Techmeme: Sources: OpenAI has 200+ people working on AI devices, including a smart speaker with a camera costing $200 to $300, possibly smart glasses and a smart lamp (The Information)

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February 20, 2026, 5:40 PM

Top News

Jordan Novet / CNBC:

Phil Spencer will retire after 38 years at Microsoft; Asha Sharma, the president of product in Microsoft's Core AI business, will become the CEO of gaming — Microsoft's head of gaming, Phil Spencer, is leaving the software maker following a 38-year tenure, as the company's Xbox business faces increased challenges.

More: Microsoft, The Verge, Variety, Game Informer, Reuters, The Verge, Forbes, Engadget, Business Insider, Thurrott, Bloomberg, The Information, Windows Central, Game Developer, The Verge, Game File, Polygon.com, TheGamer, Pure Xbox, DayOne, Kotaku, The Game Business, Screen Rant, Kotaku, and PC Gamer

Bluesky: @benalterman.com and @stevekovach

Ryan McCaffrey / IGN:

Xbox President Sarah Bond, long thought to be Phil Spencer's heir, is leaving; Xbox Game Studios head Matt Booty is promoted to Chief Content Officer — Spencer's run with Xbox ends just months shy of the brand's 25th anniversary. — Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer …

More: Video Games Chronicle, Kotaku, GamesIndustry.biz, GeekWire, The Verge, GamesBeat, Rock, Paper, Shotgun, TheGamer, Dexerto, Comic Book, Aftermath, 80 Level, Neowin, Mashable, GamesRadar, Game Informer, Destructoid, Push Square, Stevivor, DayOne, GameRant, Insider Gaming, Polygon.com, and Sherwood News

X: @detectiveseeds and @firstadopter

Bluesky: @cypheroftyr and @stealth40k. Forums: Slashdot

The Information:

Sources: OpenAI has 200+ people working on AI devices, including a smart speaker with a camera costing $200 to $300, possibly smart glasses and a smart lamp — OpenAI has more than 200 people working on a family of AI-powered devices that will include a smart speaker and possibly smart glasses …

Rafe Rosner-Uddin / Financial Times:

Sources: Amazon's AI tools have caused at least two AWS outages, including a 13-hour disruption in December; Amazon says it was “user error, not AI error” — Tech giant blames ‘user error, not AI error’ for incident in December involving its Kiro tool

More: Reuters, Tom's Hardware, The Register, Bloomberg, The Guardian, Gizmodo, The Verge, PCMag, About Amazon, TechRadar, CRN, India Today, Engadget, Cord Cutters News, The Decoder, Tom's Guide, Neowin, Techstrong IT, MarketWatch, Mashable, Capacity, Beyond Search, Tech in Asia, Proactive, Economic news, and Sherwood News

X: @vikhyatk, @gergelyorosz, @gergelyorosz, @leomschwartz, @mattocko, @shakoistslog, @jamiecooperatl, @boppinwtboyz, @the_ceo_guy, @heymynameisrob, @mikeisaac, @samlambert, and @edzitron. LinkedIn: Chris Redmond

Forums: r/programming, r/webdev, Beehaw, Slashdot, and Ars OpenForum

Ryan Vlastelica / Bloomberg:

Anthropic launches Claude Code Security, which “scans codebases for security vulnerabilities and suggests targeted software patches”; cybersecurity stocks fall — Shares of cybersecurity software companies tumbled Friday after Anthropic PBC introduced a new security feature into its Claude AI model.

More: CyberScoop, Anthropic, Investor's Business Daily, The Information, CRN, Blockchain.News, Yahoo Finance, and Claude

X: @bcherny, @jaykreps, @litcapital, @abrilzucchi, @firstadopter, @trq212, @trq212, @trq212, @heidykhlaaf, @claudeai, @matrosov, and @contrariancurse

Bluesky: @heidykhlaaf, @hmans.dev, and @tyleraking.com

Forums: r/technology and r/ClaudeCode

Adam Levine / Barron's Online:

Tech stocks rise slightly from their morning lows after the Supreme Court ruled that President Trump lacked the authority to impose sweeping global tariffs — Shares of tech goods makers rose off their morning lows on news of the high court's ruling. Tech goods have been some of the least …

More: NBC News, AppleInsider, Benzinga, AppleInsider, Associated Press, CNBC, Forbes, Slate, Cointelegraph, Mashable, The Budget Lab at Yale, Yahoo Finance, The Verge, Blockonomi, BeInCrypto, PCMag, Wall Street Journal, Cult of Mac, Benzinga, Kotaku, Fortune, Financial Post, Avalara, Inc., Taipei Times, Council on Foreign Relations, Reuters, Penn Wharton Budget Model, CBS News, and Le·gal In·sur·rec·tion

X: @benbrodydc, @mweinbach, @benbajarin, and @typesfast. LinkedIn: Tyler Mayoras

Georgia Wells / Wall Street Journal:

Sources: OpenAI staff raised concerns about a Canadian mass shooting suspect months ago; OpenAI says her activity didn't meet the bar for reporting to police — ChatGPT maker opted against informing authorities about Jesse Van Rootselaar's descriptions of violence last June

X: @miles_brundage, @miles_brundage, and @jeffbercovici. Bluesky: @metacurity.com

Fred Lambert / Electrek:

A US judge rejects Tesla's bid to overturn a $243M jury verdict over a fatal 2019 Autopilot crash, a blow for Tesla as it faces a growing wave of lawsuits — A federal judge has rejected Tesla's bid to overturn a $243 million jury verdict over a fatal 2019 Autopilot crash in Florida …

More: CNBC, TechCrunch, Carscoops, Fast Company, Jalopnik, EV, Reuters, Sherwood News, Raw Story, and Automotive World

Bluesky: @dr-pete, @fredlambert, and @brunojnavarro

Forums: Hacker News and r/electricvehicles

Alex Heath / Sources:

Scott Myers, the head of Snap's AR glasses subsidiary Specs, leaves after six years; sources say Myers left after a “blow-up” with Evan Spiegel over strategy — My chat with CEO Dylan Field ahead of today's earnings call. Also: Snap loses its head of Specs right before the big launch …

More: TechCrunch, Road to VR, and SFGATE

X: @alexeheath. LinkedIn: Alex Heath. Bluesky: @carnage4life

Chris Lattner / Modular Blog:

Claude's C Compiler shows AI elevates the role of human judgment and vision; it's a milestone, but closely mirrors LLVM/GCC, and hard codes things to pass tests — Compilers occupy a special place in computer science. They're a canonical course in computer science education. Building one is a rite of passage.

X: @perrymetzger, @clattner_llvm, @tmikov, @joel_bkr, @watthedoodle, @pushpendre89, @clattner_llvm, @machinamentum, @clattner_llvm, @preshing, @pdrmnvd, @koenbok, @jaykreps, @marksaroufim, @tetsuo_cpp, @arter97, and @lukashozda

LinkedIn: Senko Rašić and Lukas Mosser. Bluesky: @johnspurlock.com

Mastodon: @pheras@fosstodon.org and @nolan@toot.cafe

Forums: r/Compilers and Lobsters

Lauren Goode / Wired:

Code Metal, which uses AI to let engineers translate legacy code into modern languages, raised a $125M Series B led by Salesforce Ventures at a $1.25B valuation — The Boston startup uses AI to translate and verify legacy software for defense contractors, arguing modernization can't come at the cost of new bugs.

More: GeekWire, SiliconANGLE, Business Wire, eWeek, Tech Funding News, and Tectonic Defense

LinkedIn: Lorenzo Salazar. Bluesky: @laurengoode

Wall Street Journal:

Sources: Google may invest $100M in Fluidstack at a $7.5B valuation and has backstopped crypto miners that are building datacenters, seeking to expand TPU use — As more AI companies consider Google's chips, the company wants to use deals with external partners to expand the potential market

More: Economic news and Business Insider. X: @firstadopter

Minh Le / Tech in Asia:

Avantos, which makes an AI-native client management system for financial institutions, raised a $25M Series A led by Bessemer, taking its total funding to $35M — Avantos, a company developing an AI-native system for financial institutions, announced the completion of a US$25 million series …

More: Bessemer Venture Partners, FinTech Global, and Avantos

Nikkei Asia:

Sources: SoftBank plans to form a consortium to build a $33B power plant in Ohio, set to produce 9.2 GW for AI data centers, as part of the US-Japan trade deal — TOKYO — SoftBank Group will form a consortium to carry out a $33 billion gas-fired power plant project in the U.S. …

More: Bloomberg. Forums: r/technology

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From Mediagazer

Wall Street Journal:

CBS Mornings co-host Gayle King signed a new deal, providing some stability at CBS News; source: King's current contract is worth ~$15M and runs through May

Max Tani / Semafor:

AP Senior Product Manager for AI Aimee Rinehart told staff that many editors preferred an AI-written article to a human one, and resistance to AI is “futile”

Todd Spangler / Variety:

SEC filing: David Zaslav is selling ~4M shares of WBD stock, with an aggregate market value of just over $114M; Zaslav's 2024 pay rose 4.4% YoY to $51.9M

More News

Jagmeet Singh / TechCrunch:

Peak XV, which split from Sequoia in 2023, raised $1.3B across new India- and Asia-focused funds, bringing its total assets under management to over $10B

More: DealStreetAsia, Times of India, Entrackr, The Economic Times, Bloomberg, and VCCircle

Ivan Mehta / TechCrunch:

OpenAI says users aged 18 to 24 account for nearly 50% and under-30s represent 80% of ChatGPT messages in India; 35% of chats are related to professional tasks

More: Business Standard, Livemint, The Indian Express, and Moneycontrol

Chris Metinko / Axios:

Pepper, which offers a digital storefront for independent food distributors, raised a $50M Series C led by Lead Edge Capital, taking its total funding to $100M

Jagmeet Singh / TechCrunch:

General Catalyst plans to invest $5B in India over five years, an increase from the $500M to $1B it previously announced, after merging with a local VC in 2024

More: The Economic Times, Entrackr, VCCircle, Tech in Asia, Inc42, The Economic Times, and Moneycontrol

Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:

Google rejected 1.75M policy-violating Android apps and blocked 80K+ developer accounts from Google Play in 2025, down from 2.36M apps and 158K accounts in 2024

More: Google Online Security Blog, HotHardware, Mashable, Infosecurity, TechRadar, Android Headlines, Help Net Security, Moneycontrol, Tech in Asia, and BleepingComputer. Forums: r/technews

James O'Donnell / MIT Technology Review:

Microsoft's AI safety team proposed technical standards for detecting AI-generated content, but its CSO declined to commit to using them across its platforms

More: Wall Street Journal, Biometric Update, The Decoder, Microsoft Research, Microsoft, and Microsoft Research

LinkedIn: Heba Chehade. Forums: r/technews

Andrew R. Chow / Time:

How some political candidates and activists across ideologies and professions are pushing back on the spread of data centers and AI in the US

More: Oklahoma Watch. LinkedIn: Dr. Alicia M. Johnson. Bluesky: @johnpalowitch, @amandalitman, and @enjohnston. Forums: r/technology

Earlier Picks

Dan Gallagher / Wall Street Journal:

Uber's market cap fell to ~$150B, down ~25% in six months, as investors weigh robotaxi disruption and see the market as a two-horse race between Waymo and Tesla

More: Silicon Valley Business …, Wired, The Driverless Digest, CleanTechnica, Techpinions, Fortune, Semafor, electrive.com, Benzinga, and Business Insider. Bluesky: @prietschka

Robert Burnson / Bloomberg:

A US grand jury indicted two former Google engineers and one of their husbands for allegedly stealing trade secrets relating to the Tensor chip for Pixel phones

Evan Halper / Washington Post:

Tech companies are increasingly building private power plants to fuel off-grid data centers, a move some warn has reliability challenges and hurts climate goals

More: This is Not Cool, Fortune, and Barron's Online

X: @oilfield_rando and @washingtonpost

Bluesky: @jessimckenzi, @marypcbuk, @shiraovide, @kostyack, and @justinhendrix

Maxwell Zeff / Wired:

Perplexity's retreat from ads signals a strategic shift as it recognizes its product is not for a mass audience and expects growth to come from enterprise sales

More: XDA Developers, Core Memory, Futurism, and AdExchanger. X: @zeffmax