Techmeme
December 18, 2024, 12:20 AM

Top News

Wall Street Journal:
Databricks is raising $10B from a16z, Thrive, and others at a $62B valuation, among the largest VC raises in history; docs show Databricks has $2.6B in revenue  —  As CEO of Databricks, Ali Ghodsi has performed a series of ‘strategic surgeries’ to make his company one of the fastest-growing startups in Silicon Valley
Todd Spangler / Variety:
CAA partners with YouTube to help CAA clients identify and remove AI-generated content that features their likeness, with a wider rollout planned in early 2025  —  In what's being touted as the first partnership of its kind, CAA is collaborating with YouTube on a program promising to let actors …
Kyle Wiggers / TechCrunch:
OpenAI adds o1 to its API, but only for certain developers to start, announces new versions of GPT-4o and GPT-4o mini as part of its Realtime API, and more  —  OpenAI is bringing o1, its “reasoning” AI model, to its API — but only for certain developers, to start.
Avram Piltch / Tom's Hardware:
Nvidia unveils Jetson Orin Nano Super Developer Kit, a $249 compact AI development board that promises 67 TOPS, compared to 40 TOPS of the $499 last-gen kit  —  The Jetson Orin Nano Super Developer Kit will be available later this month and comes with 8GB of RAM.
John Voorhees / MacStories:
Game emulator Delta adds an in-app link to pay outside of the App Store, via Patreon, likely the first US app to use Apple's External Purchase Link Entitlement  —  Delta, the MacStories Selects App of the Year, received an important update today that allows users of the game emulator to support …
Paayal Zaveri / Bloomberg:
Grammarly plans to acquire collaborative tools startup Coda and bring on Coda co-founder and CEO Shishir Mehrotra as its CEO; Coda had a $1.4B valuation in 2021  —  Coda co-founder and CEO Shishir Mehrotra will take over that position at Grammarly, according to statement from the two companies Tuesday.
Natasha Lomas / TechCrunch:
Ireland's Data Protection Commission fines Meta €251M for a Facebook security breach that affected ~29M users globally, ~3M in the EU and EEA, in September 2018  —  Meta has been fined €251 million (around $263 million) in the European Union for a Facebook security breach …
Jordan Novet / CNBC:
Salesforce says it will hire 2,000 people to sell AI agent software, a month after saying it would hire 1,000 for the task and two years after laying off 7,000+  —  Salesforce will hire 2,000 people to sell artificial intelligence software to clients, CEO Marc Benioff said on Tuesday …
Blake Brittain / Reuters:
The US ITC says smartphones made by Lenovo's Motorola infringe on Ericsson's 5G patents, which could lead to an import ban; a final ruling is set for April 2025  —  The U.S. International Trade Commission said on Tuesday that smartphones made by Lenovo's (0992.HK) Motorola Mobility infringe patents owned …
Forums: r/Android
Ernie Smith / Tedium:
Bluesky's use of domains to verify users has led to cybersquatting and impersonation, as domains don't offer enough social proof for the average person  —  An apparent extortion scheme involving famous writers and entrepreneurs lit up Bluesky the other night.
Tony Romm / Washington Post:
The US FTC issues long-awaited rules requiring companies to display the full price of hotels, concert tickets, and more up front, rather than hiding “junk fees”  —  The industries must display the full price of a hotel room, concert ticket or sporting event upfront to customers or face potential federal punishment.
New York Times:
A San Francisco jury convicts tech consultant Nima Momeni of second-degree murder in the fatal stabbing of Cash App founder Bob Lee on April 4, 2023  —  Nima Momeni, 40, was convicted by a San Francisco jury in the fatal stabbing of Bob Lee, a well-known tech executive.
Leo Schwartz / Fortune:
UK-based BVNK, a stablecoin infra startup with ~$40M in annualized revenue, raised a $50M Series B led by Haun Ventures; a source said it values BVNK at ~$750M  —  As crypto prices soar to all-time highs, venture investors are pouring capital into a red-hot corner of the blockchain industry …

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:
New in Zoho Flow: SAP S/4HANA and SAP HANA integrations  —  We're thrilled to announce the release of two much-awaited apps in the Zoho Flow integration gallery:SAP S/4HANA SAP HANAWhether you manage enterprise operations …
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

Grit:
Stord's Plan to Take on Amazon's Logistics Advantage | Sean Henry
Grit explores what it takes to create, build and scale world-class organizations.
Subscribe to Grit.
Lenny's Podcast:
How to build a team that can "take a punch": A playbook for building resilient, high-performing teams | Hilary Gridley (Head of Core Product, Whoop)
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.
Invest Like the Best:
Dinakar Singh - A Father's Call To Action
The leading destination to learn about business and investing. We do this by showcasing exceptional talent and ideas.
Subscribe to Invest Like the Best.
Techmeme Ride Home:
Omnibus 06/09
The day's tech news, every day at 5pm ET. Fifteen minutes and you're up to date.
Subscribe to Techmeme Ride Home.
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.
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.
 

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 12:20 AM ET, December 18, 2024.

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

Jody Godoy / Reuters:
Wired:

Earlier Picks

Molly White / Bloomberg:
Edith Hancock / Wall Street Journal:
Financial Times:
Kyle Wiggers / TechCrunch: