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June 18, 2025, 2:30 AM
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MacKenzie Sigalos / CNBC:
The US Senate passes the GENIUS Act, which establishes a regulatory framework for stablecoins; the bill now heads to the House  —  The Senate on Tuesday passed the GENIUS Act, a landmark bill that for the first time establishes federal guardrails for U.S. dollar-pegged stablecoins and creates …
Steve Kopack / NBC News:
Amazon CEO Andy Jassy says the company expects that in the next few years AI “will reduce our total corporate workforce as we get efficiency gains”  —  Amazon CEO Andy Jassy says the retail and tech giant “will need fewer people doing some of the jobs that are being done today.”
CNN:
President Trump plans to sign an executive order this week to grant TikTok a 90-day extension in enforcement of the sale-or-ban law, marking his third extension  —  New York CNN —  —  TikTok just got another lifeline from the White House, with President Donald Trump set to delay enforcement …
Bloomberg:
Sources: xAI is burning through $1B/month and expects to burn through ~$13B in 2025; revenues are expected to be just $500M this year, rising to $2B+ next year  —  Elon Musk's artificial intelligence startup xAI is burning through $1 billion a month as the cost of building …
Bloomberg:
Sources: xAI is in talks to raise $4.3B via an equity investment on top of the $5B in debt it's trying to borrow; of its previously raised $14B, it has $4B left
Kevin Collier / NBC News:
The Iranian government says it has restricted internet access in response to Israeli cyberattacks; some Western communication apps have reportedly been blocked  —  The connectivity drop appears to be a result of a decision by Iran's government, rather than due to Israeli strikes on infrastructure.
Matt Kapko / CyberScoop:
A cyberattack claimed by the pro-Israel hacktivist group Predatory Sparrow has reportedly disrupted services at Iran's state-owned Bank Sepah  —  The attack introduces a clear cyber element with immediate consequences for the country's critical infrastructure amid a growing conflict between Israel and Iran.
Maxwell Zeff / TechCrunch:
On a podcast, Sam Altman said Meta made “giant offers to a lot of people on our team...like, $100M signing bonuses”, and “none of our best people” have accepted  —  Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has been on something of a hiring spree lately, trying to staff up Meta's …
Tulsee Doshi / The Keyword:
Google makes Gemini 2.5 Flash and Pro generally available and introduces 2.5 Flash-Lite, which it says is its most cost-efficient and fastest 2.5 model yet  —  Gemini 2.5 Flash and Pro are now generally available, and we're introducing 2.5 Flash-Lite, our most cost-efficient and fastest 2.5 model yet.
Bob Van Voris / Bloomberg:
X sues New York, claiming a law requiring social media companies to disclose how they deal with hate speech and disinformation violates the US Constitution  —  Elon Musk's X Corp. sued the state of New York claiming a law requiring social media companies to disclose how they deal with hate speech …
CNBC:
Sources: Meta and EssilorLuxottica plan AI-powered smart glasses under Oakley and Prada brands; they will be aimed at athletes, and the Oakleys may cost ~$360  —  Meta and EssilorLuxottica plan to release versions of their AI-powered smart glasses under the Oakley and Prada brands, CNBC has learned.
Jez Corden / Windows Central:
Microsoft and AMD announce a “strategic, multi-year partnership” to design custom silicon for a number of devices, including next-generation Xbox consoles  —  Xbox President Sarah Bond shared an update on Xbox consoles today, confirming their ongoing partnership with AMD for first-party hardware …
Blake Brittain / Reuters:
US appeals court rules in Apple's favor by throwing out a $300M verdict that found it infringed on Optis' wireless tech patents, sending the case to a new trial  —  Apple (AAPL.O) has convinced a U.S. appeals court to throw out a $300 million verdict by a jury that found …
Andrew J. Hawkins / The Verge:
Waymo expands its coverage area in San Francisco and LA by 80 square miles each, bringing its total coverage area in California to 250 square miles  —  The company's robotaxis are now operating across 250 square miles of San Francisco and Los Angeles.
Aisha Malik / TechCrunch:
Facebook renames its Videos tab as the Reels tab and says all videos on its platform will soon be shared as reels, regardless of their length or orientation  —  Facebook announced on Tuesday that all videos on its platform will soon be shared as reels, regardless of their length or orientation.
Ryan Christoffel / 9to5Mac:
Apple's Journal app is coming to iPad and Mac in iPadOS 26 and macOS Tahoe and gains features like multiple journals, map view, inline images, and more  —  Apple's Journal app is coming to the iPad and Mac as part of iPadOS 26 and macOS Tahoe, and several brand new features will be included too—even on iPhone.
More: How-To Geek and TechRadar.  Forums: r/apple
Reuters:
Bitmain, Canaan and MicroBT, which build 90%+ of crypto mining rigs, are setting up US manufacturing footholds as Trump's tariff war reshapes the supply chain  —  The world's three best-selling makers of bitcoin mining machines - all of Chinese origin - are setting up manufacturing footholds …
Michelle Kim / Rest of World:
Ten current and former Samsung semiconductor engineers say many are leaving for SK Hynix and other rivals due to long hours, heavy workloads, and lower bonuses  —  Scarred by long hours, low pay, and a hostile work culture, many chip workers are leaving for competitors, including American companies.
Jaewon Kang / Bloomberg:
How Walmart plans to leverage its $2.3B Vizio acquisition to push shoppable TV experiences; Walmart's ad business had just $4.4B of sales in FY 2025  —  Walmart Inc. is working toward a future where consumers can buy items while watching their television shows, a strategy retailers have long tried to implement as a way to boost sales.
More: PYMNTS.com
Financial Times:
Sources: lobbyists for Amazon, Google, Microsoft, and Meta back a campaign for a 10-year US state AI regulation ban, a move dividing the AI industry and the GOP  —  Call by Amazon, Google and Microsoft lobbyists for a ‘moratorium’ has split industry and the Republican party
More: The Hill
Marc Vartabedian / Wall Street Journal:
Pano AI, which uses AI and computer vision to offer active wildfire detection, raised a $44M Series B led by Giant Ventures, bringing its total funding to $89M  —  Pano AI's fundraising signals investor willingness to back startups that rely in part on government entities for revenue
More: Salesforce Ventures and Pano AI
Bluesky: @prietschka.  X: @salesforcevc.  LinkedIn: Abe Yokell and Garry Tan

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About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 2:30 AM ET, June 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.

From Mediagazer

Benjamin Mullin / New York Times:
Arkansas PBS severs ties with the PBS network, the first state public TV system to do so since Congress cut CPB funds, citing the annual $2M+ membership cost

Sam Roberts / New York Times:
Arthur L. Carter, who started a Connecticut newspaper in 1981, bought and sold The Nation, and founded the New York Observer in 1987, has died at 93

Pamela McClintock / The Hollywood Reporter:
Disney's Zootopia 2 surpasses $1B at the global box office, the fastest PG-rated film to do so after just 17 days in release

More News

Ted Johnson / Deadline:
The US Senate confirms Olivia Trusty to the FCC, giving Republicans a 2-1 majority after the recent departures of two members
David Pierce / The Verge:
Threads launches a fediverse feed and a way to search for fediverse users, with support for Mastodon and others, for users who turned on fediverse sharing
Brody Ford / Bloomberg:
Salesforce says it will increase prices on many products in August, including Slack; major product lines will see a 6% increase on average

Earlier Picks

Katie Roof / Bloomberg:
Self-driving simulation software maker Applied Intuition raised $600M co-led by BlackRock and Kleiner Perkins at a $15B valuation, up from $6B in March 2024
John Koblin / New York Times:
Nielsen: in May, Americans watched more TV on streaming than on cable and broadcast networks combined, the first time streaming was king of TV over a full month
Bloomberg:
Shanghai-based MiniMax open sources MiniMax-M1, a model for complicated productivity tasks that supports 1M input tokens and it says beats DeepSeek's R1-0528
Cameron Faulkner / The Verge:
Amazon plans to hold Prime Day 2025 from July 8 at 12:01am PT through July 11, lasting four days instead of the usual two and exclusive to Prime subscribers
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