Techmeme
January 19, 2026, 7:00 PM

Top News

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.
Kiran Stacey / The Guardian:
The UK launches a consultation on whether to ban under-16s from using social media, alongside restrictions on addictive app features like infinite scrolling  —  Move comes as peers prepare to vote on an amendment to a bill that would enact a ban within a year of the bill passing
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.
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 …
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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,” …
Simon Willison / Simon Willison's Weblog:
Cursor's recent experiment involved running hundreds of AI agents for nearly a week to build a web browser, writing 1M+ lines of code across 1,000 files  —  They ended up running planners and sub-planners to create tasks, then having workers execute on those tasks - similar to how Claude Code uses sub-agents.

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Featured Podcasts

Channels with Peter Kafka:
Brian Stelter on the 60 Minutes Mess; Nilay Patel on Apple's AI Problem
Media and tech aren't just intersecting - they're fully intertwined. To understand how those worlds work, Peter Kafka talks to industry leaders, upstarts and observers.
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Invest Like the Best:
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The leading destination to learn about business and investing. We do this by showcasing exceptional talent and ideas.
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Lenny's Podcast:
Father of the iPod and iPhone on building taste, judgment, and creativity in the AI era | Tony Fadell
Interviews with world-class product leaders and growth experts to uncover actionable advice to help you build, launch, and grow your own product.
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Big Technology Podcast:
Will Apple (Finally) Get AI Right At WWDC?, Anthropic's Worry, Microsoft vs. OpenAI
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.
The Upstarts Podcast:
Vanta's Christina Cacioppo: The Underdog Turning 'Nonsense' Compliance Into A $4.2B Security Standout
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.
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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.
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Alex Isenstadt / Axios:
Financial Times:

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