Techmeme
January 28, 2026, 10:30 AM

Top News

Beth Galetti / About Amazon:
Amazon plans to cut ~16,000 roles across the company as part of an ongoing effort to reduce organizational layers and bureaucracy, after cuts in October 2025  —  I want to let you know that we're making additional organizational changes across Amazon that will impact some of our teammates.
Business Insider:
Memo: Amazon appeared to mistakenly alert some AWS staff about planned layoffs in an email invite to a January 28 “Project Dawn” meeting on company efficiency  —  - Some Amazon employees got a worrying calendar invitation on Tuesday.  — The invitation discussed upcoming job cuts and …
Mark Gurman / Bloomberg:
Memo: Tim Cook told Apple staff that he is “heartbroken by the events in Minneapolis”, calls for a “deescalation”, and says he discussed it with President Trump  —  Apple Inc. Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook became the latest executive to weigh in on the killing …
Abner Li / 9to5Google:
A Google bug report apparently leaks the planned Android desktop interface, showing a taller status bar, a new mouse cursor, Chrome extensions, and more  —  A Google bug report on the Chromium Issue Tracker today has inadvertently leaked the Android desktop interface for the first time.
Jack Ryan / Bloomberg:
Paolo Ardoino says Tether now holds ~140 tons of gold, worth ~$23B, has been buying one to two tons per week, and plans to keep doing so for the next few months  —  There are roughly 370,000 nuclear bunkers in Switzerland, a legacy of the Cold War that are now rarely used.  One of them, though, is a hive of activity.
Arjun Kharpal / CNBC:
ASML reports Q4 net sales of €9.7B, vs. €9.6B est., and €2.84B net profit, vs. €3.01B est., and says it expects China to account for 20% of its total 2026 sales  —  ASML reported on Wednesday orders that smashed past expectations while 2026 sales guidance was also ahead …
Sarah Jacob / Bloomberg:
Reuters:
Abhijeet Mishra / SamMobile:
Samsung says it will introduce a display feature for the Galaxy S26 series that improves “privacy at a pixel level” to protect users from “shoulder surfing”  —  Samsung has confirmed that the Galaxy S26 series will introduce a new display feature designed to improve privacy when using your phone in public.
Reuters:
Sources: China approved its first batch of Nvidia H200 imports, covering 400K+ chips for ByteDance, Alibaba, and Tencent, during Jensen Huang's visit to China  —  China has given the green light to three of its largest tech companies to buy Nvidia's (NVDA.O) H200 artificial intelligence chips …
Kate Clark / Wall Street Journal:
Sources: SoftBank is in talks to invest up to $30B more in OpenAI; SoftBank is already one of its largest shareholders after investing $22.5B in December 2025  —  The Japanese conglomerate is exploring further investment as part of the startup's efforts to raise up to $100 billion
Financial Times:
Sources: Elon Musk proposes timing SpaceX's IPO with a rare planetary alignment and his June birthday; SpaceX seeks to raise up to $50B at a ~$1.5T valuation  —  Celestial calendar meets high finance, as billionaire's personal impulses shape plans to raise $50bn in record listing
Tyler Kingkade / NBC News:
Some US college students say they are using AI “humanizer” tools to alter text to avoid cheating accusations; AI detection tools now aim to catch “humanizers”  —  Students are taking new measures, such as dumbing down their work, spying on themselves and using AI …
Casey Newton / Platformer:
A critique of a large UK social media study that suggested measures like social media bans are unlikely to have an effect on teens' long term mental health  —  The “moral panic” framing misses how platforms actually harm kids.  PLUS: Newsom investigates TikTok over Trump, and the Clawdbot frenzy
Kate Clark / Wall Street Journal:
A look at “neolabs” such as Safe Superintelligence and Humans&, which give priority to long-term AI R&D over immediate profits; dozens have become unicorns  —  Flapping Airplanes is one of a wave of new startup research labs drawing intense interest from investors, the latest chapter in the AI race
Bluesky: @edzitron.com
Chris Welch / Bloomberg:
Apple Creator Studio review: the subscription suite offers value, but lacks a photo management tool to rival Lightroom and lacks iOS support for flagship apps  —  Apple Inc.'s new Creator Studio software bundle represents a new test for the company's fast-growing services business …
David McCabe / New York Times:
TikTok says the new US entity has not updated its algorithm since the joint venture was announced, after users accused it of suppressing posts related to ICE  —  Some users had accused the app of blocking them from posting videos about Immigration and Customs Enforcement.  The app said it was a power outage issue.
Michael J. de la Merced / New York Times:
AI sales startup Clay launches its second employee tender offer in under nine months, valuing it at $5B, up from $3.1B in August and $1.5B in its May 2025 offer  —  The company is part of a newer generation of software upstarts holding multiple tender offers where workers can sell stock before going public.
Natalie Lung / Bloomberg:
Toronto-based self-driving truck startup Waabi raised a $750M Series C led by Khosla and G2 and partners with Uber, which can invest $250M based on performance  —  Waabi Innovation Inc., a Canadian startup that develops self-driving technology for trucks, has secured $1 billion in funding …
New York Times:
Internal documents from 2025: Microsoft expects its annual water consumption to reach 28B liters by 2030, up from 7.9B liters in 2020 and 10.4B liters in 2024  —  Driven by the artificial intelligence frenzy, Microsoft is internally projecting that water use at its data centers will more than double …
More: WinBuzzer.  X: @ralph_grabowski.  LinkedIn: Adam Satariano.  Bluesky: @justinhendrix.  Forums: r/technology

Sponsor Posts

Command Line:
GitHub Universe 2026: Highlights from the developer's developer conference  —  Copilot Fusion was the belle of the ball, but the hero at the heart of the two-day event was the developer community.
Will Reed:
The best sales leaders aren't job hunting.  Here's how to reach them without months of cold outreach.  —  Our team came from Box, Square, and Brex, so we already know the GTM leaders worth meeting.
Zoho:
Introducing the new Zoho Analytics: Agentic analytics for every business  —  We're excited to announce the launch of the new Zoho Analytics!  This release marks a major shift for the product …
IDrive:
Protecting your Cloud Applications Data  —  Backing up Office 365, Google Workspace, Dropbox & Salesforce data is critical to preventing data loss or corruption, complying with laws and avoiding critical downtime in case of a disaster.

Featured Podcasts

The Upstarts Podcast:
The Accidental YC Founder Solving AI's GPU Crisis | SF Compute's Evan Conrad
Veteran tech reporter Alex Konrad sits down with breakout entrepreneurs taking on the status quo to shake up their fields in AI, design, nuclear energy, space, and more.
Subscribe to The Upstarts Podcast.
Cheeky Pint:
Why Sam Altman is against a single superintelligence
Stripe cofounder John Collison interviews founders, builders, and leaders over a pint.
Subscribe to Cheeky Pint.
Great Chat:
The case for AI optimism
A podcast mostly about tech. Brought to you weekly by Angela Du, Sally Shin, Mac Bohannon, Helen Min, and Ashley Mayer.
Subscribe to Great Chat.
Sources:
Tobi Lütke on the AI agent revolution and future of Shopify
Candid conversations with the leaders shaping what's next in AI and the broader tech industry. Hosted by Alex Heath, who has covered Silicon Valley for more than a decade.
Subscribe to Sources.
Big Technology Podcast:
This AI Expert Argues We're Underestimating AI's Productivity Impact — With Ethan Mollick
The Big Technology Podcast takes you behind the scenes in the tech world featuring interviews with plugged-in insiders and outside agitators.
Subscribe to Big Technology Podcast.
Machine Gods:
Inside Anthropic's IPO + How AI agents spy on your messages
The official podcast of the singularity, from Casey Newton and Kevin Roose. Twice-weekly news, analysis, and interviews with the people who are building the future.
Subscribe to Machine Gods.
 

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 10:30 AM ET, January 28, 2026.

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

Earlier Picks

John Sakellariadis / Politico:
David Gilbert / Wired:
Will Douglas Heaven / MIT Technology Review: