Open Links In New Tab
Mobile Archives Advertise
Techmeme
January 14, 2025, 8:40 AM
Mediagazer memeorandum WeSmirch
Home River Leaderboards About Events Get our daily newsletter and never miss a story!   ⓧ Newsletter

Top News

Bloomberg:
Sources: Chinese officials are evaluating an option involving Elon Musk acquiring TikTok US; X would take control of TikTok US and run the businesses together  —  - ByteDance's preferred strategy is to fight ban, people say  — Trump has said he would like to delay ban to seek resolution
More: Quartz, Reuters, Barron's Online, South China Morning Post, Livemint, Decrypt, Spyglass, The Sun, Reuters, The Independent, Agence France-Presse, Silicon Republic, NME, Investing.com, Fortune, Music Ally, The Mirror, PetaPixel, PhoneArena, UPI, Newser, CNBC, Tech.co, Graphic Online, CCN.com, indy100, The Crypto Basic, Tech in Asia, Hindustan Times, Euronews, Mark Carrigan, International Business Times, Interesting Engineering, Android Police, Washington Examiner, Daily Mail, Al Jazeera, Outlook Business, Hypebeast, Benzinga, BGR, HuffPost, Khaama Press, Neowin, KrASIA, Malay Mail, Tuko.co.ke, Android Authority, The Post Millennial, Wall Street Pit, BroBible, Lowyat.NET, The Economic Times, Cryptopolitan, Pixel Envy, 9meters, MEDIANAMA, TVNewsCheck, Cointelegraph, 9News, en.ain.ua, Times of India, Lovin Malta, Mashable, Financial Express, Business Today, The Wrap, TechCrunch, Consequence, Raw Story, The Information, The Verge, NBC Connecticut, SiliconANGLE, Forbes, and Semafor
Bluesky: @pomurray, @amberbenge, @wcooperbooks, @daveweigel, @lorak, @noupside, @alexheath, @davelee.me, @kevinroose.com, @mikeelgan, @steinekin, @doremusjessup, @evacide, @quinnypig.com, @shepardcdr, @larakate, @tk.gg, @mediaevan, @martinsfp, @caseynewton, @civicwhitaker, @carlbergstrom.com, @schooley, @ashtonpittman, @rincewind.run, @kurtwagner, @karissabe, and @peark.es.  Mastodon: @GossiTheDog@cyberplace.social.  Threads: @susyqli
X: @mgsiegler, @benmullin, @hzjoe03, @alexeheath, @mattyglesias, @kyliebytes, @austinahlman, @pushastee, @alexeheath, @matthewstoller, @loudmouthjulia, @turnernovak, @maxwelltani, @kyliebytes, @newley, @newley, @loudmouthjulia, @newley, @mrbeast, and @chamath
Forums: r/TSLA, r/worldnews, r/TheAllinPodcasts, r/Destiny, r/China, r/politics, r/EnoughMuskSpam, r/neoliberal, and r/wallstreetbets
See also Mediagazer
Todd Spangler / Variety:
TikTok denies a report that China is looking at potentially facilitating a sale of the app to Elon Musk to keep it operating the US, calling it “pure fiction”  —  TikTok denied a report that China is looking at potentially facilitating a sale of the app to tech billionaire Elon Musk …
Kashmir Hill / New York Times:
Texas sues Allstate and its subsidiary Arity, accusing the insurer of illegally collecting and selling data about people's driving behavior through mobile apps  —  The lawsuit accuses Arity, an Allstate subsidiary, of collecting data about people's driving behavior through mobile phone apps …
Financial Times:
Sources: the EU is reviewing its DMA probes into US tech giants from March 2024, as US groups urge Trump to intervene; the EU says “there is no such review”  —  Tech groups have urged Donald Trump to intervene against overzealous European regulation
Reece Rogers / Wired:
How Cleo AI and Bright, personalized AI chatbots offering financial advice, often function as a way to sell high-interest loans and cash advances to young users  —  AI finance apps are reaching Gen Z and millennial users with personalized chatbots that offer money advice—and upsell them big-time.
Ryan Browne / CNBC:
The UK CMA opens an investigation into whether Google has “strategic market status” in search and how it impacts consumers, advertisers, publishers, and rivals  —  LONDON — Britain's competition watchdog on Tuesday said that it's opening a formal antitrust investigation into Google's search and search advertising services.
Niket Nishant / Reuters:
Sygnum, a Switzerland and Singapore-based digital asset bank and crypto trading platform, raised $58M led by Fulgur Ventures at a $1B valuation  —  Crypto-focused bank Sygnum secured a valuation of $1 billion after raising $58 million in its latest funding round, it said on Tuesday.
Zeyi Yang / Wired:
Ahead of a likely US TikTok ban, users flee to Chinese apps Xiaohongshu, aka RedNote, and ByteDance's Lemon8, currently the top two apps in the US App Store  —  Some say they joined Xiaohongshu, which translates to “little red book,” to spite the US government after a ban on TikTok became more likely.
Todd Bishop / GeekWire:
Microsoft is creating a new “CoreAI - Platform and Tools” unit led by Jay Parikh, the ex-Lacework CEO and Meta engineering executive who joined in October 2024  —  Microsoft is creating a new engineering division, led by the former global head of engineering at Facebook (now Meta) …
Richard Nieva / Forbes:
Jimmy Wales, Mark Ruffalo, others debut Free Our Feeds to raise $30M by 2028 to “billionaire-proof” AT Protocol, by making it easier for users to leave Bluesky  —  Free Our Feeds, which includes support from the Mozilla Foundation, is working with Bluesky to make sure …
Taylor Soper / GeekWire:
Bellevue, WA-based Truveta, which aggregates medical data from 30 partner institutions, raised $320M from Regeneron, Illumina, and others at a $1B+ valuation  —  Seattle-area health data company Truveta announced $320 million in fresh funding and an ambitious new initiative to create a giant genomic dataset.
Financial Times:
Amazon's AGI lead Rohit Prasad says Alexa will relaunch as an AI agent as Amazon works to address challenges in the system's AI overhaul  —  Rollout of upgraded voice assistant hit by delays as Big Tech group toils to overcome technical hurdles  —  Amazon is gearing up to relaunch …
Will Knight / Wired:
The US' new chip export rule enters a 120-day consultation period, requiring the Trump admin to listen to input, perhaps modify the rule, and then enforce it  —  The US government has announced a radical plan to control exports of cutting-edge AI technology to most nations.
Financial Times:
The Biden admin unveils a new chip export rule that gives 18 key allies full AI chips access while requiring licenses from most other countries, including China

Sponsor Posts

Google:
Generate videos with Veo 3 in Google Gemini  —  Create high-quality, 8-second videos with Veo 3, our state-of-the-art AI video generator.  Try it with a Google AI Pro plan or get the highest access with the Ultra plan.
Codegen:
Ship with AI: The Future of Coding is Here  —  Use natural language in Slack to trigger real PRs, docs, dashboards, infra & more.  Codegen connects GitHub, Linear, Notion, and beyond.
Zoho:
How AI is redefining BGV inside Zoho Recruit  —  Background checks still rely on manual document reviews, repetitive data entry, and back-and-forth emails.  The process works, but it's slow, error-prone …
IDrive:
Protecting your Cloud Applications Data  —  Backing up Office 365, Google Workspace, Dropbox & Box data is critical to preventing data loss or corruption, complying with laws and avoiding critical downtime in case of a disaster.
Sponsor Techmeme

Featured Podcasts

The Talk Show With John Gruber:
 'Live From WWDC 2025', With Joanna Stern and Nilay Patel
The director's commentary track for Daring Fireball. Long digressions on Apple, technology, design, movies, and more.
Subscribe to The Talk Show With John Gruber.
Techmeme Ride Home:
 Stablecoins Everywhere
The day's tech news, every day at 5pm ET. Fifteen minutes and you're up to date.
Subscribe to Techmeme Ride Home.
Sponsor this podcast
Hard Fork:
 Meta Bets on Scale + Apple's A.I. Struggles + Listeners on Job Automation
The future is already here. Each week, journalists Kevin Roose and Casey Newton explore and make sense of the latest in the rapidly changing world of tech.
Subscribe to Hard Fork.
The Logan Bartlett Show:
 How Chris Degnan Built Snowflake's Sales Org From Scratch
A podcast hosted by Logan Bartlett, an investor at Redpoint Ventures, covering tech with industry insiders.
Subscribe to The Logan Bartlett Show.
Lenny's Podcast:
 35 years of product design wisdom from Apple, Disney, Pinterest and beyond | Bob Baxley
Interviews with world-class product leaders and growth experts to uncover actionable advice to help you build, launch, and grow your own product.
Subscribe to Lenny's Podcast.
Channels with Peter Kafka:
 On the hunt for media optimism, with Semafor's Ben Smith and The Rebooting's Brian Morrissey
Media and tech aren't just intersecting - they're fully intertwined. To understand how those worlds work, Peter Kafka talks to industry leaders, upstarts and observers.
Subscribe to Channels with Peter Kafka.
Add your podcast here
 

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 8:40 AM ET, January 14, 2025.

The most current version of the site as always is available at our home page. To view an earlier snapshot click here and then modify the date indicated.

From Mediagazer

Ben Johansen / Politico:
Sources: USAGM told employees of VOA's Persian-language service who were placed on administrative leave to return to their roles amid the Iran-Israel conflict

Michael Savage / The Guardian:
Hamish McKenzie says WaPo approached Substack about hosting its writers, and there has been a “change in mindset” of traditional media about the platform

Jonathan Stempel / Reuters:
Byron Allen settles with McDonald's over his $10B 2021 lawsuit accusing the fast food chain of racial stereotyping in its ads budget; terms were not disclosed

More News

Hannah Miller / Bloomberg:
DirecTV launches MySports, a sports streamer featuring games from NFL and other major leagues, and access to 40 channels, in 24 US metro areas for $70/month
Dan Mangan / CNBC:
The SEC says that two Robinhood broker-dealers agreed to pay $45M in combined penalties to settle charges that they violated over 10 securities law provisions

Earlier Picks

Washington Post:
An investigation finds 15 police departments across 12 US states have arrested suspects identified through facial recognition without having any other evidence
More: Biometric Update.  Bluesky: @joffirphd, @drewharwell.com, and @hypervisible.  X: @glynco.  LinkedIn: Douglas MacMillan.  Forums: r/technology
Leena Rao / Business Insider:
Chainalysis buys AI-agent security startup Alterya, sources say for ~$150M; Alterya is still in stealth mode but has clients including Coinbase, Square, Binance
Jonathan Stempel / Reuters:
SCOTUS declines to hear Meta's bid to avoid a class action by advertisers that accused the company of overcharging them by inflating their potential ad reach
Mark Gurman / Bloomberg:
Sonos CEO Patrick Spence is leaving following a botched app revamp that upset customers and stymied growth; Sonos names board member Tom Conrad as interim CEO
Mediagazer memeorandum WeSmirch
Home River Leaderboards About Events Newsletter