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January 19, 2026, 5:15 PM
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memeorandum
WeSmirchTop News
| 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 …
More: Sources, WinBuzzer, The Decoder, and The Information
| Katherine Doherty / Bloomberg: |
The NYSE plans to use its tech that matches buyers and sellers, plus blockchain networks, to facilitate the 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.
More: ICE, DL News, The Block, Ventureburn, Wall Street Journal, CoinGape, Decrypt, Barron's Online, CoinDesk, Bitcoin Insider, Coinspeaker, Proactive, Cryptonews, The Crypto Times, Pulse 2.0, Blockonomi, Reuters, Crypto Briefing, Dow Jones Newswires, Cointelegraph, The Defiant, and Coinpedia Fintech News
X: @cz_binance, @reece_merrick, @securitize, @hadickm, @carlosdomingo, @nyse, @ondofinance, @nategeraci, @mollysoshea, @jdorman81, and @jasonyanowitz. LinkedIn: Chris Houston. Forums: r/wallstreetbets
| Ryan Vlastelica / Bloomberg: |
Anthropic's Claude Cowork launch has revived fears about disruption that weighed on SaaS stocks in 2025; Morgan Stanley SaaS index is down 15% so far in 2026 — The new year was supposed to bring opportunities for beaten-down software stocks. Instead, the group is off to its worst start in years.
More: Semafor. X: @conorsen, @sergeycyw, @scottastevenson, @samsolid57, @buccocapital, and @netcapgirl. Bluesky: @bottleofstars
| Sarah Friar / OpenAI: |
OpenAI CFO Sarah Friar says the company's compute grew from 0.2 GW in 2023 to ~1.9 GW in 2025 and its annualized revenue grew from $2B in 2023 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.
More: The Verge, Reuters, Paul Kedrosky, Rohan's Bytes, The Information, Benzinga, WebProNews, CNBC, Neowin, Exponential View, eWeek, Analytics India Magazine, CTech, and Sadagopan's weblog …
X: @stocksavvyshay, @mlib16, @alternatejones, @ralph_grabowski, @vraserx, @rohanpaul_ai, @chatgpt21, @benbajarin, @firstadopter, @jimcramer, @andrewcurran_, @sundeep, @kimmonismus, @therealadamg, @signulll, @signulll, @dr_gingerballs, @bearlyai, @the_ai_investor, @benitoz, and @zephyr_z9. LinkedIn: Sarah Friar
Forums: r/technology, r/singularity, and r/OpenAI
| Jez Corden / Windows Central: |
Sources: Microsoft is preparing to launch a session-based ad-supported Xbox Cloud Gaming tier in 2026; users note Xbox Cloud Gaming now references “ad support” — Users have been noticing that Xbox Cloud Gaming has begun referencing “ad support” while launching games, confirming our earlier report.| 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 has hit 8M subscribers — Google's improvements to its Gemini AI models are boosting the company's top line. — Over the past year … | Counterpoint Research: |
Chinese smartphone shipments fell 1.6% YoY in Q4 2025 and 0.6% in 2025 due to weak demand after memory shortages increased prices; iPhone shipments rose 28% YoY — Type: — Insight — Team Counterpoint — Counterpoint research is a young and fast growing research firm covering analysis of the tech industry.
More: Bloomberg, Gizmochina, PhoneArena, Tech in Asia, iPhone in Canada, MacTech.com, and DigiTimes
| James Peckham / PCMag: |
Taiwanese media: Asus Chair Jonney Shih says the company won't release any new smartphones in 2026, which may signal the brand's exit from the Android market — Asus won't release any new smartphones in 2026, and that may signal the brand's exit from the Android space altogether.| Axios: |
OpenAI executive Chris Lehane says the startup is “on track” to unveil its first device in H2 2026; reports suggest it won't have a screen and may be a wearable — OpenAI is “on track” to unveil its first device in the second half of 2026, the company's policy chief, Chris Lehane, said Monday at Axios House Davos.
More: 9to5Mac, Hindustan Times, WebProNews, and Crypto Briefing
| 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
More: UploadVR, Business Insider, Road to VR, The Ghost Howls, TechCentral.ie, Futurism, and GameSpot
X: @palmerluckey, @palmerluckey, @ryansprague, @jmdagdelen, @asychov, and @cixliv. Mastodon: @maxleibman@beige.party
Forums: r/virtualreality and r/antiwork
| Alex Isenstadt / Axios: |
Source: Elon Musk donates $10M to boost pro-Trump Senate candidate Nate Morris, who is seeking to replace Mitch McConnell, in Musk's largest-yet Senate donation — Elon Musk has cut a massive $10 million check to bolster Nate Morris, an outsider, pro-Trump candidate running to succeed retiring …
More: New York Times, UPI, Fox News, New York Post, and RedState
Forums: r/InterstellarKinetics and r/PoliticalOptimism
| 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,” …
More: Spyglass, CinemaBlend, Gizmodo, NME, Breitbart, International Business Times, al.com, Collider, WCSH, PowerfulJRE on YouTube, Business Insider, Deadline, Just Jared, The Hollywood Reporter, The Independent, The A.V. Club, primetimer.com, Entertainment Weekly, Benzinga, and The Week
X: @bearlyai, @andymasley, @owl_posting, @clairlemon, @zymazza, @trungtphan, @pourfairelevide, @forrestpknight, @dead_baseball, @barondestructo, @thecinesthetic, @tom_lsoo, @freightalley, @lynaldencontact, @lookatmymeat1, @danielrpk, @khuze_elikhulu, @mattzeitlin, @ross__hendricks, @lthomasnews, @ctachio83984, @andthatsbb, @jackposobiec, @groditid, @jtfoz, @xqc, @robkhenderson, @blackmajikman90, @hdmoviesource, @grummz, @dead_baseball, @colin_gladman, and @dead_baseball. Threads: @carnage4life
Forums: r/nottheonion, r/NewsOfTheStupid, r/entertainment, r/movies, and r/television
| Financial Times: |
The IMF says the “surprisingly resilient” global economy is at risk of a sharp AI boom reversal, but “the levels of market frothiness” are below the dotcom bust — Fund's chief economist says there are reasons to be concerned about a potential AI correction| John Sakellariadis / Politico: |
Sources: US political appointees at CISA blocked Acting Director Madhu Gottumukkala's attempt to remove the agency's chief information officer, Robert Costello — The personnel spat began late last Thursday afternoon after Costello was given a so-called management-directed reassignment …
Bluesky: @flingjore.com, @metacurity.com, and @laurenmeidasa
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