Techmeme
August 12, 2025, 1:10 PM

Top News

Surbhi Misra / Reuters:
Elon Musk says that Apple “makes it impossible for any AI company besides OpenAI” to top its App Store, an “antitrust violation”, and xAI will take legal action  —  Billionaire Elon Musk said on Monday his artificial intelligence startup xAI would take legal action against Apple …
The Verge:
ABC:
An Australian federal judge rules Apple and Google engaged in anticompetitive conduct by misusing their app store market power, but rejects Epic's other claims  —  By national consumer affairs reporter Michael Atkin and the Specialist Reporting Team's Melanie Vujkovic
Katherine Blunt / Wall Street Journal:
Perplexity offers to acquire Chrome for $34.5B, significantly more than Perplexity's estimated $18B valuation, and says large VC funds agreed to back the deal  —  With its unsolicited bid for Google's browser, AI startup seeks to take advantage of uncertainty over pending antitrust ruling
Financial Times:
Anthropic signs a deal to offer Claude to US lawmakers for $1/year, following OpenAI; a source says Google is in talks to offer Gemini on similarly cheap terms  —  Group follows rival OpenAI in making enterprise tools available to government branches  —  Anthropic will offer its Claude chatbot …
Bloomberg:
Sources: Chinese authorities urge local companies to avoid using less advanced US chips, particularly Nvidia's H20s, for government or national security work  —  Supply Lines is a daily newsletter that tracks global trade.  Sign up here.  —  Beijing has urged local companies …
Wall Street Journal:
Bob Van Voris / Bloomberg:
In US court, Terraform Labs co-founder Do Kwon says he will plead guilty to charges of conspiracy and wire fraud under an agreement with prosecutors  —  Terraform Labs Pte. co-founder Do Kwon pleaded guilty to charges in a US fraud prosecution tied to the $40 billion collapse of the TerraUSD stablecoin in 2022.
James Hunt / The Block:
Circle reports Q2 revenue up 53% YoY to $658M, USDC circulation up 90% YoY to $61.3B, a $482M net loss, and unveils Arc, a stablecoin-focused Layer 1 blockchain  —  - Circle is planning to launch a stablecoin-focused EVM-compatible Layer 1 blockchain called Arc.
Skylar Woodhouse / Bloomberg:
President Trump meets with Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan and says his Cabinet members would continue talks with him in the coming days, after calling for his resignation  —  President Donald Trump said members of his Cabinet would continue discussions with Lip-Bu Tan in the coming days after meeting …
New York Times:
How Larry Ellison is focusing his philanthropic efforts on the Oxford-based, for-profit Ellison Institute of Technology, promising to spend £1B on the project  —  Oracle's co-founder and the world's second-richest person pledges to concentrate his vast resources on his own research institute …
Richard Waters / Financial Times:
Google and IBM believe the first industrial-scale quantum computer is in sight, potentially by 2030, but challenges like scaling from <200 to 1M+ qubits remain  —  Recent breakthroughs have revived confidence about creating full-scale quantum systems by end of the decade
More: Inc
Dan Goodin / Ars Technica:
ESET says two Russian cybercrime groups are exploiting a high-severity WinRAR zero-day, backdooring computers that open malicious archives in phishing messages  —  A high-severity zero-day in the widely used WinRAR file compressor is under active exploitation by two Russian cybercrime groups.
VideoCardz.com:
Nvidia announces two Blackwell workstation GPUs with a 70W TDP, the RTX PRO 4000 SFF and the RTX PRO 2000, featuring compact designs and available later in 2025  —  NVIDIA updates RTX Pro Blackwell series with entry-level SKUs  —  Based on GB203 and GB206 GPUs.

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Featured Podcasts

The Upstarts Podcast:
Runway's Cris Valenzuela: Building The Hollywood-Friendly Video AI That OpenAI Couldn't
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.
Hard Fork:
OpenAI's Big Reset + A.I. in the Doctor's Office + Talkie, a pre-1930s LLM
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.
The Talk Show With John Gruber:
'Food and Beverage Director', With MG Siegler
The director's commentary track for Daring Fireball. Long digressions on Apple, technology, design, movies, and more.
Subscribe to The Talk Show With John Gruber.
Access:
What happens when AI runs a store
A show about the tech industry's inside conversation, hosted by tech reporter Alex Heath and founder whisperer Ellis Hamburger.
Subscribe to Access.
The Nick, Dick and Paul Show:
Why Blockbuster Failed
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.
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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More News

Hannah Lang / Reuters:

Earlier Picks

Charles Capel / Bloomberg:
Ben Weiss / Fortune:
Zac Hall / 9to5Mac:
Omair Pall / Mashable India:
Ina Fried / Axios:
Sam Tobin / Reuters: