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- Instagram Reels may get a new home
Good morning, tech enthusiasts. As TikTok faces a potential ban in the U.S., tech companies are racing to fill the void with their own alternatives, including Meta’s Instagram—which may soon spin off Reels as a standalone app.
It’s no secret that Meta has long hoped to dethrone its Chinese rival, but the question remains: will TikTok’s vast Gen Z fanbase embrace what it has to offer?
In today’s tech rundown:
Instagram’s standalone Reels app
Waymo robotaxis racing ahead
Amazon’s first quantum chip
Biotech’s DeepSeek moment
Quick hits on other major news
LATEST DEVELOPMENTS
Image source: Ideogram/The Rundown
The Rundown: Meta’s Instagram is reportedly considering launching its Reels offering as a standalone short-form video app to take advantage of ByteDance-owned TikTok’s uncertain future in the U.S.
The details:
Instagram’s CEO Adam Mosseri was reportedly heard discussing the plan, according to an anonymous source cited by The Information.
Code-named “Project Ray,” the proposed app will likely support longer reels, going up to three minutes, and improved content recommendations.
The move comes after Meta launched a video-editing app called Edits, tailored for Instagram, to compete with TikTok-centric CapCut.
In 2018, Meta launched a standalone video app called Lasso to take on TikTok, but it was shut down two years later due to low user adoption.
Why it matters: If the move takes effect, Meta could strengthen Instagram’s user base and engagement by drawing a big chunk of TikTok’s 170 million U.S. users—should the platform go dark after April 5 due to a Trump ban. However, it won’t be an easy win, as rivals like X, YouTube, and Bluesky are also ramping up their vertical video game.
WAYMO
Image source: Ideogram/The Rundown
The Rundown: Alphabet-owned Waymo announced that its fleet of self-driving taxis is now serving over 200,000 paid rides every week in the U.S.— marking a 20-fold jump from two years ago and pushing the company far ahead of its competitors.
The details:
Waymo’s driverless taxis operate in Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Phoenix, with plans to test in 10 new cities this year, including Austin, Atlanta, and Miami.
The company says its driverless taxis have captured 22% of the taxi market in San Francisco, surpassing Lyft and in tight competition with Uber.
Alphabet also invested an additional $5B in Waymo last year, supporting its rapid expansion and technological development plans.
As of October 2024, the company’s self-driving taxis were covering 1 million+ miles a week—a number that will only grow as it launches in new markets.
Why it matters: Waymo remains far ahead of the competition, especially with Cruise shutting down its robotaxi program and Zoox testing in just two cities. However, challenges do persist—Waymo's service is confined to geofenced areas, and regulatory and safety roadblocks can easily complicate expansion, putting operations at risk.
AMAZON
Image source: Amazon Web Services
The Rundown: Amazon has stepped into the quantum race with its first quantum computing chip, Ocelot, which it hopes will shave off as much as five years in the effort to build the world’s first viable quantum computer.
The details:
Developed in partnership with the California Institute of Technology, the Ocelot prototype integrates two small silicon microchips stacked atop each other.
It uses cat qubits, a type of qubit technology that suppresses certain quantum errors, which is essential for building fault-tolerant quantum computers.
Amazon says that the chip’s design could cut down resource costs associated with quantum error correction by as much as 90%.
Just recently, Microsoft unveiled its first quantum chip, Majorana. Google, meanwhile, announced its first quantum chip, Willow, in December.
Why it matters: One of the biggest challenges in quantum computing is qubits' sensitivity to vibrations, heat, and electromagnetic disturbances, leading to computational errors. Amazon’s Ocelot chip tackles this with its “cat qubit” design, which enhances stability. Its simpler architecture could also make scaling easier.
BIOTECH
Image source: Ideogram/The Rundown
The Rundown: The biotech industry is having a DeepSeek moment as China celebrates a small biotech company’s drug for outperforming Merck’s cancer drug Keytruda—a $30B-a-year immunotherapy juggernaut and pharma’s bestselling drug.
The details:
The new drug from Akeso, Ivonescimab, outperformed Keytruda in treating lung cancer during Chinese trials last year.
Patients treated with the drug went 11.1 months before their tumors reappeared, compared to 5.8 months for Keytruda.
After the findings were revealed, shares in Akeso’s US partner, California-based Summit Therapeutics, more than doubled to a record high.
Over the past decade, Chinese firms have been innovating with advanced drugs, signing billions of dollars in licensing deals with Western companies.
Why it matters: China approved 37 new drugs in 2024, but concerns over trial data quality have led regulators to impose strict legal restrictions on its biotech firms. Now, with a global trial for Akeso’s new drug underway, the results could signal China’s rising strength in cutting-edge drug development.
QUICK HITS
📰 Everything else in tech today
Amazon unveiled Alexa+, its highly anticipated next-generation digital AI assistant, priced at $19.99 but free to 100M+ Amazon Prime members.
OpenAI is finally making its video generation model, Sora, available to users in the EU and UK via subscriptions to ChatGPT’s Plus and Pro tiers.
Meta is reportedly planning to release a standalone app for its AI assistant, Meta AI, as soon as this spring—in a move to take on ChatGPT.
Meta also revealed its second-gen experimental smart glasses—Aria Gen 2—intended to bolster research into AI, robotics, and machine perception.
Fintech company Stripe announced a tender offer for employees and shareholders that valued the company at $91.5 billion—41% higher than last year.
Nvidia plans to launch its next-gen AI computing chip, Blackwell Ultra, next month at the GTC conference.
Jeff Bezos’ rocket company Blue Origin is launching pop star Katy Perry and broadcast journalist Gayle King into space for a high-priced 10-minute joy ride.
Canadian biotech startup Afynia Laboratories raised $5 million in seed funding to commercialize a blood test for endometriosis.
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See you soon,
Rowan, Jennifer, and Joey—The Rundown’s editorial team
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