Techmeme
February 3, 2025, 9:45 PM

Top News

Bloomberg:
Donald Trump signs an executive action to direct officials to create a US sovereign wealth fund and says that it could be used to facilitate a sale of TikTok US  —  - Fund could be used as US facilitates TikTok sale, Lutnick says  — Bessent says fund will be created in the next 12 months
Evan Weinberger / Bloomberg Law:
US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent orders the CFPB to stop activities, like rulemaking, communications, and litigation; in November, Musk said to “Delete CFPB”  —  Search by Topic  —  Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has shut down a wide variety of operations inside …
CBC News:
Ontario Premier Doug Ford pauses retaliatory measures like “ripping up” the province's CA$100M Starlink contract, after Donald Trump delays US tariffs on Canada  —  Retaliatory measures included ‘ripping up’ Starlink contract, taking American booze of LCBO shelves
Financial Times:
The US' largest companies, like Visa, United, Amazon, Apple, and Oracle, are cutting deals with Elon Musk's businesses as he solidifies his power in government  —  Companies from Boeing to Amazon have sought out the world's richest man as he seeks to remake US government
Makena Kelly / Wired:
Sources: Thomas Shedd, GSA's new Technology Transformation Services director and Elon Musk ally, told GSA workers the agency will pursue an “AI-first strategy”  —  Sources say the former Tesla engineer now in charge of the Technology Transformation Services wants an agency that operates like a “startup software company.”
Musk Watch:
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
The first ever native iPhone porn app, Hot Tub, arrives in the EU via the alternative app store AltStore PAL, which was made possible by the DMA  —  A native pornography app for iOS is coming to the EU via the approved alternative app store AltStore PAL, made possible by Europe's Digital Markets Act (DMA).
Bloomberg:
A US appeals court panel appeared skeptical of Google's bid to overturn a 2023 jury verdict that declared the Play Store an illegal monopoly in the Epic case  —  - Jury ruled Google violated antitrust law by restricting apps  — Google argues case shouldn't have been decided by jury
Samantha Subin / CNBC:
Palantir reports Q4 revenue up 36% YoY to $828M, vs. $776M est., and US commercial revenue up 64% YoY; PLTR, which soared 340% in 2024, jumps 20%+ after hours  —  Palantir shares surged as much as 23% in extended trading on Monday after the software company reported fourth-quarter earnings …
Umar Shakir / The Verge:
Cristina Criddle / Financial Times:
Anthropic details Constitutional Classifiers, a protective LLM layer designed to stop AI model jailbreaking by monitoring inputs and outputs for harmful content  —  Leading tech groups including Microsoft and Meta also invest in similar safety systems  —  Artificial intelligence start …
Kelcee Griffis / Bloomberg:
Sources: the Trump admin plans to nominate Arielle Roth, a critic of Biden's $42.5B broadband infrastructure plan, to lead the NTIA, which oversees the project  —  - Senate staffer Arielle Roth is said in line for Commerce post  — She'll oversee Broadband Equity Access and Deployment Program
Ethan Mollick / One Useful Thing:
Anthony Ha / TechCrunch:
Ben Bergman / Business Insider:
Dick Kramlich, who co-founded NEA in 1977, died on February 1 at age 89; he was an early investor in Apple and led investments in Juniper Networks and others  —  - Richard “Dick” Kramlich made one of the earliest investments in Apple.  — He cofounded NEA in 1977, which now has nearly $26 billion in assets under management.

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More News

Andrew Orr / AppleInsider:
Jess Weatherbed / The Verge:

Earlier Picks

Financial Times:
More: Bloomberg and XR Today
Threads: @cjgultekin_X: @tanarrowz and @scobleizerLinkedIn: David Gene Oh
Noam Scheiber / New York Times:
Hayden Field / CNBC: