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February 12, 2026, 5:50 PM
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WeSmirchTop News
| Anthropic: |
Anthropic raised a $30B Series G led by GIC and Coatue and co-led by D. E. Shaw, Dragoneer, Founders Fund, Iconiq, and MGX at a $380B post-money valuation — We have raised $30 billion in Series G funding led by GIC and Coatue, valuing Anthropic at $380 billion post-money.
More: New York Times, The Information, San Francisco Business Times, PitchBook, Crunchbase News, TechCrunch, GIC, Axios, Simon Willison's Weblog, Crypto Briefing, Daily Sabah, Implicator.ai, Coatue, Pulse 2.0, The Economic Times, and Barron's Online
X: @ravi_lsvp, @lucacs, @elonmusk, @stocksavvyshay, @dougpepper, @iconiqcapital, @mikeisaac, @anthropicai, @shiringhaffary, @deedydas, and @danprimack
LinkedIn: Jazmin Medina, Yamini Bhandari, and Beatriz Cabrita
| Ashley Capoot / CNBC: |
More: Reuters. X: @emollick, @jacobrintamaki, @pitdesi, and @andy_l_jones
LinkedIn: Ashley Capoot and Jim Kaskade
Bluesky: @daniloc.xyz and @wittywebhandle
| David Gewirtz / ZDNET: |
OpenAI launches a research preview of GPT-5.3-Codex-Spark, a smaller version of GPT-5.3-Codex that it claims generates code 15 times faster, for Pro users — ZDNET's key takeaways — OpenAI targets “conversational” coding, not slow batch-style agents. — Big latency wins: 80% faster roundtrip, 50% faster time-to-first-token.
More: OpenAI, The Register, Simon Willison's Weblog, The New Stack, TechCrunch, Techstrong.ai, and Fast Company
X: @sama, @_simonsmith, @derrickcchoi, @romainhuet, @kevinweil, @openai, @skirano, @danshipper, @scaling01, @heccbrent, @embirico, @openai, @andrewdfeldman, @mweinbach, @dimillian, and @eliebakouch
Forums: r/singularity and r/OpenAI
| The Keyword: |
Google updates Gemini 3 Deep Think to better solve modern science, research, and engineering challenges and expands it via the Gemini API to some researchers — Our most specialized reasoning mode is now updated to solve modern science, research and engineering challenges.
More: Chrome Unboxed, PCMag, Simon Willison's Weblog, Bloomberg, 9to5Google, The Decoder, and OfficeChai
X: @googledeepmind, @emollick, @kevinroose, @sundarpichai, @bridgemindai, @oriolvinyalsml, @scaling01, @noamshazeer, @officiallogank, @arcprize, @officiallogank, @ai_for_success, @testingcatalog, @iterintellectus, @synthwavedd, @scaling01, @googledeepmind, @jeffdean, @thezvi, @googledeepmind, @google, @triswarkentin, @kimmonismus, @fchollet, @geminiapp, @teroterotero, @tulseedoshi, @googleai, @lmthang, @oriolvinyalsml, @joshwoodward, and @rihardjarc
LinkedIn: Heng-Tze Cheng, Google DeepMind, and Hanzhao
Forums: Hacker News and r/singularity
| Reuters: |
Sources: Palo Alto Networks ordered the removal of direct attributions to China from a Unit 42 report on a hacking campaign over fears of retaliation from China — Palo Alto Networks (PANW.O) opted not to tie China to a global cyberespionage campaign the firm exposed last week over concerns … | Theo Wayt / The Information: |
xAI all-hands: Nikita Bier says X hit $1B in ARR from selling $3- to $40-per-month subscriptions, but offered no details on ad revenue or other xAI financials — X recently hit $1 billion in annualized recurring revenue from selling subscriptions, head of product Nikita Bier said in an xAI all-hands meeting on Tuesday.
More: TechCrunch, The Register, Dexerto, The Ankler, BeInCrypto, Mashable, and CNBC
| Kevin Collier / NBC News: |
Google's TIG says Gemini has been inundated by “commercially motivated” actors who are trying to clone it, including one campaign that prompted it 100K+ times — Google says private companies and researchers are trying to copy Gemini's capabilities by repeatedly prompting it at scale.
More: Google Cloud Blog, CNET, Ars Technica, Android Headlines, Inc.com, and The Record
| Theodore Schleifer / New York Times: |
Anthropic donates $20M to Public First, a super PAC pushing for AI guardrails and transparency in opposition to OpenAI-backed PACs, ahead of the US midterms — Anthropic and OpenAI now have their own well-funded political groups that will square off in the midterm elections over artificial intelligence safety and regulation.
More: Axios, Benzinga, Anthropic, The Information, Bloomberg, Tech Brew, New York Times, CNBC, Dow Jones Newswires, Techstrong.ai, Implicator.ai, Reuters, Axios, and Wall Street Journal
X: @burgessev, @teddyschleifer, @shakeelhashim, @lisaabramowicz1, @shakeelhashim, @miles_brundage, @aricohn, @anthropicai, @santosh_arron, @adamkovac, @teddyschleifer, @corbtt, @deanwball, @neil_chilson, @cesarfernand3z, @ryangrim, @teddyschleifer, @emrwilkins, @tombibbys, @teddyschleifer, and @charalambos_the. Bluesky: @kevincollier. Forums: r/technology
| Jo Constantz / Bloomberg: |
IBM says it plans to triple entry-level hiring in the US in 2026 “for all these jobs that we're being told AI can do” — International Business Machines Corp. said it will triple entry-level hiring in the US in 2026, even as artificial intelligence appears to be weighing on broader demand for early-career workers.| Samantha Subin / CNBC: |
Instacart reports Q4 revenue up 12% YoY to $992M vs. $974M est., gross transaction value up 14% to $9.85B, gives strong Q1 guidance; CART jumps 14%+ after hours — Instacart shares climbed 14% during extended trading on Thursday after the grocery delivery company reported strong fourth-quarter revenue and forecast upbeat guidance.| Maxwell Zeff / Wired: |
An interview with OpenAI president Greg Brockman on donating $50M to AI and pro-Trump super PACs, why such donations serve a larger AI mission, and more — In an interview with WIRED, Greg Brockman says supporting politicians who back AI is “bigger than the people that I happen to be employed with.”| Financial Times: |
Israeli authorities charge a reservist and a civilian for allegedly using classified information to bet on “the occurrence of military operations” on Polymarket — Civilian and reservist charged with security offences, bribery and obstructing justice after ‘red line’ crossed with online gambling
More: Wall Street Journal, Jerusalem Post, Gizmodo, Washington Examiner, Bloomberg, New York Sun, UPI, New York Magazine, crypto.news, NBC News, The Block, Protos, and Decrypt. Bluesky: @campuscodi.risky.biz
| Sarah Perez / TechCrunch: |
Spotify says AI is helping it speed up coding and product velocity and its best developers “have not written a single line of code since December” — Has AI coding reached a tipping point? That seems to be the case for Spotify at least, which shared this week during … | Joe Rossignol / MacRumors: |
YouTube launches an app for the Apple Vision Pro, with standard videos, 180° and 360° videos, and YouTube Shorts; devices with the M5 chip can play 8K videos — Starting today, an official YouTube app is available on the Apple Vision Pro, allowing you to watch videos on a theater-sized screen …
More: The Verge, Bloomberg, Gizmodo, TechCrunch, Ars Technica, Thurrott, 9to5Mac, Tom's Guide, CNET, Redmond Pie, iClarified, Mashable, AppleInsider, Neowin, MacStories, ZDNET, Justin Ryan ᯅ on YouTube, TechRadar, Cord Cutters News, The Mac Observer, and Engadget
X: @justinryanio, @parkerortolani, @samsheffer, @andruedwards, @spatiallyme, @mgsiegler, @zollotech, and @reneritchie
Forums: r/apple and MacRumors Forums
| Chainalysis: |
Crypto transaction volume linked to suspected human trafficking, largely based in Southeast Asia, hit hundreds of millions of dollars in 2025, up 85% YoY — The intersection of cryptocurrency and suspected human trafficking intensified in 2025, with total transaction volume reaching hundreds … | Eduardo Baptista / Reuters: |
ByteDance's new AI video generation model Seedance 2.0 goes viral in China, with one state-backed newspaper saying it is bigger than DeepSeek's “Sputnik moment” — ByteDance's new video-generating artificial intelligence model has already impressed the likes of Elon Musk and gone viral in China …
More: Fast Company, The Verge, Forbes, ByteDance Seed, Implicator.ai, and Deadline
| MiniMax: |
MiniMax releases M2.5, claiming the model delivers on the “intelligence too cheap to meter” promise, priced at $0.30/1M input tokens and $1.20/1M output tokens — Today we're introducing our latest model, MiniMax-M2.5. — Extensively trained with reinforcement learning …
More: VentureBeat. X: @minimax_ai, @openhandsdev, @bytebot, @eliebakouch, @thdxr, @zephyr_z9, @skylermiao7, @adonis_singh, @fanjiewang, @scaling01, @minimax_ai, @minimaxagent, @askokara, @initjean, @chatgpt21, @openrouterai, @gneubig, @thdxr, @gneubig, @skylermiao7, @openhandsdev, @altryne, @synthwavedd, @askokara, @openhandsdev, @openhandsdev, and @itetnaa
Forums: Hacker News and r/LocalLLaMA
| Sean O'Kane / TechCrunch: |
Ever, which says it is the first “AI-native, full-stack” retail marketplace for electric vehicles, raised a $31M Series A led by Eclipse — If you want to buy or sell a used EV right now, what's the first step you'd take? — A startup called Ever wants to be the answer to that question.| Steve Yegge: |
AI tools like Claude Opus 4.6 make engineers 10x more productive and are addictive, but also drain developers' energy, causing increasingly widespread burnout — This was an unusually hard post to write, because it flies in the face of everything else going on.
More: Futurism. X: @solarise_webdev, @badlogicgames, @sockdrawermoney, and @championswimmer
LinkedIn: Steve Yegge and Lars Tackmann
Forums: Hacker News and Lobsters
| Yoolim Lee / Bloomberg: |
Samsung says it sent the first commercial HBM4 shipments to customers; Samsung seeks to supply Nvidia and compete with memory rivals like SK Hynix and Micron — Samsung Electronics Co. claimed an early lead in the race to supply advanced memory for AI accelerators like those made by Nvidia Corp. …
More: Samsung Newsroom, Motley Fool, Dow Jones Newswires, Techstrong IT, DigiTimes, and Reuters
X: @jukan05, @techfund1, @ns123abc, @trendforce, and @hedgedworld
| Michael Acton / Financial Times: |
US FTC chair asks Tim Cook to review Apple News' ToS and curation, citing allegations that it promotes “left-wing” outlets and suppresses conservative sources — US regulator issues warning to iPhone maker about its News platform following controversy over Super Bowl half-time show
More: Ars Technica, Associated Press, The Information, BBC, MediaPost, Business Insider, iPhone in Canada, Federal Trade Commission, Washington Times, CBS News, MacRumors, ZeroHedge News, Android Headlines, Telegraph, New York Sun, iClarified, TechCrunch, Deadline, 9to5Mac, Just The News, The Wrap, and New York Post
X: @afergusonftc, @brendancarrfcc, @adamthierer, @bendreyfuss, @tomcottonar, @matthewstoller, @mrddmia, @davidbozell, @adamscochran, @schneider_dc, @robertfreundlaw, @schneider_dc, @mirandadevine, @cernovich, @andyjungtech, @greta, @franklinh3000, and @cernovich
Bluesky: @robin.berjon.com, @mims, @tyleraking.com, and @marypcbuk
| Reuters: |
Russia confirms it has blocked WhatsApp, citing Meta's “unwillingness to comply with Russian law”, and proposes that Russians switch to the state-owned Max app — U.S. messenger app WhatsApp, owned by Meta Platforms (META.O), has been completely blocked in Russia for failing … | Jonathan Weil / Wall Street Journal: |
Meta's auditor Ernst & Young raised a red flag over the financial engineering Meta used to keep its $27B Hyperion data center project off its balance sheet — Meta Platforms' latest annual report contained an unusual, cautionary note for investors. — The tech giant's auditor … | Axios: |
US DOJ antitrust chief Gail Slater says she is leaving, in a departure viewed as a victory for tech giants over some of MAGA's more populist voices — Gail Slater on Thursday said she is leaving the Justice Department, where she led the antitrust division.
More: Engadget, The Hollywood Reporter, Reuters, Sportico, Bloomberg, The Daily Caller, The Guardian, New York Post, The Verge, The Information, Washington Examiner, New York Times, Politico, Variety, Financial Times, Media Play News, The A.V. Club, and The Wrap
X: @gailaslater, @danprimack, @nancyscola, @hshaban, and @adamwren
| Bloomberg: |
In a memo to US lawmakers, OpenAI accused DeepSeek of using distillation techniques to train the next generation of R1 and “free-ride” on leading US AI models — OpenAI has warned US lawmakers that its Chinese rival DeepSeek is using unfair and increasingly sophisticated methods …
More: Reuters
| André Beganski / Decrypt: |
Coinbase reports Q4 revenue down 22% YoY to $1.78B, vs. $1.84B est., transaction revenue down 37% to $983M, a net loss of $667M, vs. a $1.3B profit in Q4 2024 — Coinbase reported a down quarter for the end of 2025, with its investment portfolio plunging alongside Bitcoin and other crypto assets.
More: The Block, Benzinga, Wall Street Journal, Barron's Online, Bloomberg, Coinbase, Crypto Briefing, and Sherwood News. X: @brian_armstrong
| Marina Temkin / TechCrunch: |
Didero, which provides an agentic AI layer that integrates with ERP systems to automate supply chains, raised a $30M Series A co-led by Chemistry and Headline — Tim Spencer realized just how complicated manufacturing procurement can be while running Markai, an e-commerce startup in Asia, during the pandemic.
X: @tspencer15 and @kshenster
| Jonathan Vanian / CNBC: |
Pinterest reports Q4 revenue up 14% YoY to $1.32B, vs. $1.33B est., MAUs up 12% to 619M, and forecasts Q1 revenue below estimates; PINS drops 17%+ after hours — Pinterest shares dropped 19% in after-hours on Thursday after the social media company reported fourth-quarter earnings …
More: The Information, Reuters, Bloomberg, Benzinga, Yahoo Finance, Business Wire, Barron's Online, and Associated Press
| Taylor Soper / GeekWire: |
Highspot, which has raised $650M and makes AI-powered sales enablement software, plans to merge with rival Seismic; the combined company will be called Seismic — Seattle-based company Highspot plans to merge with Seismic in a deal that will combine two of the biggest players in sales and revenue enablement software.
More: Business Wire, Win Win Podcast, and MarTech
| Kris Holt / Engadget: |
Nvidia launches a native GeForce Now app on select Amazon Fire TV sticks, offering up to 1080p and 60fps gaming; Fire TV users previously had to sideload it — Streaming quality tops out at 1080p and 60 fps, however. — NVIDIA's cloud gaming service, GeForce Now, has expanded to another platform.
More: NVIDIA, AFTVnews, Thurrott, 9to5Google, Cord Cutters News, PCGamesN, PCWorld, Digital Trends, and Pocket-lint
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