Techmeme: How the UAE's growing interest in crypto drew Michael Saylor, Changpeng Zhao, and other executives to Abu Dhabi, hoping to secure deals with Emirati investors (Angus Berwick/Wall Street Journal)

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iRobot files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy after reaching a restructuring agreement to hand control to secured lender and key Chinese supplier Shenzhen Picea — iRobot Corp. filed for bankruptcy after reaching a restructuring support agreement that will hand control of the consumer robot maker …

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Forums: r/RobotVacuums and r/technology

Connie Loizos / TechCrunch:

A look at iRobot, founded in 1990, and its slow collapse after US regulatory pressure killed Amazon's $1.7B deal in 2024 amid increased Chinese competition — There's something painfully American about the arc of iRobot, the company that taught your vacuum to navigate around the furniture.

More: Financial Times and The Verge

Bluesky: @pyperkub. Forums: r/gadgets

New York Times:

Investigation: after Trump's return to office, the SEC eased up on or dismissed 60%+ of ongoing crypto cases, including ones involving Trump-linked companies — A cryptocurrency firm run by the billionaire Winklevoss twins was facing a punishing federal lawsuit.

More: BeInCrypto, CoinGape, New York Times, and Crypto Briefing

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Bloomberg:

An interview with Marcos Galperin, CEO of MercadoLibre, which has a $105B market cap, on his upcoming resignation, MercadoLibre's rivalry with Amazon, and more — MercadoLibre's Marcos Galperin will hand over the CEO title, but he still has a lot of ideas for the business.

LinkedIn: Brad Stone and Patrick Gillespie

Martin Peers / The Information:

Filing: Oracle signed ~$150B of data center leases in the three months ending November 30, raising its total data center and cloud capacity commitments to $248B — Oracle struck about $150 billion worth of lease commitments on data centers in the three months ending November …

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Allison Johnson / The Verge:

AI image generators like Nano Banana have increased realism by mimicking phone camera traits in contrast, exposure, and sharpening to avoid the uncanny valley — Remember the early days of AI image generation? Oh how we laughed when our prompts resulted in people with too many fingers …

Corrie Driebusch / Wall Street Journal:

A look at the efforts to open private markets, where shares of startups like OpenAI trade, to small investors, and the opportunities and risks they bring — The buzziest private companies are being sold to a select few as the universe of stocks everyone else can invest in shrinks rapidly

LinkedIn: Nick Morgan. Bluesky: @seanhodgdon.com, @bottleofstars, @c0up, and @trashpitz

Forums: r/StockMarket and r/Bogleheads

Financial Times:

How Nvidia's lobbying efforts grew after Howard Lutnick brokered Jensen Huang's access to Trump, ending with the president's approval of the H200 sales to China — Nvidia chief scores huge victory with the decision to allow AI chip exports to China — Jensen Huang, once almost unknown in Washington …

More: Music Technology Policy. X: @commercegov

Angus Berwick / Wall Street Journal:

How the UAE's growing interest in crypto drew Michael Saylor, Changpeng Zhao, and other executives to Abu Dhabi, hoping to secure deals with Emirati investors — At flurry of events, executives hoped to secure deals with deep-pocketed Emirati investors who could inject fresh vigor into the industry

More: Dow Jones Newswires

Ralph Jones / The Guardian:

How Skövde, a small Swedish city of 58,000, built a local video game ecosystem via a degree for game developers at University of Skövde and a startup incubator — It started with a goat. Now - via a degree for developers and an incubator for startups - the tiny city is churning out world-famous video game hits.

LinkedIn: Henrik Jonsson. Forums: r/europe and r/sweden

Wall Street Journal:

Sources: OpenAI told staff it was ending the six-month “vesting cliff” that required new employees to work for at least six months before their equity vests — Maker of ChatGPT and its competitor xAI have relaxed restrictions meant to keep new hires from leaving in the midst of a fierce talent war

More: Implicator.ai, The Indian Express, Benzinga, The Information, Bloomberg, and The Decoder

X: @brij, @tahaahmed, @robleathern, @thedealdirector, @conorsen, and @jasonlk. LinkedIn: Meghan Bobrowsky. Bluesky: @hayseedcapital.com. Forums: r/BetterOffline

Bloomberg:

Sources: ServiceNow is in advanced talks to buy Armis, which helps businesses secure and manage IoT devices, in a deal that may value Armis at as much as $7B — ServiceNow Inc. is in advanced talks to buy the cybersecurity startup Armis in a deal that may be valued at as much as $7 billion …

More: Tech Funding News, CNBC, SiliconANGLE, The Information, PYMNTS.com, The Times of Israel, iTnews, Tech in Asia, Globes, and Bloomberg Law

X: @samsolid57, @tanayj, @petrikhammar, @willccbb, and @rngould

Kieran Smith / Financial Times:

Delivery Hero Chair Kristin Skogen Lund backs CEO Niklas Östberg as the group explores asset sales amid shareholder pressure over its falling stock price — Founder Niklas Östberg retains board support even as German food group explores routes to revive shares

Bluesky: @quinnypig.com

Mike Butcher / Pathfounders:

Solve Intelligence, which offers generative AI tools to law firms for IP and patent law work, raised a $40M Series B, bringing its total funding to $55M — With most intellectual property or patent law work done with spreadsheets, docs, and PDFs, this is a ripe arena for generative AI …

More: Pulse 2.0, Solve Intelligence, Silicon Republic, Tech Funding News, Law360, Artificial Lawyer, and Sifted. Bluesky: @prietschka

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