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1.	Exclusive: Meta Reorganizes Reality Labs To ‘Execute Faster’ By Jyoti Mann Source: The Information

Meta Platforms is reorganizing its hardware division, Reality Labs, in a bid to “adapt and execute faster.”

In a memo distributed to employees on Tuesday and seen by The Information, Maher Saba, who leads the company’s newly formed Applied AI Engineering division, outlined a shake-up of Reality Labs Foundation, the group responsible for the hardware unit’s infrastructure.

Saba, who previously served as vice president of Reality Labs Foundation before moving to AAI, acknowledged the changes were “big” but framed them as necessary. “This industry moves fast,” he wrote. “If we don’t adapt, we get left behind.”

As part of the reorganization, some members of the foundations team will move to the Reality Labs wearables group. Meanwhile, the quality assurance and “dogfooding” team, along with the trust and platform foundations team, will be embedded directly within the wearables and virtual reality teams. (Dogfooding refers to internally testing products and services before a public release.) A senior engineering director will also transition to the AAI division.

According to the memo, the foundations group will be distributed across product teams to enable closer collaboration with the groups they support. The changes follow significant cuts to Reality Labs earlier this year, including more than 1,500 layoffs in January and additional reductions in March.

2.	Allbirds to Pivot to AI Chips By Martin Peers Source: The Information

Shoe maker Allbirds is pivoting—into AI chips. Weeks after announcing plans to sell its shoemaking assets to a fashion brand firm American Exchange Group for $39 million, Allbirds said it wants to turn itself into an AI chip-service firm—leasing and then renting out the valuable AI hardware.

To fund the shift, Allbirds plans to raise $50 million in convertible notes and to change its name to NewBird AI Inc. (the brand name Allbirds will be acquired by American Exchange Group). News of the plans sent Allbirds stock soaring nearly 200% in pre-market trading.

Allbirds filed paperwork with the Securities and Exchange Commission, seeking shareholder approval for the asset sale. In the paperwork, Allbirds revealed that its advisors had conducted a liquidity analysis showing that a winding down of the company would have yielded shareholders as little as two cents a share.

3.	TSMC Raises Revenue Forecast as AI Chip Demand Surges By Qianer Liu Source: The Information

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company on Thursday expects revenue to grow by more than 30% this year, raising its outlook from the forecast it gave in January, as demand for AI chips continues to surge and outruns supply.

TSMC, which manufactures the majority of the world’s most advanced chips, reported March-quarter revenue up 35% to $35.6 billion from a year earlier. Net income grew 58% to $18 billion. The growth was driven by strong demand for advanced chips used in AI applications as major tech companies race to expand data-center capacity.

Still, executives warned that ongoing conflicts in the Middle East could weigh on profitability. CFO Wendell Huang said prices for certain chemicals and gases needed in chipmaking are likely to rise, impacting the company’s future profit margins.

Asked about Elon Musk’s Terafab project with Intel, CEO C.C. Wei said TSMC does not underestimate competitors, but that “there are no shortcuts.” Wei said it takes two to three years to build a fab and another one to two years to ramp production, underscoring how difficult it is to replicate TSMC’s manufacturing scale in the short term.

4.	Anthropic Exec Leaves Figma Board By Stephanie Palazzolo Source: The Information

Mike Krieger, an Instagram cofounder who previously was Anthropic’s Chief Product Officer and now leads the company’s “Labs” team, stepped down from Figma’s board of directors on Tuesday, according to a filing.

The move came shortly after The Information broke the news that Anthropic is working on an AI design tool which could compete with Figma’s offerings. Figma’s stock price fell 9% immediately following the report, though it has recovered slightly since.

The upcoming Anthropic design tool aims to help both technical and non-technical users create presentations, websites, landing pages and products using prompts in natural language. Figma similarly helps designers and developers design, prototype and build products and has ramped up its spending on research and development in recent months as it builds out new AI features.

5.	Snap Lays Off 16% of Workforce By Martin Peers Source: The Information

Snap said it was laying off about 16% of its workforce, or about 1,000 people, in an effort to reduce its cost base by $500 million and “establish a clearer path to net income profitability,” CEO Evan Spiegel said in a blog post.

Snap also foreshadowed its first quarter earnings report, revealing that revenue had risen 12% and earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization had more than doubled.

In the blog post, Spiegel added that advances in AI “enable our teams to reduce repetitive work, increase velocity” and better deal with business partners and advertisers. Spiegel’s announcement comes two weeks after an activist investor and shareholder in Snap called on the company to make “meaningful changes” in how Snap is run, including cutting employee numbers, to lift Snap’s faltering stock price. Snap stock, which fell to historically low levels last month of below $4,  rose 8% on Wednesday to $6.04.