Techmeme
February 27, 2026, 11:25 AM

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 …
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 …
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 …
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.
More: No Tech For Apartheid Campaign, The Information, The Verge, Video - David Imel, Fortune, The Hill, CNBC, Fox News, Yahoo Finance, Gizmodo, Washington Post, Quartz, CNN, Associated Press, TechRadar, Understanding AI, RedState, Defense One, New York Times, NOTUS, France 24, NPR, Kotaku, diginomica, PCMag, Wonkette, The Bulwark, Politico, PC Gamer, Tech Times, Engadget, Straight Arrow News, The Guardian, The Power Law, and Bloomberg
Axios:
Anthropic says new DOD “contract language” made “virtually no progress” on preventing Claude's use for mass domestic surveillance or fully autonomous weapons  —  Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei on Thursday said there has been “virtually no progress” on negotiations with the Pentagon.
Jennifer Jacobs / CBS News:
The Pentagon says it has offered compromises to Anthropic, including putting in writing that laws already bar the military from mass surveillance of Americans  —  Add CBS News on Google  —  As the U.S. military's partnership with artificial intelligence giant Anthropic teeters on the edge of collapse …
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.
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:
Block reports Q4 revenue up 4% YoY to $6.25B, gross profit up 24% to $2.87B, driven by a 33% surge in Cash App, and forecasts Q1 gross profit up 22% to $2.8B  —  Block (XYZ.N) on Thursday said it will cut over 4,000 jobs, nearly half its workforce, as part of an overhaul …
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: Netflix Investor Relations, New York Times, The Hollywood Reporter, Warner Bros. Discovery, Deadline, Associated Press, TechCrunch, UPI, primetimer.com, Livemint, Media Matters for America, The Streamable, Reuters, Entrepreneur, Spyglass, Fast Company, Times of India, Paramount, PCMag, Fincrypt, Nairametrics, Marketing Week, The Mac Observer, 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.
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) …
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, Benzinga, Axios, and Forbes
X: @sammcallister.  Bluesky: @theophite and @bdowney.  Mastodon: @carnage4life@mas.to.  Forums: Hacker News
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
Tamsin McMahon / Bloomberg:
xAI co-founder Toby Pohlen is leaving the company, the seventh of 12 xAI co-founders to depart; Elon Musk put Pohlen in charge of Macrohard earlier this month  —  xAI co-founder Toby Pohlen said he is leaving Elon Musk's artificial intelligence startup, the latest founding executive to depart …
Elizabeth Howcroft / Reuters:
Tether says it has frozen $4.2B of its crypto token over links to “illicit activity”, including $3.5B since 2023 and $61M linked to pig-butchering scams  —  El Salvador-based stablecoin issuer Tether said it has frozen about $4.2 billion of its crypto tokens over links to …
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 …
Marina Temkin / TechCrunch:
Plaid allowed employees to sell some of their shares at an $8B valuation, up 31% from the $6.1B valuation in April 2025 and 40% below its $13.4B peak in 2021  —  Plaid, a company that connects financial applications to users' bank accounts, enabling payments and data verification …
More: PYMNTS.com

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Featured Podcasts

Cheeky Pint:
Muse Wonder: Zuckerberg and Wang's $100B AI
Stripe cofounder John Collison interviews founders, builders, and leaders over a pint.
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Lenny's Podcast:
Why every company now needs to think and operate like a lab team | Josh Woodward (Google Labs, Gemini, AI Studio)
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Big Technology Podcast:
Meta & Microsoft's Claude Slowdown, His Agent Leaked His Banking Info, Don't Bully Your AI
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Sources:
Qualcomm's CEO on the coming AI phone supercycle
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.
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The Upstarts Podcast:
Bringing Back Mammoths And Building Noah's Ark 2.0 | Colossal's Ben Lamm
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.
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Great Chat:
The launch industrial complex
A podcast mostly about tech. Brought to you weekly by Angela Du, Sally Shin, Mac Bohannon, Helen Min, and Ashley Mayer.
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Associated Press:
Reuters:
More: CoreWeave, Proactive, Finbold, Verdict, and Blockonomi
X: @wallstengine.  LinkedIn: Anhata Rooprai.  Bluesky: @edzitron.com
Kritika Lamba / Reuters:
Jess Weatherbed / The Verge: