Techmeme
December 21, 2025, 10:45 AM

Top News

Joe Rivano Barros / Mission Local:
Waymo says it temporarily suspended its ride-hailing service in San Francisco during a citywide blackout, as downed traffic lights appeared to halt its vehicles  —  Waymo said Saturday that it was stopping service across San Francisco after numerous online videos showed its autonomous vehicles …
Mariella Moon / Engadget:
Google says it needs more time to upgrade Assistant to Gemini on most Android devices; Google previously planned to complete the transition by the end of 2025  —  The transition from Assistant to Gemini will continue into 2026.  —  Google wanted to remove Assistant from most Android phones …
@metr_evals:
METR: Claude Opus 4.5 has a 50% task completion time horizon of about 4 hours and 49 minutes, more than double that of Claude Opus 4 released earlier this year  —  We estimate that, on our tasks, Claude Opus 4.5 has a 50%-time horizon of around 4 hrs 49 mins (95% confidence interval of 1 hr 49 mins to 20 hrs 25 mins). While we're still working through evaluations for other recent models, this is our highest published time horizon to date. [image]
Business Insider:
Google and Apple advise employees on H-1B and other visas not to travel outside the US due to processing delays, following new social media screening rules  —  - Google and Apple are advising some employees with visas not to travel outside the US, per memos viewed by Business Insider.
Financial Times:
A look at Tokyo-based neocloud provider Datasection, which sources say has a $1.2B+ contract giving Tencent access to a large share of its 15K Blackwell chips  —  Contracts with Chinese tech giant have rapidly turned Datasection into one of Asia's biggest ‘neoclouds’
Bloomberg:
Chinese AI chipmaker Moore Threads announces a new generation of chips slated for mass production from 2026, just weeks after its blockbuster IPO in China  —  Moore Threads Technology Co. introduced a new generation of chips aimed at reducing artificial-intelligence developers' dependence …
Associated Press:
Surveillance tools exported by China, based on US tech and obtained by Chinese companies, to countries like Nepal are being used to stifle Tibetan refugees  —  The white dome of Boudhanath rises like a silent guardian over the chaotic sprawl of Nepal's capital, Kathmandu, crowned by a golden spire that pierces the sky.
More: Financial Post.  X: @ap and @ap.  LinkedIn: Aniruddha Ghosal.  Bluesky: @mkabir
Samuel K. Moore / IEEE Spectrum:
US CHIPS Act-funded SMART USA Institute, focused on digital twins for chipmaking, says the Department of Commerce will terminate its $285M five-year contract  —  The head of a U.S. CHIPS and Science Act-funded center devoted to digital twins for chip manufacturing has informed its 121 members …
Chris Metinko / Axios:
DataLane, which is using AI to build an identity graph to map local businesses across the US, raised a $22.5M Series A led by Amplify Partners  —  DataLane, which is building an identity graph for every local business, raised a $22.5 million Series A led by Amplify Partners, co-founder and CEO David Patterson-Cole tells Axios Pro.
Isabelle Bousquette / Wall Street Journal:
The RAISE Act requires AI companies with $500M+ in revenue to publish safety protocols and disclose safety incidents within 72 hours, with fines up to $3M  —  Days after President Trump moved to block states from regulating AI, New York's governor signs what the bill's sponsor calls the strongest AI safety law in the U.S.

Sponsor Posts

Subquadratic:
Subquadratic: the LLM built for 12M-token reasoning  —  SubQ can reason across entire codebases and document sets in one pass with no RAG workarounds.  Read how SubQ 1.1 Small holds near-perfect retrieval out to 12M tokens.
Cloudflare:
Cloudflare Connect 2026: The Agentic Conference  —  Stop preparing for agents.  Start running them.  100+ sessions, workshops, and speakers from OpenAI, Arm, and Cloudflare across AI, security, and performance.
Zoho:
The 90-day recognition cliff: Why praise programs fade, and what keeps them alive  —  Recognition programs often start with enthusiasm.  Employees participate, managers share shoutouts, and teams have a new way to celebrate achievements.
IDrive:
Protecting your Cloud Applications Data  —  Backing up Office 365, Google Workspace, Dropbox & Salesforce data is critical to preventing data loss or corruption, complying with laws and avoiding critical downtime in case of a disaster.

Featured Podcasts

Big Technology Podcast:
SAP CEO: AI Won't Kill Software, But It Will Change Your Job — With Christian Klein
The Big Technology Podcast takes you behind the scenes in the tech world featuring interviews with plugged-in insiders and outside agitators.
Subscribe to Big Technology Podcast.
Channels with Peter Kafka:
David Ellison's Paramount-Warner Empire & The Fight That Comes Next
Media and tech aren't just intersecting - they're fully intertwined. To understand how those worlds work, Peter Kafka talks to industry leaders, upstarts and observers.
Subscribe to Channels with Peter Kafka.
Sources:
Factory CEO on why AGI is already here
Candid conversations with the leaders shaping what's next in AI and the broader tech industry. Hosted by Alex Heath, who has covered Silicon Valley for more than a decade.
Subscribe to Sources.
Invest Like the Best:
Noah Shinn - Building Instinct: The Personal Agent
The leading destination to learn about business and investing. We do this by showcasing exceptional talent and ideas.
Subscribe to Invest Like the Best.
Lenny's Podcast:
The grief, loneliness, and burnout sweeping through the tech industry right now | Molly Graham
Interviews with world-class product leaders and growth experts to uncover actionable advice to help you build, launch, and grow your own product.
Subscribe to Lenny's Podcast.
Great Chat:
Doomers at Dreamforce
A podcast mostly about tech. Brought to you weekly by Angela Du, Sally Shin, Mac Bohannon, Helen Min, and Ashley Mayer.
Subscribe to Great Chat.
 

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 10:45 AM ET, December 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.

More News

April Roach / CNBC:

Earlier Picks

OpenAI: