Techmeme
August 4, 2025, 6:35 AM

Top News

Noah Smith / Noahpinion:
A look at why the AI data center building boom could spark a financial crisis akin to 2008, including the rising use of debt financing via private credit funds  —  This time let's think about a financial crisis before it happens.  —  The U.S. economic data for the last few months is looking decidedly meh.
Paul Kedrosky:
As a percentage of US GDP, AI datacenter capex is already larger than peak telecom spending during the dot-com era and is approaching the railroad spending boom  —  AI capex is so big that it's affecting economic statistics, boosting the economy, and beginning to approach the railroad boom
Dan Milmo / The Guardian:
The UK Online Safety Act's approach to keeping children safe online has become a rallying point for the right in the UK and the US over alleged censorship  —  Farage accuses government of being ‘so below the belt’ as right wing doubles down on censorship claims  —  The UK's Online Safety Act has been greatly anticipated.
Lu Wang / Bloomberg:
A study finds that AI trading bots can collude and fix prices in simulated markets without explicit instruction, posing challenges to regulators  —  It's a regulator's nightmare: Hedge funds unleash AI bots on stock and bond exchanges — but they don't just compete, they collude.
Mark Gurman / Bloomberg:
Sources: Apple formed an Answers, Knowledge, and Information team to work on ChatGPT-like search experiences; iPhone 17 Pro may have been seen in live testing  —  Apple has a new “Answers” team developing a stripped-down rival to ChatGPT to help users access world knowledge.
Jordan Novet / CNBC:
A profile of Figma CEO Dylan Field, a former Thiel fellow whose Figma stake is worth ~$6.6B after the company ended its NYSE debut week with a $71B+ market cap  —  Mark Zuckerberg may be the most famous college-dropout-turned-tech- billionaire.  Dylan Field is the latest …
Antonio G. Di Benedetto / The Verge:
Lenovo ThinkBook Plus Gen 6 review: a unique $3,300 laptop with a rollable 120Hz OLED display that can grow from 14" to 16.7", but it is heavy and expensive  —  Part of me still can't believe it, but Lenovo did the thing: it took a bonkers concept for a laptop with a rollable screen and built …
More: TechCityForums: Hacker News
Sheera Frenkel / New York Times:
Google, OpenAI, Meta, and VCs are increasingly embracing the US military industrial complex, a major Silicon Valley cultural shift supported by President Trump  —  In a major shift, Google, OpenAI, Meta and venture capitalists — many of whom had once forsworn involvement in war — have embraced the military industrial complex.
Natallie Rocha / New York Times:
How 20-something CEOs like Cognition AI's Scott Wu, Cursor's Michael Truell, Cluely's Roy Lee, and Scale AI's Alexandr Wang are swarming San Francisco's AI boom  —  Some dropped out of M.I.T., Georgetown and Stanford.  Others decided not to go to college.  They all say they could not afford …
Asa Fitch / Wall Street Journal:
Wall Street Journal:
How Disney is grappling with integrating AI into its filmmaking process while safeguarding IP and addressing legal uncertainty, fan backlash, and union concerns  —  The stakes are especially high for the studio, caught between how to use artificial intelligence in the filmmaking process …

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Featured Podcasts

Hard Fork:
Anthropic's Cybersecurity Shock Wave + Ronan Farrow and Andrew Marantz on Their Sam Altman Investigation + One Good Thing
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.
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The Upstarts Podcast:
Decagon's Jesse Zhang: Closing Customer Service Doom Loops With AI Concierges
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:
OpenClaw for normies is here
A show about the tech industry's inside conversation, hosted by tech reporter Alex Heath and founder whisperer Ellis Hamburger.
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The Nick, Dick and Paul Show:
When AI Kills
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.
Big Technology Podcast:
OpenAI vs. Anthropic's Direct Faceoff + Future of Agents — With Aaron Levie
The Big Technology Podcast takes you behind the scenes in the tech world featuring interviews with plugged-in insiders and outside agitators.
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Tools and Weapons with Brad Smith:
Ryan Roslansky: Turning AI Anxiety into Skills for the Future of Work
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.
 

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Earlier Picks

Jessica Roy / The Information:
Clément Delangue / VentureBeat:
David DiMolfetta / Nextgov/FCW: