Techmeme
February 9, 2024, 12:30 PM

Top News

Wall Street Journal:
Sources: Sam Altman is talking to investors, including the UAE government, to raise as much as $5T to $7T for an AI chip project  —  Sam Altman was already trying to lead the development of human-level artificial intelligence.  Now he has another great ambition: raising trillions of dollars …
Reuters:
Sources: Nvidia plans to build a new business unit focused on designing custom chips, including AI chips, for cloud companies; custom chips are a $30B market  —  Nvidia (NVDA.O) is building a new business unit focused on designing bespoke chips for cloud computing firms and others …
Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The Verge:
Ring plans to raise the price of its cheapest subscription by 25% to $5 a month or $50 a year from March 11, 2024  —  In what is fast becoming a trend, another security camera company is raising the price of its subscription plan. … The Basic is Ring's cheapest plan and gives you access …
Steven Sinofsky / @stevesi:
John Walker, a computer programmer and co-founder of 3D design software maker Autodesk, died on February 2 at the age of 75  —  Very sad news on the passing on John Walker, programmer and co-founder of AutoDesk. His contributions to our industry, the rise of the PC, and the modern industrialization of nearly everything were incredibly significant. I thought I would use some of John's own words to show the... [image]
Vera Bergengruen / TIME:
How Palantir embedded itself in the day-to-day work of Ukraine's wartime government in an unprecedented way, as Ukraine becomes a laboratory for military tech  —  Early on the morning of June 1, 2022, Alex Karp, the CEO of the data-analytics firm Palantir Technologies, crossed the border between Poland …
Financial Times:
Carlyle Group agrees to sell UK game publisher Jagex, which develops RuneScape, to CVC Capital, sources say for £900M, after acquiring it in 2021 for $530M+  —  Europe's CVC Capital Partners and US-based Haveli Investments agree to buy ‘RuneScape’ developer
France 24:
Meta removes the Facebook and Instagram accounts of Iran's supreme leader for repeatedly violating its Dangerous Organizations & Individuals policy  —  Meta on Thursday said it had removed the Facebook and Instagram accounts of Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei for violating its content policy.
Sara Fischer / Axios:
Meta says it will not “proactively recommend political content from accounts you don't follow” on Threads, the same policy it uses on Facebook and Instagram  —  Meta will not “proactively recommend political content from accounts you don't follow” on Threads, the company said in a statement provided to Axios.
Cory Weinberg / The Information:
Source: Disney's $1.5B investment in Epic Games will give Disney a 9% stake in Epic at a valuation of $22.5B, down ~29% from its 2022 valuation of $31.5B  —  Disney's $1.5 billion investment in Epic Games values the Fortnite maker at $22.5 billion, a person familiar with the matter said.
William Turton / Wired:
Epik, a domain registrar serving far-right and extremist websites, has been acquired by Registered Agents, whose services allow companies to operate anonymously  —  Known for doing business with far-right extremist websites, Epik has been acquired by a company that specializes in helping businesses keep their operations secret.
Washington Post:
Sources: Meta considers flagging more uses of the term “Zionist” as antisemitic, a move some say could suppress legitimate debate about the Israel-Hamas war  —  Meta could start flagging more uses of the term ‘Zionist’ as antisemitic, a move some say could suppress legitimate debate about the Israel-Gaza war
Jordan Pearson / VICE:
Chris Dixon's book becomes an NYT Best Seller but with a dagger icon denoting bulk orders; a16z and some startups linked to it gave the book to staff and others  —  Motherboard found that firms linked to a16z and general partner Chris Dixon bought numerous copies of his new book promoting cryptocurrencies …

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More News

Shauneen Miranda / Axios:
Alex Weprin / The Hollywood Reporter:
Taylor Soper / GeekWire:
Dean Takahashi / VentureBeat:

Earlier Picks

CNBC:
Thomas Claburn / The Register:
Bill Toulas / BleepingComputer:
Brian Fung / CNN:
David Pierce / The Verge:
Martin Young / Cointelegraph: