Techmeme
February 9, 2026, 11:40 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:
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
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.
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 …
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 …
Bloomberg:
Uber agrees to acquire Getir's delivery operations from Mubadala for $335M in cash and says it will take a 15% stake in the remaining portfolio for $100M  —  Uber Technologies Inc. has agreed to buy Turkish company Getir's delivery operations from its controlling shareholder Mubadala Investment Co …
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 …
More: 404 Media, Slate, YouTube, Washington Post, Big Technology, Coinbase on YouTube, YouTube, New York Times, Apple, The Drum, Social Signals, Inc.com, The Verge, Interesting Engineering, Fast Company, The Hollywood Reporter, New York Times, Wired, The Verge, Business Insider, The Verge, The Verge, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Variety, IGN, Polygon.com, Adweek, and Sports Illustrated
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
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.
More: The Verge
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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Earlier Picks

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