Techmeme
February 27, 2026, 1:10 PM

Top News

CNBC:
OpenAI raised $110B at a $730B pre-money valuation, up from $500B in a secondary financing in Oct.; Amazon invested $50B, Nvidia and SoftBank invested $30B each  —  OpenAI announced a $110 billion funding round on Friday, a financing that's more than double the size of its last raise a year ago …
OpenAI:
OpenAI says ChatGPT has 900M+ weekly active users, 50M+ consumer subscribers, and weekly Codex users have more than tripled since the start of the year to 1.6M  —  AI demand is surging across consumers, developers, and businesses.  Meeting that demand and providing everyone access …
About Amazon:
Amazon will invest $15B in OpenAI initially, followed by $35B if certain conditions are met; OpenAI commits to consuming ~2 GW of Trainium capacity through AWS  —  Amazon Web Services (AWS) and OpenAI will co-create a Stateful Runtime Environment powered by OpenAI models …
Anthropic:
Dario Amodei says Anthropic cannot “in good conscience” accede to DOD's request to remove safeguards and will work to ensure a smooth transition if offboarded  —  I believe deeply in the existential importance of using AI to defend the United States and other democracies, and to defeat our autocratic adversaries.
Washington Post:
Sources detail how the standoff between the Pentagon and Anthropic escalated after discussions about using Claude during hypothetical nuclear missile attacks  —  Start-up Anthropic and the U.S. military are careening toward a clash over government use of artificial intelligence — and whether it should be allowed to kill.
Wall Street Journal:
Sources: multiple federal agencies raised concerns about Grok's safety and reliability in recent months, before DOD approved Grok for use in classified settings  —  Warnings about xAI's safety and reliability preceded Pentagon decision to approve Grok for use in classified settings.
Axios:
Jennifer Jacobs / CBS News:
Axios:
Sam Altman says OpenAI shares Anthropic's red lines with respect to AI use by the military, which are “an issue for the whole industry”  —  OpenAI CEO Sam Altman wrote in a memo to staff that he will draw the same red lines that sparked a high-stakes fight between rival Anthropic …
Keach Hagey / Wall Street Journal:
Note to staff: Sam Altman says OpenAI seeks a DOD deal, except for use cases like domestic surveillance, and wants to “help de-escalate” DOD-Anthropic fight  —  Anthropic has spent weeks at odds with the Pentagon over the scope of how its Claude AI tools can be used
Annie Palmer / CNBC:
Block says it is laying off 4,000+ of its 10,000+ employees, saying AI tools have changed “what it means to build and run a company”; XYZ jumps 15%+  —  Block said Thursday it's laying off more than 4,000 employees, or about half of its head count.  The stock skyrocketed as much as 24% in extended trading.
Reuters:
CNBC:
Netflix walks away from a deal to buy WBD's studio and streaming assets after WBD deemed Paramount's $31/share bid to be superior; NFLX jumps 8%+  —  Netflix is walking away from a deal to buy Warner Bros. Discovery's studio and streaming assets after the WBD board on Thursday deemed a revised bid by Paramount Skydance to be superior.
More: New York Times, About Netflix, Spyglass, The Hollywood Reporter, Investor's Business Daily, Silicon Valley Business …, Warner Bros. Discovery, NBC News, New Republic, Deadline, Associated Press, TechCrunch, Defector, Quartz, Cord Cutter Weekly, Paramount, Media Matters for America, primetimer.com, Reuters, UPI, Livemint, Fast Company, Marketing Week, The Week, TODAY.com, Bounding Into Comics, PCMag, Nairametrics, The Streamable, Times of India, and The Wrap
LinkedIn: Walter Delph and Lillian Rizzo
Dan Goodin / Ars Technica:
Security researchers detail AirSnitch, a series of attacks that bypass Wi-Fi client isolation, enabling machine-in-the-middle attacks in modern Wi-Fi networks  —  That guest network you set up for your neighbors may not be as secure as you think.  —  It's hard to overstate the role that Wi-Fi plays in virtually every facet of life.
Tripp Mickle / New York Times:
Letter: 100+ Google DeepMind and other AI employees urge Jeff Dean to block US military deals that use Gemini for mass surveillance or autonomous weapons  —  More than 100 Google A.I. employees sent a letter to Jeff Dean, a chief scientist, opposing Gemini's use for U.S. surveillance and some autonomous weapons.
More: The Verge, Financial Times, Axios, Benzinga, and Forbes
X: @sammcallisterBluesky: @theophite and @bdowneyMastodon: @carnage4life@mas.toForums: Hacker News
Reuters:
TikTok returns to Albania after a year-long ban, ostensibly linked to the death of a teenage boy, expired; Albania says TikTok has tightened safety measures  —  Social media platform TikTok is back in Albania after a year-long ban expired this month, in a case illustrating the complexity …
Bill Toulas / BleepingComputer:
French e-commerce marketplace ManoMano notifies its customers of a data breach affecting 38M; the company said the incident involved a third party subcontractor  —  DIY store chain ManoMano is notifying customers of a data breach that was caused by hackers compromising a third-party service provider.
More: TechRadar
Luke Barr / ABC News:
CISA's interim director Madhu Gottumukkala is reassigned as DHS' director of strategic implementation; executive assistant director Nick Andersen will take over  —  The nominee to serve as CISA director has not yet received a hearing.  —  The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) …
Jagmeet Singh / TechCrunch:
Deepinder Goyal, who stepped down as Zomato's CEO, raised $54M at a $190M valuation for Temple, which aims to make high-performance wearables for elite athletes  —  Weeks after stepping down as CEO from food delivery service Zomato and its parent Eternal, Indian entrepreneur Deepinder Goyal …

Sponsor Posts

Airtable:
The central nervous system of your business  —  Used by 80% of Fortune 100 companies, Airtable combines AI with the scale of an infinitely flexible, no-code system.  With all your data in one place, it's like mission control for your company.
Intel:
5G's most deployed platform  —  Powering live networks with built-in Inference across Core and RAN.  That's the power of Intel Inside®
Zoho:
Why work stalls before it begins—and how the Action Panel helps users orient  —  On most workdays, execution is not the hardest part.  The difficulty appears earlier, when people are trying to process what requires …
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

Uncapped with Jack Altman:
Garry Tan, Harj Taggar, and Jared Friedman from YC
Conversations with people I admire about things I'm genuinely interested in.
Subscribe to Uncapped with Jack Altman.
Acquired:
Formula 1
Learn the playbooks that built the world's greatest companies - and how you can apply them as a founder, operator, or investor.
Subscribe to Acquired.
Big Technology Podcast:
Dario's Choice and Anthropic's Future, Apple's AI Devices, Netflix Loses WBD
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.
Lenny's Podcast:
The design process is dead. Here's what's replacing it. | Jenny Wen (head of design at Claude)
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.
The Talk Show With John Gruber:
'Bad Dates', With Jason Snell
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.
Tools and Weapons with Brad Smith:
His Excellency Khaldoon Al Mubarak: Investing in an AI-Driven World
Microsoft Vice Chair and President Brad Smith speaks with leaders in government, business, and culture to explore the most critical challenges at the intersection of technology and society.
Subscribe to Tools and Weapons with Brad Smith.
 

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 1:10 PM ET, February 27, 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

Tamsin McMahon / Bloomberg:

Earlier Picks

Associated Press:
Reuters:
Kritika Lamba / Reuters:
Jess Weatherbed / The Verge: