Techmeme
January 18, 2026, 8:25 PM

Top News

Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Similarweb: Threads had 141.5M DAUs on iOS and Android as of January 7, driven by Instagram promotions, while X had 125M DAUs; X continues to lead on the web  —  A report from market intelligence firm Similarweb suggests that Meta's Threads is now seeing more daily usage than Elon Musk's X on mobile devices.
George Hammond / Financial Times:
Bradley Olson / Wall Street Journal:
Similarweb: Claude's web audience more than doubled in December 2025 compared with December 2024, as many coders spent their holiday breaks on a “Claude bender”  —  Developers and hobbyists are comparing the viral moment for Anthropic's Claude Code to the launch of generative AI
More: Anthropic, WebProNews, and Rohan's Bytes
X: @wsj and @bcherny
Bluesky: @markkamstra.com and @andytsengForums: Hacker News
Helene Braun / CoinDesk:
CoinGecko: over 53% of the 20.2M crypto tokens launched since 2021 are now inactive, with 7.7M tokens failing in Q4 2025, after Oct. 10 “liquidation cascade”  —  Over 13.4 million tokens have been erased between mid-2021 and 2025, according to a new analysis by CoinGecko.  —  What to know:
Forums: Slashdot
New York Times:
Inside the 2026 National Retail Federation conference in New York City, where integrating AI into retail businesses was the overarching theme on the expo floor  —  Stores of all kinds are using artificial intelligence to sell everything from luxury handbags to hay for horses.
More: The Economic TimesLinkedIn: Thomas Ross, Mathias Cohen, and Kim BhasinBluesky: @janerosenzweig
Forums: r/technology and Slashdot
Julie Bort / TechCrunch:
RunPod, an AI app hosting service launched four years ago that raised a $20M seed in May 2024, says it has reached a $120M annual revenue run rate  —  Runpod, an AI app hosting platform that launched four years ago, has hit a $120 million annual revenue run rate, founders Zhen Lu and Pardeep Singh tell TechCrunch.
Financial Times:
OpenAI plans to test ads below ChatGPT replies for users of free and Go tiers in the US; source: OpenAI expects to make “low billions” from ads in 2026  —  $500bn start-up seeks ways to fund expansion and fend off competition from rivals Google and Anthropic
More: The Deep View, Ars Technica, Luiza's Newsletter, Spyglass, AppleInsider, Benzinga, Mashable, SammyGuru, Trak.in, OpenAI, Axios, Enterprise AI Trends, The American Bazaar, Digit, The Verge, Android Police, CNBC, Appleosophy, Tech in Asia, Business Standard, Moneycontrol, Neowin, Notebookcheck, The Indian Express, The Hacker News, Communicate Online, New York Times, 9to5Google, Search Engine Journal, Engadget, TechCrunch, TestingCatalog, Wired, Deadline, BleepingComputer, Fortune, Birchtree, SiliconANGLE, San Francisco Chronicle, The Information, Forbes, PC Gamer, Nairametrics, AdTechRadar, Tom's Guide, Fast Company, Forbes Middle East, Vogue, iTnews, WebProNews, Barron's Online, CBS News, PCMag, Capital Brief, The Decoder, MediaPost, and Sherwood News
Bluesky: @aleyda, @timfduffy.com, and @mbogenThreads: @benedictevansMastodon: @carnage4life@mas.to
Elissa Welle / The Verge:
Jeremy Kahn / Fortune:
OpenAI's former Head of Policy Research Miles Brundage announces AVERI, a nonprofit aimed at advocating the idea of external audits for frontier AI models  —  Former OpenAI policy chief Miles Brundage, who has just founded a new nonprofit institute called AVERI that is advocating …
Robert Burnson / Bloomberg:
Filing: Elon Musk seeks $79B-$134B damages from OpenAI and Microsoft, alleging OpenAI defrauded him by abandoning nonprofit roots and partnering with Microsoft  —  Elon Musk wants OpenAI Inc. and Microsoft to pay him damages in the range of $79 billion to $134 billion over his claims …
Axios:
David Sacks and top MAGA influencers are publicly opposing House Foreign Affairs Chair Brian Mast's proposed AI OVERWATCH Act to regulate AI chip sales to China  —  But the accusations are flying fast.  — “The AI Overwatch Act (H.R. 6875) may sound like a good idea, but when you examine it closely …

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Featured Podcasts

Lenny's Podcast:
Building the most AI-pilled engineering team in the world | Fiona Fung (Manager of the Claude Code and Cowork Teams)
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:
Are AI Glasses Over?, Big Technology Audience Questions, Alex Stamos on AI Cybersecurity
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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The Upstarts Podcast:
Mutiny's Jaleh Rezaei: Walking Away From Millions In Software To Grow Even Faster With Sales AI
Veteran tech reporter Alex Konrad sits down with breakout entrepreneurs taking on the status quo to shake up their fields in AI, design, nuclear energy, space, and more.
Subscribe to The Upstarts Podcast.
Hard Fork:
'Hard Fork' Live, Part 3: Differing Visions of an A.I. Future
The future is already here. Each week, journalists Kevin Roose and Casey Newton explore and make sense of the latest in the rapidly changing world of tech.
Subscribe to Hard Fork.
Access:
The billionaire paying AI researchers to stay out of Big Tech
A show about the tech industry's inside conversation, hosted by tech reporter Alex Heath and founder whisperer Ellis Hamburger.
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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.
 

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Iain Martin / Forbes:

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