required to share data with rivals, they said.The proposals would likely be the most significant remedies to be requested in a tech antitrust case since the Justice Department asked to break up Microsoft in 2000. If Judge Mehta adopts the proposals, they will set the tone for a string of other antitrust cases that challenge the dominance of tech behemoths including Apple, Amazon and Meta.Being forced to sell Chrome would be among the worst possible outcomes for Google. Chrome, which is free to use, is the most popular web browser in the world and part of an elaborate Google ecosystem that keeps people using the company’s products. Google’s search engine is bundled into Chrome.Google is set to file its own suggestions for fixing the search monopoly by Dec. 20. Both sides can modify their requests before Judge Mehta is expected to hear arguments on the remedies this spring. He is expected to rule by the end of the summer.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Cómo gestiona Bluesky, la alternativa a X y Facebook, su crecimiento explosivo

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      En febrero de 2023, media decena de expertos en tecnología presentaron un prototipo de red social a la que solo se podía acceder por invitación. Estrenaron deliberadamente su creación, Bluesky, con poca fanfarria para poder gestionar de cerca su crecimiento.Pero últimamente ha sido todo menos lento.En la última semana, el crecimiento de Bluesky ha estallado, duplicándose con creces hasta superar los 15 millones de usuarios, ya que la gente busca alternativas a X, Facebook y Threads. Se ha disparado hasta los primeros puestos de las tiendas de aplicaciones de Apple y Google como la aplicación gratuita más descargada. Su ascenso ha sido tan rápido que la empresa se ha visto obligada a crecer prácticamente de la noche a la mañana.Los 20 empleados a tiempo completo de Bluesky han estado trabajando sin descanso para hacer frente a los problemas que conlleva el hipercrecimiento: caídas del sitio, fallas en el código y problemas de moderación de contenidos. Y lo que es más importante, han intentado contentar a los primeros usuarios a medida que llegaban nuevos miembros.“Como equipo, estamos orgullosos de nuestra capacidad para crecer rápidamente”, dijo en una entrevista Jay Graber, de 33 años, directora ejecutiva de Bluesky. “Pero siempre hay algunas dificultades mientras creces”. Añadió que la aplicación —que sigue siendo eclipsada por Facebook, Instagram y X— estaba sumando más de un millón de nuevos usuarios al día.Bluesky está surgiendo en medio de la agitación en el mundo de las redes sociales. Después de que Elon Musk comprara Twitter en 2022, lo transformó en X, cambiando muchas de sus funciones y alejando a algunos de sus usuarios más fieles. Threads, una aplicación similar a X que Meta introdujo el año pasado, se basa principalmente en una opaca selección algorítmica que reduce la política de los contenidos que ve la gente. Esto ha provocado que algunas personas se dirijan a otras redes, como Bluesky, para debatir cuestiones sociales candentes.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Is the Biden Administration Coming for Chrome?

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      The Justice Department is reportedly targeting Google’s web browser as its antitrust enforcers seek to cement a major win before Donald Trump takes office.Can the Biden administration’s antitrust enforcers succeed in breaking up Google before they leave office?Josh Edelson/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesA parting antitrust shot by Biden’s enforcersBefore the Biden administration’s antitrust leaders step down, they’re taking their final shots at Big Tech. That will reportedly include an effort to break up Google as a consequence of the Justice Department’s successful competition lawsuit against the company.A forthcoming request to force the sale of the Chrome browser, according to Bloomberg, would be one of the most sweeping competition demands in years. But it will also be a test of the second Trump administration’s own antitrust agenda.Chrome is a crucial part of Google’s business. The industry’s dominant web browser — it controls about 61 percent of the U.S. market, according to Bloomberg — is a potent data-collection portal, steering people to the company’s search engine. That gives Google the ability to track users when they are signed in, and can be used to for targeted ads.Chrome has also become a gateway for Google’s A.I. services, including its Gemini chatbot, which some say could eventually follow user activity across the web.The Justice Department decided against requesting the divestiture of Google’s Android smartphone operating system, Bloomberg reports. But it wants the company to stop bundling it with services including search and the Google Play app store.If successful, the split would cement a crucial legacy for Biden’s antitrust team. It’s unclear how much of the aggressive approach promoted by Lina Khan of the F.T.C. and Jonathan Kanter of the Justice Department will survive. A Chrome divestiture would achieve the kind of corporate breakup that regulators failed to force upon Microsoft two decades ago.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Trump Picks Brendan Carr to Lead F.C.C.

