Techmeme: DealShare, which incentivizes consumers with discounts and cashbacks for sharing deals on products, raises $21M, bringing its total raised to $34M (Manish Singh/TechCrunch)

Top News

Jessica Bursztynsky / CNBC:

Uber's self-driving unit, Advanced Technologies Group, to be acquired by rival Aurora Innovation in a deal valuing ATG at $4B; source: Aurora now valued at $10B — - Self-driving vehicle start-up Aurora is acquiring Uber's Advanced Technologies Group, which works on self-driving technology.

Alan Boyle / GeekWire:

SpaceX's Starlink satellite network wins $885M in federal aid for rural broadband, as part of a $9.2B allocation by FCC to be paid across 180 auction bidders — SpaceX's Starlink satellite network — which relies on hundreds of spacecraft built in Redmond, Wash. — has been awarded $885.5 million …

More: Ars Technica, Federal Communications …, CNBC, Digital Trends, Reuters, Engadget, ZDNet, Wall Street Journal, Mashable, Forbes, TechCrunch, SlashGear, CNET, and The Verge

Tweets: @rossataca, @fcc, @ajitpaifcc, and @carolynporco

Sean Hollister / The Verge:

Google says Stadia users will be able to live stream directly to YouTube starting December 8 — Finally fulfilling its biggest original promise — From the very beginning, Google Stadia and YouTube were supposed to work together — thanks to the magic of cloud computing …

More: Engadget, 9to5Google, Neowin, MakeUseOf, and SlashGear. Tweets: @jaycuthrell

Connie Chan / Andreessen Horowitz:

In a new era of video ushered in by TikTok, real-time interactivity is baked into viewing experiences, which may lead to shifts in education, shopping, and more — Social Strikes Back is a series exploring the next generation of social networks and how they're shaping the future of consumer tech.

More: Andreessen Horowitz, Beyond Search, Andreessen Horowitz, Andreessen Horowitz, Andreessen Horowitz, and Andreessen Horowitz

Tweets: @ohmdee, @a16z, @conniechan, @andrewchen, and @taylorlorenz

Timothy B. Lee / Ars Technica:

A look at Waymo's driverless taxi service, in Phoenix suburb Chandler, which seems to work well but still only offers ~100 rides/week and limits cars to 45 mph — Human drivers are pretty safe, making it hard to prove driverless tech is safer. — Waymo has long kept details …

Tweets: @mhbergen, @binarybits, @binarybits, @binarybits, and @binarybits

Khari Johnson / VentureBeat:

Nvidia researchers have created an augmentation method for training generative adversarial networks that they say enables results with 10 to 20 times less data — Nvidia researchers have created an augmentation method for training generative adversarial networks (GANs) that requires less data.

More: The Official NVIDIA Blog, Engadget, SlashGear, AI News, and Datanami

Kim Lyons / The Verge:

Airbnb launches Airbnb.org for allowing hosts to provide free and discounted stays to refugees, essential workers, and people affected by natural disasters — Hosts on the platform can provide free and discounted stays as in-kind donations — Airbnb is launching a nonprofit to allow …

More: Airbnb Newsroom, PhocusWire, PYMNTS.com, Engadget, and CNET

Tweets: @baxiabhishek, @chrislehane, and @socialkimly

Kristine Owram / Bloomberg:

MicroStrategy, which was the first publicly traded company to invest in bitcoin and, as of Dec. 4, held 40,824 BTC, is raising up to $400M in debt to buy more — MicroStrategy Inc. is doubling down on its Bitcoin bet, saying Monday that it plans to offer $400 million of convertible bonds in order to buy more of the cryptocurrency.

More: MicroStrategy, The Block, coinspeaker.com, The Capital, CryptoGlobe, CoinDesk, Cointelegraph, Decrypt, and Bitcoin Magazine

Tweets: @ldrogen, @thestalwart, @sthenc, @apompliano, and @wallstplayboys

Lizette Chapman / Bloomberg:

Palantir wins a three-year deal worth $44.4M with the FDA to use Palantir software to power drug reviews and inspections, including possible COVID-19 treatments — Palantir Technologies Inc. won a deal with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to help power drug reviews and inspections …

More: Reuters and CNBC

Kyle Wiggers / VentureBeat:

Sydney-based shipping logistics service Shippit says it has raised ~$22M Series B to help fuel its expansion in Southeast Asia — Sydney-based shipping logistics platform Shippit today nabbed AU$30 million (approximately $22 million), bringing its total raised to date to over $31 million.

More: FinSMEs and Tech in Asia

Lawrence Abrams / BleepingComputer:

Sources: a Foxconn facility in Mexico was hit by ransomware in Nov., resulting in website outage and business docs leaked, as the attackers demand a $34M ransom — Foxconn electronics giant suffered a ransomware attack at a Mexican facility over the Thanksgiving weekend …

More: SecurityWeek and Decrypt

Manish Singh / TechCrunch:

DealShare, which incentivizes consumers with discounts and cashbacks for sharing deals on products, raises $21M, bringing its total raised to $34M — DealShare, a startup in India that has built an e-commerce platform for middle and lower income groups of consumers, said on Tuesday …

More: The Economic Times and TechCrunch

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