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Apple’s iMessage app and Microsoft’s Bing and Edge browsers won’t tough restrictions from the European Union.

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Apple’s iMessage messaging service and Microsoft’s Bing and Edge search browsers should not be designated as “gatekeepers” under the European Union’s strict digital competition laws, the European Commission said Tuesday.

It has now closed an investigation looking into the concern.

The decision is a win for Apple, whose iMessage service has long faced complaints from Android users due to incompatibilities.

It means that Apple will not be required to open up the messaging infrastructure of its service to alternative producers from Android device makers, to Meta’s WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger apps, or to encrypted messaging apps Signal and Telegram.

Users have long bemoaned the fact that Apple shows messages from non-Apple users as green bubbles, as opposed to messages from fellow iMessage users which display in blue. Currently, only users of iPhones and other Apple devices, such as iPads, can utilize iMessage.

The EU’s competition restrictions also won’t apply to Microsoft’s Bing and Edge browsers, as well as the Redmond tech giant’s online advertising service, Microsoft Advertising.

Apple and Microsoft were not immediately available for comment when contacted by CNBC.

The Tuesday pronouncement does not mean that Apple and Microsoft themselves won’t still be treated as gatekeepers under the EU rules. Their core platforms services, for example Apple’s App Store and Microsoft’s Azure cloud computing platform, will still count as gatekeepers under the DMA, according to a ruling made on September 2023.

“The decisions do not affect in any way the designation of Apple and Microsoft as gatekeepers on 5 September 2023 as regards their other core platform services,” the Commission said in a press update Tuesday.

“The Commission will continue to monitor the developments on the market with respect to these services, should any substantial changes arise.”

The EU Digital Markets Act, which entered into force on Nov. 1, 2022, and became largely applicable on May 2 of last year imposes a number of strict requirements on large technology platform companies, especially on U.S. technology giants like Meta, Apple, and Amazon.

The EU has some key targets in its sights, namely companies it designates as “gatekeepers” — businesses that are so crucial to web use that competition regulators believe they should open their services to allow smaller competitors access.

Late last year, the EU unveiled six designated gatekeeper that would be subject to its rules: GoogleAmazonAppleMetaMicrosoft, and TikTok owner ByteDance.

Some publishers and technology firms say that these huge tech companies haven’t done enough to engage effectively with them and with others in their industry. Apple recently opened up its App Store for third-party developers in Europe, which could threaten the iPhone giant’s lucrative fees.

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AI voice startup ElevenLabs pushes global expansion as it gears up for an IPO

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AI voice startup ElevenLabs pushes global expansion as it gears up for an IPO

Founded in 2022, ElevenLabs is an AI voice generation startup based in London. It competes with the likes of Speechmatics and Hume AI.

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LONDON — ElevenLabs, a London-based startup that specializes in generating synthetic voices through artificial intelligence, has revealed plans to be IPO-ready within five years.

The company told CNBC it is targeting major global expansion as it prepares for an initial public offering.

“We expect to build more hubs in Europe, Asia and South America, and just keep scaling,” Mati Staniszewski, ElevenLabs’ CEO and co-founder, told CNBC in an interview at the firm’s London office.

He identified Paris, Singapore, Brazil and Mexico as potential new locations. London is currently ElevenLabs’ biggest office, followed by New York, Warsaw, San Francisco, Japan, India and Bangalore.

Staniszewski said the eventual aim is to get the company ready for an IPO in the next five years.

“From a commercial standpoint, we would like to be ready for an IPO in that time,” he said. “If the market is right, we would like to create a public company … that’s going to be here for the next generation.”

Undecided on location

Fundraising plans

ElevenLabs was valued at $3.3 billion following a recent $180 million funding round. The company is backed by the likes of Andreessen Horowitz, Sequoia Capital and ICONIQ Growth, as well as corporate names like Salesforce and Deutsche Telekom.

Staniszewski said his startup was open to raising more money from VCs, but it would depend on whether it sees a valid business need, like scaling further in other markets. “The way we try to raise is very much like, if there’s a bet we want to take, to accelerate that bet [we will] take the money,” he said.

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U.S. lifts chip software curbs on China amid trade truce, Synopsys says

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U.S. lifts chip software curbs on China amid trade truce, Synopsys says

Synopsys logo is seen displayed on a smartphone with the flag of China in the background.

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The U.S. government has rescinded its export restrictions on chip design software to China, U.S.-based Synopsys announced Thursday. 

“Synopsys is working to restore access to the recently restricted products in China,” it said in a statement

The U.S. had reportedly told several chip design software companies, including Synopsys, in May that they were required to obtain licenses before exporting goods, such as software and chemicals for semiconductors, to China. 

The U.S. Commerce Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment from CNBC.

The news comes after China signaled last week that they are making progress on a trade truce with the U.S. and confirmed conditional agreements to resume some exchanges of rare earths and advanced technology.

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Datadog stock jumps 10% on tech company’s inclusion in S&P 500 index

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Datadog stock jumps 10% on tech company’s inclusion in S&P 500 index

The Datadog stand is being displayed on day one of the AWS Summit Seoul 2024 at the COEX Convention and Exhibition Center in Seoul, South Korea, on May 16, 2024.

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Datadog shares were up 10% in extended trading on Wednesday after S&P Global said the monitoring software provider will replace Juniper Networks in the S&P 500 U.S. stock index.

S&P Global is making the change effective before the beginning of trading on July 9, according to a statement.

Computer server maker Hewlett Packard Enterprise, also a constituent of the index, said earlier on Wednesday that it had completed its acquisition of Juniper, which makes data center networking hardware. HPE disclosed in a filing that it paid $13.4 billion to Juniper shareholders.

Over the weekend, the two companies reached a settlement with the U.S. Justice Department, which had sued in opposition to the deal. As part of the settlement, HPE agreed to divest its global Instant On campus and branch business.

While tech already makes up an outsized portion of the S&P 500, the index has has been continuously lifting its exposure as the industry expands into more areas of society.

DoorDash was the latest tech company to join during the last rebalancing in March. Cloud software vendor Workday was added in December, and that was preceded earlier in 2024 with the additions of Palantir, Dell, CrowdStrike, GoDaddy and Super Micro Computer.

Stocks often rally when they’re added to a major index, as fund managers need to rebalance their portfolios to reflect the changes.

New York-based Datadog went public in 2019. The company generated $24.6 million in net income on $761.6 million in revenue in the first quarter of 2025, according to a statement. Competitors include Cisco, which bought Splunk last year, as well as Elastic and cloud infrastructure providers such as Amazon and Microsoft.

Datadog has underperformed the broader tech sector so far this year. The stock was down 5.5% as of Wednesday’s close, while the Nasdaq was up 5.6%. Still, with a market cap of $46.6 billion, Datadog’s valuation is significantly higher than the median for that index.

— CNBC’s Ari Levy contributed to this report.

CNBC: Datadog CEO Olivier Pomel on the cloud computing outlook

Datadog CEO Olivier Pomel on the cloud computing outlook

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