~techmeme | Bookmarks (1028)

Bloomberg: Alibaba CEO Eddie Wu calls the pursuit of AGI the company's “primary objective”, saying “our first and foremost goal is to pursue AGI”  —  “Our first and foremost goal is to pursue AGI,” Eddie Wu told investors on a call after the company reported results that surpassed analyst estimates.

Hannah Murphy / Financial Times: Sources: Meta's oversight board got little notice of Zuckerberg's “free speech” overhaul, fueling tensions as it rushes to hold Meta accountable for the changes  —  Independent body searches for ways to hold social media group to account over content moderation and hate speech changes

Brenda Goh / Reuters: Chinese state media: Huawei founder Ren Zhengfei told Xi Jinping at a meeting that concerns about China lacking homegrown chips or operating systems had eased  —  Huawei's founder told Xi Jinping at a meeting the Chinese president held with private sector entrepreneurs that concerns China …

Benj Edwards / Ars Technica: Microsoft researchers introduce Magma, an AI foundation model that combines visual and language processing to control software interfaces and robotic systems  —  On Wednesday, Microsoft Research introduced Magma, an integrated AI foundation model that combines visual and language processing …

Gergely Orosz / The Pragmatic Engineer: A look at the potential reasons why software developer job listings on Indeed hit a five-year low in January, down 35% from 2020, including the impact of AI  —  Hi, this is Gergely with a bonus issue of the Pragmatic Engineer Newsletter.  In every issue, I cover topics related to Big Tech …

Jonathan Vanian / CNBC: Filing: Meta approves raising executives' annual bonuses to 200% of base salary, up from 75%, as most employees' annual stock options are reportedly cut by ~10%  —  Executives at Meta stand to get bigger bonuses this year.  —  The company said in a corporate filing Thursday that it had approved …

Wall Street Journal: Sources: GameStop CEO and activist investor Ryan Cohen has grown his personal stake in Alibaba to about 7M shares, worth roughly $1B, in recent months  —  The meme-stock king and investor still has his sights set on the Chinese e-commerce behemoth  —  Ryan Cohen still has his sights set …

Mobile EDR Security: iVerify's iOS app detected a Pegasus infection in 11 new cases in December 2024, and about half of them did not receive Threat Notifications from Apple  —  In December, we published our groundbreaking investigation into mobile device threats.  The public didn't just read the report …

Ben Lang / Road to VR: Meta announces a $50M creator fund for Horizon Worlds; CTO Andrew Bosworth reportedly told staff that 2025 is a make-or-break year for Meta's XR ambitions  —  Meta today announced a $50 million fund to incentivize the creation of new and improved content in Horizon Worlds, the company's first-party social gaming platform.

MacKenzie Sigalos / CNBC: Block reports Q4 revenue up 4.5% YoY to $6.03B vs. $6.29B est., gross profit up 14% to $2.31B, Cash App gross profit up 16% to $1.38B; XYZ drops 6%+ after hours  —  Block reported fourth-quarter results on Thursday that fell short of Wall Street expectations.  The stock dropped more than 7% in extended trading.

Aisha Malik / TechCrunch: Substack adds the ability to post videos from its app and lets creators monetize videos, and plans to add more video tools like trimming and enhanced analytics  —  As TikTok's future in the U.S. remains uncertain, Substack tries to lure creators to its platform by doubling down on video.

Ian Carlos Campbell / Engadget: Meta says US users over 18 can now sign up to be a Community Notes contributor on Facebook, Instagram, and Threads; notes will have a 500-character limit  —  The company is replacing third-party fact-checking with Community Notes on Threads, Instagram and Facebook.

Sarah Perez / TechCrunch: Amazon plans to end support for its videoconferencing tool Chime on February 20, 2026; report: Amazon is adopting Zoom as its standard app for internal meetings  —  Amazon Chime, the tech giant's underwhelming alternative to Zoom and Google Meet, is shutting down for good.

Emily Birnbaum / Bloomberg: FTC Chair Andrew Ferguson announces an inquiry into “Big Tech censorship”, which he says is “un-American” and “potentially illegal”  —  - FTC Chair Ferguson invites public comment about tech platforms  — Conservatives claim ideas, affiliations have been censored

Financial Times: Sources: Meta has led the charge against the EU's AI Act this year, as Big Tech, with backing from President Trump, grows bolder in challenging EU regulations  —  US groups such as Meta emboldened in effort to water down regulations on AI and market dominance

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.