Techmeme
December 31, 2025, 1:30 PM

Top News

Wall Street Journal:
How Manus distanced itself from its Chinese roots to court US investors; a source says Meta's $2.5B deal includes a $500M retention pool for Manus' employees  —  The $2.5 billion deal could herald a new era for China-linked AI companies and U.S. investors  —  Workers at Butterfly Effect …
Emily Nicolle / Bloomberg:
Trump Media, owner of Truth Social, plans to distribute a new token to shareholders with partner Crypto.com, expected to operate on the Cronos blockchain  —  Trump Media and Technology Group Corp. plans to issue a new cryptocurrency, which will be distributed among its shareholders.
Reuters:
Sources: Nvidia has approached TSMC to ramp up H200 chip production; Chinese companies have placed orders for 2M+ H200 chips for 2026, while Nvidia holds 700K  —  Nvidia (NVDA.O) is scrambling to meet strong demand for its H200 artificial intelligence chips from Chinese technology companies …
Essi Lehto / Reuters:
Finland seizes a ship suspected of damaging an undersea cable linking Helsinki and Estonia in the Gulf of Finland; Estonia says a second cable was also damaged  —  Finnish police on Wednesday seized a ship suspected of damaging an undersea telecoms cable running from Helsinki …
Wall Street Journal:
Kurt Wagner / Bloomberg:
Elon Musk says xAI bought a third building called “MACROHARDRR”, reportedly adjacent to Colossus 2, that will take the company's training compute to almost 2GW  —  Elon Musk's xAI is planning an expansion of its massive data center complex in Memphis, and has purchased a third building …
Michael Acton / Financial Times:
Trump Mobile delays plan to launch its gold-coloured smartphone, initially promised for August 2025, saying the recent US government shutdown delayed deliveries  —  Move marks latest setback for project that originally promised to sell a US-made device  —  Trump Mobile, the phone company launched …
The Information:
Sources: Uber is in talks to acquire the parking space reservation app SpotHero; the parking app was last valued at $290M  —  Uber has been in talks to acquire parking app SpotHero, a popular service that allows drivers to reserve parking spaces, according to people with knowledge of the discussions.
Bob Tita / Wall Street Journal:
How the AI data center boom boosted Caterpillar's power and energy unit; generator sales are up 28% YoY through Sept. 2025, after growing 22% to $7.8B in 2024  —  Sales of generators are powering the manufacturing giant's fastest-growing segment and a race to help data centers skip the grid
More: PYMNTS.com
SoftBank Group Corp.:
SoftBank says it has completed a $22.5B investment in OpenAI, finalizing its up to $40B investment commitment announced in March and taking its stake to ~11%  —  SoftBank Group Corp. ("SBG" or the “Company") today announced that it has completed an additional investment of $22.5 billion …

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Featured Podcasts

The Nick, Dick and Paul Show:
Iran, Oil, and the US
Nick Bilton, Dick Costolo, and Paul Kedrosky pull back the curtain on AI, startups, and the future rushing toward us, all with healthy dose of irreverence.
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The Talk Show With John Gruber:
'Apple at 50', With John Siracusa
The director's commentary track for Daring Fireball. Long digressions on Apple, technology, design, movies, and more.
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Big Technology Podcast:
OpenAI President Greg Brockman: AI Self-Improvement, The Superapp Bet, Path To AGI, Scaling Compute
The Big Technology Podcast takes you behind the scenes in the tech world featuring interviews with plugged-in insiders and outside agitators.
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Uncapped with Jack Altman:
Brad Lightcap from OpenAI
Conversations with people I admire about things I'm genuinely interested in.
Subscribe to Uncapped with Jack Altman.
Channels with Peter Kafka:
Why We Need to Pay Attention to Elon Musk Again
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.
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Tools and Weapons with Brad Smith:
Ryan Roslansky: Turning AI Anxiety into Skills for the Future of Work
Microsoft Vice Chair and President Brad Smith speaks with leaders in government, business, and culture to explore the most critical challenges at the intersection of technology and society.
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More News

Suzanne Smalley / The Record:

Earlier Picks

Zhengdong Wang:
Vlad Savov / Bloomberg:
Zak Killian / Tom's Hardware: