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January 29, 2026, 10:40 PM
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Reuters:
Source: SpaceX and xAI are in talks to merge ahead of a planned IPO this year; under the proposed deal, shares of xAI would be exchanged for shares in SpaceX  —  Elon Musk's SpaceX and xAI are in discussions to merge ahead of a blockbuster public offering planned for later this year.
Bloomberg:
Sources: SpaceX is considering a potential merger with Tesla, an idea some investors are pushing, while separately exploring a tie-up between SpaceX and xAI  —  SpaceX is considering a potential merger with Tesla Inc., as well as an alternative combination with artificial intelligence firm xAI …
Kif Leswing / CNBC:
Apple reports Q1 revenue up 16% YoY to $143.76B, vs. $138.48B est., net income up 16% YoY to $42.1B, and EPS of $2.84, above $2.67 est.  —  Apple reported fiscal first-quarter earnings on Thursday that surpassed expectations, with revenue soaring 16% on an annual basis.
Apple:
Apple Q1: iPhone up 23% YoY to $85.27B, vs. $78.65B est., Mac down 7% to $8.39B, iPad up 6% to $8.6B, and Wearables, Home, and Accessories down 2% to $11.49B  —  All-time records for total company revenue and EPS  —  iPhone and Services revenue reach new all-time highs
Reuters:
Apple expects Q2 revenue to grow 13% to 16% YoY, vs. 10% est.; it's currently constrained by iPhone processor supply and expects memory costs to rise after Q2
Financial Times:
Apple acquires Q.ai, whose tech can analyze facial expressions and could enable non-verbal discussions with AI assistants; sources: the deal values Q.ai at ~$2B  —  iPhone-maker strikes deal for secretive group that creates technology that analyses facial expressions
Wall Street Journal:
Sources: OpenAI is laying the groundwork for an IPO in Q4 2026, and its executives have privately expressed concerns about Anthropic beating OpenAI to an IPO  —  Rivals are competing to be the first major generative AI startup to tap the public markets  —  OpenAI is laying the groundwork …
Wall Street Journal:
Sources: Amazon is in talks to invest up to $50B in OpenAI, which is seeking up to $100B in new capital, a round that could value it at as much as $830B  —  CEO Andy Jassy is leading the e-commerce giant's negotiations with the startup  —  Amazon.com is in talks to invest up to $50 billion in OpenAI …
Jay Peters / The Verge:
Google launches Project Genie, which lets users create interactive worlds using Genie 3, Nano Banana Pro, and Gemini, for Google AI Ultra subscribers in the US  —  It's what I had the most fun using Google's Project Genie for, at least right now. … This week, a new generative AI tool …
Ashley Capoot / CNBC:
OpenAI plans to retire several models from ChatGPT on February 13, including GPT‑4o, GPT‑4.1, and o4-mini, saying only 0.1% of users still choose GPT-4o  —  OpenAI announced it will retire several models from its ChatGPT chatbot next month, including its GPT‑4o model that is beloved by some users.
Sean O'Kane / TechCrunch:
Waymo says a robotaxi struck a child at 6 mph near an elementary school in Santa Monica on January 23, resulting in minor injuries; the NHTSA opens a probe  —  A Waymo robotaxi struck a child near an elementary school in Santa Monica on January 23, according to the company.
Tom Warren / The Verge:
Sources: Microsoft is focusing on fixing the core issues of Windows 11 over the coming months after persistent bugs, ads, and bloatware eroded user trust  —  Engineers are now focusing on performance, reliability, and the overall Windows experience. … Windows is in a weird spot.
Bloomberg:
Perplexity signs a deal with Microsoft; sources say the $750M, three-year commitment will let Perplexity deploy AI models through Microsoft's Foundry service  —  AI startup Perplexity signed a $750 million deal with Microsoft Corp. to use its Azure cloud service, spreading its business beyond longtime cloud partner Amazon.com Inc.
More: Reuters
Financial Times:
Tesla plans to scrap its premium S and X models and convert its California factory into an Optimus manufacturing hub, as Elon Musk refocuses on robotics and AI  —  Elon Musk's electric-car maker invests $2bn in the billionaire's xAI  —  Tesla plans to scrap two models and invest $2bn in Elon Musk's xAI …
Kevin McLaughlin / The Information:
OpenAI has hired 7+ employees from AI coding startup Cline, including Nik Pash, who left Cline after posting “imagine the smell” on X regarding an xAI hackathon  —  OpenAI has recently hired more than a half dozen employees from Cline, a startup that develops an open-source …
Todd Spangler / Variety:
Darren Aronofsky's Primordial Soup debuts its short-form Revolutionary War series, made using Google DeepMind's AI tools and human voice actors  —  Filmmaker Darren Aronofsky used AI to travel back in time 250 years ago to the American Revolution.  But he tapped real-life human actors …
Alex Kantrowitz / Big Technology:
Q&A with Google DeepMind's Demis Hassabis on AGI, next breakthroughs like continual learning, his vision for AI glasses, whether AI progress is slowing, more  —  The leader of Google's AI program weighs in on the cutting edge of AI research, Google's plans to put the technology in its products …
Dominic Preston / The Verge:
Nothing CEO Carl Pei says the company's flagship Phone 4 won't launch in 2026: “We're not just going to churn out a new flagship every year for the sake of it”  —  CEO Carl Pei says there's no new flaghip on the way, but teased improvements for the 4A series instead.
Elias Schisgall / Wall Street Journal:
Sandisk reports Q2 revenue up 61% YoY to $3.03B, vs. $2.69B est., and net income up 672% to $803M, as AI drives demand upward; SNDK jumps 11%+ after hours  —  Data storage technology company posts second-quarter profit of $803 million, up from $104 million a year earlier
Sam Reynolds / CoinDesk:
The US SEC clarifies its tokenized stock rules, saying they are subject to securities and derivatives rules and issuer approval is required for true ownership  —  The agency says issuer approval is required for true tokenized ownership, warning that many stock tokens sold to retail investors provide only indirect or synthetic exposure.

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This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 10:40 PM ET, January 29, 2026.

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From Mediagazer

New York Times:
Sources: WaPo's layoffs may narrow its scope to topics of expertise and reader interest based on digital traffic, with politics and video becoming more central

Roushni Nair / Reuters:
Australia's Nine Entertainment plans to sell its broadcast radio business to the Laundy family for AU$56M and buy digital outdoor ad firm QMS Media for AU$850M

Nieman Lab:
The Guardian, FT, NYT, USA Today Co., and others are blocking or limiting the Internet Archive's crawlers to prevent AI crawlers from using IA as a backdoor

More News

Conor Murray / Forbes:
Social media app UpScrolled hits #1 on Apple's US app store following allegations that TikTok suppresses anti-ICE videos; its founder says it crossed 1M users

Earlier Picks

Bloomberg:
Amazon reported hundreds of thousands of pieces of potential CSAM in AI training data to NCMEC in 2025; child safety officials say Amazon didn't give the source
New York Times:
Amazon's $35M marketing campaign for Melania is ~10x the budget for similar documentaries like CNN's RBG; some suggest Amazon is currying favor with Trump
Connor Jones / The Register:
Security researchers warn Moltbot, previously Clawdbot, requires a specialist skillset to use safely, as data exposure risks persist even when set up correctly
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