10 things in tech you need to know today

Bill Gates reading — Microsoft founder Bill Gates.
Anthony Bolante/Reuters

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1. Microsoft board members reportedly launched an investigation in 2019 into a relationship between Bill Gates and a staffer. A Gates spokesperson told The Wall Street Journal that "there was an affair almost 20 years ago which ended amicably," and that Gates' decision to step down from the board in 2020 was unrelated. More details.

2. President Joe Biden's Venmo account was discovered by reporters in "less than 10 minutes." Buzzfeed News reported that the transactions on the account were set to private, but that the account was linked to Biden's family members. Read about the reporters' search.

3. Google is leading a fight to protect H-1B spouses' right to work in the United States. Along with Apple, Amazon, and Twitter, Google is campaigning to protect an Obama-era program that allows spouses of H-1B workers to also work in the US. Here's what that means.

4. The chip shortage that's wreaking havoc on supplies of electronics could last another two years. Surging demand and disrupted supply have led to a lack of the chips that are used in everything from cars to computers - and experts say it might not be fixed until 2023. More on that here.

5. A Dogecoin co-creator called Elon Musk a "self-absorbed grifter" in a now-deleted tweet. The comment - which you can read here - came after Tesla stopped allowing customers to pay for vehicles in Bitcoin. That same day, Musk tweeted that he'd be working with Dogecoin developers to make the cryptocurrency more efficient.

6. Amazon-owned Whole Foods is planning corporate layoffs. The layoffs come as part of reorganization involving merchandising, operations, HR, and tech teams. A look at the company's restructuring.

7. Former President Donald Trump's blog crashed on Saturday after he posted about an Arizona recount. Trump launched the "From the Desk of Donald J. Trump" blog earlier this month. More on the hour-long outage.

8. The man arrested after repeatedly misusing Tesla's Autopilot is a notorious Instagram wealth troll. 25-year-old Param Sharma has built a following from flaunting luxury items while trash-talking. Take a look at his account.

9. Qualtrics used its own software to decide employees should come to the office three days a week post pandemic. The $15 billion tech company will adopt a hybrid-work model - and used its own survey software to come to its final decision. Qualtrics' CEO and chief people officer break down how they did it.

10. Discord's CEO talks about what's next after reportedly rejecting Microsoft's $12 billion bid. We sat down with Jason Citron, who told us about the platform's path forward - and why he thinks it has an edge over rivals like Clubhouse. Here's what he said.

Compiled by Jordan Erb. Tips/comments? Email jerb@insider.com or tweet @JordanParkerErb.

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