|
January 28, 2026, 10:30 AM
|
Mediagazer
memeorandum
WeSmirchTop News
| Beth Galetti / About Amazon: |
Amazon plans to cut ~16,000 roles across the company as part of an ongoing effort to reduce organizational layers and bureaucracy, after cuts in October 2025 — I want to let you know that we're making additional organizational changes across Amazon that will impact some of our teammates.
More: GamesIndustry.biz, Bloomberg, TechCrunch, Barron's Online, Quartz, CRN, BBC, NBC News, Associated Press, Engadget, Washington Post, Network World, CNBC, Wall Street Journal, The Wrap, Reuters, Fast Company, Financial Times, Digit, GeekWire, Türkiye Today, New York Times, Washington …, Business Insider, The Grocer, CNN, Cord Cutters News, WPXI-TV, The Guardian, NewsMax.com, Tech in Asia, Crypto Briefing, BMI, and The Stack
Bluesky: @dankim.com and @carlquintanilla
Forums: r/worldnews, r/technology, r/XGramatikInsights, and Slashdot
| Business Insider: |
Memo: Amazon appeared to mistakenly alert some AWS staff about planned layoffs in an email invite to a January 28 “Project Dawn” meeting on company efficiency — - Some Amazon employees got a worrying calendar invitation on Tuesday. — The invitation discussed upcoming job cuts and …
More: CNBC, Reuters, Bloomberg, Silicon Republic, Blockonomi, Newser, Neowin, Deadline, Gulf News, The Independent, Trak.in, Tech Times, Business Today, Benzinga, Times Now, Moneycontrol, and Mediaite
X: @eugenekim222. LinkedIn: Annie Palmer. Bluesky: @quinnypig.com, @carnage4life, and @businessinsider.com. Mastodon: @GossiTheDog@cyberplace.social
Forums: r/Layoffs, r/amazonemployees, r/technology, and r/news
| Mark Gurman / Bloomberg: |
Memo: Tim Cook told Apple staff that he is “heartbroken by the events in Minneapolis”, calls for a “deescalation”, and says he discussed it with President Trump — Apple Inc. Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook became the latest executive to weigh in on the killing …
More: Wall Street Journal, The Intercept, PCMag, Page Six, Wall Street Journal, On my Om, Deadline, Quartz, Life on the Wicked Stage, The Indian Express, The Verge, Newsweek, The Mac Observer, iPhone in Canada, MarketWatch, Forbes, TechCrunch, Times of India, Gizmodo, MacRumors, The Information, AppleInsider, 9to5Mac, and MacTech.com
X: @markgurman, @elemenous, @patrickmcgee_, @lukemiani, @jonfavs, @davidclinchnews, @apollozac, @timodc, @whatapityonyou, @carlfranzen, @jbillinson, @nateparrott, @alexisohanian, @golub, @caro_milanesi, @gianmarcosoresi, @snazzylabs, @jackiekcalmes, and @jordanzakarin
Bluesky: @lizzieohreally, @joshuafoust.com, @juddlegum, @pivotpod, @kimmasters, and @paleofuture
Forums: r/apple, r/politics, and MacRumors Forums
| Abner Li / 9to5Google: |
A Google bug report apparently leaks the planned Android desktop interface, showing a taller status bar, a new mouse cursor, Chrome extensions, and more — A Google bug report on the Chromium Issue Tracker today has inadvertently leaked the Android desktop interface for the first time.
More: Android Authority, Tom's Hardware, Engadget, PCMag, VideoCardz.com, Android Central, Business Standard, The Verge, SamMobile, and XDA Developers
Forums: r/chromeos and Slashdot
| Jack Ryan / Bloomberg: |
Paolo Ardoino says Tether now holds ~140 tons of gold, worth ~$23B, has been buying one to two tons per week, and plans to keep doing so for the next few months — There are roughly 370,000 nuclear bunkers in Switzerland, a legacy of the Cold War that are now rarely used. One of them, though, is a hive of activity.
More: Reuters, CoinDesk, Unchained, Tether, Financial Times, The Daily Hodl, crypto.news, Watcher Guru, Cryptonews, The Block, Cointelegraph, Benzinga, and Bloomberg. X: @arashmassoudi
| Arjun Kharpal / CNBC: |
ASML reports Q4 net sales of €9.7B, vs. €9.6B est., and €2.84B net profit, vs. €3.01B est., and says it expects China to account for 20% of its total 2026 sales — ASML reported on Wednesday orders that smashed past expectations while 2026 sales guidance was also ahead … | Sarah Jacob / Bloomberg: |
| Reuters: |
More: Proactive, Al Jazeera, Blockonomi, Dow Jones Newswires, The Straits Times, and Watcher Guru
| Abhijeet Mishra / SamMobile: |
Samsung says it will introduce a display feature for the Galaxy S26 series that improves “privacy at a pixel level” to protect users from “shoulder surfing” — Samsung has confirmed that the Galaxy S26 series will introduce a new display feature designed to improve privacy when using your phone in public.| Reuters: |
Sources: China approved its first batch of Nvidia H200 imports, covering 400K+ chips for ByteDance, Alibaba, and Tencent, during Jensen Huang's visit to China — China has given the green light to three of its largest tech companies to buy Nvidia's (NVDA.O) H200 artificial intelligence chips … | Kate Clark / Wall Street Journal: |
Sources: SoftBank is in talks to invest up to $30B more in OpenAI; SoftBank is already one of its largest shareholders after investing $22.5B in December 2025 — The Japanese conglomerate is exploring further investment as part of the startup's efforts to raise up to $100 billion| Mia Sato / The Verge: |
ADL study of Grok, ChatGPT, Llama, Claude, Gemini, and DeepSeek: Grok performed worst at identifying and countering antisemitic content, while Claude was best — In a study, the Anti-Defamation League fed Grok, ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, DeepSeek, and Llama antisemitic, anti-Zionist … | Jess Weatherbed / The Verge: |
Snap launches a wholly-owned subsidiary called Specs Inc. for its upcoming AR glasses, in a bid to facilitate minority investment and offer distinct branding — Specs will now be launched under... Specs. … Snap is launching a separate business for its upcoming Specs augmented reality glasses … | Financial Times: |
Sources: Elon Musk proposes timing SpaceX's IPO with a rare planetary alignment and his June birthday; SpaceX seeks to raise up to $50B at a ~$1.5T valuation — Celestial calendar meets high finance, as billionaire's personal impulses shape plans to raise $50bn in record listing
More: Benzinga, RTÉ, Blockonomi, Proactive, Bloomberg, Tech in Asia, Reuters, and Watcher Guru
X: @ranimolla, @gregoirefavet, and @ivanlevingston
| Tyler Kingkade / NBC News: |
Some US college students say they are using AI “humanizer” tools to alter text to avoid cheating accusations; AI detection tools now aim to catch “humanizers” — Students are taking new measures, such as dumbing down their work, spying on themselves and using AI … | Jess Weatherbed / The Verge: |
Bluesky says it is working to make feeds more “live”, interactive, and timely during live events, and teases improvements to posting and follow suggestions — The Bluesky 2026 roadmap teases updates for feeds, follows, posting, and real-time features.| Melissa Heikkilä / Financial Times: |
Sources: Hugging Face declined Nvidia's $500M investment offer at a $7B valuation in late 2025; Hugging Face says it does not want a single dominant investor — Amid investor frenzy over AI, the ‘anti Silicon Valley’ group chose independence and desire to promote open models
Bluesky: @justinhendrix
| Daniel Kuhn / The Block: |
PayPal survey in October 2025: 40% of merchants already accept crypto, led by large enterprises, 85% expect crypto payments to be commonplace by 2030, and more — Partner offers — Quick Take — Four in 10 surveyed merchants said they already accept crypto at checkout … | Casey Newton / Platformer: |
A critique of a large UK social media study that suggested measures like social media bans are unlikely to have an effect on teens' long term mental health — The “moral panic” framing misses how platforms actually harm kids. PLUS: Newsom investigates TikTok over Trump, and the Clawdbot frenzy
More: Techdirt, Crikey, Pixel Envy, BBC, Digital Watch Observatory, Crooked Timber, BBC, and Euronews
| Dylan Butts / CNBC: |
SK Hynix reports Q4 revenue up 66% YoY to $23B, above ~$22.4B est., and operating profit up 137% YoY to $13.3B, both company records, driven by AI HBM demand — South Korea's SK Hynix on Wednesday reported record full-year profit for 2025, more than doubling its operating earnings as shortages … | Gil Press / Forbes: |
Tel Aviv-based Factify raised a $73M seed led by Valley Capital to develop an AI-native document standard intended to replace the legacy PDF format — Tel Aviv-based Factify has raised $73 million in a seed funding round to establish a new document standard for AI, the company announced Wednesday.
More: SiliconANGLE, Globes, FinSMEs, and CTech
| Sri Muppidi / The Information: |
Sources: Anthropic raises its revenue forecasts to $18B in 2026, $55B in 2027, and $148B in 2029, delaying its cash flow positive expectations by a year to 2028 — Anthropic has hiked its revenue forecasts for the next several years, projecting that sales will quadruple this year …
More: Reuters, Financial Times, MarketWatch, DigiTimes, and Tech in Asia
Bluesky: @patrickgaley and @djlavoie
| Kate Clark / Wall Street Journal: |
A look at “neolabs” such as Safe Superintelligence and Humans&, which give priority to long-term AI R&D over immediate profits; dozens have become unicorns — Flapping Airplanes is one of a wave of new startup research labs drawing intense interest from investors, the latest chapter in the AI race
Bluesky: @edzitron.com
| Karissa Bell / Engadget: |
LinkedIn launches a new feature to let users display verified “vibe coding” and AI proficiency levels from third-party partners including Replit and Lovable — You can connect AI coding tools from Replit, Lovabl and Relay.app directly to your profile.
More: TechCrunch
| Chris Welch / Bloomberg: |
Apple Creator Studio review: the subscription suite offers value, but lacks a photo management tool to rival Lightroom and lacks iOS support for flagship apps — Apple Inc.'s new Creator Studio software bundle represents a new test for the company's fast-growing services business …
More: 9to5Mac, MacRumors, Gizmodo, AppleInsider, T3, Apple, Engadget, Tom's Guide, TechRadar, PCMag, MacTech.com, Cult of Mac, Six Colors, Trusted Reviews, Creative Bloq, and MusicRadar. X: @bzamayo
| David McCabe / New York Times: |
TikTok says the new US entity has not updated its algorithm since the joint venture was announced, after users accused it of suppressing posts related to ICE — Some users had accused the app of blocking them from posting videos about Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The app said it was a power outage issue.
More: Washington Post, ZeroHedge News, CNN, TechCrunch, Tech Times, NOTUS, PEDESTRIAN.TV, The Independent, Newsweek, and The Hill
X: @rokhanna, @icyvert, @doggintrump, @____selah, @spencerhakimian, @scott_wiener, @alextaylornews, @tiberiusfiles, @minutenerdnews, @variety, @mjnblack, @keitholbermann, and @ylecun. LinkedIn: Paddy Leerssen
| Taylor Soper / GeekWire: |
Amazon plans to discontinue its Amazon One palm recognition system on June 3 and will automatically delete all user data; One remains for healthcare check-ins — Amazon is discontinuing its Amazon One palm recognition ID system for stores later this year, the company said in messages to users Tuesday night.| Michael J. de la Merced / New York Times: |
AI sales startup Clay launches its second employee tender offer in under nine months, valuing it at $5B, up from $3.1B in August and $1.5B in its May 2025 offer — The company is part of a newer generation of software upstarts holding multiple tender offers where workers can sell stock before going public.| Ethan Millman / The Hollywood Reporter: |
Spotify paid out $11B+ to the music industry in 2025, up 10% YoY, bringing its all-time payments to $70B, and now accounts for ~30% of recorded music revenue — Spotify head of music Charlie Hellman called payouts “the largest annual payment to music from any retailer in history.”
More: Music Ally, Fox Business, Spotify, Reuters, Billboard, Hypebot, Variety, and Forbes
| Robert Hart / The Verge: |
ESA astronomers say they used AI model AnomalyMatch to scan 100M image cutouts from the Hubble Legacy Archive in 2.5 days, finding ~1,400 “anomalous objects” — The AI model took just 2.5 days to search 100 million image cutouts and flag oddities like jellyfish galaxies.
More: HotHardware, European Space Agency, NASA Science, and Scientific American
| Natalie Lung / Bloomberg: |
Toronto-based self-driving truck startup Waabi raised a $750M Series C led by Khosla and G2 and partners with Uber, which can invest $250M based on performance — Waabi Innovation Inc., a Canadian startup that develops self-driving technology for trucks, has secured $1 billion in funding …
More: eWeek, Waabi, Fortune, CNBC, Axios, Financial Times, The Verge, TechCrunch, Forbes, Tech Funding News, Financial Post, Yahoo Finance, Tech in Asia, The Logic, and Globe and Mail
| Mary Ann Azevedo / This Week in Fintech: |
Slice, which uses AI agents to encode tax policies and legal rules across 60+ countries, raised a $25M Series A led by Insight, taking its total funding to $32M — Slice Global Equity, an equity compliance and management startup, announced Wednesday that it has raised $25 million in Series A funding.
More: Pulse 2.0, Axios, and Tech Funding News
| New York Times: |
Internal documents from 2025: Microsoft expects its annual water consumption to reach 28B liters by 2030, up from 7.9B liters in 2020 and 10.4B liters in 2024 — Driven by the artificial intelligence frenzy, Microsoft is internally projecting that water use at its data centers will more than double …
More: WinBuzzer. X: @ralph_grabowski. LinkedIn: Adam Satariano. Bluesky: @justinhendrix. Forums: r/technology
Sponsor Posts
Okara:
Meet Okara, the AI platform that doesn't train on your data — Chat with 30+ open-source models (Llama, Kimi, Qwen, DeepSeek) through encrypted infrastructure. Used by teams handling proprietary code and strategy.
Meet Okara, the AI platform that doesn't train on your data — Chat with 30+ open-source models (Llama, Kimi, Qwen, DeepSeek) through encrypted infrastructure. Used by teams handling proprietary code and strategy.
Soxton:
AI-powered 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!
AI-powered 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!
Zoho:
Turn your Zoho CRM into a communication hub — This is a guest post by Shray Sawariya, Marketing Executive at Times Mobile.A common problem that sales teams face that negatively impacts businesses …
Turn your Zoho CRM into a communication hub — This is a guest post by Shray Sawariya, Marketing Executive at Times Mobile.A common problem that sales teams face that negatively impacts businesses …
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.
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
Big Technology Podcast:
Is AI Killing Software? — With Bret Taylor
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.
Channels with Peter Kafka:
Running a Newsroom in Minneapolis + How to Make a Game of Thrones For Less
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.
Subscribe to Channels with Peter Kafka.
Acquired:
The NFL (2026 Update)
Learn the playbooks that built the world's greatest companies - and how you can apply them as a founder, operator, or investor.
Subscribe to Acquired.
The Talk Show With John Gruber:
'A Mitigated Disaster', With Daniel Jalkut
The director's commentary track for Daring Fireball. Long digressions on Apple, technology, design, movies, and more.
Subscribe to The Talk Show With John Gruber.
Grit:
The Safest Dollar on the Internet | Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire
Grit explores what it takes to create, build and scale world-class organizations.
Subscribe to Grit.
Tools and Weapons with Brad Smith:
Special Edition: Key findings from the Microsoft AI Diffusion Report
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 10:30 AM ET, January 28, 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.
From Mediagazer
Washington Post:@erikwemple:
Ellise Shafer / Variety:
Upcoming Tech Events
Earlier Picks
| John Sakellariadis / Politico: |
More: TechCrunch, Metacurity, and Raw Story
X: @johnnysaks130. Bluesky: @campuscodi.risky.biz, @metacurity.com, and @ericjgeller.com. Mastodon: @neurovagrant@masto.deoan.org
Forums: r/UnderReportedNews, r/artificial, r/USNEWS, r/NewsSource, r/cybersecurity, r/fednews, and r/politics
| David Gilbert / Wired: |
More: Axios, Moneycontrol, Times of India, The Wrap, Joe.My.God., Deadline, Politico, Engadget, Zeteo, and The Daily Beast
X: @tjl, @alex_sammon, @samswey, @_zeets, @libdunkmedia, and @hshaban
Bluesky: @noupside, @dell, @katie-drummond, @makenakelly, and @timmarchman
Threads: @crustnews, @daviscanu, and @crustnews
| Will Douglas Heaven / MIT Technology Review: |
More: OpenAI, Engadget, Gizmodo, Digit, The Economic Times, Moneycontrol, Tech in Asia, Crypto Briefing, The Decoder, TestingCatalog, WinBuzzer, and TechCrunch
X: @kevinweil, @kevinweil, @swyx, @guillermonics, @quanquangu, @openai, @scaling01, @daniellefong, @atabarrok, @mukundvenkatak1, @yuchenj_uw, @vicapow, @openaidevs, @daniel_mac8, @kosenjuu, @deryatr_, @sebastienbubeck, @j0wimo, @nickadobos, @ziv_ravid, @alex_peys, @_simonsmith, @natolambert, and @kimmonismus. LinkedIn: Will Douglas Heaven