Techmeme
October 8, 2025, 10:45 AM

Top News

Bloomberg:
Nvidia and OpenAI's wave of circular deals escalates concerns that they're artificially propping up the $1T+ AI market that is tied to every part of the economy  —  A wave of deals and partnerships are escalating concerns that the trillion-dollar AI boom is being propped up by interconnected business transactions.
Bloomberg:
Sources: xAI nears a deal to raise $20B in equity and debt, tied to the Nvidia GPUs that xAI plans to rent for Colossus 2, with Nvidia investing as much as $2B  —  Elon Musk's artificial intelligence startup xAI is raising more financing than initially planned, tapping backers including Nvidia Corp …
Annie Palmer / CNBC:
Sam Clark / Politico:
A website set up by a Danish software developer floods EU lawmakers with emails opposing planned EU “Chat Control” laws to fight CSAM by scanning encrypted apps  —  A software developer from Denmark is having an outsized influence on a hotly debated law to break open encrypted apps.
CryptPad Blog:
Open letter: 40+ European companies oppose the EU's “Chat Control” proposal, which would force services to scan messages for CSAM, fearing a backdoor mandate  —  Today we are adding our signature (and that of our parent company XWiki SAS) to a new open letter against the so-called “Chat Control” EU regulation.
Tom Warren / The Verge:
Microsoft delays last week's 50% price hike for existing Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscribers in Germany, Ireland, South Korea, Poland, India, and other markets  —  Current subscribers in some European countries won't be affected by Microsoft's Game Pass price hikes just yet.
Naga Avan-Nomayo / The Block:
Polymarket CEO Shayne Coplan says the startup raised two undisclosed rounds: $55M at a $350M valuation in 2024 and $150M at a $1.2B valuation earlier in 2025  —  - Polymarket CEO Shayne Coplan says the prediction platform raised $55 million in 2024 and $150 million earlier this year.
Ben Thompson / Stratechery:
Q&A with Sam Altman on OpenAI's unifying vision, infrastructure deals, the investor mindset, ChatGPT apps, Instant Checkout, Sora, copyright, feedback, and more  —  Today's Stratechery Interview is with OpenAI co-founder and CEO Sam Altman.  I have interviewed Altman twice before …
Bloomberg:
Sources: $TRUMP issuer Fight Fight Fight LLC is working to raise $200M to $1B to create a digital asset treasury company to accumulate the struggling token  —  The startup that issued Donald Trump's memecoin several days before his second presidential inauguration is working to raise …
Washington Post:
An analysis of 1,100 TikTok users' watch histories across six months in 2024 shows just how effective TikTok is at getting even its heaviest users to watch more  —  More than 800 U.S. TikTok users shared their data with The Washington Post.  We used it to find out why some people become power users, spending hours per day scrolling.
Nick Lichtenberg / Fortune:
Harvard economist Jason Furman estimates that investments in data centers and information-processing software accounted for 92% of the US' GDP growth in H1 2025  —  U.S. GDP growth in the first half of 2025 was almost entirely driven by investment in data centers and information processing technology …
Lily Kuo / New York Times:
China's Cyberspace Administration began a two-month campaign in late September to fight “excessively pessimistic sentiment” and defeatist ideas on social media  —  As China struggles with economic discontent, internet censors are silencing those who voice doubts about work, marriage, or simply sigh too loudly online.
John Revill / Reuters:
SoftBank Group agrees to acquire ABB's robotics business, which generated $2.3B in sales in 2024, for $5.4B; ABB expects the deal to close in mid-to-late 2026  —  SoftBank Group (9984.T) said on Wednesday it has agreed to buy the robotics business of Swiss engineering group ABB (ABBN.S) in a $5.4 billion deal.
The Keyword:
Google releases the Gemini 2.5 Computer Use model, built on Gemini 2.5 Pro's capabilities to power agents that can interact with UIs, in preview via the API  —  Available in preview via the API, our Computer Use model is a specialized model built on Gemini 2.5 Pro's capabilities to power agents that can interact with user interfaces.
Anthropic:
Anthropic plans to open its first Indian office, in Bengaluru, in early 2026; Dario Amodei is visiting India to meet government officials and potential partners  —  Today we're announcing that we're expanding our global operations to India, with plans to open an office in Bengaluru in early 2026.

Sponsor Posts

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Intel:
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Zoho:
WorkDrive 6.0: Advancing toward intelligent enterprise content management (Phase 1)  —  Artificial intelligence is redefining how enterprises process data.  Large language models can understand context …
IDrive:
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Featured Podcasts

Cheeky Pint:
Compliance at scale and why TAM is a distraction with Christina Cacioppo of Vanta
Stripe cofounder John Collison interviews founders, builders, and leaders over a pint.
Subscribe to Cheeky Pint.
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.
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Invest Like the Best:
Sergey Levine - Building LLMs for the Physical World
The leading destination to learn about business and investing. We do this by showcasing exceptional talent and ideas.
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The Talk Show With John Gruber:
'You're Going to Have the Niggles', With Christina Warren
The director's commentary track for Daring Fireball. Long digressions on Apple, technology, design, movies, and more.
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Lenny's Podcast:
From skeptic to true believer: How OpenClaw changed my life | Claire Vo
Interviews with world-class product leaders and growth experts to uncover actionable advice to help you build, launch, and grow your own product.
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Big Technology Podcast:
Why OpenAI Killed Sora, Did Apple Just Save Siri?, Meta's Big Loss
The Big Technology Podcast takes you behind the scenes in the tech world featuring interviews with plugged-in insiders and outside agitators.
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More News

Dasha Afanasieva / Bloomberg:
Financial Times:
Kunal Manchanada / Entrackr:

Earlier Picks

Anthropic:
Bloomberg:
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Emma Roth / The Verge: