~techmeme | Bookmarks (1028)

Sarah Perez / TechCrunch: Bluesky 2024 moderation report: Bluesky gained 23M+ users, its moderation team grew to ~100, and its moderation service received 6.48M reports, up 17x from 2023  —  Bluesky on Friday published its moderation report for the past year, noting the sizable growth the social network experienced …

Jane Lanhee Lee / Bloomberg: TSMC reports Q4 sales up 38.8% YoY to ~$26.38B, net income up 57% YoY to ~$11.4B, both above estimates; stock jumped 80%+ in 2024, its biggest gain since 1999  —  - Revenue, capex projections surpass analysts' estimates  — TSMC is one of the biggest beneficiaries of the AI boom

Omkar Godbole / CoinDesk: Jio Platforms partners with Polygon Labs to integrate Web3 and blockchain services into Jio's apps and services; Jio Platforms has over 450M users in India  —  Indian telecom and technology company Jio Platforms (JPL) is taking significant steps to enhance the digital experience for its more than 450 million users.

NBC News: An official says the Biden administration is “exploring options” to implement the law without causing TikTok to go dark for US users on January 19  —  Barring action by the Supreme Court, a ban in the U.S. on the popular app is set to begin on Sunday.

Semafor: Sources: Satya Nadella and Brad Smith had lunch with Trump, Vance, and Musk at Mar-a-Lago on January 15; Microsoft says its two execs had a “Productive meeting”  —  THE SCOOP  —  President-elect Donald Trump and his running mate JD Vance had lunch with Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella Wednesday …

Yazhou Sun / Bloomberg: Germany-based Neura Robotics, which is building cognitive, humanoid robots for logistics and other sectors, raised a €120M Series B led by Lingotto Investment  —  Neura Robotics, a German startup that manufactures robots that can “see, hear and touch,” has raised $120 million …

Kyle Wiggers / TechCrunch: Chinese AI company MiniMax, which has raised ~$850M, debuts three LLMs, including a 456B-parameter model that it claims performs better than Gemini 2.0 Flash  —  Chinese firms continue to release AI models that rival the capabilities of systems developed by OpenAI and other U.S.-based AI companies.

Karen Freifeld / Reuters: The US Commerce Department adds 25 China-based companies, including Alibaba-backed LLM developer Zhipu AI and chip designer Sophgo, to its restricted trade list  —  The Biden administration added more than two dozen Chinese entities to a U.S. restricted trade list on Wednesday, including Zhipu AI …

Lindsay Whitehurst / Associated Press: During oral arguments, SCOTUS seemed open to a Texas law requiring age checks to view online porn, but could send the case back to a lower court  —  The Supreme Court on Wednesday seemed open to a Texas law aimed at blocking kids from seeing online pornography, though the justices could still send …

Kyle Wiggers / TechCrunch: AI researcher François Chollet and Zapier co-founder Mike Knoop launch Ndea, an AI research and science lab focused on “developing and operationalizing AGI”  —  François Chollet, an influential AI researcher, is launching a new startup that aims to build frontier AI systems with novel designs.

Bloomberg: Sources: Nothing seeks to raise at least $100M in its Series C; it crossed $1B in lifetime sales, sold 7M devices to date, and doubled revenue to $500M+ in 2024  —  - Nothing CEO Pei known for co-founding popular OnePlus brand  — Startup exploring expansion beyond phones, watches and earbuds

Daniel Kuhn / The Block: BitMEX is fined an additional $100M for US Bank Secrecy Act violations between 2015 and 2020; it pleaded guilty in July 2024 and previously agreed to pay $110M  —  - BitMEX has been slapped with an additional $100 million fine for Bank Secrecy Act violations between 2015 and 2020.

Pete Schroeder / Reuters: Block agrees to pay $80M to a group of 48 US state financial regulators that say it had insufficient policies for policing money laundering through Cash App  —  Block Inc (SQ.N) has agreed to pay a fine of $80 million to a group of 48 state financial regulators after the agencies determined …

Washington Post: Sources: Donald Trump is considering issuing an executive order once in office that would suspend enforcement of the TikTok sale-or-ban law for 60 to 90 days  —  Trump, the infamous dealmaker, is exploring unconventional ways to rescue the Chinese-owned video app from a nationwide ban …

Rishi Kant / Reuters: Aligned Data Centers, which specializes in AI-related infrastructure, raised over $12B, including $5B+ of new primary equity and $7B+ of new debt commitments  —  Aligned Data Centers, which specializes in AI-related infrastructure, said on Wednesday it had completed another round of capital raise of more than $12 billion.

Jesse Coghlan / Cointelegraph: DappRadar: NFT trading volumes in 2024 fell 19% YoY to $13.7B and sales counts fell 18% YoY to just under 50M, making 2024 the worst performing year since 2020  —  DappRadar found the NFT market last year was the worst since 2020 for trading and sales volumes, with both falling nearly 20% over 2024.

Vince Dioquino / Decrypt: Sony launches Soneium Ethereum L2 platform for creators, after a four-month test that drew 14M+ users; Blockscout: Soneium testnet processed ~47M transactions  —  Sony says it plans to explore ways for protecting creator rights and mechanisms for equitable value distribution between creators and fans.

Financial Times: Sources: the EU is reassessing its DMA probes into US tech giants like Apple, Meta, and Google, launched since March 2024, as US groups urge Trump to intervene  —  Tech groups have urged Donald Trump to intervene against overzealous European regulation  —  Brussels is reassessing …

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  —  TAIPEI — China is increasing its scrutiny of exports by Apple and other American tech companies, hampering their efforts …

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  —  TAIPEI — Apple is in the final stage of verifying its first “made in America” cutting-edge processor chips from Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co.'s plant in Arizona.

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  —  Seattle-area health data company Truveta announced $320 million in fresh funding and an ambitious new initiative to create a giant genomic dataset.

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  —  Behind the scenes, companies and governments are feeding a trove of data about international travelers into opaque AI tools that aim to predict who's safe—and who's a threat.

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  —  - Blackstone, Apollo, Blue Owl among lenders in private loan  — Financing also includes a $2.5 billion credit line from banks

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”  —  TikTok denied a report that China is looking at potentially facilitating a sale of the app to tech billionaire Elon Musk to keep TikTok operational …