Skip to main content

The context you need, when you need it

When news breaks, you need to understand what actually matters — and what to do about it. At Vox, our mission to help you make sense of the world has never been more vital. But we can’t do it on our own.

We rely on readers like you to fund our journalism. Will you support our work and become a Vox Member today?

Join now

Recode Daily: Spotify, Uber, AT&T, Airbnb, Stitch Fix, Alibaba. Day 2 of the Code Conference was packed.

Plus one senator.

Asa Mathat

Day 2 of the Code Conference was packed. We had top execs from Airbnb, Stitch Fix, AT&T, Uber and Spotify, plus one senator, in the red chairs. Here’s some of the top things we learned:

[Get this daily newsletters delivered to your inbox. Subscriber here.]

More than half of the most valuable U.S. tech companies were founded by first- or second-generation immigrants. Mary Meeker presented her latest data on immigrant founders at Code Wednesday and found that 56 percent of the 25 most valuable tech companies in the U.S. had a founder who was a first- or second-generation immigrant. Some examples: Uber’s Garrett Camp (Canada), Tesla and SpaceX’s Elon Musk (South Africa) and WeWork’s Adam Neumann (Israel). Take a look Meeker’s entire 2018 internet trends report here. And watch her full presentation on Recode’s YouTube here.

[Rani Molla / Recode]

Warren Buffett was reported to have offered to invest $3 billion in Uber earlier this year. Talks fell apart, according to the Wall Street Journal, when “the two sides couldn’t agree on the terms.”

[Wall Street Journal]

Months after Uber and Alphabet settled their messy legal battle over self-driving trade secrets, Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said the companies are discussing working together on self-driving. “They’re an incredible technology provider, they’re serious about autonomous,” he said during an interview with Kara Swisher at Code. Khosrowshahi also said the company is on track to IPO in the second half of 2019.

[Johana Bhuiyan / Recode]

How do leading women in Silicon Valley think tech should fix its diversity problem? We asked them. Megan Smith, founder of Shift7; Sukhinder Singh Cassidy, founder and CEO of Boardlist; and Aileen Lee, managing partner of Cowboy Ventures have some ideas. Watch the full interview.


Do you have questions about the interviews from this year’s Code Conference or what goes on behind the scenes? Recode’s Kara Swisher and Peter Kafka and The Verge’s Casey Newton will be talking about the conference on this week’s Too Embarrassed to Ask podcast, so send your questions in! Tweet them at us with the hashtag #TooEmbarrassed or email TooEmbarrassed@recode.net before 9 am PT / 12 pm ET.


Top stories from Recode

Senator Mark Warner: Facebook’s move to create transparency around paid political ads isn’t going to be enough.

“Pretty darn good” — but misses the point, says Senator Warner.

Alibaba’s Joe Tsai: A lot of people are trying to stop China from upgrading its tech, including Senator Mark Warner.

“I still don’t understand it.”

Momofuku chef David Chang explains why he’s building a media empire.

“We’re not promoting the restaurant — we’re trying to promote our ideals.”

These are the two big ‘holy wars’ that blockchain enthusiasts are fighting.

Crypto versus the feds, and crypto versus crypto.

The experience economy will be a ‘massive business,’ according to Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky.

Chesky’s vision? To be a “global travel community.”

Katrina Lake, Stitch Fix founder and CEO, says trying to find people who fit in is the ‘anti-diversity.’

“What I hope is that we can become the living and breathing example of why diversity is important,” Lake said.

China now has nine of the world’s biggest internet companies — almost as many as the U.S.

Five years ago, China had just two of the world’s biggest public tech companies by market value while the U.S. had nine.

Designer babies are just one example of the ethical dilemmas faced by the genomics industry.

Illumina CEO Francis deSouza’s company makes machines that let companies like 23andMe understand their customers’ DNA.

Here’s why AT&T decided to buy Time Warner, according to CEO Randall Stephenson.

Think Netflix.

This is Cool

Weezer gives in to Twitter pressure.

This article originally appeared on Recode.net.

See More:

More in Technology

Podcasts
Are humanoid robots all hype?Are humanoid robots all hype?
Podcast
Podcasts

AI is making them better — but they’re not going to be doing your chores anytime soon.

By Avishay Artsy and Sean Rameswaram
Future Perfect
The old tech that could help stop the next airborne pandemicThe old tech that could help stop the next airborne pandemic
Future Perfect

Glycol vapors, explained.

By Shayna Korol
Future Perfect
Elon Musk could lose his case against OpenAI — and still get what he wantsElon Musk could lose his case against OpenAI — and still get what he wants
Future Perfect

It’s not about who wins. It’s about the dirty laundry you air along the way.

By Sara Herschander
Life
Why banning kids from AI isn’t the answerWhy banning kids from AI isn’t the answer
Life

What kids really need in the age of artificial intelligence.

By Anna North
Culture
Anthropic owes authors $1.5B for pirating work — but the claims process is a Kafkaesque messAnthropic owes authors $1.5B for pirating work — but the claims process is a Kafkaesque mess
Culture

“Your AI monster ate all our work. Now you’re trying to pay us off with this piece of garbage that doesn’t work.”

By Constance Grady
Future Perfect
Some deaf children are hearing again because of a new gene therapySome deaf children are hearing again because of a new gene therapy
Future Perfect

A medical field that almost died is quietly fixing one disease at a time.

By Bryan Walsh