Here's your TnB Tech Minute for Wednesday, August 21st. I'm Zoe Thomas for the Wall Street Journal.

The UK's antitrust authority has closed investigations into Google's Play Store and Apple's App Store for

now. The Competition and Markets Authority says it expects to consider competition concerns

around the App Stores again under new regulations passed in May.

The CMA had been looking into whether Google and Apple separately were using their market

positions to set terms that were unfair to app developers. The new legislation gives the

CMA powers to promote competition and introduce requirements on companies if

they are deemed to have strategic market status for digital activity.

The regulator said that could allow it to consider competition issues from a more global

perspective.

Google and Apple didn't respond to requests for comment.

Ford is shrinking its plans for electric vehicle rollouts.

The carmaker cancelled plans for an electric three row SUV citing tough pricing pressure.

Ford says it expects to take nearly $2 billion in related special charges and write-downs as a result.

It plans to offer gas-electric hybrid versions of future large SUVs instead.

The company also pushed back the launch of a new electric pickup truck by a year.

And Alibaba and Tencent are leading the charge and investing in Chinese AI startups.

The tech giants have invested in most of the companies included in a group dubbed China's

six little artificial intelligence dragons.

Each of these startups have been valued at more than $1 billion since 2023.

Alibabas and 10 cents interest in AI has intensified, even as both have dramatically reduced their overall

investments over the past two years. Neither Alibaba nor Tencent

...