Tim Cook, CEO of Apple Inc., during the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference at Apple Park campus in Cupertino, California, on June 10, 2024.
Bloomberg | Getty
Apple on Wednesday introduced new MacBook Pro laptops with updated processors, in what is likely the company’s last major hardware announcement of the year.
The new devices are equipped with Apple’s latest chip, the M4. Some models have access to more powerful versions, called the M4 Pro and M4 Max. Apple says the new chips are 1.8 times faster than the M1, which powered Apple’s 2021 MacBook Pro.
Apple has also made a significant change across its entire Mac lineup to prepare the computers for future artificial intelligence features.
Apple said the new models, like all devices released this year, are designed for Apple Intelligence, the company’s AI system that can generate text, images and emojis.
Additionally, all of the new MacBook Pro models come with at least 16GB of RAM. Until now, low-end Macs often came with 8GB of RAM by default. The more memory a computer has, the more it is capable of handling larger and more sophisticated AI models.
Apple’s MacBook Air laptops and iMac desktops are also getting an update to start with at least 16GB of RAM at the same $999 starting price as before. The M4 also has improved AI capabilities. Doubling the RAM on its laptops represents the most significant change Apple has made to its lineup of computers to better support Apple Intelligence.
The 2021 MacBook Pro redesign was praised for a thicker design that allowed the computer to have several traditional ports, such as an HDMI port for connecting the computer to TV screens and projectors. The re-release was part of a wave of Mac launches in 2021 that revived the product line, alongside Apple’s decision to switch from Intel chips to its homegrown M-series.
Apple’s Mac lineup is critical for the company even though it contributes less overall revenue than the iPhone or the wearables business, which includes the Apple Watch and AirPods. All apps made for iPhones are written on a Mac, for example.
In the quarter that ended in June, Apple reported $7 billion in Mac sales, up about 2% from the same period a year earlier. Apple reports results for the latest quarter on Thursday.
The 14-inch Mac starts at $1,599 and the 16-inch model starts at $2,499. The 14-inch model with the more powerful M4 Pro chip starts at $1,999. Apple says some models of the M4 MacBook Pro can get up to 24 hours of battery. The new MacBook Pro models also got an upgraded 12-megapixel videoconferencing camera.
Meta approached artificial intelligence startup Perplexity AI about a potential takeover bid before ultimately investing $14.3 billion into Scale AI, CNBC confirmed on Friday.
The two companies did not finalize a deal, according to two people familiar with the matter who asked not to be named because of the confidential nature of the negotiations.
One person familiar with the talks said it was “mutually dissolved,” while another person familiar with the matter said Perplexity walked away from a potential deal.
Bloomberg earlier reported the talks between Meta and Perplexity. Perplexity declined to comment. Meta did not immediately respond to CNBC’s request for comment.
Meta’s attempt to purchase Perplexity serves as the latest example of Mark Zuckerberg‘s aggressive push to bolster his company’s AI efforts amid fierce competition from OpenAI and Google parent Alphabet. Zuckerberg has grown agitated that rivals like OpenAI appear to be ahead in both underlying AI models and consumer-facing apps, and he is going to extreme lengths to hire top AI talent, as CNBC has previously reported.
Read more CNBC reporting on AI
Meta now has a 49% stake in Scale after its multibillion-dollar investment, though the social media company will not have any voting power. Scale AI’s founder Alexandr Wang, along with a small number of other Scale employees, will join Meta as part of the agreement.
Earlier this year, Meta also tried to acquire Safe Superintelligence, which was reportedly valued at $32 billion in a fundraising round in April, as CNBC reported on Thursday.
Daniel Gross, the CEO of Safe Superintelligence, and former GitHub CEO Nat Friedman are joining Meta’s AI efforts, where they will work on products under Wang. Gross runs a venture capital firm with Friedman called NFDG, their combined initials, and Meta will get a stake in the firm.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said on the latest episode of the “Uncapped” podcast, which is hosted by his brother, that Meta had tried to poach OpenAI employees by offering signing bonuses as high as $100 million with even larger annual compensation packages.
“I’ve heard that Meta thinks of us as their biggest competitor,” Altman said on the podcast. “Their current AI efforts have not worked as well as they have hoped and I respect being aggressive and continuing to try new things.”
Ether ETFs have finally come to life this year after some started to fear they may be becoming zombie funds.
Collectively, the funds tracking the price of spot ether are on pace for their sixth consecutive week of inflows and eight positive week in the last nine, according to SoSoValue.
“What we’re seeing is institutional recalibration,” said Ben Kurland, CEO at crypto charting and research platform DYOR. “After the initial ETH ETF approval fizzled without a price pop, smart money started quietly building positions. They’re betting not on price momentum but on positioning ahead of utility unlocks like staking access, options listings, and eventually inflows from retirement platforms.”
The first year of ether ETFs, which launched in July 2024, has been characterized by weak demand. While the funds have had spikes in inflows, they’ve trailed far behind bitcoin ETFs in both inflows and investor attention – amassing about $3.9 billion in net inflows since listing versus bitcoin ETFs’ $36 billion in their first year of trading.
“With increasing acceptance of crypto on Wall Street, especially now as a means for payments and remittances, investors are being drawn to ETH ETFs,” said Chris Rhine, head of liquid active strategies at Galaxy Digital.
Additionally, he added, the CME basis on ether – or the price difference between ether futures and the spot price – is higher than that of bitcoin, giving arbitrageurs an opportunity to profit by going long on ether ETFs while shorting futures (a common trading strategy) and contributing to the uptrend in ether ETF inflows.
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Ether (ETH) 1 month
Despite the uptrend in inflows, the price of ether itself is negative for this month and flat over the past month.
For the year, it’s down 25% as it’s been suffering from an identity crisis fueled by uncertainty about Ethereum’s value proposition, weaker revenue since its last big technical upgrade and increasing competition from Solana. Market volatility driven by geopolitical uncertainty this year has not helped.
In March, Standard Chartered slashed its ether price target by more than half. However, the firm also said the coin could still see a turnaround this year.
Since last week’s big spike in inflows, they’ve “slowed but stayed net positive, suggesting conviction, not hype,” Kurland said. “The market looks like a heart monitor, but the buyers are treating it like a long-term infrastructure bet.”
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A motorcycle is seen near a building of the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), which is a Taiwanese multinational semiconductor contract manufacturing and design company, in Hsinchu, Taiwan, on April 16, 2025.
Daniel Ceng | Anadolu | Getty Images
Semiconductor stocks declined Friday following a report that the U.S. is weighing measures that would terminate waivers allowing some chipmakers to send American technology to China.
Commerce Department official Jeffrey Kessler told Samsung Electronics, SK Hynix and Taiwan Semiconductor this week that he wanted to cancel their waivers, which allow them to send U.S. chipmaking tech to their factories in China, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the matter.
The latest reported move by the Commerce Department comes as the U.S. and China hold an unsteady truce over tariffs and trade, with chip controls a key sticking point.
Read more CNBC tech news
The countries agreed to the framework of a second trade agreement in London days ago after relations soured following the initial tariff pause in May.
The U.S. issued several chip export changes after the May pause that rattled relations, with China calling the rules “discriminatory.”
U.S. chipmakers have been hit with curbs over the last few years, limiting the ability to sell advanced artificial intelligence chips to China due to national security concerns.
During its earnings report last month, Nvidia said the recent export restriction on its China-bound H20 chips hindered sales by about $8 billion.
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang told investors on an earnings call that the $50 billion market in China for AI chips is “effectively closed to U.S. industry.” During a CNBC interview in May, he called getting blocked from China’s AI market a “tremendous loss.”