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January 9, 2026, 5:00 PM
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WeSmirchTop News
| 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: Andreessen Horowitz, a16z crypto, TechCrunch, Crunchbase News, San Francisco Business Times, Decrypt, CNBC, Yahoo Finance, Newcomer, Cryptonews, NFTgators, The Crypto Times, The Information, The Block, Howie Town, Reuters, CryptoNinjas, and Tracxn
X: @a16z, @brian_armstrong, @packym, @vcbrags, @a16z, @danprimack, @jenniferhli, @bhorowitz, @gerstenzang, @tkexpress11, @jorgecondebio, @espricewright, @austin_rief, @jaltma, @sriramk, @davidu, and @davidu
LinkedIn: Marc Andrusko, David George, and Mukund Mohan
| 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.| 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, Wired, US Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon, Reuters, CyberScoop, The Verge, Connected Places, AppleInsider, Breitbart, Semafor, 404 Media, Fortune, WinBuzzer, UPI, Mirror, CNN, Canary, Music Ally, PetaPixel, The American Bazaar, eWeek, Silicon UK, The Hollywood Reporter, Social Media Today, and Eschaton
X: @mikeisaac, @brianod_news, and @grok
LinkedIn: Rory Brooke and Jess Asato MP
Bluesky: @toilandtroublemedia.com, @seachange12, @samleecole, @davidgerard.co.uk, @gadget44027447, @brexitpirates, @missingthept, @joeuchill, @justinhendrix, @mantzarlis.com, @climateadam, @gsoh31, @socialmedialab.ca, @joenoonan, @missingthept, @bastardsheep.com, @trufflehog, @seanjones.org, @peterwalker99, @andyscollick, @carnage4life, @stormageddon, @docbaty, @ketanjoshi.co, @pogue.omg.lol, @mattburgess1, @glynmoody, @margaretmorgan, @mrrobertbob, @petefrasermusic, @metacurity.com, @kyledchurch, and @mgraalum
Mastodon: @carnage4life@mas.to and @xtaldave@social.vivaldi.net
Forums: Hacker News, r/tech, r/technology, and r/grok
| 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, NBC News, Associated Press, The Record, MacRumors, MobileSyrup, Ars Technica, Gizmodo, Kotaku, Reuters, Deadline, Le Monde, Digit, Axios, Moneycontrol, Mashable, Euractiv, Silicon Republic, Variety, Irish Independent, and HuffPost
X: @benjamingoggin. Bluesky: @zombiewretch, @prietschka, @carolinehaskins, @danny.page, @drsmith, @newschambers, and @samadams
Forums: r/apple, r/technology, r/Fauxmoi, r/EnoughMuskSpam, r/Futurology, r/technology, r/politics, and r/oregon
| The Guardian: |
More: Gizchina, Metro.co.uk, Business Today, Quartz, Mirror, and Screen Rant
Forums: r/LabourUK and r/unitedkingdom
| 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: Decrypt, The Verge, Reuters, WinBuzzer, Techstrong.ai, and NewsMax.com
X: @slow_developer, @teortaxestex, @_simonsmith, @jukan05, @andrewcurran_, and @zephyr_z9. Forums: r/LocalLLaMA
| 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: Meta Newsroom, TechCrunch, Times of India, PYMNTS.com, Oklo, Financial Times, CNBC, GeekWire, The Verge, The Economic Times, The Register, Wired, Fierce Network, Wall Street Journal, TerraPower, Quartz, Proactive, Sherwood News, The Columbus Dispatch, Power Engineering, Utility Dive, ESG Dive, Engadget, Yahoo Finance, Inc.com, UPI, Investopedia, Plain Dealer, Entrepreneur, Livemint, Dow Jones Newswires, DatacenterDynamics, WCPO 9 Cincinnati, Barron's Online, Forbes, Bloomberg, WinBuzzer, Vistra Corp, POWER Magazine, ZeroHedge News, Capacity, Axios, and The Hill
X: @joel_kaplan, @stocksavvyshay, @shanumathew93, @oklo, @terrapower, @joel_kaplan, @aniruddh_mohan, @metanewsroom, @dr_keefer, @briangitt, and @dekmartrades
LinkedIn: John Hanson, Chris Rinkus, Mike Rencheck, Rachel Peterson, Susan Buehler, and Steffan Szumowski. Threads: @andymstone
| 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.
More: Doc Searls Weblog. Bluesky: @jenlucpiquant, @ajillianreasons, and @craignewmark
Forums: r/technology, r/UpliftingNews, Slashdot, and Ars OpenForum
| 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 …
More: Financial Conduct Authority, Ripple, ZyCrypto, Ventureburn, Decrypt, The Crypto Times, CoinGape, The Coin Republic, BeInCrypto, Coinspeaker, Bitcoin Insider, The Crypto Basic, Crypto Briefing, Coinpedia Fintech News, Cryptonews, Blockonomi, Cointelegraph, CryptoPotato, and Yahoo Finance
LinkedIn: Joe Hayden, Oonagh van den Berg, James Burnie, and George Morris
| 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| Carmen Arroyo / Bloomberg: |
More: Electrek, The Information, Blockonomi, Proactive, Reuters, Sherwood News, and Benzinga
| 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, SiliconANGLE, FinSMEs, Crunchbase News, Ventureburn, Bitcoin Insider, Bloomberg, PYMNTS.com, The Block, NFTgators, Cryptonews, VC News Daily, and Cointelegraph
X: @cnaut, @theoneandomsy, @alliance, @lightspeedvp, @hosseeb, @mottice, @sytaylor, @lmrankhan, and @raincards
| Emily Mason / Bloomberg: |
Source: OnePay, the fintech firm behind Walmart's “super app”, recently bought back shares from employees at a price that values the startup at more than $4B — OnePay, the Walmart Inc.-backed fintech firm behind the “super app” that the world's largest retailer is incorporating for customers … | Ann Gehan / The Information: |
Amazon files planning documents in Illinois to construct a 225,000 square foot big-box store, a return to a “Target-like” retail concept it previously shelved — Amazon has started laying the groundwork to open a big-box retail store in the Chicago suburbs, according to planning documents.
More: Bloomberg and Business Insider
| 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
More: Gizmodo, Deadline, Gold Derby, Business Wire, WWD, The Hollywood Reporter, and Marie Claire
Bluesky: @cheryllynneaton, @daviduzumeri, @joeuchill, and @caseynewton
| Reuters: |
The EU is considering designating WhatsApp as a “very large online platform”, after WhatsApp Channels' average MAUs crossed the DSA threshold — Meta Platform's (META.O) messaging unit WhatsApp will likely be subject to tough online content rules targeting illegal and harmful content … | 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 … Sponsor Posts
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