Techmeme
August 20, 2024, 1:05 PM

Top News

Wall Street Journal:
PitchBook: seven banks' ~$13B loans to Elon Musk to buy X have been “hung” for two years, weighing on balance sheets, the worst buyout for banks since 2008-2009  —  Loans of around $13 billion have remained ‘hung’ for nearly two years, bringing in interest payments but weighing on banks' balance sheets
Bloomberg:
Chinese-made, Tencent-backed game Black Myth: Wukong became Steam's second most popular title ever within hours of its launch, gaining 2.1M+ concurrent players  —  - The made-in-China blockbuster surpasses Cyberpunk play record  — Monkey King epic on track to set records for concurrent gamers
Connor Jones / The Register:
Cisco Talos says eight vulnerabilities in Microsoft's macOS apps could be abused by attackers to record video and sound from a device, log user input, and more  —  Windows giant tells Cisco Talos it isn't fixing them  —  Cisco Talos says eight vulnerabilities in Microsoft's macOS apps …
Associated Press:
Ex-Autonomy CEO Mike Lynch, who was acquitted on US fraud charges in June 2024, is among six missing after a superyacht sank off Sicily, per Italian authorities  —  A luxury superyacht carrying foreign tourists capsized and sank off the Italian island of Sicily in bad weather early Monday.
Reuters:
Stephen Chamberlain, who faced the same charges as Mike Lynch over Autonomy's sale, died after a road accident, per his lawyer, days before Lynch went missing  —  Stephen Chamberlain, once Mike Lynch's co-defendant in the U.S. fraud trial over the sale of Autonomy to Hewlett-Packard …
Kirsten Korosec / TechCrunch:
Waymo co-CEO Tekedra Mawakana says Waymo is now giving 100K+ paid robotaxi rides every week in LA, San Francisco, and Phoenix, a few months after passing 50K+  —  Waymo disclosed Tuesday it's now giving more than 100,000 paid robotaxi rides every week across its three main commercial markets in Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Phoenix.
CNBC:
Sankalp Phartiyal / Bloomberg:
Sources: Apple plans to make the most expensive iPhone models in India for the first time, as Foxconn rushes to produce iPhone 16 Pro and 16 Pro Max in India  —  - Plan shows Apple making further progress with India assembly  — Company is shifting output to India to diversify beyond China
Perry Stein / Washington Post:
The FBI, ODNI, and CISA say they are “confident” that Iran was responsible for recent attempted hacks into the Trump and Biden-Harris presidential campaigns  —  In a joint statement with intelligence agencies, the bureau said the attempted hacks also were directed at the Democratic campaign.
Daniel Tencer / Music Business Worldwide:
The AGs of 10 states join the US DOJ's antitrust lawsuit seeking to break up Live Nation and Ticketmaster; 39 states, plus DC, are now part of the lawsuit  —  The attorneys general of 10 states have joined the US Department of Justice (DoJ)'s antitrust lawsuit seeking to break off Live Nation …
Nick Robins-Early / The Guardian:
Donald Trump shared AI-generated images on Truth Social that show Taylor Swift and her fans vowing their support for his campaign; Swift hasn't endorsed Trump  —  Presidential nominee shares AI-generated images, contributing to spread of online election disinformation
Kamil Kowalcze / Bloomberg:
TSMC breaks ground on its €10B chip fab in Dresden, Germany, its first European plant and set to create 11K European jobs; the EU approves Germany's €5B subsidy  —  - Taiwanese firm begins work on its first European chip plant  — German subsidies will cover about half of the fab's costs

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More News

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Earlier Picks

Jaspreet Singh / Reuters:
Kyle Wiggers / TechCrunch:
Asa Fitch / Wall Street Journal: