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January 22, 2026, 8:40 PM
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| New York Times: |
ByteDance strikes a deal with a group of non-Chinese investors to create a new TikTok US entity and avoid a federal ban, concluding a six-year legal saga — TikTok said on Thursday that its Chinese owner, ByteDance, had struck a deal with a group of non-Chinese investors to create a new U.S. TikTok …
More: TikTok, Financial Times, The Verge, The Wrap, CNBC, Washington Post, CNN, Bloomberg, TechCrunch, NBC News, Slate, Financial Times, Social Media Today, Livemint, Chicago Tribune, Business Insider, Politico, Cord Cutters News, Just The News, The Independent, Semafor, LEX 18 News, Investing.com, and Newsmax
X: @chrisrmcguire, @adamconner, @dylanbyers, and @adamconner
Bluesky: @bobbyallyn and @evacide
| Sara Fischer / Axios: |
| Kif Leswing / CNBC: |
Intel reports Q4 revenue down 4% YoY to $13.7B, vs. $13.4B est., Data Center and AI revenue up 9% to $4.7B, Q1 guidance below est.; INTC drops 12%+ after hours — Intel reported fourth-quarter earnings Thursday that beat Wall Street expectations but offered soft guidance for the current quarter.
More: Intel, SiliconANGLE, Thurrott, Reuters, The Verge, DigiTimes, Shacknews, Bloomberg, GamesBeat, WebProNews, Wall Street Journal, Intel, and FX Empire
X: @firstadopter, @thetranscript_, @thetranscript_, @theaustinlyons, @thetranscript_, @zerohedge, @intelnews, @benbajarin, @deitaone, @danobtech, @zerohedge, @benbajarin, @intelnews, @benbajarin, @intelnews, @kristinaparts, @mweinbach, @theaustinlyons, @firstadopter, @kristinaparts, @kristinaparts, @economyapp, @thetranscript_, and @schwabnetwork
Forums: r/hardware and r/intelstock
| Mark Gurman / Bloomberg: |
Sources: Apple expanded the job of hardware chief John Ternus to manage design teams at the end of 2025, solidifying his status as a leading CEO candidate — Apple Inc. has expanded the job of hardware chief John Ternus to include design work, solidifying his status as a leading contender …
More: Gizmodo, Macworld, WebProNews, Hindustan Times, Stocktwits, MacRumors, Yahoo Finance, The Verge, iPhone in Canada, 9to5Mac, iClarified, AppleInsider, Philip Elmer‑DeWitt, Cult of Mac, and Daring Fireball
Forums: r/apple and MacRumors Forums
| Mark Gurman / Bloomberg: |
Apple accuses the European Commission of “political delay tactics”, as the EC seems to be preparing to blame Apple for the shutdown of the Setapp app store — Apple Inc. accused the European Commission of using “political delay tactics” to postpone new app policies as a pretense to investigate and fine the iPhone maker.| Wall Street Journal: |
Capital One agrees to acquire Brex, which specializes in tech to administer corporate credit cards, expenses, and rewards, for $5.15B in cash and stock — Deal would give credit-card issuer access to technology used by thousands of companies for corporate credit cards
More: The Information, SiliconANGLE, Reuters, Business Wire, PitchBook, TechCrunch, American Banker, Axios, CoinDesk, Benzinga, CNBC, Forbes, Washington …, Fast Company, BoardingArea, San Francisco Business Times, CNBC, Bloomberg, Dow Jones Newswires, and Brex
X: @eglyman, @lulumeservey, @ericnewcomer, @hadickm, @ericnewcomer, @austin_rief, @jbahrdestefano, @brexhq, @victoralazarte, @darian314, and @jessetinsley
LinkedIn: Damien Weiss, Heather Dunn, JC Bahr-de Stefano, and Sumit Mallick
| Lora Kolodny / CNBC: |
Waymo launches its robotaxi service in Miami, its sixth market, initially covering a 60-square-mile area, and partners with Moove for fleet management — Alphabet's Waymo said Thursday that its robotaxi service is now open to paying riders in Miami, kicking off a 2026 market expansion.
More: Waymo, Axios, WebProNews, TechCrunch, CleanTechnica, Mashable, Refresh Miami, VINnews, PCMag, Electrek, EV, Bloomberg, New York Post, Traffic Technology Today, Business Insider, The Verge, and Engadget
X: @binarybits and @waymo
Forums: r/SelfDrivingCars, r/Miami, r/waymo, and Slashdot
| Lawrence Abrams / BleepingComputer: |
The curl project plans to end its HackerOne bug bounty program at the end of January, citing a surge in low-quality AI-generated vulnerability reports — The developer of the popular curl command-line utility and library announced that the project will end its HackerOne security bug bounty program …
More: Ars Technica, The New Stack, and The Register
Mastodon: @bagder@mastodon.social and @Viss@mastodon.social
Forums: Hacker News and r/opensource
| Aisha Malik / TechCrunch: |
Google rolls out Personal Intelligence in AI Mode, an opt-in feature that uses Gmail and Photos data for more tailored responses, for US AI Pro and Ultra users — AI Mode, Google's conversational Search feature for complex questions, is getting more personalized.
More: The Keyword, PYMNTS.com, SiliconANGLE, The Verge, Android Police, B&T, WebProNews, GSMArena.com, Associated Press, Engadget, Search Engine Land, Digital Trends, Ars Technica, BGR, Android Central, TestingCatalog, Droid Life, Search Engine Journal, Android Headlines, 9to5Google, Thurrott, Mashable, WinBuzzer, Neowin, and Mercury News
| The Information: |
A look at Craig Federighi's approach to AI at Apple; sources say he led a push to use other companies' models to help launch a revamped Siri later in 2026 — Last fall, Apple's software chief, Craig Federighi, delivered a warm message to a meeting of the company's combined software and AI groups.
More: AppleInsider, Daring Fireball, MacRumors, 9to5Mac, iPhone in Canada, and Computerworld
X: @signulll, @parkerortolani, @waynema, @vadimyuryev, @aatilley, and @luftkopptim. Forums: MacRumors Forums
| Greg Bensinger / Reuters: |
Sources: Amazon is planning a second round of job cuts next week as part of its goal of trimming 30,000 corporate workers, after cutting 14,000 jobs in October — Amazon (AMZN.O) is planning a second round of job cuts next week as part of its broader goal of trimming some 30,000 corporate workers …
More: Reuters, Seattle Business Journal, GeekWire, Bloomberg Law, Reuters, and Digit
| New York Times: |
Inside the turmoil at Thinking Machines; sources say Meta discussed buying TML, and CTO Barret Zoph had been in talks since October 2025 about an OpenAI return — Defections, secret conversations, deal talks that fizzled and a battle for control: The turmoil at Thinking Machines Lab … | Rebecca Bellan / TechCrunch: |
Elon Musk says Tesla launched robotaxi rides in Austin with no human safety driver; Tesla's AI lead says Tesla is “starting with a few unsupervised vehicles” — Tesla is offering passengers robotaxi rides in Austin without a human safety driver in the front seat.
More: Electrek, The Verge, TeslaNorth.com, CNBC, Dow Jones Newswires, Automotive News, Forbes, WebProNews, Reuters, iPhone in Canada, Transport Topics, The Information, Yahoo Finance, Business Insider, TESLARATI, and Barron's Online
Forums: r/technology and r/TeslaFSD
| New York Times: |
NYT and CCDH analysis: Grok created and shared 1.8M+ sexualized images of women between December 31 and January 8, after Elon Musk promoted the feature on X — Over nine days, Elon Musk's Grok chatbot generated and posted 4.4 million images, of which at least 41 percent were sexualized images of women.
More: Center for Countering …, The Guardian, Decrypt, Axios, Ars Technica, Roll Call, The Jakarta Post, WebProNews, Newser, Mashable, The Independent, The 19th, Engadget, and The Economic Times
X: @jess4lowestoft, @dylfreed, and @russellbrandom
Bluesky: @parismarx.com, @dael, @reedfrich, @mims, @rmac, @zoecrowther, @mattburgess1, @adrianweckler, @counterhate.com, and @counterhate.com. Forums: r/EnoughMuskSpam
| Laura Mandaro / The Information: |
Yelp acquires Hatch, which charges a monthly fee for AI-powered agents that can respond to customer inquiries and make appointments, for $300M — Recommendation app Yelp on Wednesday said it agreed to acquire AI agent startup Hatch for $300 million, or roughly 12 times the startup's annual recurring revenue.
More: Business Wire, San Francisco Business Times, SiliconANGLE, Pulse 2.0, MediaPost, and Skift
LinkedIn: Madeline Evans, Colby Morgan, and Amber Albrecht
| On Substack: |
Substack launches its Substack TV app for Apple TV and Google TV in beta for free and paid subscribers, with access matched to their current subscription levels — Today we're launching the Substack TV app for Apple TV and Google TV. Substack is the home for the best longform …
More: The Verge, 9to5Mac, WebProNews, The Wrap, TheDesk.net, TechCrunch, The Ankler., Deadline, PCWorld, Engadget, and Cord Cutters News
X: @jtes, @brianstelter, @richlightshed, and @maxwelltani. LinkedIn: Simon Owens. Bluesky: @caseynewton
| The Verge: |
Epic v. Google: Epic and Google have a secret deal involving Unreal Engine, Fortnite, and Android, with Epic spending $800M over six years on Google services — “Sorry, I'm blowing this confidentiality.” … In a hearing in San Francisco today, the court revealed that Epic and Google … | Mia Sato / The Verge: |
Cate Blanchett, Cyndi Lauper, and 800+ creatives launch “Stealing Isn't Innovation” to protest unauthorized AI training, backed by RIAA, SAG-AFTRA, and others — Cate Blanchett, Cyndi Lauper, George Saunders, and other creatives say that AI companies are … | Dina Bass / Bloomberg: |
LiveKit, which offers tools for building voice, video, and physical AI models, including for ChatGPT's voice mode, raised a $100M Series C at a $1B valuation — Funding round led by Index Ventures values company at $1 billion — LiveKit, a startup that provides software underpinning voice …
More: LiveKit Blog, TechCrunch, Salesforce Ventures, FinSMEs, and SiliconANGLE
| Bloomberg: |
Analysis: the top US tech companies spent $109M on DC lobbying in 2025, topping $100M for the first time; Meta spent $26.29M, Amazon $17.78M, and Google $13.1M — Silicon Valley has learned how to succeed in Donald Trump's Washington: Spend record amounts. Visit the White House.| Lauren Forristal / TechCrunch: |
Google launches free SAT practice exams in the Gemini app, providing students with performance analysis and detailed explanations for incorrect answers — Prepping for the SAT is nobody's idea of fun, but Google aims to make it less stressful with AI. The company announced that it's …
More: Ars Technica, Business Insider, The Keyword, WebProNews, Times of India, Forbes, The Princeton Review, India Today, Moneycontrol, Livemint, Android Police, ZDNET, The Hans India, CNBC-TV18, Digital Trends, PCMag, and Hindustan Times
X: @samwyri, @theankurtyagi, @googleforedu, @hippymomphd, @jeffdean, @kreatelymedia, @tomtugendhat, @himanshustwts, @jason, @google, @dvasishtha, @mehulmpt, @fangyi11101, @zeroxjackson, @joshwoodward, @hiteshdotcom, @kimmonismus, @swyx, @googleforedu, @dcinvestor, @sundarpichai, @deryatr_, @ajitpai, @boringbiz_, @neerajkh_, @mathemagic1an, @autismcapital, and @andymasley
LinkedIn: Ray Frederick Djajadinata and Dr. Nabil Hadj-Ahmed
| Caiwei Chen / MIT Technology Review: |
Q&A with Yann LeCun on his new Paris-based startup Advanced Machine Intelligence, leaving Meta, real-world applications for world models, robotics, and more — Yann LeCun is a Turing Award recipient and a top AI researcher, but he has long been a contrarian figure in the tech world.| Bloomberg: |
Mistral CEO Arthur Mensch calls claims that Chinese AI startups lag behind the US a “fairy tale”, and China's open-source tech is “probably stressing” US CEOs — Claims that Chinese technology for artificial intelligence lags the US are a “fairy tale,” Arthur Mensch …
More: Tom's Hardware, Le Monde, and The Economic Times
| Chris Metinko / Axios: |
Railway, a cloud platform for software deployment, raised a $100M Series B led by TQ Ventures, bringing its total funding to $130M+, says it has ARR of $10M+ — Railway, a cloud platform for software deployment, raised a $100 million Series B led by TQ Ventures, founder and CEO Jake Cooper tells Axios Pro.
More: Railway Blog, WebProNews, and Crypto Briefing
| Business Insider: |
The US BOP releases Caroline Ellison, the former FTX executive and ex-girlfriend of Sam Bankman-Fried, after about 14 months; she had a two-year sentence — - Caroline Ellison, the exec involved in the FTX scandal, has been released from federal custody. — The former Alameda Research CEO …
More: The Guardian, Gizmodo, Newser, The Information, and BeInCrypto
| Will Knight / Wired: |
Source: Google DeepMind signs a licensing deal with Hume AI, which builds emotionally intelligent voice interfaces, to hire CEO Alan Cowen and ~7 top engineers — Hume AI's CEO, Alan Cowen, will join Google DeepMind along with several top engineers as part of a major licensing deal.| Sarah Perez / TechCrunch: |
Spotify expands its AI-powered Prompted Playlists beta to Premium subscribers in the US and Canada, following initial testing in New Zealand — Spotify is rolling out Prompted Playlists, a new AI playlist creation tool, to Premium subscribers in the U.S. and Canada.| Jeff John Roberts / Fortune: |
Binance files for a European MiCA license in Greece, where it has also set up a holding company — Binance, the world's biggest cryptocurrency exchange, has formally applied for a pan-European license known as MiCA (Markets in Crypto-Assets) that digital asset firms operating in the continent must obtain before July 1.| Aisha Malik / TechCrunch: |
Snap updates its Family Center tool to let parents view daily screen time averages and a breakdown of time spent by specific app segment like Snap Map — Two days after settling a lawsuit accusing Snapchat of causing social media addiction and mental health issues, Snap announced that it's introducing new parental controls.
More: Snap Newsroom, The Hill, Mashable, iPhone in Canada, Social Media Today, SheKnows, Moneycontrol, and Fortune India
| Agnee Ghosh / Bloomberg: |
Inferact, founded by the creators of vLLM to support and commercialize the open-source inference engine, raised a $150M seed led by a16z at an $800M valuation — Inferact, an AI startup formed by the creators of open-source software vLLM, has raised $150 million in a seed funding round that values the company at $800 million.
More: TechCrunch and SiliconANGLE
X: @woosuk_k and @natolambert
LinkedIn: Alexander Wu and Joseph Spisak
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