Techmeme
March 19, 2025, 9:25 PM

Top News

Barbara Moens / Financial Times:
The EU Commission orders Apple to open iOS to third-party connected devices, and in preliminary findings charges Google with breaking the DMA in search and apps  —  EU continues Big Tech crackdown under landmark Digital Markets Act  —  Brussels is pressing ahead with regulatory action …
Natasha Lomas / TechCrunch:
Google says more changes to Search in the EU would “reduce traffic to European businesses” and changes to the Play Store may expose users to “malware and fraud”  —  Google Search and its Play Store app marketplace are suspected of breaching the European Union's Digital Markets Act …
Benjamin Mayo / 9to5Mac:
Allison Johnson / The Verge:
Google unveils the $499+ Pixel 9a, with no camera bump, a 48MP rear camera, a 6.3" display, a Tensor G4 chip, and IP68 water resistance, shipping in April 2025  —  Google is confirming what we learned from a slew of leaks. … Google just announced the Pixel 9A, surprising nobody because it's been leaked to all heck.
Chris Welch / The Verge:
Sam Rutherford / Engadget:
Bloomberg:
SoftBank agrees to acquire Ampere Computing for $6.5B in cash, with Oracle and Carlyle selling their stakes as part of the deal, expected to close in H2 2025  —  SoftBank is buying Ampere in an all-cash transaction that values the Santa Clara, California-based firm at $6.5 billion, according to a statement reviewed by Bloomberg News.
Akash Sriram / Reuters:
BlackRock, Microsoft, and Abu Dhabi's MGX say Nvidia and xAI joined a consortium to build AI infrastructure in the US; investors committed $100B for deployment  —  Nvidia and Elon Musk's xAI have joined a consortium backed by Microsoft, investment fund MGX and BlackRock to expand AI infrastructure …
Bloomberg:
Sources: X has raised close to $1B in new equity in a deal that gives the company an enterprise value of roughly $44B; Musk also participated in the raise  —  Elon Musk's social network X has raised close to $1 billion in new equity from investors, according to people with knowledge of the matter …
CoinDesk:
Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse says the US SEC is set to drop its appeal in its case against Ripple, nearing the end of a legal battle over XRP ongoing since 2020  —  Earlier reports said that the long-standing legal battle between Ripple and the agency is nearing its end.  —  What to know:
Rebekah Valentine / IGN:
A group of cross-discipline video game workers in the US and Canada announce a direct-join union called the United Videogame Workers, organizing with the CWA  —  The group unveiled itself at the Game Developers Conference this week.  —  Today, a group of cross-discipline video game workers …
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Plex is increasing Plex Pass prices for the first time in a decade and making remote playback for personal media a paid feature at $1.99/month or $19.99/year  —  Streaming service and software maker Plex is raising its prices.  The company announced on Wednesday its first price increase …
Allison Johnson / The Verge:
Verizon says its satellite messaging service is now available to owners of Pixel 9 and Galaxy S25 series phones at no extra charge  —  Texting via satellite comes to customers with recent Pixel and Galaxy phones starting today. … Verizon's previously announced satellite messaging service …
Kyle Wiggers / TechCrunch:
OpenAI launches o1-pro, which uses more compute than o1 for “consistently better responses”, to some devs for $150/1M input tokens and $600/1M output tokens  —  OpenAI has launched a more powerful version of its o1 “reasoning” AI model, o1-pro, in its developer API.
Ashley Belanger / Ars Technica:
A three-judge panel in US appeals court ruled, in a case involving AI generated poetry, that the Copyright Act requires human authorship for registration  —  A computer scientist who tried to register an artwork that credited an artificial intelligence system as the sole author lost his appeal on Tuesday.
Aisha Malik / TechCrunch:
Google updates Google Wallet to let kids with Android phones tap to pay in stores in the US, the UK, Australia, Spain, and Poland, with parental supervision  —  Google announced on Wednesday that kids with Android phones can now tap to pay at stores using Google Wallet in the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, Spain, and Poland.
The Citizen Lab:
A look at Israeli spyware company Paragon, which makes Graphite: suspected deployments in Australia, Canada, Israel, and others, a WhatsApp zero-click, and more  —  Key Findings  — Introducing Paragon Solutions.  Paragon Solutions was founded in Israel in 2019 and sells spyware called Graphite.
Lauren Goode / Wired:
Sources: Nvidia acquires Gretel, which offers synthetic data tools, for more than its most recent $320M valuation; Pitchbook: Gretel had previously raised $67M+  —  Nvidia has acquired synthetic data startup Gretel to bolster the AI training data used by the chip maker's customers and developers.

Sponsor Posts

Tribe AI:
State of AI: Adoption, Challenges and Recommendations  —  Examining the current state of AI, the key challenges organizations face, and practical recommendations for utilizing AI integration alongside other best practices.
SignalFire:
SignalFire raises another $1 billion to back applied AI startups  —  We build AI too.  It tracks 650M tech employees so we can help companies with recruiting and GTM across enterprise, infra, healthcare, security, and consumer.
Zoho:
How to turn employees into your brand's biggest supporters  —  Turning your employees into your brand's biggest advocates is one of the most powerful ways to grow your brand.  When employees feel connected to your mission …
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.

Featured Podcasts

Lenny's Podcast:
Inside monday.com's transformation: radical transparency, impact over output, and their path to $1B ARR | Daniel Lereya (Chief Product and Technology Officer)
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.
Techmeme Ride Home:
Zuck Trying To Make Fetch Happen
The day's tech news, every day at 5pm ET. Fifteen minutes and you're up to date.
Subscribe to Techmeme Ride Home.
Hard Fork:
Is Google Breaking Up? + Seasteading Is Back + Tool Time
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.
 

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 9:25 PM ET, March 19, 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.

More News

Antonio G. Di Benedetto / The Verge:
Variety:

Earlier Picks

Dylan Patel / SemiAnalysis:
Makena Kelly / Wired:
Counterpoint Research: