Google goes to court in the tech trial of the decade; And, Elon Musk faces investigation after Starlink blocked Ukraine's attack on Russia

Market Watch

• Indian benchmark indices ended the day in the green, with the Sensex increasing 94 points at 67,221 and the Nifty declining marginally 3.15 points at 19,993
• Sectorally, Nifty Media (-4.30%) and Nifty Realty (-3.24%) shed the most, while IT (+1.03%) and Pharma (+0.12%) gained the most.

Four things:

• The Nifty Index has journeyed from 1,000 to 20,000 points in 28 years , reflecting economic ups and downs.
• Defence stocks have soared with up to 233% gains in FY24, driven by the ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat’ push and the Ukraine-Russia conflict.
• After Nifty’s record high, small and midcap indices have declined by over 3% due to profit booking.
• KKR has invested another Rs 2,069.5 crore in Reliance Retail Ventures , raising its equity stake to 1.42%.

Google gears up for landmark antitrust showdown

On Tuesday, the US Department of Justice will present its antitrust case against Google in federal court — kicking off a case that could shape the future of tech giants.?

Why this matters: The DoJ’s complaint against Google is the first major antitrust case against the current generation of dominant tech companies to reach court.?

• Its outcome will be a crucial test of US regulators’ legal strategy and will influence their broader efforts to regulate Big Tech .

The big picture: The DoJ’s complaint, filed in 2020, revolves around agreements Google has signed with smartphone manufacturers like Apple, LG, Motorola and Samsung and browser developers like Mozilla and Opera to set its search engine as default .?

• The DoJ alleges these contracts illegally exclude competitors — constituting a monopoly in online search that stifles innovation and harms users.
• Google has countered that it does have competitors, and that browser- and device-makers as well as users prefer Google services on the merits of their quality .

Between the lines: The way US antitrust regulators have directly taken on a dominant Silicon Valley giant in a monopoly case is reminiscent of past lawsuits against Microsoft (1998) and IBM (1969) .?

• Whereas the IBM case marked the transition from the mainframe computer to the PC, and the Microsoft case framed the beginning of the internet era, the Google case heralds another new period in technology: the age of AI.?

The outcome: The final verdict could go either way, with Google potentially facing fines or conduct mandates if the court rules against it.?

• However, even if it wins — as Microsoft and IBM did — the legal battle is still likely to impede the company’s market momentum as its every move comes under scrutiny.?

Hi, I’m Gaurav Jeyaraman, the editor of this newsletter. We’d like to hear some feedback on our newsletter: what works and what doesn’t work? WhatsApp me directly and tell me what you think.

Fearing nuclear war, Elon Musk shut Starlink services to thwart Ukrainian drone attack on Russia

Senator Elizabeth Warren has called for an investigation into SpaceX and its CEO Elon Musk after he declined Ukraine’s request to extend Starlink satellite coverage for an attack on Russian warships near Crimea.

The context: According to a new biography by Walter Isaacson, Elon Musk didn’t activate the Starlink network near the Crimean coast last year to prevent a Ukrainian drone attack on Russian warships , as he feared it would lead to a nuclear war.

• The Ukrainian submarine drones, packed with explosives, lost connectivity and washed ashore harmlessly.
• The Ukrainian Digital Transformation Minister, Mikhail Fedorov, reportedly pleaded with Musk via text messages to restore the signal; however, Musk declined, stating that the drone attack was “going too far and inviting strategic defeat.”?
• “How am I in this war?” Isaacson quotes the entrepreneur as saying. “Starlink was not meant to be involved in wars. It was so people can watch Netflix and chill and get online for school and do good peaceful things, not drone strikes.”

What they’re saying: “The Congress needs to investigate what’s happened here and whether we have adequate tools to make sure foreign policy is conducted by the government and not by one billionaire,” said Warren.?

• The Democrat lawmaker, who is part of the Armed Services Committee, also urged the Defense Department to reevaluate its contracts with SpaceX.?
• Armed Services Chairman Jack Reed also expressed concerns about private entities, like SpaceX, having too much control over satellite operations when it comes to national security.?

The other side: Musk argued, “If I had agreed to their request, then SpaceX would be explicitly complicit in a major act of war and conflict escalation.”

• He also emphasised his loyalty to the US and added that while he was ready to “fight for and die in America,” the US is not at war with Russia.?

The big picture:?Musk had previously donated over 20,000 Starlink terminals to Ukraine after Russia had damaged much of Ukraine’s communications infrastructure at the onset of the war in February 2022.

• However, the billionaire later asked the US government to cover the service’s costs, which were estimated in the hundreds of millions of dollars, and a deal was negotiated for an additional 100,000 satellite dishes to be sent to Ukraine.

Of note: After being held up by the home ministry over security concerns for nearly a year, Starlink is finally likely to be approved to begin services in India .

ICYMI

• Canada’s PM Justin Trudeau finally departed for Canada after a technical glitch in his aircraft left him stranded in New Delhi after the G20 Summit.
• Ashneer Grover faces a defamation case over controversial remarks stating that Indore’s ranking as India’s cleanest city was “bought.”
• SEBI allegedly concealed information and tweaked regulations to shield the Adani Group, a Supreme Court petition alleges.
• Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari quickly backtracked after hinting at a 10% GST hike on diesel vehicles as a ‘pollution tax’.
• India’s first manned ocean exploration mission , Project Samudrayaan, aims to send three individuals 6,000 m underwater in an indigenously-made submersible by 2026.
• Meta is developing a new AI model , aiming to be as advanced as OpenAI's GPT-4 model, with an expected completion date next year.
• A new ‘pay by car’ service enables one to transact directly from their vehicle to make fuel payments and recharge their car’s FASTag.
• A Supreme Court lawyer was allegedly murdered by her husband in their Noida residence, after which he hid in the storeroom for 24 hours.