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      President-elect Donald J. Trump on Sunday chose Brendan Carr to be chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, naming a veteran Republican regulator who has publicly agreed with the incoming administration’s promises to slash regulation, go after Big Tech and punish TV networks for political bias.Mr. Carr, who currently sits on the commission, is expected to shake up a quiet agency that licenses airwaves for radio and TV, regulates phone costs, and promotes the spread of home internet. Before the election, Mr. Trump indicated he wanted the agency to strip broadcasters like NBC and CBS of their licensing for unfair coverage.Mr. Carr, 45, was the author of a chapter on the F.C.C. in the conservative Project 2025 planning document, in which he argued that the agency should also regulate the largest tech companies, such as Apple, Meta, Google and Microsoft.“The censorship cartel must be dismantled,” Mr. Carr said last week in a post on X.Mr. Carr could drastically reshape the independent agency, expanding its mandate and wielding it as a political weapon for the right, telecommunications attorneys and analysts said. They predicted Mr. Carr would test the legal limits of the agency’s power by pushing to oversee companies like Meta and Google, setting up a fierce battle with Silicon Valley.Mr. Carr has “proposed to do a lot of things he has no jurisdiction to do and in other cases he’s blatantly misreading the rules,” said Jessica Gonzalez, co-chief executive of the nonpartisan public interest group Free Press.“Commissioner Carr is a warrior for free speech, and has fought against the regulatory lawfare that has stifled Americans’ freedoms, and held back our economy,” Mr. Trump said in a statement.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      F.B.I. Searches Home of Shayne Coplan, Polymarket Founder

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      The search involving Shayne Coplan, the founder of Polymarket, known for its presidential election odds, was part of a criminal investigation, three people said.The F.B.I. carried out a search on Wednesday morning at the New York City home of Shayne Coplan, the founder of the betting website Polymarket, three people with knowledge of the matter said.The raid was part of a criminal investigation by the F.B.I. and the U.S. attorney’s office for the Southern District of New York, one of the people said. The investigation appears focused on whether Mr. Coplan, 26, ran Polymarket as an unlicensed commodities exchange, allowing users in the United States to place bets in violation of a settlement with the U.S. government, the person said. Polymarket rose to prominence this fall for offering odds on the presidential election.The F.B.I. seized Mr. Coplan’s electronic devices, including a phone, the person said.A law enforcement official confirmed that F.B.I. agents had conducted “court-authorized law enforcement activity” at Mr. Coplan’s address early Wednesday, but declined to elaborate.Election betting is a murky legal area in the United States. In 2022, Polymarket agreed to stop offering its services to U.S.-based users after settling with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission for operating without registration. The company paid a $1.4 million fine.After the settlement, it was an “open secret” that users in the United States could still gain access to the site with virtual private networks, a former employee previously told The New York Times. On social media, Polymarket’s customers exchanged tips on how to get around the prohibition.Polymarket soared in popularity during the presidential campaign. While polls showed a close race, the site’s odds gave former President Donald J. Trump a large advantage over Vice President Kamala Harris.A spokesman for the company said the F.B.I. raid was “obvious political retribution by the outgoing administration.”In a post on X, Mr. Coplan said the Biden administration was making “a last-ditch effort to go after companies they deem to be associated with political opponents.”A spokesman for the U.S. attorney’s office declined to comment.Some details of the investigation were reported earlier by Bloomberg and The New York Post. More