Techmeme
January 7, 2026, 9:20 AM

Top News

xAI:
xAI raised a $20B Series E, exceeding its $15B targeted round size, with participation from Valor, Nvidia, and others, and says Grok 5 is currently in training  —  xAI is rapidly accelerating its progress in building advanced AI.  —  xAI completed its upsized Series E funding round …
Cecilia D'Anastasio / Bloomberg:
Researcher: Grok generated ~6,700 sexually suggestive or “nudifying” images per hour on X between January 5 and January 6; 85% of Grok images are sexualized  —  Elon Musk's X has become a top site for images of people that have been non-consensually undressed by AI …
Hugh Langley / Business Insider:
Filing: Larry Page moved assets out of California ahead of the proposed CA wealth tax, meeting an end-of-2025 deadline; a source said he has left the state  —  - Google cofounder Larry Page is cutting ties with California.  — A source said Page had already left the state.
Bloomberg:
Financial Times:
Sources: Chinese officials are reviewing Meta's $2B Manus acquisition for possible tech export control violations, including Manus' relocation to Singapore  —  Commerce ministry assessing whether deal for Chinese-founded group violates technology export controls
Financial Times:
Polymarket is disputing that the US mission to capture Nicolás Maduro constituted an “invasion”, refusing to pay out bets on a contract with $10.5M in wagers  —  Prediction market disputes US raid amounted to an invasion in fight over more than $10.5mn in wagers
Bloomberg:
More: Politico, The Guardian, and Slate
X: @emilyjnicolle, @business, and @dustingoukerLinkedIn: Shona GhoshBluesky: @bobbyallyn
Chris Welch / Bloomberg:
Motorola unveils the Razr Fold, its first book-style foldable phone, with a 6.6" front display and an 8.1" 2K LTPO inner screen, expected to launch this summer  —  Lenovo Group Ltd.'s Motorola unveiled its first folding phone that opens like a book or passport, a departure from the string …
Evan Halper / Washington Post:
Allison Smith / Modern Retail:
Brands complain Amazon's “Buy for Me” AI-powered shopping tool features their products on Amazon without permission and shows descriptions with errors  —  Angie Chua has avoided selling on Amazon since she founded her Palm Springs, California-based stationery brand Bobo Design Studio in 2016.
Zack Whittaker / TechCrunch:
In the first successful US prosecution of a spyware operator in 10+ years, pcTattletale's founder pleads guilty to promoting surveillance apps for unlawful uses  —  The founder of a U.S.-based spyware company, whose surveillance products allowed customers to spy on the phones and computers …
Bloomberg:
Sources: Discord files confidentially for a US IPO, working with Goldman and JPMorgan; Discord was valued at ~$15B in 2021, and rejected a $12B Microsoft offer  —  Discord Inc. filed confidentially for an initial public offering, according to people familiar with the matter …
Mishaal Rahman / Android Authority:
Google will now publish new source code to the Android Open Source Project twice per year, down from releasing source code for every quarterly Android release  —  Google has announced that it will publish Android source code to AOSP in Q2 and Q4 of each year.  —  •
Stu Woo / Wall Street Journal:
GWI: LinkedIn's 2025 revenue rose to $17B from $7B in 2020 as users doubled to 1.3B; 4.7% of US users checked more than once per day in 2025, from 3.9% in 2020  —  Data show people are scrolling longer on the site.  Its secret is a founding principle that curbs toxicity.  —  It isn't just you.
Lucas Manfredi / The Wrap:
WBD's board unanimously rejects Paramount's amended $108.4B acquisition offer, saying the bid still has “significant” risks compared to Netflix's $83B offer  —  The board says the revised $108.4 billion bid continues to offer “significant costs, risks and uncertainties” compared to its $83 billion deal with Netflix
Bloomberg:
China unveils rules banning major platforms like Alibaba from forcing merchants into discounts or practices seen as disrupting market order, effective February  —  China unveiled broad regulations Wednesday that ban major platforms such as Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. from coercing online merchants …
Michael Acton / Financial Times:
Jensen Huang says Nvidia has “fired up” H200 production in the expectation of resumed China sales and it is working on the “last details” with the US government  —  Company confident ‘last details’ of deal with White House to resume AI chip exports will be finalised soon

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More News

Igor Bonifacic / Engadget:
Marissa Newman / Bloomberg:

Earlier Picks

Sam Rutherford / Engadget:
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Stevie Bonifield / The Verge: