Techmeme
February 9, 2026, 10:35 AM

Top News

CNBC:
Slack message: Sam Altman tells staff that ChatGPT is “back to exceeding 10% monthly growth”, and OpenAI plans to release “an updated Chat model” this week  —  As OpenAI faces intensifying pressure from rival Anthropic's improved coding tools, CEO Sam Altman …
Bloomberg:
The European Commission sends a statement of objections to Meta over WhatsApp blocking rival AI chatbots, warning it will take measures to avoid “serious” harm  —  Meta Platforms Inc. was given a European Union warning over policies that block the use of rival Artificial Intelligence assistants …
Stevie Bonifield / The Verge:
Juro Osawa / The Information:
ByteDance debuts Seedance 2.0, a new version of its AI video generation model that can produce multi-shot scenes, available to select Jimeng and Jianying users  —  ByteDance's new AI video generation model Seedance 2.0, unveiled over the weekend, is generating a lot of buzz on social media, with some calling it a game changer.
Jordan Novet / CNBC:
Databricks raised $5B in funding and $2B in new debt at a $134B valuation and says its annualized revenue exceeded $5.4B for the January quarter, up 65% YoY  —  Databricks said Monday it has raised $5 billion in funding and $2 billion in new debt capacity at a $134 billion valuation.
More: Reuters
Brayden Lindrea / Cointelegraph:
Crypto.com CEO Kris Marszalek launches ai.com in beta during the Super Bowl and opens username registration to let users get a private, personalized AI agent  —  Crypto.com CEO Kris Marszalek's goal with ai.com is to build “a decentralized network of autonomous, self-improving AI agents …
Abner Li / 9to5Google:
YouTube launches a Premium paywall for song lyrics on YouTube Music, after testing it in recent months; users get five free lyrics before they have to subscribe  —  After testing in recent months, YouTube Music looks to be widely rolling out a Premium paywall for lyrics.
Lauren Forristal / TechCrunch:
A look at the 2026 Super Bowl ads from Anthropic, Meta, Amazon, Google, and others, as AI continued to take center stage in ad creation and AI product promotion  —  Following last year's trend of showcasing AI in multimillion-dollar ad spots, the 2026 Super Bowl advertisements took …
Miles Kruppa / The Information:
Source: Apollo nears a ~$3.4B loan deal to a Valor-led investment vehicle to buy Nvidia chips for leasing to xAI; through fall 2025, xAI was burning $1B+/month  —  Apollo Global Management, one of Wall Street's biggest private credit firms, is nearing a deal to lend about $3.4 billion …
More: Reuters
Lucas Shaw / Bloomberg:
Q&A with YouTube VP of Subscription Products Christian Oestlien on YouTube TV's future, the NFL and Oscars deals, its friendly rivalry with Netflix, and more  —  YouTube is going to start selling cheaper TV bundles for sports fans, news junkies  —  Happy Super Bowl Sunday …
Amanda Chu / Politico:
How Oura won over DC by growing its lobbying spend to $1M+ per year, as RFK Jr. touts wearables for health and the US DOD makes the rings an employee benefit  —  It's paying off.  The Defense Department, Oura's largest customer, now provides rings to certain soldiers and civil servants as an employee benefit.
Dominic Chopping / Wall Street Journal:
Advent, FedEx, A&R, and PPF agree to acquire Polish automated parcel delivery company InPost for €7.8B; InPost has 61K+ automated parcel lockers across Europe  —  The consortium says there is a clear path to significantly grow InPost's network and extend its reach across Europe

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Featured Podcasts

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AI takes over meetings, the SF vs London tech scene, and ethics in media
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Big Technology Podcast:
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Earlier Picks

Lauren Feiner / The Verge:
Will Douglas Heaven / MIT Technology Review:
Alexandra Alter / New York Times:
Siddhant Khare:
The Hacker News: