Techmeme
March 12, 2025, 4:28 PM

Top News

Jess Weatherbed / The Verge:
Abner Li / 9to5Google:
Google unveils Gemma 3, the “world's best single-accelerator model”, running on a single GPU, in 1B, 4B, 12B, and 27B sizes, and says it outperforms Llama-405B  —  Following version 1 in February 2024 and 2 in May, Google today announced Gemma 3 as its latest open model for developers.
Emma Roth / The Verge:
Google DeepMind launches two AI models, Gemini 2.0-based Robotics and Robotics-ER, to help robots “perform a wider range of real-world tasks than ever before”  —  Gemini Robotics also makes robots more dexterous, allowing them to perform more precise tasks, like folding a piece of paper.
Annie Palmer / CNBC:
The US FTC asks a judge to delay its case accusing Amazon of deceptive practices with Amazon Prime, citing staffing shortfalls  —  The Federal Trade Commission asked a judge in Seattle to delay the start of its trial accusing Amazon of duping consumers into signing up for its Prime program, citing staffing constraints.
Bloomberg:
Roomba maker iRobot warns of “substantial doubt” over its ability to continue operating, after Amazon abandoned a $1B+ takeover in January 2024; IRBT drops 35%+  —  IRobot Corp., the consumer robotics company that Amazon.com Inc. once planned to buy for more than $1 billion …
Simon Willison / Simon Willison's Weblog:
Thoughts on using LLMs for coding, which can often be difficult and unintuitive, and why “vibe coding” is a fantastic way to explore the capabilities of LLMs  —  Online discussions about using Large Language Models to help write code inevitably produce comments from developers who's experiences have been disappointing.
Bhanvi Satija / Reuters:
Intel appoints former board member Lip-Bu Tan as CEO, effective March 18; INTC jumps 11%+ after hours  —  Struggling U.S. chipmaker Intel (INTC.O) on Wednesday named former board member Lip-Bu Tan as its CEO effective March 18, more than two months after the it ousted company veteran Pat Gelsinger.
More: CNBC, Intel, and Reuters
Financial Times:
Amazon, Google, and Meta join a World Nuclear Association statement, alongside Occidental, Dow, and others, to triple capacity by 2050; Microsoft didn't sign  —  Tech giants join banks in calling for new power stations to meet growing energy demands and combat climate change
Reuters:
Sources: TSMC has pitched Nvidia, AMD, Broadcom, and Qualcomm about taking stakes in a JV to run Intel Foundry; TSMC would hold no more than a 50% stake  —  TSMC (2330.TW) has pitched U.S. chip designers Nvidia (NVDA.O), Advanced Micro Devices (AMD.O) and Broadcom (AVGO.O) …
Tom Warren / The Verge:
Sources: an Xbox-branded Asus handheld may debut this year as part of Microsoft's effort to unify Windows and Xbox into a universal library of Xbox and PC games  —  Microsoft's next-gen Xbox platform is shaping up.  —  Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer warned in November …
Anna Nicolaou / Financial Times:
Katie Deighton / Wall Street Journal:
Food delivery startup Wonder acquires the media company Tastemade, sources say for around $90M, the latest step in its effort to create a mealtime “super app”  —  Wonder CEO Marc Lore hopes the company will one day offer AI-powered autonomous food ordering for all three meals of the day
Jay Peters / The Verge:
Google updates Chrome's extension rules to ban affiliate link injection without user action or benefit, after Honey allegedly stole creators' affiliate revenue  —  Honey was accused of shadily swapping out affiliate links, and now Google has new rules for extensions targeting exactly that.
Olga Kharif / Bloomberg:
Binance says Abu Dhabi's MGX acquired a minority stake for $2B, the first institutional investment in the exchange and MGX's first entry into the crypto  —  Binance said Abu Dhabi's MGX has acquired a minority stake for $2 billion, the first institutional investment in the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange.
Jagmeet Singh / TechCrunch:
India's largest telco Jio Platforms partners with SpaceX to offer Starlink in the country, just hours after rival Airtel announced a similar partnership  —  Jio Platforms, the subsidiary of India's conglomerate Reliance Industries and the country's largest telecom operator …
Chihiro Ishikawa / Nikkei Asia:
BeReal CEO Aymeric Roffe says Japan is now the photo sharing app's second-largest market with over 4.5M MAUs, 83% aged 14 to 27; BeReal has 40M users globally  —  TOKYO — BeReal is eager to expand in Japan's fast-growing and highly engaged market, said its CEO in an interview with Nikkei Asia.

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Earlier Picks

Stephen Totilo / Game File:
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New York Times:
Emma Roth / The Verge: