Weekly IT News Roundup: March 28, 2025

GameStop announced a $1.3 billion convertible debt offering to institutional investors, with plans to use the proceeds to purchase Bitcoin as part of its treasury reserve strategy. The notes, maturing in 2030, carry no interest and can be converted into cash or stock under specific conditions. This move aligns with CEO Ryan Cohen's efforts to revive the struggling brick-and-mortar business by diversifying its financial portfolio, echoing similar strategies employed by MicroStrategy. While the announcement boosted GameStop's stock by 6% in after-hours trading earlier in the week, concerns remain about the company's retail operations, which have faced significant challenges, including store closures and declining sales.

Alibaba Cloud unveiled Qwen2.5-Omni-7B, a cutting-edge multimodal AI model capable of processing text, images, audio, and video inputs while generating real-time responses. Despite its compact design with 7 billion parameters, the model delivers high performance across modalities and is optimized for deployment on edge devices like smartphones and laptops. Applications include aiding visually impaired users through real-time audio descriptions and enhancing customer service interactions with intelligent voice systems. The model is open-sourced on platforms like Hugging Face and GitHub, reflecting Alibaba’s commitment to advancing accessible AI technologies.

CoreWeave, a cloud computing company specializing in AI infrastructure, raised $1.5 billion in its IPO on March 28, marking the largest U.S. tech IPO since 2021. Backed by Nvidia, CoreWeave provides cloud services for AI models and counts Microsoft as its largest client. Shares debuted at $40 but faced challenges due to broader market volatility, with the Nasdaq index experiencing its worst quarterly performance since mid-2022. Despite this, CoreWeave’s IPO signals growing investor interest in AI-focused companies and could pave the way for more public offerings in the sector.

The SEC withdrew enforcement actions against Kraken, Consensys, and Cumberland DRW last week, permanently dismissing cases without imposing fines or requiring operational changes. This decision marks a significant shift in regulatory posture toward crypto firms and was celebrated by Kraken as an end to "politically motivated" litigation that had stifled innovation in the sector. The move is seen as a turning point for crypto regulation in the U.S., potentially fostering a more stable environment for investment and development within the industry.

Rocket Lab was selected by the U.S. Space Force to compete for missions under the $5.6 billion National Security Space Launch (NSSL) program through 2029. Its new Neutron rocket—a reusable medium-lift vehicle capable of deploying payloads up to 13 tons—will be used for high-priority national security missions starting later this year. Rocket Lab joins other major players like SpaceX and Blue Origin in this initiative aimed at bolstering domestic launch capabilities for defense purposes. This milestone underscores Rocket Lab's transition from small satellite launches to becoming a key player in medium-lift aerospace solutions.