Techmeme
August 23, 2025, 8:20 PM

Top News

Mike Allen / Axios:
Airbnb co-founder Joe Gebbia, named by Trump as the first US chief design officer, says he wants to update federal websites to an “Apple Store-like experience”  —  Joe Gebbia — a co-founder of Airbnb who was named by President Trump this week to be the first U.S. chief design officer …
New York Times:
Some lawyers and bankers say the Intel deal may face legal challenges as the CHIPS Act may not allow the US government to convert grants into equity  —  The deal is among the largest government interventions in a U.S. company since the rescue of the auto industry after the 2008 financial crisis.
Reuters:
Some experts say Trump's extraordinary intervention is unlikely to save Intel, which faces challenges with poor yields and competition from TSMC and Nvidia  —  U.S. President Donald Trump is injecting nearly $9 billion into Intel(INTC.O) in exchange for a 9.9% equity stake.
Wall Street Journal:
Intel:
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Bluesky blocks access to its service in Mississippi, saying it doesn't have the resources to comply with the state's broad new law requiring age verification  —  Social networking startup Bluesky has made the decision to block access to its service in the state of Mississippi, rather than comply with a new age assurance law.
The Guardian:
Sources: in a meeting with UK Technology Secretary Peter Kyle, Sam Altman proposed giving ChatGPT Plus to everyone in the UK, a deal that would have cost £2B  —  Exclusive: Deal that could have cost £2bn was floated at meeting between technology secretary Peter Kyle and Sam Altman
Anthony Ha / TechCrunch:
OpenAI warns investors against “unauthorized opportunities” to gain exposure to its equity, including through special purpose vehicles  —  In a new blog post, OpenAI warns against “unauthorized opportunities to gain exposure to OpenAI through a variety of means,” including special purpose vehicles, known as SPVs.
More: OpenAI
Business Insider:
A surge in AI company valuations is driving the popularity of special purpose vehicles, but some involve high fees, opaque structures, and layers of middlemen  —  - SPVs have been surging in popularity as retail investors scramble for stock in hot AI companies.
Cecilia D'Anastasio / Bloomberg:
How AI is increasingly being used to replace human content moderators, who say that the tech is not yet capable of reliably identifying harmful content  —  Kevin decided on a career in content moderation after his YouTube recommendations took a bewildering swerve.
Alex Heath / The Verge:
More: TechCrunchX: @rohitprasadaiLinkedIn: Junjie TangBluesky: @prietschkaThreads: @alexheathMastodon: @jukkan@mstdn.social
The Hindu:
Major real-money gaming platforms in India halted cash games after President Murmu signed the Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Act, 2025, into law  —  Most major platforms over August 21 and August 22 stopped offering cash games, in compliance with the Promotion and Regulation of Gaming Act …
Andy Mukherjee / Bloomberg:
Dean Seal / Wall Street Journal:
FanDuel partners with CME Group to offer event-based contracts, letting users wager “yes” or “no” on financial events and benchmarks, starting later this year  —  The sports-betting platform's deal with CME Group might ultimately lead it to making markets for sports-related events
Wall Street Journal:
Sources: Nvidia has shown new versions of its Blackwell-based AI chips for Chinese customers to US officials, including one with ~80% of the peak performance  —  Chip designer hopes Trump will approve new design for sale in China, after Beijing tells its companies not to buy older product

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Featured Podcasts

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Newley Purnell / Bloomberg:
Alexandr Wang / @alexandr_wang: