Chinese smartphone company Honor has released devices that fold up to be nearly as thin as an iPhone.
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BARCELONA — Honor on Sunday pledged $10 billion in artificial intelligence investments over the next five years and announced a deepening partnership with Google, as the Chinese smartphone maker looks to bolster its market share overseas.
The investment plan, revealed at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, is designed to reposition the firm from a smartphone player into an “AI device ecosystem company,” according to Honor.
The Chinese company is somewhat of an upstart in the smartphone world, after spinning off from Huawei in 2020 when the tech giant was hit with U.S. sanctions. Since then, Honor has looked to expand outside of China and push into the higher-end part of the market where Apple and Samsung play.
The company has made some headway by releasing some innovative devices, including foldable phones, but it still remains a small player globally. Its smartphone market share outside of China stood at 2.3% in 2024 versus 1.7% in 2023, according to IDC data.
An Honor spokesperson told CNBC the money would go toward putting AI into hardware as well as next generation AI agents, which are often described as more advanced virtual assistants.
Another part of the investment will go toward creating a “platform for a wide range of AI devices.”
“This is not limited to our own devices, but also AI devices from different partners, so the different kinds of AI devices can talk to each other, and consumers can have more choices and seamless experiences,” the Honor spokesperson said.
A small portion of the investment will also be used to “prepare for the AGI (Artificial General Intelligence) era.”
AGI generally refers to AI that is smarter than humans.
Closer Google ties
On Sunday, Honor demonstrated a proof of concept “AI agent”. One example involved a user asking the agent to book a restaurant with specific requirements, such as the type of preferred cuisine and the distance from the user. The agent went ahead and made a reservation. Honor said it is working with Google and chip designer Qualcomm on developing its AI agent, but did not give a timeline for its release.
Meanwhile, Honor is also using the technology behind Google Gemini, the U.S. firm’s AI system, for the AI features on its latest devices.
Meanwhile on Sunday, Honor announced that it would commit to seven years of employing the Android operating system and security updates for its Magic series of flagship smartphones — becoming just one of very few vendors to pledge this. Google’s own Pixel devices and Samsung’s S series of flagship smartphones are the only other devices to offer similar support.
Android is the operating system created by Google. While the seven year support is not directly related to Google, it highlights Honor’s commitment to the operating system.
While there are many Android smartphone players, not all of them have as close a tie to Google as do Samsung, the biggest Android user in the world, and Xiaomi, the second largest. Honor is now joining that list.
“Honor’s deeper partnership with Google is very significant,” Ben Wood, chief analyst at CCS Insight, told CNBC. “To date, it has felt as though Google was keeping Chinese smartphone makers at arm’s length when it came to the most advanced aspects of Gemini AI, but this appears to put the Honor on par with Samsung Galaxy and Google’s own Pixel products which is quite a coup.”
Financial technology company Chime on Tuesday filed paperwork to go public on the Nasdaq. The company intends to file under the ticker symbol “CHYM.”
“Chime is a technology company, not a bank,” the company said in its prospectus, noting it’s not a member of the U.S. Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. Still, the company cited Bank of America, Capital One, Citibank, JPMorgan Chase, PNC Bank and Wells Fargo as competitors.
Most of Chime’s new members who arrange for direct deposit previously did direct deposit elsewhere, “most commonly with large incumbent banks,” the company said.
According to the filing, Chime picks up revenue from interchange fees associated with purchases that members make with Chime debit cards and credit cards. Banks collect interchange fees, which are generally a percentage of the transaction value, plus a set amount for each transaction depending on the rates determined by card networks such as Visa. The banks then pass money on to Chime.
In the March quarter, Chime generated $12.4 million in net income on $518.7 million in revenue. Revenue grew 32%. At the end of March, Chime had 8.6 million active members, up about 23% year over year. Average revenue per active member, at $251, was up from $231. It has members in all 50 states, and 55% of them female. The average member age is 36.
Around two-thirds of members look to Chime for their “primary financial relationship,” Chime said. The term refers to those who made at least 15 purchases using its card or received a qualifying direct deposit of at least $200 in the past calendar month.
Chime offers a slew of other services in addition to its cards. Eligible members with direct deposit can borrow up to $500 with a fixed interest rate of $5 for every $100 borrowed. The company doesn’t charge late fees or compound interest.
Following an extended drought, IPOs looked poised for a rebound when President Donald Trump returned to the White House in January. CoreWeave’s March debut provided some momentum. But Trump’s tariff announcement in April roiled the market and led companies including Chime as well as trading platform eToro, online lender Klarna and ticket marketplace StubHub to delay their plans.
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EToro is now scheduled to debut this week, and digital health company Hinge Health issued its pricing range for its IPO on Tuesday, win an expected offering coming soon. Chime’s public filing is the latest sign that emerging tech companies are preparing to test the market’s appetite for risk. Last month Figma said it had filed confidentially for an initial public offering.
Chris Britt, Chime’s co-founder and CEO, told CNBC in 2020 that it would be ready for an IPO within the next 12 months. But in late 2021 markets turned negative on technology as inflation picked up, prompting central bankers to ratchet up interest rates.
Chime was founded in 2012 and is based in San Francisco, with 1,465 employees. It ranked 22nd on CNBC’s 2024 Disruptor 50 list of privately held companies.
Investors include Crosslink Capital, DST Global, General Atlantic, Iconic Strategic Partners and Menlo Ventures.
— CNBC’s Ari Levy contributed to this report.
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Google‘s stalwart search button has a new neighbor: AI Mode.
The artificial intelligence feature is being tested directly beneath the Google search bar beside a “Google Search” button, replacing the “I’m Feeling Lucky” widget. The new feature, though not widely available yet, is being tested in a location where Google rarely makes changes.
A company spokesperson confirmed the feature began rolling out to some users over the last week.
The spokesperson said the company tests many experiments with its users of “Labs,” Google’s experimental unit that tests new features for those who opt-in. They added that tested products don’t always go on to launch broadly.
The latest feature test shows Google is considering using its most valuable real estate to expose users to its AI technology as it continues to be under pressure to compete in generative AI-driven search.
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Since the launch of ChatGPT in November 2022, Alphabet investors have been concerned that OpenAI could take market share from Google in search by giving consumers new ways to seek information online.
In October, OpenAI pushed further and launched “ChatGPT search,” positioning the company to better compete with search engines like Google, Microsoft‘s Bing and Perplexity. Microsoft has invested close to $14 billion in OpenAI, yet OpenAI’s products directly compete with Microsoft’s AI and search tools, such as Copilot and Bing.
Though the company’s flagship AI product Gemini has shown equal or better performance than top competition, it has been trying to grow its user base to compete with ChatGPT.
Google’s Gemini AI product has 35 million daily active users, according to a recent Google analysis revealed during an antitrust court session in April. That was compared to ChatGPT’s estimated 160 million daily active users, the analysis stated.
Google is testing using “AI Mode” on its most valuable real estate: It’s home webpage.
The Alphabet-owned company began testing home page designs internally in 2023, CNBC first reported. At the time, one potential design showed the home search page offering five different prompts for potential questions placed beneath the main search bar, replacing the current “I’m feeling lucky” bar. It also tested a small chat logo inside the far right end of the search bar.
Google in March announced it would be testing “AI Mode” for select users, however the description showed it would be testing the widget on Google’s results page — not its home page. In its March announcement, the company billed it as an early experiment in Labs to do “more advanced reasoning, thinking and multimodal capabilities so you can get help with even your toughest questions.”
The company this week launched an investment fund called “AI Futures Fund,” aimed at investing in AI startups. The company said eligible startups would have early access to its AI models.
Airbnb launched a redesigned app on Tuesday to showcase the company’s push to let travelers book services, like catering and personal training, at their home rentals.
The new-look app marks a new chapter for Airbnb to expand beyond home stays. The company has previously announced plans to invest $200 million to $250 million in a new business that it said it hopes will become a significant driver of future revenue growth.
“We now feel like we have such a strong foundation that we are capable of building and expanding,” Dave Stephenson, Airbnb’s business chief, told CNBC.
The company has previously tried to push beyond home rentals, but dialed back those efforts in 2020 to focus on its core business as the Covid pandemic shuttered borders and pummeled the travel industry.
Airbnb shares fell earlier this month after the company issued disappointing revenue guidance in its first-quarter earnings report, saying it saw some “softness” in travel from Canada to the U.S. toward the end of the quarter amid macroeconomic uncertainties.
“Until now, our app has really done one thing, which is it lets you book a home,” CEO Brian Chesky said on Airbnb’s May 1 earnings call. “We rebuilt the app from the ground up on a new technology stack. And now we can innovate faster and offer much more than homes.”
The Airbnb services tab.
Courtesy: Airbnb
The app’s new services tab offers 10 categories users can select and book during their rental. The offerings include services such as spa treatments, catered or prepared meals, or personal training sessions. These service offerings will debut in 260 cities worldwide. The company hopes this update will put Airbnb on par with offerings travelers often find at hotels and resorts, Stephenson said.
To ensure quality, Airbnb has added to its vetting team, which includes legal professionals, to assess certifications and licensing requirements, which vary from city to city, Stephenson said. Services vendors have 10 years of experience on average, the company said.
The app update will also include a homepage tab to emphasize Airbnb’s experiences business. The new tab divides experiences into 19 categories, including live performances, landmark tours, architecture tours and workouts, which are available in 650 cities. The company first launched experiences in 2016.
The experience tab will include activities and tours designed by Airbnb, called originals, such as a tour of Notre Dame with a restoration architect in Paris. The company is also partnering to offer experiences and services at the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan, Stephenson said.
Airbnb also said it is updating its social features, allowing users to see other guests attending experiences. The new messages section will also enable photo and video sharing and come with updated privacy features for interacting with co-travelers later this year.
