~techmeme | Bookmarks (1028)

Katie Roof / Bloomberg: Sources: X is in talks to raise funds at a $44B valuation, matching the price Elon Musk paid for Twitter in 2022, as his proximity to Trump alters X's prospects  —  - Valuation is the same as Musk's 2022 Twitter acquisition  — Billionaire has recently tapped private markets for big sums

Cheng Ting-Fang / Nikkei Asia: Taiwan's ASE Technology, the world's largest chip packaging and testing firm, opens a new plant in Penang, Malaysia, as part of its biggest overseas expansion  —  PENANG, Malaysia — ASE Technology Holding on Tuesday opened what is set to become its largest overseas operations in Penang …

Olga Kharif / Bloomberg: Solana has lost ~25% of its market value, or ~$20B, since February 14 after Argentine President Javier Milei faced scrutiny for promoting Solana memecoin Libra  —  - Around $20 billion in Solana market value has been erased  — Solana has been a popular blockchain for issuing memecoins

Reuters: President Trump said tariffs on semiconductors would start at “25% or higher” and that he planned to provide some time for chip makers to set up US factories  —  U.S. President Donald Trump said on Tuesday he intends to impose auto tariffs “in the neighborhood of 25%” …

Emilia David / VentureBeat: OpenAI researchers, using the SWE-Lancer benchmark, find that real-world freelance software engineering work remains challenging for frontier language models  —  Large language models (LLMs) may have changed software development, but enterprises will need to think twice about entirely replacing …

Bloomberg: Sources: Niantic is in talks to sell its games unit to Saudi Arabia-controlled Scopely for ~$3.5B; the deal would include Pokémon Go and other mobile games  —  A deal could be announced in coming weeks.  The price being discussed is about $3.5 billion, according to one of the people.

Kevin Purdy / Ars Technica: Asus ROG Flow Z13 review: the ~$2,300 convertible tablet's integrated GPU in its AMD Ryzen AI Max+ 395 chip offers performance comparable to a GeForce RTX 4060  —  Looking at this thing, you might expect to see it propped up at an airport bar, in front of somebody talking into wireless headphones about Tim in Product.

Aaron Souppouris / Engadget: Humane says Ai Pin's online features will stop working on February 28, when all customer data will be deleted, and it will refund some customers  —  Humane is discontinuing the AI Pin and selling out to HP.  —  AI hardware startup Humane has given its users just ten (10!) days notice that their Pins will be disconnected.

Sarah Perez / TechCrunch: Google Play Books for iOS will now let users complete their e-book or audiobook purchase on the Google Play website, under Apple's “reader apps” exception  —  Google has gained permission to sell its e-books and audiobooks directly to customers through its iOS app, Google Play Books.

José Adorno / BGR: Protector, an iOS app that offers on-demand personal security, including armed agents, debuts in NYC and LA; adviser Nikita Bier calls it “Uber with guns”  —  There's a new app on the App Store called Protector, which, as its advisor describes it, is “Uber with guns.”

Etan Vlessing / The Hollywood Reporter: VFX company DNEG's AI unit Brahma acquires Metaphysic, a maker of AI tools for de-aging and more; Abu Dhabi's UASG and DNEG will invest another $25M into Brahma  —  The UK-based company has acquired the AI tech platform that first gained headlines for popularizing a deepfake TikTok account spoofing Tom Cruise.

Brody Ford / Bloomberg: HP will acquire assets from Humane for $116M; Humane's Ai Pin business will be wound down, and Humane's team, including its founders, will join HP  —  - Humane's Ai pin business to be wound down after rocky launch  — New unit at HP will focus on implementation of AI in devices

Bloomberg: Sources: Silver Lake is in exclusive talks to acquire a majority stake in Intel's Altera unit  —  The private equity firm is thrashing out details of an investment in Altera, whose multi-use chips are primarily deployed in telecommunications networks, according to the people.

Kritika Lamba / Reuters: Bumble reports Q4 revenue down 4.4% YoY to $261.6M, Bumble app paying users up 5% to 2.8M, and forecasts Q1 revenue below estimates; BMBL drops 13%+ after hours  —  Bumble (BMBL.O) forecast its first-quarter revenue below analysts' estimate on Tuesday, signaling that the dating app operator's efforts …

Financial Times: A look at changes in the UK's CMA after its chair was forced to resign and the agency tries to reconcile its enhanced powers with government's pro-growth focus  —  CMA chair Marcus Bokkerink was told by phone he was to resign after months of rising frustration within government

Reuters: South Korea's data protection authority says DeepSeek app downloads have been suspended in the country after DeepSeek failed to follow its personal data rules  —  South Korea's data protection authority on Monday said it had temporarily suspended the domestic service of Chinese AI app DeepSeek since Saturday.

Max Tani / Semafor: Docs: the NYT greenlights the use of select internal and external AI tools for editorial and product staff, including from OpenAI, Amazon, Google, and Microsoft  —  The Scoop  —  The New York Times is greenlighting the use of AI for its product and editorial staff, saying that internal tools …

Madeline Coleman / New York Times: A look at sim racing, Formula One world champion Max Verstappen's passion for the competitive esport, and his efforts to get sim drivers into physical racing  —  Race teams always look up and down the motorsports ladder to identify rising stars.  But Formula One world champion Max Verstappen …

Financial Times: Match's head of trust and safety, Yoel Roth, says Match is using AI in its apps, like Tinder, to detect men's “off-color” messages and drive “behavioral change”  —  Online dating group is using the technology to detect ‘off-colour’ messages, says safety chief Yoel Roth

Mark Gurman / Bloomberg: A look at Apple's and Meta's robotics efforts; sources say Apple is working on a 27" Studio Display successor to launch by 2026 and considering monetizing Maps  —  Apple and Meta are set to go toe-to-toe in another emerging area: AI-powered humanoid robots.

Gian Volpicelli / Bloomberg: Meta's Joel Kaplan says Meta “won't shy away” from taking up its case with President Trump if the EU uses its rules to unfairly target Meta's digital products  —  - Kaplan says company will make case if EU singles it out  — Tension over tech rules underscores transatlantic rift

Reuters: Tencent is testing using DeepSeek for search in its messaging app Weixin, while Baidu plans to fully connect its search engine to DeepSeek and its LLM, Ernie  —  Tencent said on Sunday its (0700.HK) Weixin messaging app, China's largest, is allowing some users to search via DeepSeek's …

Kyle Baird / DL News: Indian authorities have seized nearly $190M in cryptocurrency linked to the BitConnect Ponzi scheme, one of the country's largest crypto enforcement actions  —  Indian authorities have seized nearly $190 million in cryptocurrency linked to the BitConnect Ponzi scheme — one of the country's largest crypto enforcement actions.

William Wroblewski / Rest of World: Some Bolivians, frustrated with spotty internet from a China-built satellite, are smuggling in Starlink kits despite Bolivia banning the service in August 2024  —  Bolivia, which relies on a Chinese-built satellite for some of its connectivity, banned Starlink — but that hasn't stopped people …