Techmeme: NYC-based Octane, which offers “instant” financing for large recreational and lifestyle purchases, raised a $100M Series F at a $1.3B post-money valuation (Mary Ann Azevedo/Crunchbase News)

Top News

David Pierce / The Verge:

Mozilla appoints Anthony Enzor-DeMeo as its CEO amid a challenging period for Mozilla's for-profit arm with layoffs, restructuring, and its Google dependence — Anthony Enzor-DeMeo says he thinks there's room for another browser, even an AI browser — as long as you can trust it.

More: The Mozilla Blog, The Register, Bloomberg, PR Newswire, and Fast Company. Forums: Hacker News

Robbie Whelan / Wall Street Journal:

CoreWeave lost $33B in market value in six weeks amid construction delays at its Denton, Texas AI data center, criticism from short seller Jim Chanos, and more — The data-center provider's terrible six-week slide picked up speed when a famous short seller piled concerns on top of delays

More: International Business Times, TheMinerMag, Fortune, and Benzinga

X: @mikulaja. Bluesky: @emptywheel, @patrickgaley, and @justinhendrix

New York Times:

Sources: the US has paused its Tech Prosperity Deal with the UK, signed in September, over frustrations about UK online safety rules and digital services taxes — The U.S. government has paused a tech-focused trade pledge with Britain over broader disagreements about Britain's digital regulations and food safety rules.

More: Financial Times, BBC, The Guardian, The Business Times, Reuters, CNBC, Telegraph, Capacity, Benzinga, Politico, and Daily Sabah

X: @teroterotero, @josephpolitano, and @josephpolitano

Bluesky: @justinhendrix, @mgerrydoyle, @judah-grunstein, @premnsikka, @davidheniguk, @andybrown1951, and @globaljusticenow. Mastodon: @ChrisMayLA6@zirk.us

Forums: r/neoliberal, r/uknews, r/ukpolitics, r/unitedkingdom, r/europe, and r/ukpolitics

Belle Lin / Wall Street Journal:

Databricks is raising a $4B Series L at a $134B valuation, up from $100B in September and $62B in December 2024, and had a $4.8B annual revenue rate in October — The data-analytics and AI software company is raising over $4 billion and crossed $4.8 billion in annual revenue rate

More: Reuters, Bloomberg, and Databricks

X: @jamestitcomb. Bluesky: @mgsiegler.com

Counterpoint Research:

Global smartphone shipments in 2026 are set to shrink 2.1% due to rising memory costs, led by Chinese OEMs; DRAM price surges are set to raise costs by 10%-15% — - Global smartphone shipments in 2026 are expected to shrink 2.1% due to rising memory costs.

More: The Register, 9to5Mac, MacRumors, Moneycontrol, Silicon Republic, Bloomberg, Reuters, MacTech.com, Tech in Asia, Android Authority, CNBC, and TechPowerUp. Forums: MacRumors Forums

William Sandlund / Financial Times:

Shares in Chinese companies critical to AI infrastructure surged in 2025, with CATL up 45% and Sungrow up 130%, as exports boost margins despite Trump's tariffs — Companies such as battery maker CATL earn big margins on export sales despite US tariffs — Shares in Chinese makers of batteries …

More: Financial Times

Ari Levy / CNBC:

Shares of Broadcom, CoreWeave, and Oracle, companies tied to the AI infrastructure buildout, extend last week's decline; ORCL is down 46%+ since September 10

More: Bloomberg, Bloomberg, Bloomberg, Implicator.ai, Tomasz Tunguz, and eWeek

X: @ttunguz. Forums: r/technology

Rest of World:

Analysis: of the 8,808 global data centers in October 2025, ~7,000 are in areas outside the optimal 18C to 27C temperature range; 600 are in areas above 27C — In 21 countries, all data centers are located in climates that are too hot. — On paper, Singapore is a terrible location for a data center.

More: Chicago Sun Times and The Overspill

X: @mvzelenks. Bluesky: @ketanjoshi.co. Mastodon: @Khrys@mamot.fr

Lora Kolodny / CNBC:

Tesla's shares closed at a 2025 high on December 15, after the company confirmed it is testing its driverless vehicles in Austin without a human safety operator — Nearly six months after launching a limited Robotaxi service in Austin, Texas with safety drivers in the car …

More: Interesting Engineering, Benzinga, Electrek, Tech in Asia, Blockonomi, EV, Business Insider, Carscoops, TechCrunch, Watcher Guru, Proactive, InsideEVs, The Information, Reuters, Gizmodo, Motley Fool, Mashable, Sherwood News, CleanTechnica, and StrictlyVC

X: @elonmusk, @aelluswamy, @mandablorian, @tesla, @garyblack00, @robotaxi, @olivercameron, @sawyermerritt, @cb_doge, @yunta_tsai, @scobleizer, @sawyermerritt, @divestech, @scobleizer, @tesla, @tesla, and @divestech. Bluesky: @carnage4life. Forums: r/RealTesla

Reuters:

China approves two cars from state-owned automakers with Level 3 autonomous capabilities, the first such approvals; the cars can drive in Chongqing and Beijing — China's industry regulator on Monday approved two Chinese cars with level-3 autonomous driving capabilities …

More: Engadget, electrive.com, CNN, Bloomberg, South China Morning Post, and Benzinga. X: @poezhao0605

Financial Times:

Sources: Monzo CEO TS Anil, who announced his exit and handover to ex-Googler Diana Layfield in October, was pushed out by the board over an IPO timing clash — Timing for fintech's planned listing was a key aspect of ructions ahead of TS Anil's surprise departure

More: Finextra and Sifted. X: @sebjohnsonuk

Emily Mason / Bloomberg:

Visa says it will allow US banks to settle transactions using Circle's USDC stablecoin over Solana, the US' first full deployment of a stablecoin settlement — Visa Inc. is opening its US network to stablecoin settlement, expanding crypto-linked products and services enabled …

More: The Block, Finextra, CoinDesk, Cointelegraph, Benzinga, Coinspeaker, Coinpedia Fintech News, Blockonomi, Cryptonews, Crypto Briefing, Financial Post, and NullTX

Ivan Mehta / TechCrunch:

Adobe updates Firefly's app to add a prompt-based video editor using Runway's Aleph model, and adds image and video models from Black Forest Labs and others — Adobe is updating its AI video-generation app, Firefly, with a new video editor that supports precise prompt-based edits …

More: SiliconANGLE

Katherine Hamilton / Wall Street Journal:

PayPal says it has filed applications to establish PayPal Bank to provide loans more efficiently to US small businesses and reduce its reliance on third parties — The payments company says it filed applications with the Utah Department of Financial Institutions and the FDIC to establish PayPal Bank

More: PayPal Newsroom, Engadget, FinTech Futures, Bloomberg, Finextra, Blockonomi, Washington Post, Pulse 2.0, The Information, Decrypt, Cryptonews, CoinDesk, Financial Times, Reuters, Payments Dive, PYMNTS.com, CNBC, American Banker, and Watcher Guru

X: @thoraxe_kitsu and @chibireviews. LinkedIn: Scott T Henderson

Gregory Schmidt / New York Times:

VW plans to end vehicle production at its Dresden plant, which opened in 2001, and convert it into a research hub focused on AI, robotics, and chip design — The auto giant stopped making cars at the plant in Dresden, which opened in 2001, as it faces weaker demand and steep U.S. tariffs.

Forums: r/neoliberal

New York Times:

Elizabeth Warren and two Democratic senators write to Google, Microsoft, Amazon, Meta, and more to investigate AI data centers' role in rising electricity costs — Three Democrats are seeking information from tech firms about the growing energy use of data centers and the utility bills of individuals and other businesses.

More: Bloomberg

Ben Thompson / Stratechery:

Q&A with Rivian founder and CEO RJ Scaringe on founding Rivian in 2009, production challenges, the VW partnership, autonomy, AI, EVs, chips, CarPlay, and more — Today's Stratechery Interview is with Rivian founder and CEO RJ Scaringe. Last week Rivian held their Autonomy and AI Day …

More: PYMNTS.com, Fast Company, Benzinga, and EV

Mark Bergen / Bloomberg:

As Europe rearms, Anduril is trying to break through in the UK by co-funding major programs, cutting manufacturing deals, and billing itself as “Anglo-American” — As Europe rearms, the US weapons maker is trying to break through in the UK by co-funding major programs …

More: CBS News

Benoit Berthelot / Bloomberg:

Sources and a memo: Amazon plans to cut 370 jobs, or ~8.5% of its 4,370 employees, at its European HQ in Luxembourg, the country's biggest layoffs in 20 years — Amazon.com Inc.'s decision earlier this year to ax 14,000 employees around the globe is reverberating at the company's European headquarters in Luxembourg.

More: GeekWire

Lucas Shaw / Bloomberg:

How the rise of AI has divided Hollywood: some oppose all AI use while others like director Timur Bekmambetov say they are exploring ways to utilize AI tools — While finishing Mercy, his upcoming film starring Chris Pratt, Timur Bekmambetov decided to make a new movie almost entirely generated by artificial intelligence.

More: About Amazon. LinkedIn: Lucas Shaw. Bluesky: @wavesblog

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