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Top tech startup funding news for today, May 20, 2025

It’s Tuesday, May 20, 2025, and the funding firehose is wide open. We’re back with your daily rundown of the boldest bets and biggest checks fueling the future of tech. Today’s lineup features a wave of innovation across fintech, AI, […]

The post Top tech startup funding news for today, May 20, 2025 first appeared on Tech Startups.

Fortnite is back on US iPhones again

Fortnite is once again available on the iOS App Store in the US, according to Epic Games. You can get it from the App Store here. Epic says it has returned to the Epic Games Store and AltStore as well.

Apple kicked Fortnite off the App Store nearly five years ago after Epic Games added its own in-app payment system to the game, which violated Apple’s rules. But after a major court ruling in Epic Games v. Apple that forced Apple to not take fees from purchases made outside of apps, the game is available to play on US iPhones once again.

Apple didn’t immediately reply to a request for comment.

we back fam https://t.co/X14bCXoylB

— Tim Sweeney (@TimSweeneyEpic) May 20, 2025

Shortly after the big ruling hit, CEO Tim Sweeney said that Epic planned to bring back Fortnite to iOS in the US. He also made a “peace proposal:” “If Apple extends the court’s friction-free, Apple-tax-free framework worldwide, we’ll return Fortnite to the App Store worldwide and drop current and future litigation on the topic.“

On May 9th, it submitted the app to Apple. Ahead of that, Sweeney said that Epic would use its Sweden developer account to submit the game to the US App Store.

Late last week, Epic said that Apple had blocked Fortnite’s return to the App Store, and the game also became unavailable on other alternative app stores in the EU. However, Apple said that it had “asked that Epic Sweden resubmit the app update without including the US storefront of the App Store so as not to impact Fortnite in other geographies” and that “we did not take any action to remove the live version of Fortnite from alternative distribution marketplaces.”

Epic then asked the judge in the Epic v. Apple case to order Apple to review its Fortnite submission. Yesterday, the judge said in a filing that Apple is “fully capable of resolving this issue without further briefing or a hearing,” and that if a resolution wasn’t reached, the Apple official who “is personally responsible for ensuring compliance” would have to appear at a hearing next Tuesday. Now that Fortnite has returned to the App Store, it appears that won’t have to happen.

Epic also recently rolled out a new promotion to encourage players to use its payment systems: if you use Epic’s system in Fortnite, Rocket League, or Fall Guys on PC, iOS, Android, and the web, the company will give you 20 percent back in Epic Rewards that can be used for other purchases in its games or on the Epic Games Store.

In the iOS version of Fortnite that was released today, the app shows you that 20 percent bonus when you pick which payment system you want to use to buy V-Bucks.

The company launched a new Star Wars-themed season for Fortnite on May 2nd.

If you get the app from the App Store, it will be a small initial download, and after you actually open the app, it will download the rest of the game. For a colleague, that additional download was 12.95GB.

Google I/O 2025: Three highlights Apple should pay attention to

Much like Microsoft’s Build keynote, Google’s kickoff of its annual developer event was a sort of AI-palooza. Unless you’re done with AI, in which case it was probably a snoozefest, and I suggest you skip over to the next post. I’m not sure it’s a good long-term plan, though.

From flashy moonshots to real, actionable, useful features that customers will be able to take advantage of almost immediately, there was a little bit of everything. Including things that Apple users will also greatly benefit from.

more…

Microsoft Build 2025: All the big AI announcements you need to know

The Microsoft Build 2025 conference in Seattle has entered its second day, and CEO Satya Nadella wasted no time in laying out what could be the company’s boldest vision yet: an open agentic web. In plain terms, Microsoft is betting […]

The post Microsoft Build 2025: All the big AI announcements you need to know first appeared on Tech Startups.

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