Sam Bankman-Fried Pleaded Not Guilty to Fraud Charges and Elon Musk Became the First Person Ever to Lose $200B USD in This Week’s Tech Roundup

This week, the tech industry received a development in the case of disgraced crypto mogul Sam Bankman-Fried. The FTX CEO appeared in court to plead not guilty to the multitude of charges against him. Another big name in tech, Elon Musk, also experienced a blow when he became the first person in history to lose $200 Billion USD.

On the product side, Intel is gearing up for high-speed laptops with the Core i9-13980HX. The company bills the chip as the world’s fastest mobile processor. Apple, meanwhile, will be charging customers more money to replace the batteries in older iPhone models.

Below, HYPEBEAST has rounded up the top tech stories of the week so you can stay up to date on trends in the industry.

Intel Unveiled the Core i9-13980HX, the World’s Fastest Mobile Processor

Intel

Intel showed off the world’s fastest mobile processor at this year’s CES. The 13th-gen Core i9-13980HX mobile processor features DDR4 and DDR5 memory and PCIe Gen 5 connectivity. It’s also equipped for up to 5.6 gigahertz (GHz) of turbo frequency and 128 gigabyte RAM support.

The processor operates at a transfer speed of up to 40 gigabits per second. Consumers will be able to see the processor in action in new laptops as soon as later this year.

Meta Was Fined Over $410 Million USD in the EU for Illegally Requiring Users to Accept Personalized Ads

Jakub Porzycki/Nurphoto/Getty Images

Meta was slammed with $410 million USD in fines for violating the terms of the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). The act requires that users have the option to decide whether or not they want to be shown personalized ads, and are given the option to change their decision at any time. The company received two fines, one for Facebook and one for Instagram.

The Data Protection Commission (DPC) said that Meta must amend their data processing operations within the next three months. A Meta spokesperson announced that the company plans to appeal the requirement as it “strongly disagrees” with the DPC’s decision.

Elon Musk Became the First Person Ever to Lose $200 Billion USD

Philip Pacheco/Afp/Getty Images

Elon Musk has made history once again — this time, as the first person to ever lose $200 billion USD of their net worth. Bloomberg reported that the Tesla and SpaceX CEO had his net worth plummet following a decrease in Twitter’s valuation by 56%.

Musk was just the second person to ever amass a net worth of over $200 billion USD, following Jeff Bezos. His net worth had previously peaked in November 2021 at approximately $340 billion USD, during which time he was briefly considered the richest person in the world.

Apple Bumped Up the Price of Battery Replacements for Older iPhone Models

Apple

Apple is jacking up the cost of battery replacements for older iPhone models by $20 USD. The batteries for iPhone X through iPhone 13 models will increase from $69 USD to $89 USD, while batteries for iPhone 8, iPhone SE and earlier models will go from $49 USD to $69 USD.

iPhone owners can get their battery swapped out at official Apple stores, authorized retailers or at home using the company’s D.I.Y. self-repair service.

Sam Bankman-Fried Pleaded Not Guilty to Fraud and Other FTX-Related Charges

Tom Williams/Cq-Roll Call Inc/Getty Images

Sam Bankman-Fried appeared in a New York federal court on Tuesday, where he pled guilty to charges of fraud, conspiracy, money laundering and violating campaign finance law regulations. The former crypto billionaire and FTX CEO was arrested in the Bahamas last month and extradited to the U.S. He was ultimately released from jail on a $250 million USD bond and has been on house arrest at his parent’s home in California since.

Prosecutors argue that approximately $8 billion USD in FTX customer funds went missing under Bankman-Fried’s leadership. A trial date has been set for October 2023.