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January 9, 2026, 12:35 PM
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| Dan Primack / Axios: |
a16z raises $15B+ across five new funds, including $6.75B for its fifth growth fund, the largest sum, and $3B for unspecified “other venture strategies” — Venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, whose past investments included Airbnb and Coinbase, on Friday announced …
More: a16z crypto, TechCrunch, a16z, Silicon Valley Business …, CNBC, Newcomer, The Information, The Economic Times, Reuters, CryptoNinjas, Bloomberg, NFTgators, The Crypto Times, Cryptonews, Fortune, The Block, and Tracxn
X: @a16z, @jenniferhli, @tkexpress11, @jorgecondebio, @espricewright, @austin_rief, @davidu, @bhorowitz, @jaltma, @sriramk, @gerstenzang, @danprimack, and @davidu
LinkedIn: Mukund Mohan, Marc Andrusko, and David George
| Iain Martin / Forbes: |
a16z captured 18%+ of all venture capital allocated in the US in 2025 and now manages $90B in assets, vs. Sequoia Capital's $56B and General Catalyst's $43B — Andreessen Horowitz has raised $15 billion for five new growth and venture funds in one of the largest-ever raises for a venture capital fund.
LinkedIn: Iain Martin
| Helena Horton / The Guardian: |
Grok says image generation and editing are now limited to paid subscribers, after outcry over its use to create sexually explicit and violent imagery — X to limit editing function to paying subscribers after platform threatened with fines and regulatory action
More: BBC, The Verge, Wired, Reuters, The Guardian, 404 Media, US Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon, Fortune, CNN, WinBuzzer, eWeek, UPI, Breitbart, Music Ally, Canary, Silicon UK, PetaPixel, The Hollywood Reporter, and Social Media Today
X: @brianod_news and @grok
LinkedIn: Rory Brooke and Jess Asato MP
Bluesky: @seachange12, @samleecole, @davidgerard.co.uk, @petefrasermusic, @bastardsheep.com, @mgraalum, @mrrobertbob, @gadget44027447, @metacurity.com, @brexitpirates, @ketanjoshi.co, @missingthept, @stormageddon, @joeuchill, @justinhendrix, @mattburgess1, @trufflehog, @glynmoody, @kyledchurch, @docbaty, @seanjones.org, @gsoh31, @carnage4life, @andyscollick, @socialmedialab.ca, @joenoonan, @pogue.omg.lol, @missingthept, @peterwalker99, and @margaretmorgan. Mastodon: @xtaldave@social.vivaldi.net
Forums: Hacker News and r/technology
| Robert Hart / The Verge: |
X is restricting Grok's image capabilities via the @grok command for free users, but they can still create sexual deepfakes via X's “Edit image” or Grok's app — X's sexual deepfake machine is still running, despite Grok saying otherwise.
More: NBC News, 404 Media, Politico, Gizmodo, Silicon Republic, Associated Press, Mashable, Deadline, Axios, Le Monde, Digit, Variety, Irish Independent, Moneycontrol, and Euractiv
Bluesky: @zombiewretch, @prietschka, @drsmith, @newschambers, and @samadams
Forums: r/oregon, r/EnoughMuskSpam, r/politics, r/Futurology, and r/technology
| Hadas Gold / CNN: |
More: The Guardian, Disconnect, Financial Times, NBC News, TechCrunch, Ars Technica, Reuters, Fast Company, Blaze Media, Pivot to AI, Mirror, The Times, Bloomberg, Analytics India Magazine, Silicon Republic, and Gizmodo
X: @sentedcruz, @hadas_gold, @nxthompson, and @hadas_gold
Bluesky: @chumleyprelude, @ireneer, @pqpolitics, @angrywaterman, @karlbode.com, @mmasnick, @hunterwalk.com, @quigonsmith, and @caseynewton. Threads: @kolchak. Forums: r/technology
| Carmen Arroyo / Bloomberg: |
Docs: xAI had a net loss of $1.46B in Q3, up from $1B in Q1; sources: xAI told investors it plans to build AI that will eventually power Optimus humanoid robots — Elon Musk's artificial intelligence startup xAI is burning cash quickly, with losses mounting as it spends to build data centers …
More: Electrek, The Information, Reuters, Sherwood News, Proactive, and Benzinga
| Mark Sweney / The Guardian: |
Filings: X's UK revenue fell 58.3% YoY from £69.1M in 2023 to £28.9M in 2024; pre-tax profit fell from £8.5M in 2022 and £2.2M in 2023 to £767K in 2024 — Elon Musk-owned site reports plunging profits amid outcry over use of AI tool Grok to create sexually explicit imagery| The Information: |
Sources say DeepSeek will launch V4, its next-generation model, in the coming weeks and say it outperformed Anthropic's Claude and OpenAI's GPT series in coding — Chinese AI startup DeepSeek is expected to launch its next-generation AI model that features strong coding capabilities in the coming weeks …
More: Reuters, WinBuzzer, and NewsMax.com
| Jennifer Swann / Wired: |
How Craigslist has stayed relevant as a place to find jobs, housing, and personal connections without relying on algorithmic feeds, public profiles, or ratings — Millennials are still using Craigslist to find jobs, find love, and even to cast creative projects—eschewing other AI- and algorithm-dominated online spaces.| Patrick Coffee / Wall Street Journal: |
Nvidia has hired Google Cloud VP of Marketing Alison Wagonfeld to be Nvidia's first CMO, starting in February; source: Wagonfeld will report to CEO Jensen Huang — Alison Wagonfeld will report to CEO Jensen Huang as marketing rises in importance at the AI chip maker
More: Tom's Hardware, Mercury News, Adweek, MediaPost, and Implicator.ai
| Pragyan Kalita / Reuters: |
Rain, which helps businesses issue stablecoin-linked Visa cards, raised a $250M Series C led by ICONIQ at a $1.95B valuation, taking its total funding to $338M+ — Stablecoin firm Rain said on Friday it has raised $250 million in a funding round led by ICONIQ, valuing the company at $1.95 billion …
More: Rain, PYMNTS.com, FinSMEs, The Block, Bloomberg, NFTgators, Cryptonews, and Cointelegraph
| Jennifer Hiller / Wall Street Journal: |
Meta strikes a 20-year deal to buy 2,600+ MW of nuclear power from three Vistra plants, and announces deals to back new TerraPower and Oklo reactor projects — Facebook parent will back nuclear projects with Oklo, Bill Gates-backed TerraPower and Vistra — Meta Platforms on Friday unveiled …
More: Bloomberg, Financial Times, Meta Newsroom, Engadget, DatacenterDynamics, The Hill, CNBC, Mercury News, UPI, Investopedia, Motley Fool, Proactive, Reuters, Entrepreneur, Livemint, ZeroHedge News, Dow Jones Newswires, Barron's Online, TerraPower, Vistra Corp, Capacity, Business Wire, and Axios
X: @briangitt and @dekmartrades
| Louise Breusch Rasmussen / Reuters: |
The EU says it is considering designating WhatsApp a “very large platform”, after Meta published WhatsApp user numbers above the DSA threshold in February 2025 — The European Commission is considering recategorizing Meta's (META.O) WhatsApp messaging service to make it more responsible … | Saritha Rai / Bloomberg: |
Chinese humanoid robotics companies dominated CES 2026, but a wide gap remains between choreographed demonstrations and large-scale, real-world deployment — One of Elon Musk's worries was on full display at CES in Las Vegas this week. Chinese-made human-like robots were everywhere across … | Jordan Moreau / Variety: |
The Golden Globes signs a deal with Polymarket, which will provide stats and predictions about the awards show at the official 2026 viewing party — The fast-rising digital marketplace will offer real-time forecasts for winners in top races during Sunday's live telecast on CBS| Sarah Wynn / The Block: |
The UK FCA grants Ripple approval for its Electronic Money Institution license and crypto asset registration, clearing the way for Ripple's UK expansion — Partner offers — Quick Take — The Financial Conduct Authority granted Ripple approval for its Electronic Money Institution license … | Barry Schwartz / Search Engine Land: |
Microsoft debuts Copilot Checkout in the US, enabling in-chat purchases via PayPal, Shopify, Stripe, and more; Shopify merchants will be automatically enrolled — Microsoft is beginning to roll out its first agentic experiences within Copilot, it's AI answer engine.
More: Microsoft Advertising, PCMag, PayPal Newsroom, Digital Trends, Retail TouchPoints, Engadget, Search Engine Roundtable, eWeek, GeekWire, Motley Fool, Axios, Digit, Microsoft, TestingCatalog, Windows Central, Gizmodo, Thurrott, The Information, and Neowin
X: @protonvpn, @paypal, @kross_roads, @kimmonismus, @acce, and @msftnews
LinkedIn: Ricky Ranjan, Carolina Puerto, and Jeff Pomeroy
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