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December 18, 2025, 8:55 PM
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| Sara Fischer / Axios: |
Internal memo: TikTok has signed a deal to sell its US unit; Oracle, Silver Lake, MGX will collectively own 45% of the US entity, and ByteDance will retain ~20% — TikTok has signed a deal to divest its U.S. entity to a joint venture controlled by American investors, per an internal memo seen by Axios.
More: NPR, CNBC, TechCrunch, MacRumors, International Business Times, 9to5Mac, Fox Business, CNN, Reuters, Associated Press, The Verge, NBC News, New York Times, UPI, TechRadar, Sky News, Dexerto, Agence France-Presse, TRT World, The National, ANI News, TVREV, Tech in Asia, Livemint, Washington Examiner, Mashable, Variety, Cord Cutters News, Sinocism, BBC, and The Straits Times
| Alex Weprin / The Hollywood Reporter: |
Memo: the TikTok US deal is set to close on Jan. 22; terms include retraining the recommendation algorithm on US user data and Oracle overseeing data protection — Abu Dhabi's state investment fund will also be a managing investor. — The TikTok sale is officially happening …
More: Bloomberg, The Information, Engadget, The Guardian, Associated Press, The Wrap, China Money Network, Blockchain.News, Sports Business Journal, Wall Street Journal, Hindustan Times, Bloomberg Law, Deadline, Baller Alert, India Today, The Independent, and Reuters
Bluesky: @sarahbauerled, @karlbode.com, @camsavage00, @nitishpahwa.com, and @bencollins
| Financial Times: |
Trump Media agrees to merge with Google-backed fusion energy company TAE in a $6B deal and build the “world's first utility-scale fusion power plant” in 2026 — Trump Media & Technology Group's shares rise 37% after deal with TAE Technologies — The Trump family media group …
More: New York Times, GlobeNewswire News Room, Gizmodo, Fortune, The Verge, CNBC, Wall Street Journal, The Joy of Tech, Al Jazeera, Motley Fool, Breitbart, NewsMax.com, Politico, Modern Diplomacy, The Hill, Bloomberg, Telegraph, E&E News, Fast Company, The Register, Newser, masslive.com, The National Pulse, Crunchbase News, The Independent, UPI, NDTV Profit, MS NOW, New York Sun, Sherwood News, Daily Caller News Foundation, Reuters, Blockonomi, Yahoo Finance, TechCrunch, Straight Arrow News, ZeroHedge News, Investing.com, Financial Post, Variety, New York Post, Agence France-Presse, Latitude Media, Benzinga, Engadget, Media Play News, and Fox Business
X: @joshgans, @rodneyabrooks, @tae, @sullycnbc, @wendysiegelman, @danielnewmanuv, @ruthbenghiat, @ryp__, @danielnewmanuv, @amy_siskind, @timodc, @silvermanjacob, @adamscochran, @denver4va, @sollenbergerrc, @divestech, @ashtonforbes, @themainewonk, @keithedwards, @luke_metro, @danprimack, @shanumathew93, @jsneedles, and @pkafka
Bluesky: @mattmcneilshow, @thedesk.net, @robpegoraro.com, @mgsiegler.com, and @terrybsrq
Forums: r/energy, r/WallStreetbetsELITE, r/politics, r/Destiny, r/neoliberal, and r/wallstreetbets
| OpenAI: |
OpenAI releases GPT‑5.2-Codex, with improvements on long-horizon work through context compaction, stronger performance on large code changes, and more — The most advanced agentic coding model for professional software engineering and defensive cybersecurity. — Get started
More: SiliconANGLE and Blockchain.News
X: @synthwavedd, @aaazzam, @rudrank, @thsottiaux, @embirico, @sama, @sama, and @thsottiaux
LinkedIn: Frederic Lardinois and Romain Huet
Bluesky: @phillipcarter.dev and @timkellogg.me
Forums: Hacker News, r/accelerate, r/programare, r/singularity, and r/codex
| Joanna Stern / Wall Street Journal: |
In an experiment, Claude ran a vending machine in the WSJ newsroom and lost $1,000+ after it dropped prices to zero, gave away a free PlayStation, and more — Anthropic's Claude ran a snack operation in the WSJ newsroom. It gave away a free PlayStation, ordered a live fish—and taught us lessons about the future of AI agents.
More: TechEBlog, kottke.org, The Wall Street Journal on YouTube, Fortune, Anthropic on YouTube, Anthropic, and NextDraft
X: @chafkin, @jeffwilen, @lara_korte, @andonlabs, @ceostroff, @andonlabs, @arpitrage, @joannastern, @thelincoln, @byklong, @anthropicai, @joannastern, @anthropicai, @anthropicai, @metedata, @thestalwart, @darelmass, @andonlabs, and @katherinemiller
Bluesky: @kevincollier, @damon.kiesow.net, @peark.es, @skynetandchill.com, @prietschka, @benzipperer.org, @paleofuture, @hammancheez, @davelee.me, @lopatto, @aedwardslevy, @brenttoderian, @ceostroff, @kashhill, and @klong
Mastodon: @gwynnion@mastodon.social, @stevendbrewer@wandering.shop, @dcoderlt@ohai.social, @srol@mellified.men, and @christianschwaegerl …
Forums: Hacker News, r/ClaudeAI, r/technology, r/Economics, and Beehaw
| Michael Nuñez / VentureBeat: |
Anthropic launches Agent Skills as an open standard with a specification and SDK, and says VS Code, GitHub, Cursor, Goose, and others already support the format — Anthropic said on Wednesday it would release its Agent Skills technology as an open standard, a strategic bet that sharing …
More: Claude, Runtime, Simon Willison's Weblog, SiliconANGLE, The New Stack, Axios, and ZDNET
X: @vercel_dev, @ghchangelog, @adocomplete, @claudeai, @code, @alexalbert__, @thdxr, @claudeai, @claudeai, @letta_ai, and @mweinbach
| Juli Clover / MacRumors: |
Apple makes iOS changes in Japan to comply with local laws, including alternative app stores and payment options, a new fee structure, and new default controls — Apple today introduced several changes to the App Store in Japan to meet the requirements of the Mobile Software Competition Act (MSCA) that goes into effect on December 18.
More: TechCrunch, Apple, 9to5Mac, The Verge, Apple Support, MacRumors, Apple Developer, Michael Tsai, 9to5Mac, iPhone in Canada, Engadget, Moneycontrol, Bloomberg, Financial Times, Finimize, AppleInsider, 9to5Mac, and Reuters
Forums: r/apple, Beehaw, Slashdot, and MacRumors Forums
| Tim Sweeney / @timsweeneyepic: |
More: MacRumors, Apple Developer, AppleInsider, iClarified, TechCrunch, 9to5Mac, Thurrott, and Windows Central
X: @timsweeneyepic, @datwarlordguy, @flimmzyytt, @fortnitejpnews, @ramblingsnerd, @zkurishi, and @timsweeneyepic. Threads: @altstoreio
Mastodon: @altstore@fosstodon.org and @nicolas17@social …
| Sergiu Gatlan / BleepingComputer: |
France charges a crew member of an Italian passenger ferry for allegedly infecting the ship with a remote access tool on behalf of a foreign power — French authorities arrested two crew members of an Italian passenger ferry suspected of infecting the ship with malware that could have enabled them to remotely control the vessel.
More: France 24, The Cyber Express, gCaptain, and The Maritime Executive
| Jake Kanter / Deadline: |
YouTube terminates Screen Culture and KH Studio, two large channels that used AI to create fake movie trailers; the platform earlier suspended the channels' ads — The Google-owned video giant has switched off Screen Culture and KH Studio, which together boasted well over 2 million subscribers and more than a billion views.
More: Ars Technica, The Wrap, CNET, How-To Geek, San Francisco Chronicle, and Cord Cutters News
Bluesky: @jessehawken, @scalzi.com, @jason1749, and @phantomantis. Mastodon: @UKFilmNerd@mastodon.me.uk
| Meghan Bobrowsky / Wall Street Journal: |
Sources: Meta is developing a new image and video-focused AI model codenamed Mango, expected to be released in H1 2026 along with its new LLM dubbed Avocado — Alexandr Wang, the company's AI chief, said the new model will debut soon, along with a large language model dubbed Avocado| Suzanne Smalley / The Record: |
Pennsylvania's Supreme Court rules that police can get Google search data without a warrant; an expert warns it may encourage warrantless searches nationwide — The Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that police did not need a warrant to obtain a convicted rapist's Google searches when investigating the crime.
More: The Information and The National Law Review
Bluesky: @asgvisalaw, @dakota.graphics, @watermanlarry, @profciara, and @profferguson. Mastodon: @AAKL@infosec.exchange
| Jay Peters / The Verge: |
Filing: Sony and Tencent reach a “confidential settlement” over Tencent's Light of Motiram, a game that Sony alleged was a “slavish clone” of its Horizon series — Sony and Tencent have reached a ‘confidential settlement,’ and Light of Motiram is no longer listed on Steam or the Epic Games Store.
More: Video Games Chronicle, The Game Post, Eurogamer.net, TechPowerUp, Gameranx, GamesRadar, TechRaptor, Polygon.com, Screen Rant, KitGuru, and Game Developer
Bluesky: @jaypeters.net. Forums: r/TwoBestFriendsPlay, r/Games, r/LIGHTOFMOTlRAM, r/gaming, r/pcgaming, r/HorizonForbiddenWest, r/horizon, and r/PS5
| Chance Miller / 9to5Mac: |
Apple says it will roll out more App Store ads in 2026 “to increase opportunity in search results”; Apple's website says 800M+ users visit the App Store weekly — Apple is expanding the number of ads that appear in App Store search results. In an update on its Apple Ads website today …
More: Apple Ads, AppleInsider, MacRumors, Ubergizmo, Cult of Mac, MobileSyrup, MediaPost, and Search Engine Land. Forums: MacRumors Forums
| Wall Street Journal: |
Sources: Armadin, launched by Mandiant's founder Kevin Mandia to fight AI hacking, raised a $24M seed and is in talks to raise $100M+ at a $600M+ valuation — As AI threatens to give advantage to attackers, man who built Google's $5.4 billion Mandiant business works to restore balance
Bluesky: @metacurity.com
| Chris McGuire / Council on Foreign Relations: |
US approving Nvidia H200 exports to China is based on the idea that Huawei is a viable competitor, but data shows the gap between Nvidia and Huawei is widening — Executive Summary — On December 8, the Trump administration announced plans to loosen U.S. export controls on artificial intelligence …
More: Tom's Hardware. X: @chrisrmcguire, @chrisrmcguire, @rebeccaarcesati, @cfr_org, @chrisrmcguire, @chrisrmcguire, @noahpinion, @chrisrmcguire, @juliangewirtz, and @garyhaubold. LinkedIn: Marc Gustafson
| Wall Street Journal: |
Sources: OpenAI's new fundraising round could value it at as much as $830B; it aims to raise up to $100B and complete the round by the end of Q1 at the earliest — Concerns about an AI bubble have weighed on many publicly traded tech-related companies — OpenAI is aiming to raise … | Jake Bleiberg / Bloomberg: |
Amazon CSO Stephen Schmidt says subtle keystroke data lag, measuring 110ms instead of the expected tens of milliseconds, helped catch a North Korean IT worker — Security personnel tracked connections from a contractor. — An infinitesimal delay in the typed commands of a new IT worker provided … | Annie Palmer / CNBC: |
Instacart will pay $60M to settle FTC allegations that it used deceptive tactics in its subscription signup and “satisfaction guarantee” advertising — Instacart will pay $60 million to settle allegations by the Federal Trade Commission that it misled users with false advertising and deployed … | The Information: |
Sources describe tensions between OpenAI's research and ChatGPT product groups, leading to the “code red”; OpenAI is set to beat its 2025 revenue goal of $13B — Over the past year, some OpenAI staffers noticed a concerning change in the way people who used ChatGPT were reacting to improvements in the chatbot.| Todd Bishop / GeekWire: |
Amazon rolls out Alexa+ on the web to early access users, with chat functionality, smart home controls, file management, and cross-device conversations — Amazon is quietly rolling out the last big pillar of its AI-powered Alexa+ vision: the Alexa.com website, bridging the gap between its Echo devices … | Mistral AI: |
Mistral launches Mistral OCR 3, featuring improvements in processing forms, scanned documents, complex tables, and handwriting, priced at $2 per 1,000 pages — Overview — Mistral OCR 3 is designed to extract text and embedded images from a wide range of documents with exceptional fidelity.
More: VentureBeat and WinBuzzer
X: @qtnx_, @mistralai, @guillaumelample, and @dilmegani
Forums: r/LocalLLaMA and r/singularity
| Cecilia D'Anastasio / Bloomberg: |
Sources: Riot Games is working on a major overhaul of League of Legends, internally called League Next, for 2027; Riot confirms a big update is in the works — A refreshed version being called ‘League Next’ is planned for 2027 — Riot Games is working on a major overhaul of its flagship game League …
More: GamesRadar, Dexerto, and TheGamer
Forums: r/ValorantCompetitive, r/VALORANT, r/leagueoflegends, r/Games, and r/PedroPeepos
| Rebekah Valentine / IGN: |
Circana: Xbox Series console sales fell 70% YoY to an all-time low in November, compared to the PS5's 40% YoY drop and Switch 1 and 2's combined 10% YoY fall — Down again. — This morning, we learned that November was a surprisingly bad month for video game spending across the board.
More: The Verge, GamingBolt, The Independent, and Bloomberg
| Lily Mae Lazarus / Fortune: |
Sources: Salient, which uses AI to automate loan servicing, raised $10M following a $60M Series A in June, pushing its valuation to ~$500M; its ARR hit $25M — In an industry where high churn is the norm, Salient has retained all of its customers.COURTESY OF MATRIX.VC
X: @ajs
| Chainalysis: |
North Korean hackers stole a record $2.02B in crypto in 2025, a 51% YoY rise that takes its cumulative stolen total to $6.75B; individual wallet hacks hit 158K — TL;DR — North Korean hackers stole $2.02 billion in cryptocurrency in 2025, a 51% year-over-year increase … | Mary Ann Azevedo / Crunchbase News: |
Nirvana, which uses real-time driving telematics to build insurance policies for truckers, raised a $100M Series D at a $1.5B valuation, up from $830M in March — Nirvana Insurance, an AI-based commercial insurance platform for the trucking industry, has raised a $100 million Series D round … | Axios: |
FCC Chairman Brendan Carr tells a Senate committee the FCC “is not an independent agency”; the agency removed “independent agency” from its site as he testified — FCC Chairman Brendan Carr said in his Wednesday Senate testimony that the agency he governs “is not an independent agency, formally speaking.”
More: New York Times, PCMag, and Straight Arrow News
Bluesky: @democracyactionnet, @flingjore.com, @karlbode.com, @karlbode.com, and @stevekovach. Mastodon: @petergleick@fediscience.org
Forums: Hacker News, r/law, r/politics, and Slashdot
| Niko Gallogly / New York Times: |
Stockholm-based AI coding startup Lovable raised $330M led by CapitalG and Menlo Ventures at a $6.6B valuation, up from $1.8B after raising $200M in July — The Swedish company is now valued at $6.6 billion, more than triple its $1.8 billion valuation set by investors in July.
More: Lovable, SiliconANGLE, TechCrunch, Axios, Tech Funding News, and Tech.eu
| Financial Times: |
Sources: Yann LeCun is in early talks to raise €500M for his startup at a ~€3B valuation; LeCun has named Alexandre LeBrun as its CEO, ahead of a January launch — Turing award winner is in early talks to raise €500mn ahead of January launchSponsor Posts
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