Tech
Entrepreneur and tennis legend Maria Sharapova to headline Collision 2024
Collision, the premier technology event in North America, today announced that entrepreneur and world-class tennis champion Maria Sharapova will be speaking on Centre Stage at the 2024 edition, taking place at the Enercare Centre from June 17-20.
Collision will bring together 40,000 people who are redefining the global tech industry. The event will feature Maria, alongside IBM senior VP of software and chief commercial officer Rob Thomas, on Centre Stage discussing the impact of AI on sport. Widely considered one of the best tennis players in the world, Maria is a former world number one, who won five Grand Slams before her retirement in 2020.
Maria was ahead of her time in building a robust business portfolio during her playing career, including founding her business Sugarpova, maintaining long-term partnerships with brands such as Evian and Nike, and becoming an active investor in several successful startups. Now, post-career, she continues to work as an active founder, CEO, and investor. She is an equity owner of Supergoop!, and an investor and strategic advisor to multiple businesses, including home fitness startup Tonal, wellness technology company Therabody, financial services and investments platform Public.com, fitness accessories and apparel brand Bala, and men’s footwear brand Wolf & Shepherd. Last year, she was appointed to the board of Moncler.
Rob leads IBM’s software business, overseeing product management and design,product development, and business development for the company’s AI technology.
Additionally, as chief commercial officer, Rob has global responsibility for IBM revenue and profit, including worldwide sales and strategic partnerships.
Maria and Rob will join godfather of AI Geoffrey Hinton, 1Password CEO Jeff Shiner,OnlyFans CEO Keily Blair, Khosla Ventures founder and renowned investor Vinod Khosla, Groq founder and CEO Jonathan Ross, Cohere founder and CEO Aidan Gomez,Waabi founder and CEO Raquel Urtasun, and Stash CEO Liza Landsman at Collision next month.
More than 40,000 attendees are expected to take part in Collision’s sixth year in Toronto, with founders, CEOs, investors and media from across the world coming to the city to network and explore opportunities in the region. More than 300 global partners will take to the event floor, with IBM, Microsoft, Dell, Neosoft, TeamViewer,Snowflake and more joining 1,600-plus startups from countries including Nigeria, the Republic of Korea, Uruguay, Japan, Italy, Ghana, Pakistan and beyond.
Tech
Apple to spend $30 billion on Broadcom chips as it boosts US sourcing
Apple , opens new tab plans to spend more than $30 billion under a multi-year chip supply deal with Broadcom, bolstering its U.S. sourcing as President Donald Trump’s administration pushes to expand domestic chip manufacturing.
Broadcom shares rose more than 4%, while Apple shares were down marginally.
Apple said on Wednesday the deal, which was struck earlier this week and runs through 2031, covers FBAR filters – or radio-frequency chips used for wireless connectivity in its devices – that it had been developing with Broadcom since at least 2023.
Broadcom will invest $1.5 billion to expand its Fort Collins, Colorado, factory under the deal, which Apple said would result in the production of at least 15 billion chips and support its work with the Trump administration to source more components domestically.
“The cutting-edge components built in Fort Collins are essential to delivering the incredible performance and connectivity our customers expect, and we’re proud to deepen our investments in U.S.-based suppliers that share our commitment to excellence and innovation,” Apple CEO Tim Cook said in a statement.
“We’re grateful to the president and his administration for supporting important projects like this.”
In August 2025, Apple raised its U.S. investment commitment to $600 billion over four years, adding $100 billion to a previously announced spending plan.
China
China plans to let top AI firms buy limited Nvidia H200 chips, the Information reports
China is planning to allow the country’s top AI companies to buy a limited number of Nvidia’s, opens new tab H200 chips, the Information reported on Wednesday, citing two people with direct knowledge of the matter.
Chinese officials have told Alibaba, opens new tab, ByteDance and DeepSeek in recent weeks that they may soon receive permission to buy some H200 chips, the report said.
Shares of Nvidia rose 1% after the report.
The chip giant did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment, nor did the U.S. commerce department, which oversees exports of advanced AI chips overseas.
China’s commerce ministry also did not immediately respond to a request for comment, while Alibaba, ByteDance and DeepSeek did not respond outside of regular business hours.
The U.S. government has allowed Nvidia to sell its advanced H200 chips to China, and licensed about 10 Chinese firms to buy the chips. However, Chinese officials, keen to nurture domestic suppliers, have withheld approval so far.
Reuters reported in March that Nvidia had won Beijing’s approval to sell the chips to China, citing sources, and around the same time, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang also told CNBC that the company had clearance from China.
Beijing is still determining the exact number of Nvidia chips to approve, and it could amount to fewer than 200,000 in total, the Information said, adding that was less than half of what the companies requested earlier this year.
Last month, Reuters exclusively reported that Nvidia told Chinese clients its new “Vera” central processors for AI data centres could be available as soon as August and that they can begin placing orders.
Nvidia’s market share in China has effectively fallen to zero, Huang said in October, hurt by U.S. export controls and Beijing’s push for self-reliance in key technologies.
The potential shift in China’s stance underscores the growing computing capacity crunch that the country’s tech companies are facing.
Tech
Australia’s under-16 social media ban fails first age check hurdle, study finds
A team of software testers found that Australian social media platforms did not request age proof for any of 50 accounts that declared themselves to be 16, a result that leaves the country’s world-first under-16 ban “ineffective” at the most basic screening stage, according to a study seen by Reuters.
Since December, platforms such as Instagram, Snapchat and YouTube have been required to bar people under 16 and take “reasonable steps” to verify age, with regulators recommending multiple layered checks. But the new research, conducted by those who advised the nationwide curb, shows that the initial vetting step, which estimates a user’s age from general online activity, is failing to flag young people for tougher verification.
The testers, who last year trialled age-assurance software on more than 1,000 Australians, opened 50 new accounts after the law took effect and set the age as 16. None of the platforms asked for additional proof, the researchers told Reuters. The findings highlight a flaw that has been largely overlooked while public debate has focused on photo-based age-estimation tools.
The ban’s rollout has been widely criticised after surveys indicated that most under-16s still access the platforms. The government last month doubled the maximum fine and warned of possible court action against tech giants, accusing them of setting the system up to fail. Platforms have countered that they are simply following the regulator’s guidance, which prioritises low-friction checks and prevents reliance on government ID alone due to privacy concerns.
Some advisers to the original trial said they had repeatedly warned that the testing process ignored real-world circumvention, including minors entering false birthdates. “We did want to talk about circumvention, but we kept on being told that that wasn’t part of the actual trial,” Colm Gannon of the International Centre for Missing & Exploited Children told Reuters. A youth digital rights academic involved in a longer-term study of the ban said more impressive results might emerge once platforms move to age-inference methods later in the year. The regulator maintains that the recommended layered approach, if implemented correctly, ensures no single point of failure.
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