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February 4, 2026, 2:30 PM
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Anthropic:
Anthropic says “Claude will remain ad-free”, its users “won't see ‘sponsored’ links adjacent to” conversations, and responses won't be influenced by advertisers  —  There are many good places for advertising.  A conversation with Claude is not one of them.
Suzanne Vranica / Wall Street Journal:
Anthropic plans a 30-second ad during the Super Bowl that parodies the prospect of intrusive ads in AI conversations, and will also air a 60-second pregame ad  —  Chatbot wars are heating up, with Anthropic's Claude highlighting the potential frustration of bringing ads into ChatGPT
Connor Hart / Wall Street Journal:
Uber reports Q4 revenue up 20% YoY to $14.37B, Gross Bookings up 22% YoY to $54.1B, trips up 22% YoY to 3.8B, and a $296M net income, below est.; UBER falls 5%+  —  Ride-hailing company's quarterly profit falls on hefty charge  —  Uber Technologies fourth-quarter profit fell …
Ram Iyer / TechCrunch:
Uber promotes Balaji Krishnamurthy, its former VP of strategic finance and investor relations, to be its CFO, replacing Prashanth Mahendra-Rajah
Abner Li / 9to5Google:
Google teases the Pixel 10a in a new video, revealing a completely flat rear camera, and says pre-orders begin on February 18  —  Google this morning officially announced the Pixel 10a via a video teaser emphasizing the updated design.  —  A short 15-second video from Made by Google shows the design of the Pixel 10a in full.
Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The Verge:
Amazon rolls out Alexa+ to all Prime members in the US via any Alexa-enabled device, Alexa.com, and the Alexa app, and launches a free tier for non-Prime users  —  Amazon's revamped AI-powered assistant is now available to everyone in the US, with new tiers that include a free option for non-Prime users.
Jordan Novet / CNBC:
Microsoft says cybersecurity head Charlie Bell will move into a position focused on engineering quality; Hayete Gallot will return from Google to run security  —  Microsoft said Wednesday that top security leader Charlie Bell will take on a new role and that Hayete Gallot will return …
Kate Clark / Wall Street Journal:
AI voice startup ElevenLabs raised a $500M Series D led by Sequoia at an $11B valuation, taking its total funding to nearly $800M, and reports $330M in 2025 ARR  —  The startup is increasingly joining with creative stars and expanding its work with business customers
Nick Turner / Bloomberg:
Texas Instruments agrees to acquire US chip company Silicon Labs for ~$7.5B, paying $231/share in cash, closing in H1 2027; Silicon Labs has a ~$4.5B market cap  —  Texas Instruments Inc. has reached an agreement to buy the US chip firm Silicon Laboratories Inc. for about $7.5 billion …
Sam Reynolds / CoinDesk:
A US judge sentences Rui-Siang Lin, who pled guilty to operating the $105M+ dark web narcotics marketplace Incognito Market, to 30 years in US federal prison  —  U.S. prosecutors say the Taiwanese operator of the $105 Million Incognito Market used cryptocurrency and anonymity tools …
Jill R Shah / Financial Times:
Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino says Tether's target of raising $15B to $20B was a “misconception”; sources say Tether's advisers have floated raising as little as $5B  —  CEO Paolo Ardoino downplays the scale of $185bn stablecoin group's capital raise
Leo Schwartz / Fortune:
TRM Labs, which helps law enforcement and companies track crypto and blockchains, raised a $70M Series C led by Blockchain Capital at a $1B valuation  —  When TRM Labs cofounders Esteban Castaño and Rahul Raina moved to San Francisco in 2018 to create a startup, their mentors told …
Jason Schreier / Bloomberg:
A profile of game studio Obsidian, which Microsoft acquired in 2018, as it seeks to shorten development times and cut costs after releasing three titles in 2025  —  Microsoft's Obsidian Entertainment is searching for ways to make games more quickly and on smaller budgets.
Max Knoblauch / Sherwood News:
Take-Two reports Q3 net bookings up 28% YoY to $1.76B, vs. $1.58B est., net revenue up 25% YoY to $1.7B, and raises its annual bookings forecast; TTWO drops ~5%  —  “Grand Theft Auto” and “NBA 2K” maker Take-TwoTTWO $223.50 (-4.23%) reported results for its fiscal third quarter on Tuesday.
Chris Tapsell / Eurogamer.net:
An interview with Epic Games Store VP Steven Allison, who says “we have a lot of things” to fix and “the launcher sucks”, on 2026 updates like social features  —  Steven Allison acknowledges some people will always say “F— Epic", as focus finally shifts to player experience.
Financial Times:
Sources: the US Commerce Department finished reviewing Nvidia's H200 China license, but the State Department wants tougher restrictions, delaying final approval  —  The state department has pushed for close scrutiny before approving export licences  —  Michael Acton in San Francisco …
Ian King / Bloomberg:
AMD reports Q4 revenue up 34% YoY to $10.3B, Data Center revenue up 39% YoY to $5.4B, and forecasts Q1 revenue at $9.8B, below $10B projections; AMD drops 15%+
Tom Warren / The Verge:
On AMD's Q4 earnings call, CEO Lisa Su says Microsoft's next-gen Xbox “is progressing well to support a launch in 2027” and will feature an AMD semi-custom SoC
Wall Street Journal:
Software and data stocks plunge over fears that new AI developments will supplant software; ADBE fell 7.31%, CRM 6.85%, and Thomson Reuters 15.83% on Tuesday  —  From Legalzoom.com and Expedia to Ares and Apollo, shares of companies that sell or invest in software fell sharply on Tuesday

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This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 2:30 PM ET, February 4, 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

New York Times:
WaPo begins widespread layoffs, cutting into international coverage and more; sources: it is laying off 30% of its employees, including 300+ of 800 journalists

Katie Robertson / New York Times:
NYT reports adding 450K digital subscribers in Q4 and 1.4M in 2025 for 12.78M in total, putting it on a pace to reach its stated goal of 15M by the end of 2027

Deadline:
At a US Senate hearing, Netflix Co-CEO Ted Sarandos committed to a 45-day theatrical window and discussed a meeting with Trump, YouTube, residuals, and more

More News

Earlier Picks

Jay Peters / The Verge:
Adobe reverses its plans to discontinue Animate after creators expressed frustration, saying it won't get new features but will remain available “indefinitely”
Bloomberg:
US v. Google: the DOJ and a group of states will appeal the September 2025 ruling in the Search antitrust case in which Google dodged a forced sale of Chrome
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