Meta challenges EU’s digital rules; Microsoft unveils custom AI chips; Amazon to sell products directly through Snapchat ads

by Aimee Newell Tarín on 16th Nov 2023 in News

In today’s ExchangeWire digest, Meta challenges EU’s digital rules; Microsoft unveils custom AI chips; Amazon to sell products directly through Snapchat ads

Meta challenges EU’s digital rules

Meta is the first company to publicly challenge the EU’s Digital Markets Act. Within the act’s legislation, the EU classed certain popular online products as “core” services, aiming to improve competition within the industry. Meta is set to argue that its Messenger chat is a functionality of Facebook and therefore not a separate app/service. It has also been claimed that the tech giant will argue that its Marketplace is a consumer product and not a “gateway” for businesses to target consumers.

Microsoft unveils custom AI chips

At the Microsoft Ignite event on Wednesday, the tech giant unveiled two custom designed AI chips: the Microsoft Azure Maia AI Accelerator (optimised for AI tasks and gen AI) and the Microsoft Azure Cobalt CPU (an ARM based processor tailored to run general purpose compute workloads on the Microsoft Cloud). These chips will allow Microsoft to deliver infrastructure systems “designed from top to bottom, and can be optimised with internal and customer workloads in mind”. The chips will be rolled out in the coming year. Scott Guthrie, executive vice president of Microsoft’s Cloud + AI Group says that the company is “building the infrastructure to support AI innovation” and is “reimagining every aspect” of their data centres to meet customers’ needs.

Amazon to sell products directly through Snapchat ads

Amazon and Snap have struck a deal which will allow users on Snapchat to buy Amazon products directly from ads on the social app. Users will have the option to link their Amazon and Snapchat accounts through a one-time set-up, and will then be able to complete a checkout with Amazon in the ad using their default payment and shipping information on Amazon, without having to leave the social app. This partnership will help Snapchat to compete with TikTok, which launched its TikTok Shop to US users in September.