Techmeme
March 18, 2025, 11:40 AM

Top News

The Verge:
Google acquires NYC-based cybersecurity startup Wiz for $32B in cash, its largest acquisition yet, pending approval; antitrust fears stalled a $23B deal in 2024  —  The acquisition is Alphabet's biggest yet, after a $23 billion takeover attempt stalled last year.
More: The Keyword, Wiz Blog, The Guardian, Bloomberg, Reuters, Financial Times, Crunchbase News, The Economic Times, CyberScoop, Business Insider, Thurrott, Associated Press, PYMNTS.com, Google Cloud Blog, The Record, CNN, Benzinga, 9to5Google, CSO, SC Media, Reuters, Financial Times, Axios, New York Times, SiliconANGLE, TechCrunch, CTech, Quartz, Fortune, The Hacker News, The Wrap, Proactive, Nairametrics, Infosecurity, Constellation Research, The Information, TechRadar, Android Headlines, Fortune, Reuters, Wall Street Pit, Sherwood News, from ITPro in, Security Boulevard, Tomasz Tunguz, The Independent, WinBuzzer, CSO, CNBC, TechCrunch, Finance Magnates, Channel NewsAsia, TheCable, Cyber Security News, Yahoo Finance, Reuters, Jerusalem Post, Channel NewsAsia, Yahoo Finance, CRN, The Times, Silicon Valley Business …, Capital Brief, Ynetnews, The Verge, Investor's Business Daily, CTech, TipRanks Financial, Proactive, StrictlyVC, Financial Express, Verdict, Tech in Asia, Patently Apple, TipRanks Financial, The Cyber Express, Benzinga, PYMNTS.com, en.ain.ua, Barron's Online, Moneycontrol, Wall Street Journal, Deccan Herald, BelfastTelegraph.co.uk, and Columbian
Andrew Martin / Bloomberg:
New York Times:
Starlink is now accessible across the White House campus, which already has fiber cables, after SpaceX “donated” the service, as some cite security concerns  —  Trump administration officials said the company donated the internet service, saying the gift had been vetted …
Scharon Harding / Ars Technica:
Some owners of smart TVs and streaming sticks with Roku OS report seeing autoplaying video ads before they can use the home screen; Roku says it is just a test  —  Now, Roku is testing what it might look like if it took things a step further and forced people to watch a video ad play before getting to the Roku OS home screen.
Rajesh Pandey / Android Police:
Ahead of the Pixel 9a's rumored March 19 debut, a YouTuber posts a video of the alleged phone, showing a flat rear panel, minimal camera bump, and large bezels  —  - Detailed Pixel 9a unboxing and hands-on videos have been published on YouTube.  — One YouTuber has put the phone through its paces …
Bill Toulas / BleepingComputer:
Attackers are actively exploiting a critical Apache Tomcat RCE flaw to take over servers with a PUT request; Wallarm: the attack “requires no authentication”  —  A critical remote code execution (RCE) vulnerability in Apache Tomcat tracked as CVE-2025-24813 is actively exploited in the wild …
Timmy Shen / The Block:
Solana deletes a social media video ad promoting its NYC conference in May 2025 after the crypto community criticized it for insensitivity towards gender issues  —  - Solana posted a video ad on social media on Monday to promote its upcoming conference, but it was removed hours later.
Kyle Wiggers / TechCrunch:
Mark Zuckerberg says Meta's Llama models have been downloaded 1B times since their 2023 debut, up from 650M downloads in early December 2024  —  In a brief message Tuesday morning on Threads, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said the company's “open” AI model family, Llama, hit 1 billion downloads.
Todd Spangler / Variety:
In an open letter to the OSTP, Ben Stiller and 400+ Hollywood creatives urge President Trump to not let Google, OpenAI, and others “exploit” copyrighted works  —  More than 400 Hollywood creative leaders signed an open letter to the Trump White House's Office of Science and Technology Policy …
Bloomberg:
Tencent releases five AI tools that turn text or images into 3D visuals and graphics, based on Hunyuan3D-2.0, and plans to integrate DeepSeek's R1 into WeChat  —  Tencent's five new 3D-content generators are built atop its Hunyuan3D-2.0 model, all of which it intends to open-source to users, the company said in a statement.
More: Reuters
Bert Hubert's writings:
A look at Europe's options and potential issues to get a “European Cloud”, which is likely to be more difficult to build than the €15B Galileo satellite system  —  The very short version: It has now become clear that European governments can no longer rely on American clouds …
New York Times:
Since Xi Jinping met DeepSeek founder Liang Wenfeng in February, Chinese officials have been racing to show they use its tech, like in courthouses and hospitals  —  Government bodies nationwide have been eager to show they are using DeepSeek's A.I. technology since the company's founder met with Xi Jinping, China's leader.
Bluesky: @hargreaves-s
Nikkei Asia:
PitchBook: China led Asia with 715 AI VC deals in 2024, totaling $7.3B, South Korea followed with 308 deals worth $1.8B, and India with 306 deals totaling $1.7B  —  India emerges as Asia's No. 2 market for artificial intelligence dealmaking  —  PALO ALTO, California …

Sponsor Posts

Airtable:
Deep analysis for deep questions  —  Introducing Superagent.  A new research product from Airtable: Subagents deeply interrogate your topic and turn it into boardroom-ready reports, slides, docs, or websites.
Clay:
Turn any GTM idea into reality  —  Clay helps GTM teams combine AI agents, enrichment, and intent data to move faster and turn insights into action.
Zoho:
5 ways a custom email domain and SMTP improve your Zoho Sign experience  —  Every interaction your audience has with your brand tells a story, sometimes in ways that are subtle but incredibly meaningful.
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

Hard Fork:
The Pentagon vs. Anthropic + An A.I. Agent Slandered Me + Hot Mess Express
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:
Loyal's Celine Halioua: From Defying Doubters To Pioneering Dog Longevity
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.
Access:
Notion CEO Ivan Zhao on if AI is really killing software companies
A show about the tech industry's inside conversation, hosted by tech reporter Alex Heath and founder whisperer Ellis Hamburger.
Subscribe to Access.
Lenny's Podcast:
Head of Claude Code: What happens after coding is solved | Boris Cherny
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.
The Nick, Dick and Paul Show:
Davos: Burning Man for the Rich?
Nick Bilton, Dick Costolo, and Paul Kedrosky pull back the curtain on AI, startups, and the future rushing toward us, all with healthy dose of irreverence.
Subscribe to The Nick, Dick and Paul Show.
Tools and Weapons with Brad Smith:
His Excellency Khaldoon Al Mubarak: Investing in an AI-Driven World
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.
 

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 11:40 AM ET, March 18, 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

Emma Roth / The Verge:

Earlier Picks

Zhiye Liu / Tom's Hardware:
Andrew Liszewski / The Verge:
Michael Nuñez / VentureBeat:
The Information:
Mike Pastore / Search Engine Land:
Kyle Wiggers / TechCrunch:
Jay Peters / The Verge: