Techmeme
January 19, 2026, 10:10 AM

Top News

Sarah Friar / OpenAI:
OpenAI CFO Sarah Friar says compute grew from 0.2 GW in 2023 to 0.6 GW in 2024 to ~1.9 GW in 2025 and ARR grew from $2B in 2023 to $6B in 2024 to $20B+ in 2025  —  We launched ChatGPT as a research preview to understand what would happen if we put frontier intelligence directly in people's hands.
The Information:
Sources: after five Thinking Machines staff left, investors are rattled, potentially impacting fundraising; two researchers quit via Slack during an all-hands  —  The timing couldn't have been more awkward for Thinking Machines Lab.  —  On Wednesday, during an all-hands meeting at the AI startup …
Jack Dunn / Variety:
On Joe Rogan's JRE, Matt Damon and Ben Affleck discuss Hollywood and AI; Damon says Netflix wants movies to restate the plot because viewers are on their phones  —  Matt Damon and Ben Affleck recently appeared on the “Joe Rogan Experience” to promote their new Netflix film “The Rip,” …
Financial Times:
Katherine Doherty / Bloomberg:
NYSE plans to use its tech that matches buyers and sellers, alongside blockchain networks, to facilitate real-time trading of tokenized securities in 2026  —  The New York Stock Exchange is building a venue using blockchain technology to allow for trading tokenized stocks and exchange-traded funds around the clock.
Erin Woo / The Information:
Sources: internal Google data shows Gemini API calls surged from 35B in March 2025 to 85B in August 2025; Google says Gemini Enterprise hit 8M subscribers  —  Google's improvements to its Gemini AI models are boosting the company's top line.  —  Over the past year, Google's business selling access …
Palmer Luckey / @palmerluckey:
Meta's VR layoffs may help the industry long term, as most of the ~1,500 roles worked on first-party content and games that competed with the broader ecosystem  —  I have an opinion on the Meta layoffs that is contrary with most of the VR industry and much of the media, but strongly held. This is not a disaster. They still employ the largest team working on VR by about an order of magnitude. Nobody else is even close. The “Meta is
Bradley Olson / Wall Street Journal:
Similarweb: Claude's web audience more than doubled YoY in December 2025, as many coders spent their holiday breaks on a “Claude bender” testing Claude Opus 4.5  —  Developers and hobbyists are comparing the viral moment for Anthropic's Claude Code to the launch of generative AI
More: Anthropic, Telegraph, and WebProNews
Bluesky: @andytseng and @markkamstra.comForums: Hacker News
George Hammond / Financial Times:
Sources: Sequoia plans a big investment in Anthropic, joining a round led by GIC and Coatue, which are investing $1.5B each, as Anthropic aims to raise $25B+  —  Silicon Valley investor to write first cheque for AI start-up after recent leadership overhaul  —  Sequoia Capital is lining …

Sponsor Posts

Soxton:
Fast, affordable law for startups  —  Soxton automates startup legal so founders can move faster and sleep better.  We handle incorporation, advisor, employment and commercial contracts.  Join the waitlist for early access!
F5:
Accelerate AI Adoption at F5's AI Virtual Summit  —  Learn how to architect, secure, and scale AI for production with real-world insights from industry leaders on June 23.  Register now to save your spot.
Zoho:
10 essential project management reports every team should use  —  Let's be honest about how projects usually go sideways.  A task gets blocked and nobody notices.  A dependency changes and nobody updates the plan.
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

Training Data:
Simulating Humans at Scale: Simile's Joon Sung Park
Sequoia Capital partners host conversations with leading AI builders and researchers to develop a deeper understanding of the evolving technologies and their implications.
Subscribe to Training Data.
Invest Like the Best:
Kareem Amin - The Unusual Approach to Company Building
The leading destination to learn about business and investing. We do this by showcasing exceptional talent and ideas.
Subscribe to Invest Like the Best.
Grit:
Why 80% of the Fortune 100 Chose Qualtrics | Ryan Smith
Grit explores what it takes to create, build and scale world-class organizations.
Subscribe to Grit.
Lenny's Podcast:
The hidden pattern behind successful products | Mark Pincus (founder of Zynga)
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.
Big Technology Podcast:
SpaceX's IPO Triumph, Anthropic's Fable Fumble, OpenAI's Price War
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.
Tools and Weapons with Brad Smith:
AI's Mythos Moment: Rishi Sunak on preparing governments for AI
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.
Subscribe to Tools and Weapons with Brad Smith.
 

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 10:10 AM ET, January 19, 2026.

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

James Peckham / PCMag:
Suvashree Ghosh / Bloomberg:

Earlier Picks

Sarah Perez / TechCrunch: