Techmeme
December 23, 2025, 8:25 PM

Top News

Fatima Hussein / Associated Press:
The US is imposing visa restrictions on five Europeans, including Thierry Breton, accusing them of pressuring US tech companies to censor certain US viewpoints  —  The State Department announced Tuesday it was barring five Europeans it accused of leading efforts to pressure U.S. tech firms to censor or suppress American viewpoints.
Bloomberg:
ServiceNow agrees to acquire cybersecurity startup Armis for $7.75B in cash in a deal set to close in H2 2026, marking its largest acquisition to date  —  ServiceNow Inc. has reached a deal to buy the cybersecurity startup Armis in a deal valued at $7.75 billion, representing its largest acquisition to date.
Jordan Fabian / Bloomberg:
After a yearlong review, the US says China is engaging in unfair chip trade practices, but holds off on additional chip import tariffs at least until mid-2027  —  The US accused China of engaging in unfair trade practices in the semiconductor sector, but is declining to impose additional tariffs on chip imports until at least mid-2027.
Lauren Feiner / The Verge:
A federal judge grants a temporary injunction blocking a Texas law requiring mobile app stores to verify users' ages from taking effect on January 1  —  The law was set to take effect next month. … A federal judge blocked a Texas law requiring mobile app stores to verify users' ages from taking effect on January 1st.
Aime Williams / Financial Times:
The Trump administration says it will replace the lottery program used to grant H-1B visas with a “weighted” system that prioritizes higher-paid individuals  —  ‘Weighted’ selection process that prioritises higher-paid and more skilled applicants will begin in February
The Information:
Sources: Snowflake is in talks to buy app monitoring startup Observe for around $1B; Observe has raised more than $470M  —  Snowflake is in talks to buy app monitoring startup Observe Inc. for around $1 billion, which would likely be the biggest deal in Snowflake's history, according to people with knowledge of the discussions.
X: @amir
MiniMax:
China's MiniMax releases M2.1, an upgrade to its open-source M2 model that it says has “significantly enhanced” coding capabilities in Rust, Java, and others  —  MiniMax has been continuously transforming itself in a more AI-native way.  The core driving forces of this process are models …
Yueqi Yang / The Information:
Brett Harrison, the former president of FTX US, raised a $35M Series A for his new perpetual futures exchange AX, a source says at a $187M valuation  —  Brett Harrison, the former president of FTX US, has raised $35 million for his startup Architect Financial Technologies, which offers a global perpetual futures exchange.
Bloomberg:
Samsung's Harman agrees to acquire ZF's radar and automotive computing driver-assistance business for €1.5B, as the European auto-supplier sector struggles  —  Samsung Electronics Co.-owned Harman International is buying the advanced driver assistance systems business of Germany's ZF Group …
Juli Clover / MacRumors:
The European Commission says Apple will bring AirPods-like pairing and iPhone notification access to third-party devices under the DMA in iOS 26.3 in 2026  —  The European Commission today praised the interoperability changes that Apple is introducing in iOS 26.3, once again crediting the Digital Markets Act …
Devindra Hardawar / Engadget:
Xbox had a terrible 2025: Microsoft canceled games and raised console and Game Pass prices, Costco stopped selling Xbox, and Valve's Steam Machine upstaged it  —  But can it be resurrected in PC form?  —  Want to see a dead body?  I present to you the Xbox.
Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai / TechCrunch:
France's La Poste says it has suffered a suspected DDoS attack in “a major network incident” on December 22, which disrupted its postal and banking services  —  France's national postal and baking services company La Poste was knocked offline by a suspected distributed denial-of-service …

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Earlier Picks

Bonny Chu / Fox News:
Rebecca Bellan / TechCrunch:
Joe Rossignol / MacRumors:
Bloomberg: