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Hey Waivly Crew! 🌊 In today’s edition, Elon Musk's X Corp. wins a $500 million severance pay lawsuit, while Duolingo acquires Detroit-based design studio Hobbes, expanding its creative team.

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Here’s what’s on the horizon today:

Let’s dive in!

STORIES MAKING A SPLASH

^_AI
xAI ends talks with Oracle over $10B server deal

Elon Musk's xAI startup has halted negotiations to expand its use of Oracle Cloud, as reported by The Information. Talks ceased due to xAI's inability to meet Musk's timeline demands, prompting the decision to construct its own supercomputer in Memphis. Currently, xAI is a major Oracle customer, renting approximately 16,000 Nvidia GPUs.

Earlier discussions with Oracle centered around a potential $10 billion multi-year cloud agreement, but disagreements arose over timeline expectations and concerns about power supply at xAI's preferred location. Instead, xAI plans to establish what Musk describes as "the world’s most powerful supercomputer" in Memphis, projected to launch by fall 2025.

Additionally, xAI intends to deploy a 100,000 H100 liquid-cooled training cluster in the near term and expand with a 300,000 GPU B200 cluster starting next summer.

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Ankord

^_BUSINESS
Duolingo acquires design studio Hobbes

Duolingo has acquired Detroit-based animation and motion design studio Hobbes, its second design acquisition since its 2021 IPO. Hobbes had collaborated with Duolingo on features like Duolingo Music and various animation systems. With this acquisition, Hobbes' 12-member team will join Duolingo full-time, forming its first dedicated motion design team.

The Hobbes team will stay in Detroit, nearly doubling the size of Duolingo's local office. The deal, a combination of cash and equity awards, is characterized as an "acqui-hire."

This follows Duolingo's 2022 acquisition of another Detroit animation studio, Gunner. Duolingo Chief Design Officer Ryan Sims highlighted the importance of design and animation, noting that adding Hobbes' talents will enhance their animation pipeline, improve UX, and enrich user interaction, making learning more engaging and effective.

^{_{CAREER DEVELOPMENT}}
Craft an impressive CV that piques interest

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TECH SPECIAL

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Elon Musk's X wins $500M severance lawsuit

Elon Musk's X Corp., formerly Twitter, has successfully defended a lawsuit seeking $500 million in severance pay for employees laid off post-acquisition in 2022. The lawsuit, representing about 6,000 employees, was based on the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA).

U.S. District Judge Trina Thompson ruled that ERISA did not apply since the company had informed employees they would only receive cash payouts after Musk's takeover. Several similar lawsuits by former Twitter employees and executives are still ongoing.

Following Musk’s $44 billion acquisition of Twitter in October 2022, 85% of the staff were fired, leading to widespread criticism and legal challenges. In March, four former Twitter executives, including ex-CEO Parag Agrawal, sued Musk for allegedly withholding $128 million in severance payments.

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Spotify is adding comments to podcasts now

Spotify is introducing podcast comments, allowing listeners to engage directly with episode pages, fostering a sense of community. Creators can approve and respond to comments, maintaining control over their content’s interaction.

This move positions Spotify in competition with platforms like YouTube for creator-audience engagement, following its expansion into video podcasts last year and ongoing enhancements in 2022. Currently, over 250,000 video podcasts are available on Spotify, with 9 million listeners engaging in interactive features like polls and Q&As—a significant increase from last year.

The addition of comments aims to enhance community-building among creators, potentially boosting listener retention and podcast consumption. While optional for hosts, the feature responds to demand from listeners seeking more ways to interact with their favorite shows.

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THE WAVES

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More Stories Surfing The Web

🤖 Elon Musk: “Technology does not automatically improve”

👥 X’s user base has stopped growing under Elon Musk

🌐 Poe now lets users create and share web apps

🚫 ‎‎‎FTC bans NGL from allowing users under 18

Discover more Waves in the Waivly Community. Click here to get onboard and join the community! 🌊

SAIL INTO A NEW CAREER

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Waivly Work Highlights

👩‍💻 SR Fullstack Developer (Java+Angular) at ília

👩‍💻 Senior Executive Recruiter at Coinbase

👩‍💻 Social Media Manager at Risk Labs

👩‍💻 Head of Treasury at Wormhole

BACK TO THE SHORE

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That wraps up today’s newsletter

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