~techmeme | Bookmarks (1030)

Bloomberg: Sources: Winklevoss' crypto exchange Gemini is considering an IPO as soon as in 2025; cryptoasset exchange operator Bullish is also considering an IPO in 2025  —  Gemini, the cryptocurrency firm backed by the billionaire Winklevoss twins, is considering an initial public offering as soon as this year …

Sharon Goldman / Fortune: Sources: OpenAI co-founder John Schulman is joining former OpenAI CTO Mira Murati's stealth startup; he left Anthropic after joining the startup in August 2024  —  OpenAI cofounder John Schulman is joining former OpenAI CTO Mira Murati's stealth startup after departing Anthropic just five months …

Reuters: Sources say the focus of the AI Action Summit in Paris on February 10 and February 11 will be on seeking a global consensus on AI principles, not new regulation  —  All eyes are on the French capital next week to see if U.S. President Donald Trump's administration can find common ground …

Bloomberg: How India kept its satellite internet market closed to Starlink, Amazon, and more, despite poor rural connectivity; a regulator is set to publish rules in 2025  —  As global resistance to Starlink dies down, Elon Musk wants to beam connectivity across the world's most populous country.

Christopher Grimes / Financial Times: Netflix hopes its expansion into live programming boosts its nascent ad business; Bernstein estimates its two NFL games generated up to $180M in US advertising  —  Streaming group hopes boxing, wrestling and other events can also boost nascent advertising business

Zeyi Yang / Wired: The USPS halts all inbound parcels from China and Hong Kong, after President Trump ended the “de minimis” exemption, sending the e-commerce industry into chaos  —  As part of new tariffs on Chinese imports, President Donald Trump eliminated an exemption for small packages …

Preeti Singh / Bloomberg: Sources: BlackRock plans to hire ~1,200 people to build its AI teams in India and will inherit ~1,500 staff in Bengaluru through its proposed Preqin acquisition  —  - Firm is bolstering artificial intelligence teams for its hubs  — Money manager leases additional office space in Mumbai

Lina M. Khan / New York Times: Lina Khan says that DeepSeek's breakthroughs highlight how US Big Tech's monopolistic practices may actually be hampering the US' technological leadership  —  When Chinese artificial intelligence firm DeepSeek shocked Silicon Valley and Wall Street with its powerful new A.I. model …

Bloomberg: Sources: OpenAI has spent months talking about potential commercial deals for Sora with film studios, who are worried about how their data may be used and more  —  - Startup has met with Hollywood studios about commercial deals  — Studios worry about business implications of new technology

Malathi Nayak / Bloomberg: Former Google engineer Linwei Ding faces new charges of economic espionage by the US DOJ for allegedly stealing trade secrets to boost China's AI industry  —  - US claims Linwei Ding stole technology for home-grown chip  — Former engineer pled not guilty to original charges in March

Manish Singh / TechCrunch: Bengaluru-based payments startup Cashfree raised a $53M Series C led by Krafton, bringing its total funding to nearly $100M, a source says at a $700M valuation  —  Cashfree, an Indian payments startup that facilitates and processes more than $80 billion for its customers each year …

Melissa Heikkilä / Financial Times: Microsoft AI CEO Mustafa Suleyman poaches three Google DeepMind former colleagues, including two who built NotebookLM's Audio Overviews and worked on Astra  —  Rival companies in fierce battle for talent in race to build powerful artificial intelligence ‘agents’

Chris Welch / The Verge: Sources: Sonos will release an Android-based streaming box in the coming months, priced between $200 and $400, that combines content from Netflix, Max, and more  —  After the most tumultuous nine months in Sonos' history, the brand is trying to find its footing again.

Max Goldbart / Deadline: Ampere predicts streamers will outspend commercial broadcasters on content for the first time in 2025, and overall content spend will rise 0.4% YoY to $248B  —  For the first time this year the streamers will spend more on content than commercial broadcasters.

Reuters: Alphabet expects 2025 capex of ~$75B, vs. ~$58B est., and reports Google Cloud Q4 revenue up 30% YoY to $11.96B, vs. $12.16B est.; GOOG drops 7%+ after hours  —  Alphabet (GOOGL.O) said on Tuesday it will spend $75 billion on its AI buildout this year, 29% more than Wall Street expected …

Daniel Kuhn / The Block: Bitcoin Ordinals project Taproot Wizards raised $30M to expand work on OP_CAT, a scripting capability for Bitcoin to enable automated, customizable transactions  —  - Bitcoin Ordinals project Taproot Wizards is raising $30 million in a round led by Standard Crypto.

Jonathan Bell / Wallpaper*: OpenAI unveils a visual rebrand, featuring a new bespoke typeface called OpenAI Sans, a refined logo, and a new color palette  —  A new typeface, word mark, symbol and palette underpin all the ways in which OpenAI's technology interacts with the real world  — Sign up to our newsletter -

Hayden Field / CNBC: SoftBank commits $3B annually for itself and subsidiaries to use OpenAI's tech, and launches SB OpenAI Japan to market OpenAI's enterprise tech in Japan  —  SoftBank has committed to spending $3 billion per year for itself and its subsidiaries to use OpenAI's tech, according to a joint announcement on Monday.

Jagmeet Singh / TechCrunch: India expands Aadhaar, now linked to the biometrics of over 1.4B people, to let businesses across several sectors use it to authenticate customers  —  India has eased restrictions on its Aadhaar authentication service, a digital identity verification framework linked to the biometrics …

Anthony Ha / TechCrunch: OpenAI unveils Deep Research, an AI agent for creating in-depth reports, available to subscribers of the $200 ChatGPT Pro tier and limited to 100 queries/month  —  OpenAI is announcing a new AI “agent” designed to help people conduct in-depth, complex research using ChatGPT, the company's AI-powered chatbot platform.

Brian Heater / TechCrunch: Google's X spins out Heritable Agriculture, which aims to use AI to improve crop yield, as the incubator aggressively spins off companies under CEO Astro Teller  —  Google's X “moonshot factory” this week announced its latest graduate.  Heritable Agriculture is a data- and machine learning …

Vittoria Elliott / Wired: A look at six engineers with Elon Musk and Peter Thiel ties, between 19 and 24 years old, playing key DOGE roles, as Musk seizes control of US infrastructure  —  Engineers between 19 and 24, most linked to Musk's companies, are playing a key role as he seizes control of federal infrastructure.

Bloomberg: Some parents say they are eschewing 529 college savings plans and other traditional investments to invest in cryptocurrency to build wealth for their children  —  Despite the risks and volatility, some families are investing in cryptocurrency to build wealth for their children.

Foo Yun Chee / Reuters: Intel received €515.55M in default interest from the EU after being reimbursed a €1.06B fine levied in 2009; the EU's top court sided with Intel in October 2024  —  U.S. chipmaker Intel (INTC.O) has received 515.55 million euros ($536 million) in default interest …