Techmeme
February 3, 2026, 9:35 AM

Top News

Bloomberg:
SpaceX acquires xAI; sources say the all-stock deal values the combined company at $1.25T, with SpaceX valued at $1T and xAI at $250B; xAI burns ~$1B per month  —  Elon Musk's SpaceX has acquired xAI, in a deal that encompasses the billionaire's increasingly costly ambitions to dominate artificial intelligence and space exploration.
Wall Street Journal:
New York Times:
Liv McMahon / BBC:
The Paris prosecutor's office says it raided X's French offices with Europol and summons Elon Musk and former CEO Linda Yaccarino to appear at hearings in April  —  Offices belonging to Elon Musk's social media platform, X, in France are being raided by the Paris prosecutor.
Financial Times:
The UK ICO launches a new investigation into X and xAI over “serious concerns” about Grok's data use and “its potential to produce harmful sexualized” content  —  Tech billionaire and platform's former chief Linda Yaccarino summoned for ‘voluntary interviews’ in April
Reuters:
Sources: OpenAI is unsatisfied with some of Nvidia's AI chips used for inference and has sought alternatives since last year, including from Cerebras and Groq  —  OpenAI is unsatisfied with some of Nvidia's latest artificial intelligence chips, and it has sought alternatives since last year …
@oracle:
Oracle says the Nvidia-OpenAI deal has “zero impact” on its financial relationship with OpenAI and it is “highly confident in OpenAI's ability to raise funds”  —  The NVIDIA-OpenAI deal has zero impact on our financial relationship with OpenAI. We remain highly confident in OpenAI's ability to raise funds and meet its commitments.
Brian Barrett / Wired:
The US DOJ releasing emails between tech industry notables and Jeffrey Epstein kicks off a renewed flurry of acrimonious social posts and lurid news coverage  —  The Department of Justice has released more than 3 million documents and photos related to Jeffrey Epstein.
More: Garbage Day, 404 Media, The Verge, Protos, The Verge, Decrypt, Ars Technica, Wired, 404 Media, Wall Street Journal, The Standard, Axios, Financial Times, New York Times, Bloomberg, New York Times, Forbes, New York Magazine, Time, New York Times, People, ZeroHedge News, Gizmodo, and CBS News
Arjun Kharpal / CNBC:
Nintendo reports Q3 revenue of $5.2B, below $5.45B est., a net profit of $1.03B, vs. $950M est., and maintains its 19M Switch 2 sales forecast for fiscal 2026  —  Nintendo maintained its full-year Switch 2 sales forecast on Tuesday allaying some fears that the flagship console was losing momentum.
Jess Weatherbed / The Verge:
Nintendo says the Switch 1 sold 155.37M units as of December 31 since its 2017 launch, topping the DS' 154.02M units, becoming its best-selling console ever  —  The DS has been overthrown, 12 years after it was discontinued. … The original Switch is officially Nintendo's best-selling console …
David Gewirtz / ZDNET:
Edward Ludlow / Bloomberg:
Waymo raised $16B led by Sequoia, DST, and Dragoneer at a $126B valuation, plans an expansion across the US and into the UK in 2026, and has 400K+ weekly rides  —  Waymo, Alphabet Inc.'s autonomous driving unit, raised $16 billion at a $126 billion valuation, a funding round that reflects its rapid ascent as a robotaxi pioneer.
Paige Smith / Bloomberg:
PayPal names HP CEO Enrique Lores as its CEO, replacing Alex Chriss on March 1, and reports Q4 revenue up 4% YoY to $8.7B, missing est.; PYPL falls 18%+  —  PayPal Holdings Inc. said HP Inc. Chief Executive Officer Enrique Lores will take the top job from Alex Chriss, whose turnaround plan failed …
Matthew Green / A Few Thoughts …:
A look at WhatsApp's E2E encryption and whether it protects from metadata and chat backup leaks, after a lawsuit alleges Meta can read users' private data  —  It's not every day that we see mainstream media get excited about encryption apps!  For that reason, the past several days have been fascinating …
Variety:
Disney names Josh D'Amaro, head of its theme parks and consumer products division, as CEO, replacing Bob Iger, effective March 18; D'Amaro joined Disney in 1998  —  Dana Walden named president and chief creative officer of the company  —  The Walt Disney Co., after a more than two-year saga …
Cristina Criddle / Financial Times:
Sources: OpenAI is prioritizing ChatGPT over long-term research, prompting senior staff departures; Sora and DALL-E teams felt neglected and under resourced  —  Resources at $500bn company are being redirected from long-term research towards improving the flagship chatbot
More: BenzingaX: @thedataroom and @thedataroomMastodon: @carnage4life@mas.toForums: r/OpenAI

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Earlier Picks

Sergiu Gatlan / BleepingComputer:
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Bill Toulas / BleepingComputer: