| 11:30 PM • | Lauly Li / Nikkei Asia: Sources: China tightens scrutiny of Apple and other US tech firms' exports under its dual-use export controls, slowing production expansion in SE Asia and India |
| 11:10 PM • | Cheng Ting-Fang / Nikkei Asia: Sources: Apple is finalizing verification of its first cutting-edge chips from TSMC's Arizona plant, with the initial batch expected as early as this quarter |
| 9:45 PM • | Taylor Soper / GeekWire: Bellevue, WA-based Truveta, which aggregates medical data from 30 partner institutions, raised $320M from Regeneron, Illumina, and others at a $1B+ valuation |
| 9:10 PM • | Caitlin Chandler / Wired: A look at European tech firms Idemia, SITA, Travizory, and WCC, that offer AI tools to help governments surveil cross-border travelers and predict threats |
| 8:25 PM • | Bloomberg: Sources: Databricks secures $5B+ in its largest debt raise to date, from lenders including Blackstone and Apollo, after raising $10B in equity in December 2024 |
| 8:15 PM • | Todd Spangler / Variety: TikTok denies a report that China is looking at potentially facilitating a sale of the app to Elon Musk, calling it “pure fiction” |
| 7:40 PM • | Reuters: Docs: Arm was working on a strategy in 2019 to hike prices to boost annual smartphone revenue by ~$1B over 10 years, and has discussed designing its own chips |
| 7:22 PM • | Bloomberg: Sources: Chinese officials are evaluating an option involving Elon Musk acquiring TikTok US; X would take control of TikTok US and run the businesses together |
| 7:08 PM • | Wall Street Journal: Sources: Zuckerberg met with Trump on Friday, in part to mediate a 2021 lawsuit Trump brought against Meta over his account suspension after the Jan. 6 riot |
| 6:10 PM • | Kashmir Hill / New York Times: Texas sues Allstate and its subsidiary Arity, accusing the insurer of illegally collecting and selling data about people's driving behavior through mobile apps |
| 5:50 PM • | Todd Bishop / GeekWire: Microsoft is creating a new “CoreAI - Platform and Tools” unit led by Jay Parikh, the ex-Lacework CEO and Meta engineering executive who joined in October 2024 |
| 5:30 PM • | Salvador Rodriguez / CNBC: IAC board approves the spinoff of home improvement marketplace Angi; IAC has previously spun off companies like Expedia, Ticketmaster, and LendingTree |
| 5:15 PM • | Dan Mangan / CNBC: The SEC says that two Robinhood broker-dealers agreed to pay $45M in combined penalties to settle charges that they violated over 10 securities law provisions |
| 4:29 PM • | Jesse Hamilton / CoinDesk: A US court rules the SEC must “explain itself” on why, when pressed by Coinbase, it failed to clarify its rules or offer clear new rules for crypto securities |
| 3:45 PM • | Washington Post: An investigation finds 15 police departments across 12 US states have arrested suspects identified through facial recognition without having any other evidence |
| 3:21 PM • | Zeyi Yang / Wired: Ahead of a likely US TikTok ban, users flee to Chinese apps Xiaohongshu, aka RedNote, and ByteDance's Lemon8, currently the top two apps in the US App Store |
| 1:25 PM • | Leena Rao / Business Insider: Chainalysis buys AI-agent security startup Alterya, sources say for ~$150M; Alterya is still in stealth mode but has clients including Coinbase, Square, Binance |
| 1:10 PM • | Ryan Lawler / Axios: Clearwater Analytics agreed to acquire Enfusion, a SaaS provider for hedge funds and investment managers, in a cash-and-stock deal valued at $1.5B |
| 1:05 PM • | Richard Nieva / Forbes: Jimmy Wales, Mark Ruffalo, others debut Free Our Feeds to raise $30M by 2028 to “billionaire-proof” AT Protocol, by making it easier for users to leave Bluesky |
| 1:00 PM • | Eleanor Terrett / Fox Business: Crypto payments platform MoonPay has acquired blockchain payment processor Helio, a source says for $175M |
| 12:25 PM • | Marina Temkin / TechCrunch: Raspberry AI, which uses AI to turn fashion designer sketches into realistic images and has ~70 clients including Under Armour, raised an a16z-led $24M Series A |
| 11:35 AM • | Aaron Holmes / The Information: Microsoft Forms New Team Led by Jay Parikh Focused on AI Software Development |
| 10:45 AM • | Julie Jargon / Wall Street Journal: A look at Troodi, a mental health chatbot built by AI startup Elomia Health for Troomi's child-focused phones, with thousands of teen users across the US |
| 10:15 AM • | Jonathan Stempel / Reuters: SCOTUS declines to hear Meta's bid to avoid a class action by advertisers that accused the company of overcharging them by inflating their potential ad reach |
| 10:00 AM • | Mary Ann Azevedo / TechCrunch: Toronto-based Float Financial, which offers expense management software and corporate credit cards, raised a $48.5M Series B led by Goldman Sachs Growth Equity |
| 9:40 AM • | Ian King / Bloomberg: Nvidia announces partnerships with Illumina, the Mayo Clinic, and other companies as part of its push to encourage the health care industry to adopt AI |
| 9:35 AM • | The Information: Sources: Microsoft, Meta, AWS, and Google recently cut some orders of Nvidia's Blackwell GB200 racks, as overheating and connection glitches lead to new delays |
| 9:30 AM • | Wall Street Journal: Donald Trump Jr. is joining prediction-market startup Kalshi as a strategic adviser; CFTC called Kalshi “an online casino” in a December filing |
| 9:10 AM • | Kerry Flynn / Axios: T-Mobile agrees to acquire Vistar Media, which focuses on programmatic digital out of home advertising, for $600M in cash; the deal is expected to close in Q1 |
| 8:55 AM • | New York Times: Sources detail DOGE, which is likely to work as more of a brand linked by Signal group chats coordinating US policy or personnel recommendations and recruitment |
| 8:45 AM • | Samuel Stolton / Bloomberg: Sources: the EU sent questionnaires to app developers in December focusing on concerns Apple's Core Technology Fee of €0.50 per app install could drive up costs |
| 8:35 AM • | Dominic Preston / The Verge: Mastodon CEO Eugen Rochko plans to transfer Mastodon's ownership to a new non-profit, saying “Mastodon should not be owned or controlled by a single individual” |
| 8:25 AM • | Associated Press: Under a new Biden rule, countries with caps on AI compute are restricted to buying 50K advanced GPUs, which could grow to 100K in deals with the US government |
| 8:08 AM • | Mark Gurman / Bloomberg: Sonos CEO Patrick Spence is leaving following a botched app revamp that upset customers and stymied growth; Sonos names board member Tom Conrad as interim CEO |
| 8:05 AM • | Colin Demarest / Axios: Overland AI, which is developing off-road self-driving systems for military purposes, raised a $32M Series A led by 8VC |
| 7:55 AM • | New York Times: OpenAI publishes a “economic blueprint” for “AI in America”, calling on the new Trump admin to spur investment from the Middle East and avoid strict regulations |
| 7:35 AM • | Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch: Qventus, which builds AI-based tools to automate health care work, raised a $105M Series D, including $85M in equity and $20M in optional debt |
| 7:10 AM • | Reuters: Nvidia criticizes the Biden admin's new chip export rule, saying the regulation would “undermine” the US' AI leadership and “weaken” its global competitiveness |
| 7:00 AM • | Will Knight / Wired: The US' new chip export rule enters a 120-day consultation period, requiring the Trump admin to listen to input, perhaps modify the rule, and then enforce it |
| 6:40 AM • | Karen Freifeld / Reuters: The Biden admin says chip orders with the collective compute of up to ~1,700 Nvidia H100 GPUs need no license and don't count against country specific chip caps |
| 6:25 AM • | TechCrunch: The UK plans to create geographic “AI Growth Zones” to speed up the building of AI infrastructure and says that tech companies have pledged £14B for its AI plan |
| 6:16 AM • | Financial Times: The Biden admin unveils a new chip export rule that gives 18 key allies full AI chips access while requiring licenses from most other countries, including China |
| 4:35 AM • | Steven Sinofsky / Hardcore Software: A report on CES 2025: tech giants were mostly absent, Nvidia's keynote was a big event, AI experimentation, supply chains adapting to geopolitics, and more |
| 2:10 AM • | Manish Singh / TechCrunch: Sources: Indian investment app Groww plans to file for an IPO within 10-12 months, seeking a $6B-$8B valuation; Groww was last valued at $3B in October 2021 |
| 2:00 AM • | Rest of World: Starlink has disrupted Kenya's existing ISP industry since its launch in July 2023, forcing legacy providers to lower prices and increase internet speeds |
| 12:40 AM • | Counterpoint Research: Global smartphone shipments grew 4% YoY in 2024 after a decade-low in 2023; top two brands, Samsung and Apple, were mostly flat, while Xiaomi grew 12% YoY |
| 11:55 PM • | Rest of World: Sources: Foxconn stops sending Chinese employees to iPhone factories in India and recalls already stationed staff, while China stalls equipment shipments |
| 10:37 PM • | Jo Constantz / Bloomberg: A look at the burgeoning underground market connecting job seekers to anonymous employees willing to make a referral at Microsoft, Nvidia, Spotify, and others |
| 8:40 PM • | Alex Heath / The Verge: Roy Austin, Meta's VP of Civil Rights and Deputy General Counsel, announces he is leaving the company at the end of March 2025, after joining in January 2021 |
| 8:05 PM • | Paul Sawers / TechCrunch: The EU approves Synopsys' $35B Ansys acquisition, after the companies offered to divest parts of their businesses; US and China approvals are still pending |
| 7:35 PM • | Josh Wingrove / Bloomberg: Biden assailed Meta over its move to end third-party fact-checking on its social media platforms in the US, saying “it's really shameful” |
| 7:05 PM • | Derek Thompson / The Atlantic: How the rise of self-imposed solitude in the US, accelerated by smartphones in the 21st century, is reshaping the country's civic and psychological identity |
| 6:10 PM • | Bloomberg: OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi, and, a source says, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg are planning to attend Trump's inauguration events this month |
| 5:36 PM • | Mark Gurman / Bloomberg: Apple opposes a shareholder measure calling for an end to DEI efforts, saying the proposal was an inappropriate attempt to restrict Apple's business operations |
| 5:05 PM • | Angrej Singh / Axios: Zuckerberg says Meta's fact-checking was “something out of 1984” and criticized the media for hounding Facebook to clamp down on misinfo after the 2016 election |
| 4:55 PM • | Aisha Counts / Bloomberg: Sources: OpenAI, Google, and other companies are collectively paying hundreds of content creators for access to their unpublished videos to train AI models |
| 4:35 PM • | Chance Miller / 9to5Mac: Zuckerberg slams Apple, saying it hasn't “really invented anything great in a while”, he's “optimistic” that Apple will “get beat by someone” soon, and more |
| 4:30 PM • | Jordan Novet / CNBC: On Joe Rogan's podcast, Mark Zuckerberg said Biden administration officials would “scream” and “curse” at Meta employees to take down vaccine content, and more |
| 4:25 PM • | Annie Palmer / CNBC: Memo: Amazon halts some of its DEI programs, saying it is “winding down outdated programs and materials” as part of a broader review of hundreds of initiatives |
| 3:45 PM • | Brody Ford / Bloomberg: Sources: HPE won a $1B deal in late 2024 to provide servers optimized for AI work for X; Dell and Super Micro also bid on the deal |
| 3:25 PM • | Annie Palmer / CNBC: Amazon plans to end Prime Try Before You Buy on January 31; the Stitch Fix competitor let Prime users try on clothes and only pay for items they wanted to keep |
| 3:10 PM • | The Information: Amazon has quietly changed or removed pages on its corporate website that declared its commitment to DEI and other issues |
| 2:55 PM • | Paresh Dave / Wired: Sources: Rumble, Quora, and WeChat are among 15 companies from which Texas has demanded answers about their collection and use of data of under-18-year-olds |
| 2:25 PM • | New York Times: Sources detail Zuckerberg's sprint to remake Meta after meeting with Trump at Thanksgiving; he no longer wants to keep his views of how Meta should be run quiet |
| 1:45 PM • | Kyle Wiggers / TechCrunch: Overhaul, which uses AI to let companies like Microsoft anticipate freight shipping delays and combat theft, raised $55M, bringing total funding to ~$150M |
| 1:15 PM • | Greg Stohr / Bloomberg: SCOTUS signals it is likely to uphold the TikTok divest-or-ban law, as a majority of justices suggested they see national security overriding free speech issues |
| 12:46 PM • | Axios: Memo: Meta terminates major DEI programs, including for hiring, training, and procurement, citing a changed “legal and policy landscape” around DEI in the US |
| 12:00 PM • | Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai / TechCrunch: The US DOJ indicts three Russian citizens for allegedly operating Bender.io and Sinbad.io crypto mixing services used by North Korea and ransomware gangs |
| 11:10 AM • | Axios: El Capitan, the world's most powerful supercomputer, built by HPE and AMD as part of a $600M US DOE contract, is officially dedicated to handle classified tasks |
| 10:20 AM • | Wired: A live blog where The US Supreme Court heard oral arguments in TikTok's appeal against the divest-or-ban law |
| 10:15 AM • | CNBC: Sources: Venu's cancellation came after the companies decided it was better to avoid the risk of an extended lawsuit that could jeopardize bundling in general |
| 10:05 AM • | Sean Lyngaas / CNN: Sources: Chinese hackers breached CFIUS, the US government office that reviews foreign investments for national security risks |
| 9:30 AM • | Makena Kelly / Wired: The CFPB proposes a new rule to give consumers the same protection rights when they use virtual currencies in some video games like Roblox as when they use USD |
| 8:55 AM • | Alex Weprin / The Hollywood Reporter: Disney, Fox, and WBD say they have agreed to discontinue their Venu Sports streaming joint venture and will focus on existing products and distribution channels |
| 8:10 AM • | Politico: In a weird X Spaces chat, Elon Musk and Alice Weidel, a co-chair of the German far-right party AfD, pushed disinformation about Hitler, migrants, war, and more |
| 7:30 AM • | Sam Biddle / The Intercept: A look at Meta's convoluted or contradictory hate speech examples for user content moderators, allowing derogatory remarks about races, nationalities, and more |
| 6:25 AM • | John Gapper / Financial Times: A look at LexisNexis Risk Solutions, RELX's largest division, which accounts for ~35% of RELX's revenue and holds 9B device records and 3B digital identities |
| 4:30 AM • | Cecilia D'Anastasio / Bloomberg: More than half a dozen celebrity video game streamers returned exclusively to Twitch in 2024, after their multimillion-dollar YouTube and Kick contracts expired |
| 2:30 AM • | Manish Singh / TechCrunch: To challenge Visa and Mastercard, India is pushing homegrown card network RuPay with its exclusive use of UPI, which handles 13B+ real-time transactions monthly |
| 2:00 AM • | Nikkei Asia: TSMC reports December revenue up 58% YoY to ~$8.4B, pushing its 2024 revenue up 34% YoY to ~$88.02B, driven by AI chip demand from Nvidia, Broadcom, and others |
| 1:15 AM • | Ivan Mehta / TechCrunch: X says it is rolling out labels for parody or satire accounts to distinguish them and “increase transparency”; accounts have to apply the labels themselves |
| 1:05 AM • | Automattic: Automattic plans to cut its WordPress contributions to ~45 hours per week “due to the lawsuits from WP Engine”, focusing mostly on security and critical updates |
| 12:10 AM • | Joseph Cox / Wired: A hack of data company Gravy reveals Candy Crush, Tinder, and thousands of other apps are used to collect user location data; app developers may not even know |
| 10:15 PM • | Casey Newton / Platformer: Meta's new policies for contractors and staff moderating Facebook and Instagram allow dehumanizing speech, like “a trans person isn't a he or she, it's an it” |
| 8:55 PM • | Kevin Purdy / Ars Technica: The Linux Foundation launches an initiative to fund developing Chromium projects in a “neutral space”, with support from Google, Meta, Microsoft, and Opera |
| 7:35 PM • | Kyle Wiggers / TechCrunch: Court docs: Mark Zuckerberg approved the Meta team that trains AI Llama models to use data from LibGen, a “links aggregator” to pirated, copyrighted material |
| 6:30 PM • | Ashley Carman / Bloomberg: Internal data: Spotify had ~55M US subscribers as of Q3 2024, of which only ~607,000 had switched to the cheaper “basic” plan that doesn't include audiobooks |
| 5:10 PM • | Jason Koebler / 404 Media: Sources: many of Meta's employees are furious about its moderation changes allowing “allegations of mental illness” when based on “gender or sexual orientation” |
| 4:40 PM • | Ivan Mehta / TechCrunch: NYC-based Captions, an AI-powered video editing app, introduces a free tier with basic video editing tools, while keeping AI features in its $10/month Pro tier |
| 3:35 PM • | Heather Landi / Fierce Healthcare: Hippocratic AI, which is building an LLM for health care use cases, raised a $141M Series B at a $1.64B valuation, and launches a health care AI agent app store |
| 2:30 PM • | Financial Times: Sources: Elon Musk and his right-wing allies discussed how to destabilize the UK Labour government and remove PM Keir Starmer, beyond Musk's aggressive X posts |
| 1:30 PM • | George Hammond / Financial Times: Elon Musk calls on California's and Delaware's AGs to force OpenAI to auction off a large stake in its business; source: OpenAI had no plans for such an auction |
| 1:15 PM • | Ryan Browne / CNBC: Ubisoft says it is appointing advisers to review and pursue strategic options after an October 2024 report said its majority backers were considering a buyout |
| 1:00 PM • | Colby Hall / Mediaite: GOP Senator Markwayne Mullin says Mark Zuckerberg met with Donald Trump the day before announcing that Meta would replace fact-checking with Community Notes |
| 12:00 PM • | Jonathan Stempel / Reuters: A US judge rules that Google must face a class action claiming Google collected users' personal data from their phones after they turned off Web & App Activity |
| 10:55 AM • | Jaiveer Singh Shekhawat / Reuters: Frank McCourt's Project Liberty says it made a formal bid to ByteDance to acquire TikTok's US assets, aiming to keep the app alive without its current algorithm |
| 10:40 AM • | Steven Scheer / Reuters: Israeli cybersecurity startup Wiz names veteran executive Fazal Merchant as president and CFO to prepare for a US IPO; sources: Wiz has ~$500M in annual revenue |
| 10:30 AM • | Marina Temkin / TechCrunch: Innovaccer, which aggregates medical data and plans to offer health care AI co-pilots and agents, raised a $275M Series F, a source says at a ~$3.45B valuation |
| 9:50 AM • | Ashley Capoot / CNBC: Google and Microsoft donate $1M to Trump's inauguration; Google says the donation, a YouTube livestream, and a homepage event link align with past inaugurations |
| 9:45 AM • | Financial Times: Analysis: Elon Musk's UK obsession is driven by a few X accounts; an ex-Twitter exec says Musk may be the first tech leader to be radicalized by his own product |
| 9:20 AM • | Annie Palmer / CNBC: Amazon launches Amazon Retail Ad Service to let companies show ads in search results, product pages, and other areas of their own websites, initially in the US |
| 8:45 AM • | Paul Sawers / TechCrunch: Dublin-based Xocean, which provides ocean data to the energy and hydrography industries using uncrewed surface vessels, raised €115M, taking its total to ~$189M |
| 8:30 AM • | Richard Lawler / The Verge: Apple says it “has never used Siri data to build marketing profiles” and never sold it for advertising or other purposes, after paying $95M to settle a lawsuit |
| 8:10 AM • | Lillian Rizzo / CNBC: Disney says it has an estimated 157M global MAUs watching ad-supported content across its streaming services Disney+, Hulu, and ESPN+, including 112M US users |
| 8:05 AM • | Carly Page / TechCrunch: Ivanti warns that threat actors exploited a critical-rated zero-day in its widely used Connect Secure VPN tool to compromise its corporate customers' networks |
| 7:25 AM • | Sarah Emerson / Forbes: Sources: Eric Schmidt has spent the last few months working on Hooglee, an AI startup that describes its mission as “democratizing video creation with AI” |
| 7:15 AM • | Ivan Mehta / TechCrunch: xAI launches a Grok app in beta for iOS in multiple countries, including the US, Australia, and India, and is preparing a dedicated Grok.com website |
| 6:35 AM • | Yimou Lee / Reuters: Taiwan's National Security Bureau says daily average cyberattacks on government departments doubled YoY to 2.4M in 2024, and most were by Chinese cyber forces |
| 5:50 AM • | Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch: Istanbul-based gaming startup Grand Games, the publisher behind Magic Sort and Car Match, raised a $30M Series A led by Balderton, after a $3M seed in 2024 |
| 4:50 AM • | Alicja Ptak / Notes From Poland: Putin, a new English-language Polish film about Vladimir Putin in which AI is used to superimpose his real face onto an actor, sparks a debate about AI use |
| 2:40 AM • | Marissa Newman / Bloomberg: How wartime GPS jamming has negatively impacted agriculture in Israel; in 2021, ~70% of Israeli farmers used GPS-guided equipment and precision-farming tech |
| 2:30 AM • | Manish Singh / TechCrunch: Source: Flipkart hires Kabeer Biswas, co-founder of Dunzo, an Indian delivery startup that had raised $500M+, to lead its quick commerce unit, Flipkart Minutes |
| 2:20 AM • | Steven Scheer / Reuters: YL Ventures: Israeli cybersecurity firms raised $4B in 2024, up 100%+ YoY from $1.89B, across 89 rounds, including 50 seed or early stage that totaled $400M |
| 1:25 AM • | Wall Street Journal: Blackstone invests $300M in DDN, which helps firms more efficiently store and analyze data for AI and HPC, at a $5B valuation; it is DDN's first outside funding |
| 1:15 AM • | Vince Dioquino / Decrypt: Filing: the Northern District Court of California gives the US government final approval to sell 69,370 BTC, worth $6.5B, seized in its Silk Road investigation |
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