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Techmeme
September 21, 2025, 5:05 AM
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Karoline Leavitt / @presssec:
White House Press Secretary says the $100K H-1B fee is not an annual fee and it is a “one-time fee that applies only to the petition” in the upcoming lottery  —  To be clear: 1.) This is NOT an annual fee. It's a one-time fee that applies only to the petition. 2.) Those who already hold H-1B visas and are currently outside of the country right now will NOT be charged $100,000 to re-enter. H-1B visa holders can leave and re-enter the
Taylor Soper / GeekWire:
VCs and founders warn that the $100K fee will make H-1B sponsorship prohibitively expensive for startups, not Big Tech, and drive talent outside the US  —  Longtime entrepreneurs and venture capitalists are sounding the alarm over President Trump's new H-1B fee that would impact tech companies and the workers they hire from abroad.
Ben Berkowitz / Axios:
White House says the $100K H-1B fee will not apply to renewals or existing H-1B holders re-entering the US, only to future applicants in the February lottery  —  A new $100,000 fee for H-1B visas goes into effect Sunday, but it will not be applied to existing holders of valid visas re-entering the country …
Yun Li / CNBC:
Memos: Amazon, which has the most H-1B staff at 14K+, Google, and Microsoft tell H-1B visa holders to return to the US before September 21 and avoid travel  —  Major technology companies and foreign governments are rushing to respond after President Donald Trump late Friday announced plans …
Elizabeth Chamberlain / iFixit News:
iPhone Air teardown: clever use of space by placing the logic board above the 12.26 Wh battery, the same cell used in Apple's MagSafe Battery pack, and more  —  iPhone Air Teardown  —  To be honest, we were holding our breath for the iPhone Air.  Thinner usually means flimsier, harder to fix, and more glued-down parts.
Ben Berkowitz / Axios:
Karoline Leavitt confirms Oracle will handle TikTok's data and security, and says the US is “100% confident” a deal is done and it “just needs to be signed”  —  - Congress passed a ban last year with bipartisan support, but President Trump has repeatedly ordered …
Kasia Klimasinska / Bloomberg:
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt says Americans would hold six of the seven board seats for TikTok US and its algorithm would be US-controlled
Phoebe Liu / Forbes:
A profile of Edwin Chen, the CEO of Surge AI, a Scale AI rival that had $1.2B revenue in 2024, is profitable, and is reportedly raising $1B at a $30B valuation  —  This story appears in the October/November 2025 issue of Forbes Magazine.  Subscribe  —  An alum of Google, Facebook and Twitter …
New York Times:
In a 30-minute test, Meta Ray-Ban Display was as spotty as Zuckerberg's failed demos, with the wristband occasionally failing to register finger swipes  —  At Meta's software developers conference in Menlo Park., Calif., this week, Mark Zuckerberg strutted onto the stage to show off a new gadget …
William Sandlund / Financial Times:
Hang Seng Tech Index, which tracks the top 30 Hong Kong-listed tech stocks, is up 41% YTD vs. Nasdaq's 17%, driven by China's AI and chip self-sufficiency push  —  Beijing's push for chip self-sufficiency accelerates triumphant comeback for sector  —  Chinese tech stocks have massively outperformed …

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This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 5:05 AM ET, September 21, 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

Alex Weprin / The Hollywood Reporter:
Filing: Byron Allen sold his 10.7% Starz stake over August and September, netting a bit less than $45M; he acquired it from Steve Mnuchin's Liberty 77 for $25M

Wall Street Journal:
MGM Resorts says talks with People Incorporated are over, after each weighed buying the other; MGM amended its voting deal with People, which owns ~27% of MGM

Mark Stenberg / Adweek:
A source and internal figures: Condé Nast forecasts $130M in Q4 US advertising, $35M+ below its goal; Condé Nast says the figures are “materially inaccurate”

More News

Robert Booth / The Guardian:
Meta faces a backlash after using Instagram photos of teenage schoolgirls, posted by their parents with visible faces and names, to promote Threads to a man

Earlier Picks

Reuters:
Collins Aerospace, which provides check-in and boarding systems, confirms a “cyber-related disruption” as Heathrow and other European airports report issues
Isabelle Bousquette / Wall Street Journal:
Microsoft says it will bring a $3.3B data center in Wisconsin online in early 2026 and calls it “the world's most powerful AI datacenter”
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