Techmeme: Source: Magic Leap raised $450M in 2022, across $150M in equity and $300M in debt, giving Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund majority control of the company (Matthew Field/Telegraph)

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December 27, 2022, 3:46 AM

Top News

Faiz Siddiqui / Washington Post:

Former Twitter employees and people in Elon Musk's orbit detail his erratic leadership; Musk wanted “full access” for Bari Weiss, which staff refused to grant — Musk's intense focus on his social media company purchase has devolved into the culture wars. Meanwhile, Tesla is tanking.

Tim Higgins / Wall Street Journal:

How Elon Musk's finances got more complicated as TSLA dropped 65%+ in 2022, shrinking his borrowing power and his fortune from an estimated $340B peak to $140B — Billionaire's borrowing power has shrunk with Tesla share decline — Elon Musk's Unconventional Management Style: Former Employees Share Stories

More: Insider, The Tech Fuelled Investor, Livemint, Gizchina, Coinmonks, Watcher Guru, Observer, and Newser

Tweets: @techwontsaveus, @jimpethokoukis, @ryanbethencourt, @brian_henderson, and @peterbakernyt

Freddy Brewster / Los Angeles Times:

FOIA emails detail Sam Bankman-Fried's courtship of US federal regulators, including hiring former regulators and dining with ex-CFTC Commissioner Dan Berkovitz — Before his mid-December arrest, cryptocurrency billionaire Sam Bankman-Fried repeatedly claimed that he was a responsible business leader …

More: Reuters, Yahoo Finance, and Insider

Tweets: @denniskelleher, @bitboy_crypto, @foiafeed, @attorneyjeremy1, @jeffbercovici, @nkulw, @markamesexiled, @denniskelleher, and @johnlothian

Timmy Shen / Forkast:

IntoTheBlock: the Bitcoin network hash rate fell by 38.8%+ on December 24 from its December 21 peak as many US-based miners paused operations due to blizzards — The Bitcoin network hashrate has dropped by more than 38.8% from its peak on Wednesday, as many U.S.-based miners have been forced …

More: CoinDesk, The Block, Cryptopolitan, Bitcoinist.com, Decrypt, Cointelegraph, Bitcoin News, and crypto.news

Mastodon: @carnage4life@mas.to. Tweets: @lopp and @peterktodd

Jaran Mellerud / Hashrate Index:

Analysis: publicly listed bitcoin mining companies collectively owe $4B+, led by bankrupt Core Scientific with $1.3B as of September 30 and Marathon with $851M

More: The Block, Watcher Guru, and CryptoSlate

Thomas Claburn / The Register:

Stanford study: programmers who used AI tools like GitHub Copilot to solve a set of coding challenges produced less secure code than those who did not — At the same time, tools like Github Copilot and Facebook InCoder make developers believe their code is sound

More: arXiv and WinBuzzer

Mastodon: @carnage4life@mas.to. Tweets: @divergencearran, @timmisiak, and @weldpond

Omer Benjakob / Haaretz:

A look at Tel Aviv-based Toka, which helps governments, intelligence agencies, and law enforcement hack security cameras to alter live feeds and past recordings — Meet Toka, the Israeli cyber firm founded by Ehud Barak, that lets clients hack cameras and change their feeds - just like in Hollywood heist movies

Tweets: @haaretzcom, @spyblog, @haaretzcom, @haaretzcom, @omerbenj, @marwasf, @omerbenj, and @evacide

Matthew Field / Telegraph:

Source: Magic Leap raised $450M in 2022, across $150M in equity and $300M in debt, giving Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund majority control of the company — Saudi Arabia has taken control of US augmented reality company Magic Leap, The Telegraph can reveal, as the company taps up investors for a further $450m.

More: The Information. Mastodon: @caseynewton@mastodon.social. Tweets: @ballmatthew. Thanks:@matthfield

Qianer Liu / Financial Times:

Experts say Hua Hong, China's second-largest chip foundry, is barely affected by US sanctions and its focus on older chips could make it Beijing's new favorite — US restrictions on advanced tech help foundry benefit from Beijing's shifting view of the semiconductor supply chain

Justin Garrison / Justin Garrison:

Stack Overflow's 2022 Developer Survey: 40.2% use a Linux-based system, up from 25.3% in 2021 and 23.2% in 2018, compared to 62.3% for Windows and 31.1% for Mac — Thanks to the 2022 StackOverflow developer survey we can finally say 2022 was the year of Linux on the Desktop!

More: WebProNews, Stack Overflow, and Slashdot

Tweets: @thom_wolf, @sspaeti, @akien, @akien, @akien, @akien, @cfkschaller, @rothgar, and @shomikghosh21

Patrick McGee / Financial Times:

Experts warn of a months-long disruption risk to Apple's iPhone production, operations, and Chinese consumer demand caused by China's latest COVID-19 wave — Supply chain experts warn outbreak following reversal of zero-Covid curbs creates uncertainty for iPhone maker

More: Techaeris, iPhone in Canada Blog, iMore, Gizchina, Bloomberg, International Business Times, SiliconANGLE, Nikkei Asia, Philip Elmer‑DeWitt, iLounge, New York Times, and The Register

Mastodon: @carnage4life@mas.to. Tweets: @barrypavel, @levinepmc, @dnystedt, @catherinemary0, @aadilbrar, @finestyew, @danharris, and @patrickmcgee_

Anton Shilov / Tom's Hardware:

Jon Peddie Research: there are 18 companies globally developing and producing GPUs; eight out of the 11 PC and data center GPU designers are based in China — There are 18 GPU developers worldwide today. — The number of GPU startups in China is extraordinary as the country tries …

More: The Windows Club and Business Wire

Bloomberg:

A profile of Senegal-based Wave, Francophone West Africa's only unicorn and the first non-telco, non-bank offering mobile money services in eight countries — Mobile money agents in Ivory Coast halted service for Wave Mobile Money Inc. few weeks ago, in an attempt to stymie the growth …

Tweets: @diopfode

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The most current version of the site as always is available at our home page. To view an earlier snapshot click here and then modify the date indicated.

From Mediagazer

Alex Ritman / Variety:

In Channel 4's 2025 Alternative Christmas Message, Jimmy Kimmel said “tyranny is booming” in the US and, on his ABC suspension, “We won, the president lost”

Todd Spangler / Variety:

Trump says Stephen Colbert is a “pathetic trainwreck” and “CBS should, ‘put him to sleep,’ NOW”, after CBS aired a Late Show rerun in which Colbert mocked Trump

Rebecca Rubin / Variety:

Disney crosses the $6B milestone at the box office for the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic; no other studio has managed to reach $6B since 2015

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More News

Catherine Shu / TechCrunch:

Jakarta-based Akulaku, a digital banking startup which offers a virtual credit card, neobank, and more, raised $200M from Japan's Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group

More: Channel NewsAsia and Reuters

Shelby Brown / CNET:

Q&A with Apple App Store Vice President Matt Fischer on Apple Arcade's inception, its lack of a flagship exclusive game, approaching game developers, and more

Tweets: @steven_aquino, @cnet, and @shelbybrown91

Iris Deng / South China Morning Post:

Chinese government data for January to October 2022 shows domestic smartphone shipments fell 22% YoY from 275.3M to 214.5M units

More: Firstpost Tech, PingWest, and Reuters

Ben Hunte / VICE:

A look at the Central African Republic's decision to adopt bitcoin as legal tender in April 2022 and launch a half-baked “Sangocoin” cryptocurrency in July 2022

More: Reuters, Cointelegraph, BeInCrypto, and CoinGeek

Mastodon: @deivudesu@mastodon.social. Tweets: @cfr_org and @viceworldnews

Financial Times:

Internal memo: Xiaomi President Wang Xiang and co-founders Hong Feng and Wang Chuan step down, as the company battles slowing sales from COVID-19 disruptions

More: Bloomberg and Sammy Fans. Tweets: @baxiabhishek

Dhruv Mehrotra / Wired:

A look at Flipper Zero, a $200 portable security penetration testing device for hackers to intercept and replay signals from IoT sensors, garage doors, and more

Mastodon: @carnage4life@mas.to

Jennifer Conrad / Wired:

Q&A with author and labor lawyer Orly Lobel on AI's ability to help mitigate human biases in hiring and compensation, privacy regulation trade-offs, and more

Tweets: @wired and @jenniferconrad

Earlier Picks

Shen Lu / Wall Street Journal:

Sensor Tower: Pinduoduo's marketplace Temu app had 10.8M US installations since September 1 and became the most downloaded US app from November 1 to December 14

More: The PhilaVerse. Tweets: @jchengwsj, @jchengwsj, @shenlulushen, and @timcohn

Ricardo Cano / San Francisco Chronicle:

A new California law effectively bans dealers and carmakers like Tesla from “deceptively naming or marketing” semi-autonomous vehicles as full self-driving

More: TESLARATI, PCMag, Security Boulevard, and Notebookcheck.net

Mastodon: @carnage4life@mas.to. Tweets: @chuckbaggett, @sfchronicle, @wholemarsblog, @scottmoura, @jacktwhitlock, and @sfchronicle

CyberScoop:

Current and former CISA employees and sources detail an agency that lacks a clearly defined strategic direction and whose leadership seems more focused on PR

Tweets: @igpalert, @kellymnyc, @mariambaksh, @mikebfarrell, @dcuthbert, @tarah, and @mideastxmidwest

Simon Hill / Wired:

A look at XRAI Glass, an Android app for the deaf and hard of hearing that can caption real-life conversations when paired with the $379 Nreal Air AR glasses

More: Weekly Metaverse. Tweets: @wired

Martin Matishak / The Record:

Joe Biden signs into law an $858B defense policy bill conferring more power and obligations on US Cyber Command, such as offensive operations on foreign powers

More: Crowdfund Insider, The White House, Reuters, CHINAdaily, CNN, Axios, Nikkei Asia, Reuters, Politico, and FedScoop

Amanda Hoover / Wired:

Mastodon's decentralized nature raises concerns about the legal risks for users hosting instances, which must comply with copyright and privacy laws globally

More: George Dillard, Memex 1.1, Livemint, The Economic Times, Insider, and Phandroid

Mastodon: @philshapiro@mastodon.social and @arainert@mastodon.social

Tweets: @doctorow and @eff

Kenneth Li / Reuters:

Twitter restores a feature that promotes suicide prevention hotlines and other safety resources, after removing it reportedly following Elon Musk's order

More: BGR India, The Guardian, Insider, Livemint, Engadget, Neowin, New York Post, Micky, Reuters, and BetaNews

Tweets: @ajpennyfarthing, @elonmusk, @malpern, @annecollier, @janlindyjames, @alexwgoldenberg, @elonmusk, @kwilsonmg, @tomcoates, @joshraby, @jasonleopold, @skwrlz, @jamesrbuk, @jacobtwop, @dukestjournal, @bestofdyingtwit, and @martinsfp