Techmeme
August 5, 2025, 9:55 AM

Top News

Cheng Ting-Fang / Nikkei Asia:
Sources: TSMC fires several employees for violating rules on obtaining sensitive information about its 2nm tech; TSMC says it detected “unauthorized activities”  —  TAIPEI — Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. has fired several employees for violating rules …
Kathrin Hille / Financial Times:
Taiwanese prosecutors say two ex-TSMC employees and a third suspect were arrested for allegedly stealing proprietary tech; investigators searched Tokyo Electron  —  Taiwanese prosecutors probe ‘potential trade secret leaks’ in first case since key technologies added to national security legislation
Bloomberg:
White House OSTP Director Michael Kratsios says the US is exploring software or physical ways to track the location of AI chips, as part of its AI Action Plan  —  The US is exploring ways to equip chips with better location-tracking capabilities, a senior official said …
Wall Street Journal:
A draft White House EO shows President Trump plans to step up pressure against big banks over alleged discrimination against crypto companies and conservatives  —  The president is expected to sign an executive order as soon as this week that targets so-called debanking of businesses including crypto companies
Lydia Beyoud / Bloomberg:
The CFTC is asking for public comment by August 18 about trading spot crypto asset contracts listed on CFTC-registered futures exchanges  —  Takeaways by Bloomberg AI  —  Hide … Tell us how AI is shaping your news experience.  Share your feedback  —  The Commodity Futures Trading Commission …
Tobias Mann / The Register:
Google signs a deal with two power utilities to lower its power use by pausing non-essential AI workloads during demand surges or weather-based grid disruptions  —  Google will pause non-essential AI workloads to protect power grids, the advertising giant announced on Monday.
Mike Masnick / Techdirt:
The UK's Online Safety Act shows the UK prioritized government control over improving safety, becoming a cautionary tale for democracies regulating the internet  —  Well, well, well.  The “age assurance” part of the UK's Online Safety Act has finally gone into effect, with its age checking …
Anthony Hughes / Bloomberg:
John Herrman / New York Magazine:
Search-engine optimization feels dated as marketers look to generative-engine optimization, or GEO, which focuses on tricking AI chatbots rather than Google  —  Search-engine optimization now feels dated.  Generative-engine optimization is all about trying to trick AI chatbots.
Bloomberg:
The US General Services Administration approves OpenAI, Google, and Anthropic for AI contracts with civilian federal agencies via its Multiple Award Schedule  —  The US government's central purchasing arm is adding OpenAI, Alphabet Inc.'s Google and Anthropic to a list of approved artificial …
More: TechCrunch
The Information:
Internal email: Cognition offers buyouts to its ~200 newly acquired Windsurf staff, with Cognition CEO Scott Wu writing “we don't believe in work-life balance”  —  Cognition, a two-year-old artificial intelligence coding startup last valued at $4 billion, has offered buyouts …
More: The Information and WinBuzzer
Bluesky: @edzitron.comX: @theinformation and @lauramandaroLinkedIn: Scott Johnson
Min Jeong Lee / Bloomberg:
Filings: SoftBank increased its Nvidia stake to ~$3B in Q1 and bought ~$330M worth of TSMC stock; source: Vision Fund monetized almost $2B of assets in H1 2025  —  Takeaways by Bloomberg AI  —  Hide … Tell us how AI is shaping your news experience.  Share your feedback
More: Tech in Asia
A.J. Vicens / Reuters:
Cisco Talos finds a flaw in the Broadcom BCM5820X chip used in Dell's ControlVault security firmware, affecting 100+ laptop models; Dell issued patches in 2025  —  A flaw in the chips used to secure tens of millions of Dell (DELL.N) laptops could have given attackers the ability …
Kevin Breuninger / CNBC:
President Trump says on tariffs that “we're going to be announcing on semiconductors and chips” as soon as next week “because we want them made in” the US  —  - CNBC Councils  — CNBC on Peacock  — Join the CNBC Panel  — Supply Chain Values  — Select Shopping
More: Bloomberg
MacKenzie Sigalos / CNBC:
OpenAI says ChatGPT will hit 700M weekly active users this week, up from 500M in March and up 4x YoY, and now has 5M paying business users, up from 3M in June  —  OpenAI is set to hit 700 million weekly active users for ChatGPT this week, up from 500 million in March, marking a more than fourfold year …
Ian Carlos Campbell / Engadget:

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Jon Blistein / Rolling Stone:
Samantha Subin / CNBC:
Mike Wheatley / SiliconANGLE:
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