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Techmeme
August 20, 2025, 10:00 AM
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Top News

CNBC:
US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick says that Intel must give the government an equity stake in the company in return for CHIPS Act funds; INTC closed up 6.97%  —  Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said Tuesday that Intel must give the U.S. government an equity stake in the company in return for CHIPS Act funds.
Reuters:
Sources: US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick is looking into government equity stakes in Micron, TSMC, Samsung, and others that receive CHIPS Act funding  —  U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick is looking into the federal government taking equity stakes in computer chip manufacturers …
Financial Times:
The Nasdaq fell 1.4% on August 19, as Nvidia dropped 3.5% and Arm 5%, with AI enthusiasm cooling after a critical report from MIT and a warning from Sam Altman  —  Warning from OpenAI's Sam Altman and MIT paper puncture Wall Street's enthusiasm  —  US tech stocks sold off as warnings …
Iain Martin / Forbes:
Grok's “share” button generates a unique URL that makes users' chats searchable on Google, Bing, and DuckDuckGo; Google has indexed 370K+ Grok conversations  —  xAI made people's conversations with its chatbot public and searchable on Google without warning …
Tom McArthur / BBC:
Kick says it is “urgently reviewing” the circumstances around the death of a French livestreamer subjected to violence and sleep deprivation during streams  —  An investigation has been launched into the death of a French streamer known for extreme challenges.
Brian Schwartz / Wall Street Journal:
Sources: Elon Musk is quietly pumping the brakes on his plans to start a US political party, telling allies he wants to focus his attention on his companies  —  The billionaire has sought to maintain ties with JD Vance, a potential heir to Trump's MAGA political movement
New York Times:
Sources: Meta considers downsizing its AI division, with some executives expected to leave, and is exploring using third-party models to power its AI products  —  Meta is expected to announce a new restructuring of its artificial intelligence division amid internal tensions over the technology, people with knowledge of the plans said.
Riley Griffin / Bloomberg:
Memo: Meta restructures Superintelligence Labs; Alexandr Wang heads TBD Lab, Robert Fergus heads FAIR, Nat Friedman heads products, Aparna Ramani heads Infra
Molly White / Citation Needed:
A look at Justin Sun's lawsuit against Bloomberg for publishing his crypto assets, which he says he shared confidentially to qualify for its Billionaires Index  —  Listen to me read this post here (not an AI-generated voice!), subscribe to the feed in your podcast app, or download the recording for later.
Sean Endicott / Windows Central:
Microsoft adds a COPILOT function to Excel for Beta Channel users, letting them use text prompts to categorize data, summarize feedback, and brainstorm ideas  —  AI in Excel finally feels natural thanks to the new COPILOT function. … Or rather, more Copilot is being packed into the popular spreadsheet program.
Steve Holland / Reuters:
The White House launches an official TikTok account, aiming to communicate President Trump's messages; the first video shows Trump declaring “I am your voice”  —  The White House launched an official TikTok account on Tuesday, taking advantage of the short video app's …
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  —  Britain has dropped its demand for the iPhone maker Apple (AAPL.O) to provide a “backdoor” that would have enabled access …
John Semley / Wired:
A look at the 2025 AI Film Festival, backed by Runway AI and screened by Imax; some cinephiles deride it while others say it's part of a natural tech evolution  —  Runway AI paired up with Imax to screen 10 AI-generated winning selections.  The festival has been derided by some cinephiles …
Tom Warren / The Verge:
Microsoft and Asus plan to launch the Xbox Ally and Xbox Ally X handhelds on October 16; leaks have suggested the Xbox Ally will cost €599 and Ally X €899  —  Microsoft also has a handheld compatibility program to showcase which games run well on the new Xbox Ally devices.
Mike Wheatley / SiliconANGLE:
South Korea's Upstage, which offers AI document intelligence tools, raised a $45M Series B bridge led by the KDB, Amazon, and AMD, after a $72M Series B in 2024  —  The South Korean document intelligence startup Upstage Co. Ltd. wants to expand into the U.S. after raising $45 million in a Series B bridge round.
More: Bloomberg
Ryan Vlastelica / Bloomberg:
Analysis: Intel's stock, up 28% in August, is trading at a 53 forward P/E ratio, its highest since early 2002, reflecting its declining profits in recent years  —  After months of turbulence, Intel Corp. bulls are finally being rewarded for their patience.  But the stock's sudden rebound comes …
More: Sharecafe

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About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 10:00 AM ET, August 20, 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.

From Mediagazer

Jazz Monroe / Pitchfork:
Sources: nearly all staff at music outlets BrooklynVegan, Alternative Press, Revolver, and Goldmine appear to have been laid off by Veeps, owned by Live Nation

Etan Vlessing / The Hollywood Reporter:
FuboTV reports Q3 revenue up 38% YoY to $1.48B, a $25.7M net loss, vs. a $38M loss a year earlier, and North American subscribers up 2% to 5.75M; FUBO jumps 12%

Jennifer Maas / Variety:
Disney reports Q3 revenue up 7% YoY to $25.2B, below $25.4B est., adjusted EPS of $2.06, above $1.85 est., and entertainment revenue up 6% to $11.3B

More News

Julie Bort / TechCrunch:
Firecrawl, which offers an open-source web crawler for developers and AI agents, raised a $14.5M Series A led by Nexus Venture Partners
Carl Franzen / VentureBeat:
Alibaba releases Qwen-Image-Edit, the image editing version of Qwen-Image, supporting modifications of Chinese and English text while preserving font and style
Robert McMillan / Wall Street Journal:
US federal prosecutors charge an Oregon man with operating the Rapper Bot, one of the most powerful DDoS botnets ever, which knocked X offline earlier in 2025

Earlier Picks

Krisztian Sandor / CoinDesk:
Bullish says it has received all $1.15B in capital raised from its IPO in stablecoins, including USDC, USDG, and PYUSD, marking a first for US public markets
Daniel Kuhn / The Block:
Wyoming launches a stablecoin, FRNT, marking the first time a US state has issued a blockchain-based, fiat-pegged token to be used by retail and enterprises
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Meta rolls out AI-powered voice translations for creators on Facebook and Instagram globally, supporting English-Spanish translations with optional lip syncing
Jonathan Stempel / Reuters:
Google will pay $30M to settle a class action lawsuit alleging it violated kids' privacy on YouTube by collecting data without parental consent for targeted ads
Dominic Preston / The Verge:
What to expect from Google's “Made by Google” event on August 20: Pixel 10, 10 Pro, 10 Pro XL, and 10 Pro Fold phones, a Pixel Watch 4, and the Pixel Buds 2A
Kashish Tandon / Reuters:
OpenAI launches ChatGPT Go, a new India-only plan priced at Rs. 399, or ~$4.57, per month, its most affordable yet, to grow users in its second-largest market
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