Techmeme
August 19, 2025, 9:15 AM

Top News

Kif Leswing / CNBC:
SoftBank agrees to invest $2B in Intel, paying $23 per share for Intel's common stock and buying ~2% of its outstanding shares; INTC rises ~4% pre-market  —  Intel and SoftBank announced on Monday that the Japanese conglomerate will make a $2 billion investment in the embattled chipmaker.
Bloomberg:
Sources: the Trump administration is in discussions to take a stake of ~10% in Intel, converting some or all of Intel's $10.9B CHIPS Act grants into equity  —  The Trump administration is in discussions to take a stake of about 10% in Intel Corp., a move that could see the US become the beleaguered chipmaker's largest shareholder.
Financial Times:
Kanishka Singh / Reuters:
US Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard says the UK has dropped its mandate requiring Apple to provide a backdoor for accessing users' encrypted data  —  U.S. Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard said on Monday the UK had agreed to drop its mandate for iPhone maker Apple …
Carl Franzen / VentureBeat:
Nvidia debuts Nemotron-Nano-9B-v2, a hybrid Mamba-Transformer model, saying it achieves comparable or better accuracies than Qwen3-8B on reasoning benchmarks  —  Small models are having a moment.  On the heels of the release of a new AI vision model small enough to fit on a smartwatch …
Devindra Hardawar / Engadget:
Sheryl Estrada / Fortune:
An MIT report finds that 95% of GenAI pilots at companies have little to no financial impact, due to the “learning gap” for both the tools and the companies  —  Good morning.  Companies are betting on AI—yet nearly all enterprise pilots are stuck at the starting line.
Kashish Tandon / Reuters:
OpenAI launches ChatGPT Go, a new India-only plan priced at Rs. 399 per month, or ~$4.57, its most affordable yet, to expand in its second-largest market  —  ChatGPT maker OpenAI on Tuesday launched ChatGPT Go, a new India-only subscription plan priced at 399 rupees ($4.57) per month …
Jon Brodkin / Ars Technica:
A US federal appeals court rejects T-Mobile's bid to overturn a $92M fine for illegally sharing customer location data without consent, per a 2024 FCC ruling  —  A federal appeals court rejected T-Mobile's attempt to overturn $92 million in fines for selling customer location information to third-party firms.
Bloomberg:
Sources: Apple is making all four iPhone 17 models in India ahead of debut, a first, as it expands to five factories to cut reliance on China for US-bound units  —  Apple Inc. is expanding iPhone production in India at five factories, including a pair of recently opened plants …
Rebecca Bellan / TechCrunch:
Texas AG Ken Paxton probes Meta and Character.AI over claims they deceptively market chatbots as mental health tools, misleading kids and other vulnerable users  —  Texas attorney general Ken Paxton has launched an investigation into both Meta AI Studio and Character.AI for …
Arasu Kannagi Basil / Reuters:
Blockchain-based lender Figure files for a US IPO, reporting H1 2025 revenue up 22.4% YoY to $191M and a profit of $29M, compared with a $13M loss in H1 2024  —  Figure Technology Solutions' revenue surged 22% in the first half of 2025, the blockchain lender disclosed on Monday …
Jody Godoy / Reuters:
The US FTC sues Key Investment Group, operator of sites like TotalTickets.com, for skirting ticket limits to buy up and resell live event tickets at a markup  —  The U.S. Federal Trade Commission sued ticket reseller Key Investment Group for evading purchasing limits to buy up thousands …
Kia Kokalitcheva / PitchBook:
American Exceptionalism Acquisition, a SPAC led by Chamath Palihapitiya and focused on energy, AI, DeFi, and defense, files for a US IPO, seeking to raise $250M  —  Silicon Valley investor Chamath Palihapitiya has filed documents with the SEC for a new special purpose acquisition company …

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Earlier Picks

Ben Bergman / Business Insider:
Zack Whittaker / TechCrunch:
Himanshi Akhand / Reuters: