動區BlockTempo

Google Cloud Next 2026 announced Gemini's three major features in Maps and Earth: Grounded Map Imagery (generating real-world scene images from text prompts in Street View), Aerial and Satellite Imagery Insights (importing images into BigQuery for automatic analysis, reducing processing time from weeks to minutes), and Earth AI Image Models (identifying bridges, roads, power lines, and opening experimental access). This move treats geolocation data as the foundational AI perception of the world, transforming maps from navigation tools into an enterprise AI perception layer.

Bloomberg reports that SoftBank is using its holdings in OpenAI as collateral to seek a two-year margin loan of $10 billion, with an initial interest rate of approximately 7.88%. Even though S&P has downgraded the credit outlook to negative and borrowing costs have risen, SoftBank continues to increase its investment in OpenAI. This move demonstrates the strategy of using debt to buy into the future, converting paper wealth into cash before OpenAI goes public and reinvesting it into the AI landscape.

Bloomberg said that at an employee meeting, Cook admitted that replacing Google Maps with Apple Maps in 2012 was his first major mistake during his tenure, and that it led to the dismissal of the software chief; what he is most proud of are the health features of the Apple Watch. Since taking over in 2011, the market value has grown from about $350 billion to more than $4 trillion. Although bets such as AirPower and autonomous driving failed to materialize, they did not evolve into a serious crisis. Ternus was confirmed as the successor, and Cook plans to move to the role of executive director and stay with the company.

U.S. Indo-Pacific Commander Paparo confirmed at a Senate hearing that the U.S. is operating a Bitcoin node for cybersecurity testing; he highly praised the proof-of-work mechanism, believing it can be used for power projection and increasing attack costs. The U.S. is integrating Bitcoin from financial assets into national security strategy, using it as a new weapon in intelligence gathering, cyber defense, and decentralized technology in geopolitical competition. This is the first time the U.S. military publicly defined Bitcoin as a national security-related asset in Congress.

Tron founder Justin Sun formally files a lawsuit against WLFI, which is funded by the Trump family, accusing its smart contracts of concealing backdoors, freezing tokens, and depriving governance votes, involving $75 million. Eric Trump fires back, mocking the case as absurd as “spending $6 million to glue bananas to the wall.” WLFI says the freezing is to protect users and the project—see you in court.

Pornhub announced that starting immediately, the stablecoin used for creator revenue settlements has been switched from USDT to USDC issued by Circle to enhance the reliability and compliance of settlements. USDC offers monthly audits and transparency regarding assets held in custody by regulated institutions, giving it an advantage over USDT in terms of regulatory pressure and transparency. This move shows that the adult industry is transitioning in a positive direction toward compliance and financial friendliness.

TSMC announces salary adjustments for 2026: the general increase is 3–5%. For senior employees at grade 33–34 and above (S+), they can receive 7–9%. In 2025, the total bonus payout was 206.1 billion yuan; the per-capita amount was 2.64 million yuan; the average annual salary was 4.09 million yuan, representing a 22.95% year-over-year increase. Including benefits, the figure is about 4.425 million yuan. In addition, it plans to recruit about 8,000 new hires, with starting salaries for master’s degree holders of about 2.2 million yuan. This shows that it is retaining talent through core technologies such as 2nm and CoWoS, while also facing pressure from external headhunting.

SpaceX's IPO application warns investors that the orbital AI project is still in its early stages, technically complex, and unproven, and may not be commercially viable. The space data center will also be affected by space environment risks. This contrasts with Musk's optimistic statement at the WEF, calling it the only expansion path. Technical challenges include cooling, network latency, and maintenance costs; the application also reveals an estimated valuation of about $1.75 trillion and a fundraising scale of $75 billion. Investors need to distinguish between vision and reality.

Beijing Procuratorial Authorities Announce 2025 Intellectual Property White Paper: 1,195 cases throughout the year, including 113 related to AI. Key points include: employees maliciously deleting training data to disrupt computer information systems being prosecuted; four people sentenced in the Tongzhou case for infringing copyright using AI-generated models, highlighting that "artificial intelligence is not outside the law." Additionally, the enforcement of copyright and trademark across the entire chain has been strengthened.

Google announces Gemini Deep Research upgrade, launching Deep Research and Deep Research Max, integrating Gemini 3.1 Pro and connecting MCP with external and corporate data sources such as FactSet, S&P Global, PitchBook, and others. Max enhances depth by extending reasoning time, adds native charts, collaboration planning, real-time streaming, and multimodal input, enabling AI Agents to go beyond simple search assistants.

Taiwan's Political Donation Law was reviewed 13 times, and in principle, it bans the use of cryptocurrencies and live streaming tips (super chats) as political donations; if the amendment passes, candidates accepting Bitcoin, Ethereum, or other cryptocurrencies or super chats will be considered illegal.
The trigger was the controversy over Huang Kuo-chang's super chat donation, with the Control Yuan emphasizing the difficulty in auditing and the high risks involved.
Common violations include unapproved dedicated accounts, exceeding limits, foreign donations, and donations made in others' names.

The world's richest man, Elon Musk, did not attend the Paris prosecutor's summons on Monday. Since French authorities requested access to the X platform's algorithms and user data in July 2025, Musk has maintained a tough opposition stance, and the standoff has evolved into a comprehensive confrontation spanning AI regulation and political power struggles.
(Background summary: Musk's "strongest AI on Earth," Grok 3, is freely available to users)
(Additional background: Musk releases "strongest AI on Earth," Grok 3! Performance surpasses GPT-4o)
Bloomberg, citing AFP and Agence France-Presse reports, stated that Paris prosecutors officially confirmed Musk's absence on Monday. Paris officials explicitly declared, "The investigation will not come to a halt because of this."
The legal confrontation can be traced back to July 2025. At that time, Paris prosecutors launched an investigation, initially focusing on the algorithms of the X platform.

UAE Central Bank Governor Balama proposed, during the IMF Spring Meetings, that the U.S. Treasury and the Federal Reserve establish a US dollar–Dirham currency swap mechanism to stabilize exchange rates. If the US dollar supply becomes tight, the UAE may switch to settling oil in RMB, undermining the petrodollar system. China has become the UAE’s largest buyer; the RMB settlement share has surpassed 41% starting March 2026, while Saudi Arabia has reached about 45%, indicating that the shift in settlement has become structural. The UAE believes the United States has provoked the conflict and therefore needs the U.S. to provide insurance. At the same time, Gulf allies are re-evaluating their long-term reliance on U.S. military bases in the region; for the first time, a trust crisis in the petrodollar system has been openly used by allies as leverage.

The US-Iran ceasefire expires on the evening of April 22, and Trump says it is unlikely to be extended. Meanwhile, the US military’s three aircraft carrier strike groups are unusually assembled in the Middle East to carry out a naval blockade to apply pressure. Iran’s senior officials respond in kind: Kalibaf refuses to negotiate under threats, and Khamenei reiterates three major positions while accusing the U.S. of breach. With talks between the two sides yielding no results, geopolitical tensions have pushed up oil prices and driven demand for Bitcoin as a safe haven.

Glassnode Week 17 Report shows a contradictory structure in Bitcoin: spot and derivatives markets are experiencing increased selling pressure and rising short-selling sentiment, but inflows into US spot ETFs and long-term holder confidence provide a downward buffer for the market. Long-term capital and institutional buying are driving the market to gradually form a bottom, with short-term selling pressure being gradually absorbed, and a clearer direction is expected to emerge in the future.

Grinex was hit by a large-scale hacker attack on April 16, incurring losses of approximately 1 billion rubles (about 13–15 million US dollars), and announced a temporary suspension of operations. Large amounts of funds were laundered and routed using USDT, converted into TRX and ETH via TRON and Ethereum, in an attempt to evade freezing. As the successor to Garantex, the incident dealt a severe blow to Russia’s cross-border payment and ruble exchange channels. Official authorities accused Western intelligence agencies, saying the attack threatened financial sovereignty, and have already referred the matter to law enforcement.