Krypton Evening News | Snap Announces Layoffs of About 1,000 Employees; ByteDance Launches a New Round of Option Repurchase; Apple CEO Tim Cook Spends $1.06 Million to Increase Stake in Nike
Large Companies:
Snap Announces Layoffs of About 1,000 Employees
On April 15, social media company Snap announced a series of adjustments that will affect about 1,000 team members at Snap, including 16% of full-time employees. In addition, the company will also close more than 300 vacant positions. Through these adjustments, the company expects to reduce annual costs by more than $500 million by the second half of 2026. Snap said that for U.S. team members who are about to leave, the company will provide four months of severance pay, medical insurance, equity incentives, and career transition support. Outside the United States, the company will follow local procedures and strive to provide equivalent support in line with local norms.
According to a memo sent by Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger last week, the company plans to disclose to employees the "scope and nature" of its participation in Elon Musk's ambitious "Terafab" chip-manufacturing project in the "coming weeks". Pat Gelsinger sent this memo to Intel employees last Friday. Two days earlier, the semiconductor giant announced that it would jointly participate in the Terafab project with Musk's companies - SpaceX, xAI, and Tesla. This could be a boon for Intel, which is undergoing its latest transformation attempt.
Wang Hao, the general manager of Tesla in China, said that Tesla's largest production base, the Shanghai Gigafactory, has the potential to produce humanoid robots in the future. The factory's efficient production and innovation capabilities are regarded as key factors in enabling CEO Elon Musk to quickly commercialize this technology. Wang Hao said at a press conference on Tuesday that CEO Musk had pointed out that mass production is a key challenge in manufacturing humanoid robots. He believes that the Shanghai manufacturing department is the "golden key to solving this challenge", but did not specify how the operations will support the company's robot business.
ByteDance Launches a New Round of Option Repurchase
ByteDance issued an internal email to launch the latest round of option repurchase. Among them: For current employees: $229.5 per share (approx. RMB 1,588); for former employees: $201.96 per share (approx. RMB 1,397). ByteDance's last round of option repurchase was in October 2025. The repurchase price for current employees in this round has increased by about 14.5% compared with the previous round. In the October 2025 repurchase, the repurchase price for current employees was $200.41, and for former employees it was $180.37.
At the 13th China Internet Audio-Visual Conference that opened in Chengdu on the 15th, the National Radio and Television Administration launched a plan for the creation and dissemination of high-quality micro-short dramas and started a theme micro-short drama creation and exhibition activity titled "The Long March: Our Story". A relevant official of the National Radio and Television Administration said that China's micro-short dramas have entered a critical stage of prosperous development from extensive growth and are in a strategic opportunity period of moving towards high-quality, digital, industrial, and international development. The National Radio and Television Administration takes the lead in building a creation guidance system of "led by the administration, supported by provincial bureaus, and incentivized by platforms" and launches the plan for the creation and dissemination of high-quality micro-short dramas to promote the high-quality development of micro-short dramas.
Hello Responds to Administrative Penalty for Over-Deploying Shared Bikes
On April 15, in response to the case of Hello being investigated and punished for illegally over-deploying shared bicycles, Hello's company said that the Beijing branch of Hello Bike had management shortcomings in capacity scheduling and response efficiency during new-bike replacement and cross-regional dispatching and failed to do the work in a detailed and solid manner. In response, Hello said that it had launched a comprehensive rectification: it sent additional operation and maintenance forces overnight to restore the parking order in key areas and at the same time launched the adjustment and optimization of the internal management mechanism. Hello said that it accepted the interviews and guidance from the Beijing municipal authorities and would take this rectification as an opportunity to focus on refined operations and report the progress to the authorities and the public.
Apple Increases iPhone Production in India, and Tata Group's Assembly Share Should Reach 10-15%
According to Counterpoint data, India's share in the global assembly business has increased from 5.8% in 2022 to 22.2% in 2025. By 2026, this share will reach 25-30%, and by 2027, it will reach 30-35%. Foxconn remains the largest assembler in India, followed by Tata Group, which acquired Wistron's factory in 2023 and 60% of the local factory of Pegatron in 2024. In the next two years, Tata Group's iPhone assembly share should reach 10-15%.
Douyin Group to Invest 500 Million Yuan in Special Funds to Support Live-Action Short Dramas
On April 15, at the 13th China Internet Audio-Visual Conference in 2026, Douyin Group announced that it would invest 500 million yuan in special funds to support the content innovation and in-depth exploration of real-life themes in live-action short dramas. Le Li, the chief editor of Hongguo Short Dramas, said that live-action short dramas are in the "present tense" and "future tense" of the high-quality development of the industry. Only when all parties actively guide and support live-action creation can the short-drama industry develop steadily and far.
New Products:
Qianwen AI Glasses S1 Announce Official Sale
36Kr learned that on April 15, Qianwen AI Glasses S1 announced its official sale, with the lowest price after discounts being 3,499 yuan. The product supports screen display, a 12-megapixel camera, hot-swappable batteries, and has undergone a systematic overhaul at the whole-machine level for all-day AI services.
Investment and Financing:
"DMS" Completes a New Round of Equity Financing of Over 100 Million Yuan
36Kr learned that recently, "DMS", an industrial intelligent solution provider, announced the completion of a new round of equity financing of over 100 million yuan. This round of financing was led by Tianjin Zhihui Fund, and followed by multiple institutions such as CIMC Capital, Beiyang Haitang Fund, and SUPCON Technology. The financing funds will be mainly used for the R & D of core technologies such as the industrial intelligent agent platform, market expansion, and ecological construction.
Apple CEO Cook Spends $1.06 Million to Increase Stake in Nike
On April 14 local time, a document submitted by Nike to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) showed that Apple CEO Tim Cook bought 25,000 shares of Nike at a price of $42.43 per share on April 10, spending about $1.06 million.
Today's Views:
Tesla CEO Elon Musk announced on April 15 that Tesla's AI chip design team has successfully completed the tape-out of the AI5 chip. He also revealed that more powerful AI6, Dojo3, and several other chips are also in development. Musk said that he thanked partners TSMC and Samsung for their support in the chip mass-production process, and that "the AI5 chip will become one of the highest-producing AI chips in the world in the future".
Other Noteworthy News:
On April 13, Li Chenggang, China's chief trade negotiator and vice-minister of commerce, met in Beijing with Colin Stokes, global executive vice-president and chief government affairs officer of Ford Motor Company. The two sides exchanged views on China-U.S. economic and trade relations and Ford's development in China.