Techmeme
August 7, 2025, 12:55 PM

Top News

Peter Elstrom / Bloomberg:
Max A. Cherney / Reuters:
GOP Senator Tom Cotton sends a letter to Intel's board chair with questions about CEO Lip-Bu Tan's ties to China and subpoenas when he was Cadence Design's CEO  —  U.S. Republican Senator Tom Cotton sent a letter to Intel's (INTC.O) board chair on Wednesday with questions about the chipmaker's …
Tom Warren / The Verge:
A now-deleted GitHub blog post reveals GPT-5, available as gpt-5, gpt-5-mini, gpt-5-nano, and gpt-5-chat with “major improvements” in reasoning, code, and more  —  GPT-5 will have ‘enhanced agentic capabilities’ and handle ‘complex coding tasks with minimal prompting.’
Alexey Shabanov / TestingCatalog:
Hannah Lang / Reuters:
Ripple plans to acquire stablecoin payments platform Rail for $200M, set to close in Q4 2025; Rail says it handles 10% of all global stablecoin payment activity  —  Ripple will buy stablecoin payments platform Rail for $200 million, the company said on Thursday, weeks after U.S. President Donald Trump signed …
Bloomberg:
President Trump says he will impose a “tariff of approximately 100% on chips and semiconductors”, exempting firms like Apple that “committed to build” in the US  —  Donald Trump declared plans to slap a 100% tariff on semiconductor imports yet promised to exempt companies …
Kosaku Narioka / Wall Street Journal:
Sony reports Q1 revenue up 2.2% YoY to ~$17.8B, net profit up 23% YoY to ~$1.8B, 2.5M PS5s sold, up from 2.4M in Q1 2024, and expects a lower FY tariff impact  —  The company expects uncertainty over the economy to increase due to U.S. tariffs  —  Sony Group reported higher quarterly net profit …
Financial Times:
Sources: Samsung plans to produce iPhone 18 image sensors in Austin, Texas; an expert says Apple chose Samsung as a supplier because Sony doesn't have US plants  —  Deal suggests South Korean company's US investments are paying off as Trump dials up his tariff policies
Apple:
Apple commits $2.5B to produce all iPhone and Apple Watch glass at Corning's Kentucky facility, as part of its plan to invest $600B+ in the US over four years  —  The new $2.5 billion commitment from Apple is part of the company's expanded plan to invest $600 billion in the U.S. over the next four years
Politico:
Sources: the US federal judiciary's electronic case filing system was hit in a sweeping hack, potentially compromising the identities of confidential informants  —  It is not immediately clear who is behind the hack, though nation-state-affiliated actors are widely suspected, the people said.
Takashi Mochizuki / Bloomberg:
Tokyo Electron says it fired an employee in Taipei and is cooperating with Taiwan's investigation after Taiwan arrested six people over alleged TSMC IP theft  —  Tokyo Electron Ltd. said it's fired an employee at its Taipei unit, making its first public statement since the island's government …
Humeyra Pamuk / Reuters:
State Department cable: Marco Rubio orders diplomats in Europe to lobby against the DSA, arguing it stifles free speech and imposes costs on US tech companies  —  President Donald Trump's administration has instructed U.S. diplomats in Europe to launch a lobbying campaign to build an opposition …
More: The Register, Euractiv, and Benzinga
Bluesky: @claesdevreeseX: @globalaffairsForums: r/worldnews and r/europe
Matthew Gault / 404 Media:
Trump Media says it is public beta testing Truth Search AI, a Perplexity-powered search feature, initially on Truth Social for web and coming to Android and iOS  —  Donald Trump's media company is teaming up with Perplexity to bring AI search to Truth Social, the President's X.com alternative.
Naga Avan-Nomayo / The Block:
Tether acquires a minority stake in MiCA-licensed Spanish crypto exchange Bit2Me and is leading a €30M funding round that will close in the coming weeks  —  - Tether buys a minority stake and leads a 30 million-euro round in MiCA-licensed Bit2Me to fund EU and Latin-American growth.
Reuters:
SMIC reports Q2 revenue up 16.2% YoY to $2.2B, in line with expectations, and profit down 19.5% YoY to $132.5M, below $183.35M est.  —  Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (0981.HK) ,China's largest contract chip maker, reported on Thursday a 19.5% year-on-year decline in second-quarter profit.
Natalie Lung / Bloomberg:
Airbnb reports Q2 revenue up 13% YoY to $3.1B, vs. $3.03B est., net income up 16% YoY to $642M, and warns revenue growth may moderate in H2 2025; ABNB drops 6%+  —  Airbnb Inc. shares slid in Thursday trading after the short-term rental company warned that sales growth may moderate in the second half of the year.

Sponsor Posts

Google:
Try Gemini 3 Pro  —  Google's newest and most intelligent AI model that helps you bring any idea to life
Shopify:
Transform ML Experimentation with Tangle  —  Save months of compute time with Tangle, built by Shopify.  Try this open-source platform to simplify ML workflows, ensure reproducibility, and seamlessly share with collaborators.
Zoho:
Contract Signed.  Project Ready.  Tasks Created.  —  Every project begins with a promise; a contract that outlines the deliverables, the timelines, and the terms.  But for most businesses …
Bitrix24:
Bitrix24 powers the next generation of high-performing businesses  —  Chat, projects, CRM, and automation — all in one place.  Replace dozens of tools so your team moves faster, collaborates smarter, and grows effortlessly.
IDrive:
Protecting your Cloud Applications Data  —  Backing up Office 365, Google Workspace, Dropbox & Box data is critical to preventing data loss or corruption, complying with laws and avoiding critical downtime in case of a disaster.

Featured Podcasts

Big Technology Podcast:
AI Device Wars Heat Up, RIP Metaverse?, Netflix Acquires Warner Brothers
The Big Technology Podcast takes you behind the scenes in the tech world featuring interviews with plugged-in insiders and outside agitators.
Subscribe to Big Technology Podcast.
Channels with Peter Kafka:
"Hollywood is Truly Freaked Out." Inside the Netflix/WBD Deal with Lucas Shaw
Media and tech aren't just intersecting - they're fully intertwined. To understand how those worlds work, Peter Kafka talks to industry leaders, upstarts and observers.
Subscribe to Channels with Peter Kafka.
Hard Fork:
OpenAI Calls a 'Code Red' + Which Model Should I Use? + The Hard Fork Review of Slop
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.
Access:
Is Roblox making the internet better or worse? We asked the CEO
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:
Why LinkedIn is turning PMs into AI-powered "full stack builders" | Tomer Cohen (LinkedIn CPO)
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.
 

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 12:55 PM ET, August 7, 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

Earlier Picks

Adam Levine / Barron's Online: