Techmeme
July 8, 2025, 9:50 PM

Top News

Mark Gurman / Bloomberg:
Apple says COO Jeff Williams will retire later this year, and Sabih Khan, Apple's SVP of Operations, will take over much of his role later this month  —  Apple Inc. Chief Operating Officer Jeff Williams is retiring as the company's longtime No. 2, marking a major changing of the guard at an already tumultuous time for the iPhone maker.
Chance Miller / 9to5Mac:
Apple says its design team will report to Tim Cook after Jeff Williams retires; Williams was overseeing the team following Evans Hankey's departure in 2023  —  Apple today announced that COO Jeff Williams will retire later this year, with Sabih Khan set to assume the COO role later this month.
NBC News:
Washington Post:
Sources: an impostor used AI to mimic Marco Rubio's voice and writing style and contacted foreign ministers, a US governor, and a member of Congress  —  The unknown individual contacted at least five government officials, including three foreign ministers, a U.S. governor and a member of Congress, according to a State Department cable.
Bloomberg:
Sources: Meta has bought under 3% of Ray-Ban maker EssilorLuxottica, a stake worth ~€3B, and is considering further investment that could build the stake to ~5%  —  Facebook parent Meta acquired just under 3% of Ray-Ban maker EssilorLuxottica, a stake worth around €3 billion …
Jody Godoy / Reuters:
A US appeals court blocks the FTC's “click-to-cancel” rule that would have taken effect on July 14, saying it didn't conduct a preliminary cost-benefit analysis  —  A U.S. appeals court blocked a rule that would have required businesses to make it as easy to cancel subscriptions …
Natasha Singer / New York Times:
The American Federation of Teachers, the second-largest US teachers' union, says it will open an AI training hub with $23M from Microsoft, OpenAI, and Anthropic  —  The American Federation of Teachers said it would use the $23 million, including $500,000 from the A.I. start-up Anthropic, to create a national training center.
Anton Shilov / Tom's Hardware:
GlobalFoundries agrees to acquire MIPS, a developer of RISC-V-based solutions and IP, with the deal expected to close in H2 2025  —  For an unknown sum.  —  GlobalFoundries announced on Tuesday that it had entered into a definitive agreement to acquire MIPS, a developer of RISC-V-based solutions and IP.
Wired:
Internal Slack message: OpenAI has hired four high-profile engineers from Tesla, xAI, and Meta, including David Lau, former VP of software engineering at Tesla  —  The new hires are joining OpenAI's scaling team, according to an internal Slack message sent by cofounder Greg Brockman.
Financial Times:
Italy arrests Chinese citizen Xu Zewei; a source says Xu is linked to hacking group Hafnium that breached Microsoft in 2021 to steal COVID-19 vaccine secrets  —  Xu Zewei suspected of links to Beijing-backed group accused by Washington of stealing Covid-19 vaccine secrets
Jack Ryan / Bloomberg:
El Salvador-based Tether says it holds nearly 80 tons of gold, worth ~$8B, in a vault in Switzerland; precious metals made up nearly 5% of its reserves in March  —  Tether Holdings SA, the issuer of the world's largest stablecoin, has its own vault in Switzerland to hold an $8 billion stockpile of gold …
Niket Nishant / Reuters:
ReserveOne, a cryptocurrency holding company with bitcoin, ethereum, and Solana, plans to list on the Nasdaq through a SPAC deal expected to raise $1B+  —  ReserveOne, a new cryptocurrency holding company with ties to industry veterans and a former U.S. commerce secretary …
Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai / TechCrunch:
Source: Activision pulled Call of Duty: WWII after hackers exploited a flaw in a PC version, which led to some players getting their computers hacked  —  Games giant Activision took down Call of Duty: WWII due to hackers exploiting a flaw in a specific PC version of the game …
More: Stevivor and Eurogamer.net
Bluesky: @quinnypig.com and @lorenzofb
Forums: r/technology and Slashdot
Andrew J. Hawkins / The Verge:
Waymo introduces teen accounts in Phoenix, allowing teenagers aged 14-17 to use its Waymo One ridehailing service alone with parental approval  —  The robotaxi company is betting parents will trust its technology enough to allow their kids to ride unaccompanied.

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Stephen Nellis / Reuters:
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Richard Lawler / The Verge:
Spencer Soper / Bloomberg:
Financial Times: