Techmeme
February 11, 2025, 12:25 AM

Top News

Wall Street Journal:
Investors led by Elon Musk make an unsolicited $97.4B bid to buy the nonprofit that controls OpenAI, complicating Sam Altman's plans to convert to a for-profit  —  Unsolicited offer complicates Sam Altman's plans to convert OpenAI to a for-profit company — A consortium of investors led …
The Hill:
In response to the $97.4B OpenAI bid, Sam Altman says on X “no thank you but we will buy twitter for $9.74 billion if you want”; Elon Musk replies “swindler”  —  OpenAI CEO and co-founder Sam Altman appeared to shut down a reported offer from an investor group led …
CNBC:
Investors behind the $97.4B OpenAI bid include xAI, Baron Capital, Valor, Atreides, Vy Capital, Joe Lonsdale's 8VC, and an investment vehicle led by Ari Emanuel  —  Elon Musk is leading a group of investors in offering to buy control of OpenAI for $97.4 billion, CNBC confirmed.
Umar Shakir / The Verge:
Kevin Roose / New York Times:
Paris AI summit takeaways: Europe has regulation regrets, AI doomsayers have lost ground, and policymakers can't seem to grasp how soon powerful AI could arrive  —  At times, Kevin Roose writes, it feels like he is watching policymakers on horseback trying to install seatbelts on a passing Lamborghini.
Bloomberg:
Google DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis says DeepSeek's $5.6M training cost claim is “exaggerated and a little bit misleading” and a “fraction of the total cost”  —  DeepSeek Ramps Up Hiring for Arcane AI Field as Ambitions Swell  —  Mistral CEO Plans to Raise More Funds to Back AI Data Center
Matthew Garrahan / Financial Times:
Andrew J. Hawkins / The Verge:
Jagmeet Singh / TechCrunch:
Google brings NotebookLM Plus, its AI research assistant tier with higher usage limits, to Google One AI Premium subscribers, and debuts a 50% student discount  —  Google has expanded NotebookLM Plus, a paid version of its AI-based note-taking and research assistant, to individual users subscribed …
Reuters:
Sources: OpenAI is finalizing its first in-house chip's design in the next few months, to cut its Nvidia reliance, and plans to send it for fabrication at TSMC  —  OpenAI is pushing ahead on its plan to reduce its reliance on Nvidia (NVDA.O) for its chip supply by developing its first generation …
Bloomberg:
Sources: on February 7, DOGE staff gained access to all the CFPB's data systems, which hold potentially competitive info that may be useful to X's payments push  —  Government-efficiency team's initial ‘read-only’ access expanded quickly to encompass closely guarded data, internal emails say
Dan Mangan / CNBC:
An Alabama man pleads guilty in relation to the SIM-swap hack of the US SEC's X account, to falsely claim in January 2024 the agency had approved bitcoin ETFs  —  An Alabama man pleaded guilty Monday in federal court in Washington, D.C., in connection with last year's hack of the U.S. Securities …
Liam Dawe / GamingOnLinux:
Steam creates an ad documentation page highlighting its ban on forcing players to watch ads, saying “developers should not utilize paid ads as a business model”  —  Turns out this was actually already a rule that Valve had (thanks SteamDB).  It was listed on their Pricing page …

Sponsor Posts

Soxton:
Fast, affordable law for startups  —  Soxton automates startup legal so founders can move faster and sleep better.  We handle incorporation, advisor, employment and commercial contracts.  Join the waitlist for early access!
Equals:
Stop vibe coding analytics  —  Equals AI turns questions about your business into auditable spreadsheet models and dashboards.  Build once, iterate for years.
Zoho:
Zoho Mail MCP: Make your inbox work for you  —  Maya is the head of operations at a 500-person B2B software company.  She's sharp, she's busy, and she starts every morning the same way-with her coffee, laptop, inbox.Not to work.
IDrive:
Protecting your Cloud Applications Data  —  Backing up Office 365, Google Workspace, Dropbox & Salesforce data is critical to preventing data loss or corruption, complying with laws and avoiding critical downtime in case of a disaster.

Featured Podcasts

Grit:
Airwallex's Jack Zhang on Fintech, Failure, and Growth
Grit explores what it takes to create, build and scale world-class organizations.
Subscribe to Grit.
Tools and Weapons with Brad Smith:
Connecting the Unconnected: Doreen Bogdan-Martin
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.
Lenny's Podcast:
OpenAI Codex lead on the new shape of product work | Andrew Ambrosino
Interviews with world-class product leaders and growth experts to uncover actionable advice to help you build, launch, and grow your own product.
Subscribe to Lenny's Podcast.
Big Technology Podcast:
Anthropic's Mythos is Back, OpenAI Releases GPT 5.6, Apple's Price Increases
The Big Technology Podcast takes you behind the scenes in the tech world featuring interviews with plugged-in insiders and outside agitators.
Subscribe to Big Technology Podcast.
Hard Fork:
'The Daily' and 'The Opinions': How A.I. Is Changing Loneliness and Taste
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.
Subscribe to Hard Fork.
The Upstarts Podcast:
Writer's May Habib: Building AI Tools For Corporate 'Normal People' The Labs Leave Behind
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.
Subscribe to The Upstarts Podcast.
 

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 12:25 AM ET, February 11, 2025.

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.

More News

The Logic:
Scott Rosenberg / Axios:
Anna Washenko / Engadget:

Earlier Picks

Dominic Chopping / Wall Street Journal:
Kelcee Griffis / Bloomberg: