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February 18, 2026, 2:40 PM
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Mediagazer
memeorandum
WeSmirchTop News
| The Keyword: |
Google rolls out Lyria 3, a generative music model that can make 30-second tracks with Nano Banana-made cover art, in beta in the Gemini app in eight languages — The Gemini app now features our most advanced music generation model Lyria 3, empowering anyone to make 30-second tracks using text or images in beta.
More: The Verge, Gizmodo, Thurrott, PCMag, TechCrunch, 9to5Google, Ars Technica, Mercury News, Music Business Worldwide, SQ Magazine, Mix 1049, Android Central, MobileSyrup, Android Authority, Tom's Guide, Music Ally, Neowin, Campaign Middle East, Digital Trends, Android Headlines, iPhone in Canada, EFTM, and Sherwood News
| Alicia Tang / Bloomberg: |
Fei-Fei Li's World Labs raised $1B from Autodesk, a16z, Nvidia, AMD, Sea, and others to build its world models for robotics, scientific discovery, and more — World Labs, a startup from artificial intelligence pioneer Fei-Fei Li, raised $1 billion in a new round of funding to pursue a novel approach to AI development.| Todd Haselton / The Verge: |
Google unveils the $499 Pixel 10a, with a Tensor G4 and 8GB of RAM like the Pixel 9a, Satellite SOS, an 11% brighter screen, but no Pixelsnap, shipping March 4 — Google's midrange Pixels have been our top pick for budget Android phones for a while. They offer good cameras and most of what you need at a budget-friendly price.
More: The Keyword, Engadget, TechCrunch, Livemint, Android Police, Business Standard, T3, Thurrott, Ars Technica, XDA Developers, Gizmodo, Engadget, Android Authority, MobileSyrup, Android Central, PhoneArena, Wired, Tom's Guide, Digit, The Shortcut, Trusted Reviews, Droid Life, iPhone in Canada, GSMArena.com, Notebookcheck, and The Hans India. X: @google
| Abner Li / 9to5Google: |
| Saritha Rai / Bloomberg: |
At India's AI Summit, Alphabet announces the America-India Connect Initiative, which will build new fiber optic lines between India, the US, and other countries — Alphabet Inc. unveiled several new initiatives to support its expansion in India, including new fiber-optic routes that will connect … | Abu Sultan / Reuters: |
More: Benzinga, DatacenterDynamics, Fortune India, CNN, Digit, Blockonomi, Hindustan Times, Tech in Asia, Economic news, and Business Today. Forums: r/technology
| Dylan Butts / CNBC: |
| Himanshi Lohchab / The Economic Times: |
| Shruti Rajagopalan / Get Down and Shruti: |
More: Project Syndicate and Marginal Revolution
X: @mafernando, @apurvasanghi, @pramodbiligiri, @mattooshashank, @pranaykotas, @srajagopalan, and @seemasirohi
LinkedIn: Viren Mahurkar, Vasu Eda, and Shruti Rajagopalan
| Joe Miller / Financial Times: |
How US citizens, clergy, and elected officials in conservative communities like Missouri are leading a grassroots rebellion against the Trump-backed AI boom — Republicans fear backlash against White House agenda could undermine support in this year's midterm elections
X: @joemillerjr. Bluesky: @henrymance.ft.com, @justinhendrix, and @henrymance.ft.com. Forums: r/politics
| George Hammond / Financial Times: |
Sources: Ineffable Intelligence, founded by former Google DeepMind Principal Scientist David Silver, is raising a $1B seed led by Sequoia at a ~$4B valuation — Funding deal would value David Silver's start-up Ineffable Intelligence at $4bn — David Silver, one of Britain's top AI researchers …
More: The Economic Times, Telegraph, Sifted, Tech Funding News, Implicator.ai, Capacity, David SIlver, and Semafor. X: @etnshow
| Bloomberg: |
Saudi-backed AI startup Humain invested $3B in xAI, becoming a “significant minority shareholder” in a deal that completed just before SpaceX's xAI acquisition — Saudi Arabian artificial intelligence company Humain has invested $3 billion into Elon Musk's xAI … | Sergiu Gatlan / BleepingComputer: |
Microsoft confirms a bug that let Microsoft 365 Copilot summarize confidential emails from Sent Items and Drafts folders, and deployed a fix in early February — Microsoft says a Microsoft 365 Copilot bug has been causing the AI assistant to summarize confidential emails since late January …
More: TechCrunch, The Register, PCWorld, Windows Latest, Inc.com, and Cyber Security News
| Cristina Criddle / Financial Times: |
Perplexity says it has no plans to further pursue ads, which it introduced in 2024, after phasing them out in late 2025 over fears they would erode user trust — Leading start-ups have recently embraced sponsors as they search for revenue — AI start-up Perplexity has abandoned advertising … | Leo Schwartz / Fortune: |
Sports-focused prediction market Novig raised a $75M Series B led by Pantera Capital at a $500M valuation; Novig is commission-free for retail traders — As the prediction markets Kalshi and Polymarket dominate the attention of investors and regulators, a sports-focused challenger called Novig …
More: Wall Street Journal, PYMNTS.com, Forerunner, FinSMEs, Blockonomi, Sports Business Journal, Axios, Forbes, Sportico, The Crypto Times, Ventureburn, and Economic news
X: @franklinbi, @novig, and @masonnystrom
| Sarah Perez / TechCrunch: |
Audible launches an “immersion reading” feature that lets readers switch between ebook and audiobook versions of a title in their Audible and Kindle libraries — Only days after Spotify announced its foray into physical book sales, which included an audiobook feature that lets …
More: Audible.com, ZDNET, Thurrott, 9to5Mac, The Verge, Publishers Weekly, TechRadar, Mashable, Jane Friedman, and Good e-Reader
| Krystal Hur / Wall Street Journal: |
A Las Vegas federal appeals court rejects Kalshi's emergency bid for an administrative stay on Nevada's push to block the platform, a major setback for Kalshi — A federal appeals court rejected Kalshi's bid, setting the stage for Nevada's civil-enforcement proceedings| The Record: |
Texas AG Ken Paxton sues TP-Link, alleging it deceptively markets its products as secure while allowing the CCP to hack into consumers' devices — Texas is suing networking equipment company TP-Link Systems for allegedly allowing the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to hack into consumers' devices …
More: Texas Attorney General, StateScoop, Engadget, Reuters, The Epoch Times, Bloomberg Law, PCMag, and Courthouse News Service. Bluesky: @metacurity.com
| David Singleton / flurries of latent creativity: |
Dreamer, founded by former Stripe CTO David Singleton, Hugo Barra, and others, launches in beta to let technical and non-technical users build agentic AI apps — Dreamer is the name of the platform and company I started with Hugo, Nicholas and others a little over a year ago.
More: /dev/agents and Dreamer
X: @joannastern, @dps, @bentossell, @hbarra, @mikeyk, @dps, @paraga, @dps, @dreamer, and @dreamer
Bluesky: @martinsfp and @edzitron.com
| Alex Heath / Sources: |
Sources: while Meta offered OpenClaw creator Peter Steinberger more money than OpenAI, he ultimately aligned more closely with OpenAI's overall vibe and vision — Less than a week before he ultimately joined OpenAI, OpenClaw creator Peter Steinberger talked about the two job offers …
More: Inc, Wall Street Journal, Business Insider, Fast Company, Entrepreneur, CNET, and The Mac Observer. Bluesky: @alexeheath.com
| Sophie McEvoy / GamesIndustry.biz: |
Matthew Ball's State of Video Gaming 2026 report: global video game content sales grew 5.3% YoY to $195.6B in 2025 while job losses fell 40% YoY to 9,200 people — Private funding fell a further 55% last year, according to Epyllion's latest State of Video Gaming report
More: MatthewBall.co, PocketGamer.biz, and GamesBeat
X: @loudmouthjulia, @jamesekaplan, @jmoledina, @ballmatthew, @jonahblake, @ballmatthew, @ballmatthew, @ballmatthew, and @jonathanhawkins. LinkedIn: Jamil Moledina
Bluesky: @felipepepe, @hantani, @pedrothedagger, and @mayteramarble
| New York Times: |
Meta plans to spend $65M in 2025 to boost state politicians friendly to AI; filings: Meta started two super PACs, one backing the GOP and another for Democrats — Meta's biggest election investment aims to prevent state legislation that it fears could inhibit artificial intelligence development.| Bloomberg: |
Robinhood launches an IPO for Robinhood Ventures Fund I, a $1B closed-end fund to provide retail investors access to private markets, offering 40M shares at $25 — Robinhood Markets Inc. is seeking to raise $1 billion in an initial public offering of a closed-end fund designed … | Julia Black / Vanity Fair: |
OpenAI hires Instagram's VP of global partnerships, Charles Porch, as its first VP of global creative partnerships, seeking to win over a skeptical Hollywood — Charles Porch's newly created role as OpenAI's VP of global creative partnerships signals the AI giant's new focus on the entertainment industry| Lily Mae Lazarus / Fortune: |
Cogent Security, which aims to use AI agents to decide which software bugs to remediate, raised a $42M Series A led by Bain, taking its total funding to $53M — Cogent Security has raised a $42 million Series A just six months after launch. Their bet? That AI agents can finally fix …
More: FinSMEs, Bain Capital Ventures, and SecurityWeek
X: @allisonbraley, @baincapvc, and @enriquesalem
| Ivan Mehta / TechCrunch: |
Canva COO Cliff Obrecht says the company hit $4B in ARR at the end of 2025, had 265M+ MAUs and 31M+ paid users, and expects to IPO in the next “couple of years” — Creative company Canva ended 2025 on a high note with a 20% increase in monthly active users, growth that was partially propelled by adoption of its AI tools.| Alexandre Rajbhandari / Bloomberg: |
Filings: Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway cut its Amazon stake by 75%+ to ~2.3M shares in Q4 2025; Berkshire bought 5.1M NYT shares, worth ~$352M in December — Berkshire Hathaway Inc. slashed its holding in Amazon.com Inc. by more than 75% in the fourth quarter, while also building …
More: International Business Times, 9to5Mac, Barron's Online, Watcher Guru, 24/7 Wall St., Reuters, Proactive, Telegraph, The Hollywood Reporter, CNBC, Sherwood News, PropertyCasualty360, MacDailyNews, MarketWatch, The Motley Fool, ZeroHedge News, Business Insider, Investopedia, and Wall Street Journal
| Mary Ann Azevedo / Crunchbase News: |
Digital savings startup Vestwell raised a $385M Series E co-led by Blue Owl and Sixth Street, after a $125M Series D in 2023, taking its total funding to $660M — Vestwell, a digital savings platform, has raised $385 million in a Series E funding round co-led by Blue Owl Capital and Sixth Street Growth.Sponsor Posts
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