Instacart IPO; DeepMind Breakthrough; Uber Warns EU

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Can Instacart’s Share Price Maintain Momentum?

Online grocer Instacart’s [CART] shares started trading at $42 on Tuesday, having sold for $30, raising $660m and pushing the firm’s valuation to more than $11bn. This may be a lot less than its pandemic-era valuation of $39bn, but the IPO has been hailed as sign of a return to health for the tech start-up space, reported Bloomberg. Nevertheless, Instacart shares fell by nearly 5% in premarket trading on Wednesday, in a possible sign that its debut rally is already waning.

DeepMind AI Breakthrough

Researchers at DeepMind, Google’s [GOOGL] artificial intelligence (AI) research lab, have used an AI tool to predict whether genetic mutations will prove harmful. An article published in the journal Science details how the tool, called AlphaMissense, evaluated all of the 71 million “missense” mutations, wherein a single letter of the genetic code varies. On Tuesday, Mark Zuckerberg announced that the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative is to build “one of the largest computing systems dedicated to non-profit life sciences”.

Apple vs. Huawei Rumbles On

The fact that Huawei’s latest smartphone has a 5G chip — produced by Chinese semiconductor maker SMIC [0981.HK] — raises questions about the effectiveness of US sanctions, and may also constitute a headwind for Apple [AAPL] in China, CNBC reported. Meanwhile, Beijing has accused Washington of infiltrating Huawei servers as far as back as 2009, while the German interior ministry is moving to ban components made by Huawei and ZTE [0763.HK] from its 5G network, according to Bloomberg.

Uber Warns on EU Platform Work Directive

This week, the EU will begin finalising the text of a new law aimed at protecting gig workers — among them, those who drive for Uber [UBER]. Anabel Díaz, Head of EMEA Mobility at Uber, has duly warned that being obliged to treat such workers as employees could cause the firm to shut down in hundreds of cities across the bloc, and to drive up its prices for consumers by some 40%.

Further Scrutiny for Musk

The Wall Street Journal reported that federal prosecutors are looking into perks that Tesla [TSLA] may have provided CEO Elon Musk going back as far as 2017. This forms part of their investigation into the plan for a house, known as Project 42, which the company was allegedly going to build for Musk, who has refuted the allegation. Elsewhere, in a conversation with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Musk mentioned he is weighing charging users to access X, formerly Twitter.