The United States on Friday penalized two Chinese firms that acquired U.S. chipmaking equipment for China's top chipmaker SMIC, including them among 32 entities that were added to the Commerce Department's restricted trade list, according to a U.S. government posting. Twenty-three of the 32 were in China.
Gemini Space Station shares jumped 32.2% in their Nasdaq debut on Friday, giving the cryptocurrency exchange a valuation of $4.4 billion and capping a bright week for digital asset companies in a resurgent U.S. IPO market. The company's shares opened at $37.01, above an already raised IPO price of $28 apiece, at which it raised $425 million by selling around 15.2 million shares. The company marketed the IPO in the price range of between $24 and $26.
Elon Musk's xAI has laid off at least 500 workers from its data annotation team, which helps develop the company's Grok chatbot, Business Insider reported on Friday. The company notified employees by email on Friday night that it was planning to downsize its team of generalist AI tutors, the report said, citing multiple messages viewed by Business Insider.