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Techmeme
August 20, 2026, 12:45 PM
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Top News

Jess Weatherbed / The Verge:
Slack launches Slack Code, adding dedicated, project-specific code channels that let teams collaborate with AI coding agents “like teammates” across all plans  —  Slack Code provides a dedicated open space for teams to collaborate with AI agents.
Erin Griffith / New York Times:
Stripe agrees to acquire NYC-based OpenRouter; a source says Stripe is paying $7.5B, with $1.5B going to the startup's founders and $6B to its investors  —  The deal is significant for the artificial intelligence industry, uniting Stripe's payments business with OpenRouter's helping businesses direct their spending on A.I. models.
Axios:
Letter: Stripe told investors January 1 marked the “beginning of the singularity”, a major inflection point in long-term trends, and H1 revenue rose 41% YoY
Edward Ludlow / Bloomberg:
Waymo says it has built an ASIC chip that will improve its robotaxis' reflexes and navigational skills and help it diversify away from third parties like Nvidia  —  Alphabet Inc.'s Waymo has built a custom chip that the company said will improve the performance of its robotaxis …
Douglas Gillison / Reuters:
Study: 150+ Polymarket wallets may have traded on internal US military information, making $8M overall with a 97.2% average win rate and attracting copycat bets  —  More than 150 wallets on Polymarket International may have traded on inside U.S. military information, attracting copycat bets …
Bloomberg:
Trump urges Congress to pass the Clarity Act at a White House event with execs, including the CEOs of Coinbase and Robinhood; the bill has stalled in the Senate  —  President Donald Trump pressed Congress to pass digital asset market structure legislation that is a top priority for the industry …
Bloomberg:
At a White House event, Trump says CFTC Chair Michael Selig is working to bring crypto platform Hyperliquid onshore; Hyperliquid's HYPE token jumps 18%+
Michael Martina / Reuters:
How Unitree's Go series, which helped the company dominate the quadruped robot market, drew on openly published US university research funded by the US military
Luz Ding / Bloomberg:
Alibaba reports Q1 revenue up 9% YoY to ~$39.64B, meeting est., and net income down 75% to ~$1.54B due to heavy AI spending and weak domestic retail consumption  —  Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.'s profit plunged more than 75% after the Chinese company ratcheted up quarterly capital spending …
Reuters:
Former Facebook Director of Engineering Arturo Béjar testifies that Mark Zuckerberg prioritized Facebook and Instagram's growth and engagement over child safety  —  A former engineering director at Meta Platforms (META.O) testified on Wednesday that CEO Mark Zuckerberg fostered a culture …
Julia Hornstein / The Information:
Anthropic-backed enterprise AI venture Ode acquires four-year-old AI consultancy Casper Studios for an unknown amount; Ode employs 100+ after buying Fractional  —  A joint venture established by Anthropic and Wall Street firms such as Blackstone has made its first acquisition since its July launch …
Jagmeet Singh / TechCrunch:
Binance launches Agent OS, a platform that lets AI agents analyze markets and execute trades on users' behalf; users have to limit AI agents' access and trades  —  Binance, the world's largest crypto exchange with more than 300 million registered users, on Thursday launched a platform …
Hugo Lowell / Wired:
Sources: Trump officials expect Elon Musk to spend $100M to $200M in the November midterm elections, with a focus on voter turnout in key races, including Texas  —  Sources tell WIRED that Elon Musk is expected to spend up to $200 million in the midterms.  It could be a big boost …
Lucas Shaw / Bloomberg:
Sources: YouTube is offering top creators millions to post videos exclusively on YouTube for a period and will penalize those that post to Netflix concurrently  —  YouTube will pay creators to post their videos to YouTube before any other service.  If creators post to YouTube and Netflix at the same time, they will face consequences.

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About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 12:45 PM ET, August 20, 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.

From Mediagazer

Winston Cho / The Hollywood Reporter:
Paramount, California AG Rob Bonta, and the WGA schedule a two-day meeting for settlement discussions about the WBD deal, starting October 14

Brian Steinberg / Variety:
Nielsen: 60 Minutes' season premiere drew 7.94M viewers, down 21% from 10.02M for last season's premiere; viewers between the ages of 25 and 54 fell 33%

NPR:
NPR acquires Hard Fork co-hosts Kevin Roose and Casey Newton's video-first show Machine Gods, debuting as a podcast from October and as a radio program in 2027

More News

Yoolim Lee / Bloomberg:
South Korea media: SK Hynix and its union reach a tentative deal on a 6.3% wage hike and paying out 60% of profit-sharing bonuses in shares and 40% in cash
Bloomberg:
London-based Callosum, whose software matches AI tasks with models and chips, raised a $100M seed led by Atomico; the UK's Sovereign AI Fund also invested
Cecilia Kang / New York Times:
Virginia's Loudoun County hosts 250+ data centers, generating huge tax revenues, as it moves to slow construction in response to pushback from residents

Earlier Picks

Amanda Caswell / Tom's Guide:
Google unveils new study tools, including a student hub, notebooks, and interactive 3D visualizations in Gemini, plus college student offers for Google AI plans
Bloomberg:
Sources: SpaceX approached Cognition about a potential acquisition, but Cognition didn't engage; Cognition CEO Scott Wu: the AI coding startup is “not for sale”
CNBC:
Sources: OpenAI CFO Sarah Friar told employees at an all-hands that OpenAI “will be a public company in 2027”, or sooner if “our business continues to inflect”
Matt Day / Bloomberg:
Amazon plans to expand Prime Air drone delivery to almost 500 cities and towns in the US by the end of 2026, a sixfold increase from its current footprint
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