Techmeme
February 17, 2026, 12:45 PM

Top News

Hannah Murphy / Financial Times:
Nicolas Bustamante / @nicbstme:
How LLMs are dismantling the moats that made vertical SaaS defensible, and why the market selloff is structurally justified but temporally exaggerated  —  In the past few weeks, nearly $1 trillion was wiped from software and services stocks.  FactSet dropped from a $20B peak to under $8B.
Jay Peters / The Verge:
Nathan Bomey / Axios:
CFTC Chair Mike Selig says the commission will file friend-of-the-court briefs to defend its exclusive jurisdiction over prediction markets amid state lawsuits  —  The Commodity Futures Trading Commission is launching a legal campaign to defend its regulatory turf on prediction markets …
Samuel Stolton / Bloomberg:
The European Commission opens a full DSA investigation into Shein over sales of child-like sex dolls that “could constitute child sexual abuse material”  —  Shein risks hefty European Union penalties after regulators opened a full-scale probe into sales of child-like sex dolls on the Chinese e-commerce platform.
Macarena Munoz Montijano / Bloomberg:
Spanish PM Pedro Sanchez says he asked the country's prosecutor office to investigate X, TikTok, and Meta over the alleged “creation and dissemination” of CSAM  —  Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said he is using special public-interest powers to ask the country's prosecutor office …
Pierre Paulden / Bloomberg:
Palantir moves its HQ from Denver to Miami, as the city's leadership aims to turn it into the next Silicon Valley, with backing of billionaires like Ken Griffin  —  Palantir Technologies Inc. said it's moved its headquarters to Miami from Denver as more tech firms seek to base themselves …
Urvi Dugar / Reuters:
Indian conglomerate Adani Group announces plans to invest $100B to build renewable energy-powered AI-ready data centers across India by 2035  —  Adani Enterprises (ADEL.NS) said on Tuesday that the group will invest $100 billion to build renewable energy-powered AI-ready data centres by 2035 …
The Economic Times:
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Automattic adds an AI assistant to WordPress.com, enabling users to perform site-wide layout and style modifications via natural language commands  —  WordPress.com, the website hosting platform from Automattic, will now include a built-in WordPress AI assistant, the company announced on Tuesday.
Chris Metinko / Axios:
Braintrust, which helps companies evaluate and monitor their AI tools' performance, raised an $80M Series B led by Iconiq at an $800M post-money valuation  —  Braintrust, a startup building AI observability and evaluation tools, raised an $80 million Series B led by Iconiq …
Manus:
Manus launches Manus Agents, allowing users to access Manus directly inside messaging apps, starting with Telegram and coming soon to other platforms  —  Today, we're introducing Manus Agents — a new way to access and use Manus directly inside your messaging apps.  Telegram is the first supported channel.
Chance Miller / 9to5Mac:
Apple debuts iOS 26.4 beta 1 for developers, adding limited support for encrypted RCS messages, enhancements to Apple Music, and a Smart List for Reminders  —  iOS 26.4 beta 1 is now available in beta for developers.  The update includes a ton of new features and changes for iPhone users.
Anthony Hughes / Bloomberg:
SEC filing: Liftoff withdraws its IPO filing without specifying a reason, less than two weeks after the mobile ad platform postponed plans to price its IPO  —  Liftoff Mobile Inc. withdrew its IPO filing, less than two weeks after the mobile advertising platform operator said it was postponing plans to raise as much as $762 million.

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Stuart Biggs / Bloomberg:
Caroline Hyde / Bloomberg:

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