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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 …

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  —  Arm Holdings (O9Ty.F), , a technology supplier to chip firms, is developing a long-term strategy to hike prices by as much as 300% …

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  —  - ByteDance's preferred strategy is to fight ban, sources say  — Trump has said he would like to delay ban to seek resolution

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  —  Meta pursues a MAGA makeover, in the latest political pivot for a company that once banned the now-president-elect from its platforms

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  —  The lawsuit accuses Arity, an Allstate subsidiary, of collecting data about people's driving behavior through mobile phone apps …

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  —  Microsoft is creating a new engineering division, led by the former global head of engineering at Facebook (now Meta) …

Salvador Rodriguez / CNBC: IAC board approves the spinoff of home improvement marketplace Angi; IAC has previously spun off companies like Expedia, Ticketmaster, and LendingTree  —  Barry Diller's IAC said Monday that its board approved the spinoff of Angi, the home improvement marketplace the company acquired in 2017.

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  —  - CNBC Councils  — CNBC on Peacock  — Join the CNBC Panel  — Supply Chain Values  — Select Shopping  — Ad Choices

Che Pan / South China Morning Post: Sources: TSMC cuts ties with Singapore-based PowerAIR due to a potential breach of US export controls, after a TSMC chip was found in a Huawei AI processor  —  The world's largest chip foundry ended its relationship with a Singapore-based firm after a client review

David Shepardson / Reuters: Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo says TSMC has begun producing advanced 4nm chips “on par in yield and quality with Taiwan” for US customers in Phoenix, Arizona  —  Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (2330.TW) has begun producing advanced four-nanometer chips for U.S. customers in Arizona …

Rest of World: Sources: Foxconn stops sending Chinese employees to iPhone factories in India and recalls already stationed staff, while China stalls equipment shipments  —  In addition, equipment shipments are delayed, potentially disrupting next-generation iPhone production in India.

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  —  Recommending strangers to companies like Microsoft and Nvidia has become a side hustle for enterprising employees  —  Copy, paste, refer.

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  —  When Roy Austin was hired to run a new civil rights team in 2021, the company called it “an incredibly important role for Facebook and for the tech industry.”

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  —  The European Commission (EC) has given the green light for Synopsys to acquire Ansys, though the companies must sell off various software products …