Techmeme
February 3, 2025, 7:00 PM

Top News

Financial Times:
Analysis: Meta has invested $80B+ in AR and VR since 2014 when it bought Oculus, and is on track to top $100B in 2025  —  Tech group reveals it put $19.9bn into its Reality Labs division, which develops its smart glasses and headsets, last year  —  Meta's total investment in virtual …
Bloomberg:
Trump signs an executive action to form a sovereign wealth fund; Commerce secretary nominee Howard Lutnick says it may 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:
Treasury Sec. Scott Bessent orders the CFPB to stop all rulemaking, communications, litigation, and other activities; in November, Musk called to “Delete CFPB”  —  Search by Topic  —  Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has shut down a wide variety of operations inside …
Musk Watch:
An OPM staffer believes a server Musk's associates installed, with access to federal staff info like SSNs, has not undergone a Privacy Impact Assessment  —  The Musk-connected political hires include two recent high school graduates  —  Several of Elon Musk's associates installed at the Office …
Rochelle Raveendran / CBC News:
In the wake of US tariffs on Canadian goods, the premier of Ontario Doug Ford says he's “ripping up” the province's CA$100M Starlink contract  —  Musk part of President Donald Trump's team that wants to destroy families, Ford says  —  Progressive Conservative Leader Doug Ford is …
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).
Andrew Orr / AppleInsider:
Counterpoint: iPhone 15 led global smartphone sales in 2024, followed by iPhone 15 Pro Max, iPhone 15 Pro, Galaxy A15 5G; global smartphone revenue grew 5% YoY  —  Apple's iPhone 15 led global sales in 2024, with Pro models close behind, as premium device demand drove a revenue rebound.
Cristina Criddle / Financial Times:
Anthropic details Constitutional Classifiers, a system that aims to guard AI models against jailbreaks, monitoring both inputs and outputs for harmful content  —  Leading tech groups including Microsoft and Meta also invest in similar safety systems  —  Artificial intelligence start …
Bloomberg:
The Seoul High Court upholds an earlier decision clearing Samsung Executive Chairman Jay Y. Lee of fraud and stock-rigging, marking a major victory for Samsung  —  - Seoul court upholds Jay Y. Lee's earlier victory on appeal  — The Samsung scion can now focus on turning around the firm
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
Ethan Mollick / One Useful Thing:
OpenAI's Deep Research hands-on: very good at nuanced, complex research, and the first narrow agent to do sophisticated and likely economically valuable work  —  The first narrow agents are here  —  A hint to the future arrived quietly over the weekend.  For a long time …
Anthony Ha / TechCrunch:

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Featured Podcasts

Cheeky Pint:
What comes after smartphones, with Snap CEO Evan Spiegel
Stripe cofounder John Collison interviews founders, builders, and leaders over a pint.
Subscribe to Cheeky Pint.
Lenny's Podcast:
Snapchat CEO: Why distribution has become the most important moat | Evan Spiegel
Interviews with world-class product leaders and growth experts to uncover actionable advice to help you build, launch, and grow your own product.
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Big Technology Podcast:
Apple After Tim Cook, OpenAI's New Mojo, Meta's Internal Tracking Escapade
The Big Technology Podcast takes you behind the scenes in the tech world featuring interviews with plugged-in insiders and outside agitators.
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Hard Fork:
Tim Cook's Legacy + The Future of U.B.I. With Andrew Yang + HatGPT
The future is already here. Each week, journalists Kevin Roose and Casey Newton explore and make sense of the latest in the rapidly changing world of tech.
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The Upstarts Podcast:
Chapter's Cobi Blumenfeld-Gantz: From Palantir To $3B Medicare Disruptor
Veteran tech reporter Alex Konrad sits down with breakout entrepreneurs taking on the status quo to shake up their fields in AI, design, nuclear energy, space, and more.
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Tools and Weapons with Brad Smith:
Ryan Roslansky: Turning AI Anxiety into Skills for the Future of Work
Microsoft Vice Chair and President Brad Smith speaks with leaders in government, business, and culture to explore the most critical challenges at the intersection of technology and society.
Subscribe to Tools and Weapons with Brad Smith.
 

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More News

Samantha Subin / CNBC:
Monique Mulima / Bloomberg:
Jess Weatherbed / The Verge:

Earlier Picks

Noam Scheiber / New York Times:
Hayden Field / CNBC: