Techmeme
February 18, 2026, 9:10 AM

Top News

Abu Sultan / Reuters:
Microsoft says it is on pace to invest $50B by 2030 to help expand AI across the Global South, after unveiling $17.5B worth of AI investments in India in 2025  —  Microsoft (MSFT.O) on Wednesday said it is on pace to invest $50 billion by the end of the decade to help expand AI to countries across the ‘Global South’.
Shruti Rajagopalan / Get Down and Shruti:
Anthropic:
Anthropic launches Claude Sonnet 4.6 with improvements in coding, computer use, instruction following, and more; it features a 1M token context window in beta  —  Claude Sonnet 4.6 is our most capable Sonnet model yet.  It's a full upgrade of the model's skills across coding, computer use …
More: The Register, The Decoder, Claude, 9to5Mac, TechCrunch, Silicon Republic, Cyber Security News, Business Standard, iClarified, The Indian Express, Latent.Space, Help Net Security, Digit, The Economic Times, Neowin, XDA Developers, Moneycontrol, crypto.news, VentureBeat, The Deep View, Runtime, InfoWorld, Simon Willison's Weblog, MacRumors, Android Headlines, Axios, The Verge, Forbes, TechRepublic, Claude, Tom's Guide, CNET, CNBC, ZDNET, The New Stack, SiliconANGLE, ITPro, and About Amazon
Cristina Criddle / Financial Times:
Perplexity says it has no plans to further pursue ads, which it introduced in 2024, after phasing them out in late 2025 over fears they would erode user trust  —  Leading start-ups have recently embraced sponsors as they search for revenue  —  AI start-up Perplexity has abandoned advertising …
Financial Times:
Meta commits to buy millions of Nvidia Blackwell and Rubin GPUs in a multiyear deal; a source says Meta's in-house AI chip strategy suffers technical challenges  —  Social media group will purchase millions of chips even as it tries to develop its own AI hardware
Nathan Bomey / Axios:
Rachel Swan / San Francisco Chronicle:
Tesla agrees to stop using the term “autopilot” to market its electric vehicles in California to avoid a 30-day suspension by the state's DMV  —  Tesla has stopped using the term “autopilot” to market its electric vehicles in California in order to avoid a 30-day suspension by the Department of Motor Vehicles.
Abner Li / 9to5Google:
Google schedules I/O 2026 for May 19 to 20 in Mountain View, teasing the “latest AI breakthroughs and updates” in Gemini, Android, and more  —  Following the puzzle this morning, Google has announced that I/O 2026 is taking place May 19-20.  —  I/O 2026 will feature …
Melissa Heikkilä / Financial Times:
Q&A with Synthesia founder and CEO Victor Riparbelli on growing the London-based enterprise AI video platform, hitting a $4B valuation, AI regulation, and more  —  The founder of the $4bn UK start-up talks about his mission to reinvent content creation and how Europe can compete in the global AI race
Sidhartha Shukla / Bloomberg:
SEC filing: Peter Thiel and Founders Fund have fully exited ETHZilla, down from a 7.5% stake in August 2025; ether is down 60% from its August 2025 peak  —  Billionaire tech investor Peter Thiel and his Founders Fund have fully exited ETHZilla Corp., according to a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission.
Tim De Chant / TechCrunch:
DG Matrix, which builds solid-state transformers to handle up to 2.4 MW and boost data center power efficiency, raised a $60M Series A led by Engine Ventures  —  Data centers face a conundrum: how to power increasingly dense server racks using equipment that relies on century-old technology.
Krisztian Sandor / CoinDesk:
Stripe's stablecoin firm Bridge wins conditional approval from the US OCC to form a national trust bank, which would allow it to issue and manage stablecoins  —  What to know: … Bridge, a stablecoin infrastructure firm owned by Stripe, said Tuesday it has received conditional approval …

Sponsor Posts

Airtable:
Deep analysis for deep questions  —  Introducing Superagent.  A new research product from Airtable: Subagents deeply interrogate your topic and turn it into boardroom-ready reports, slides, docs, or websites.
Clay:
Turn any GTM idea into reality  —  Clay helps GTM teams combine AI agents, enrichment, and intent data to move faster and turn insights into action.
Zoho:
Streamline payment collections in Singapore with PayNow and GrabPay  —  Under the “Smart Nation” initiative, Singapore is making a transformation towards cashless and quick payment options.
IDrive:
Protecting your Cloud Applications Data  —  Backing up Office 365, Google Workspace, Dropbox & Salesforce data is critical to preventing data loss or corruption, complying with laws and avoiding critical downtime in case of a disaster.

Featured Podcasts

Invest Like the Best:
Josh Kushner - Concentration and Conviction
The leading destination to learn about business and investing. We do this by showcasing exceptional talent and ideas.
Subscribe to Invest Like the Best.
Channels with Peter Kafka:
Janice Min on Hollywood's Crisis; Reed Duchscher on the Creator Boom
Media and tech aren't just intersecting - they're fully intertwined. To understand how those worlds work, Peter Kafka talks to industry leaders, upstarts and observers.
Subscribe to Channels with Peter Kafka.
The Social Radars:
Tom Blomfield, Partner, Y Combinator; Co-Founder, Monzo
Come be a fly on the wall as Y Combinator's Jessica Livingston and Carolynn Levy talk to some of the most successful founders in Silicon Valley about how they did it.
Subscribe to The Social Radars.
Cheeky Pint:
Ramp founder Eric Glyman on the many ways AI is changing corporate spending
Stripe cofounder John Collison interviews founders, builders, and leaders over a pint.
Subscribe to Cheeky Pint.
Lenny's Podcast:
Sequoia CEO coach: Why it's never been easier to start a company, and never been harder to scale one | Brian Halligan (co-founder, HubSpot)
Interviews with world-class product leaders and growth experts to uncover actionable advice to help you build, launch, and grow your own product.
Subscribe to Lenny's Podcast.
Tools and Weapons with Brad Smith:
His Excellency Khaldoon Al Mubarak: Investing in an AI-Driven World
Microsoft Vice Chair and President Brad Smith speaks with leaders in government, business, and culture to explore the most critical challenges at the intersection of technology and society.
Subscribe to Tools and Weapons with Brad Smith.
 

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 9:10 AM ET, February 18, 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.

More News

David Singleton / flurries of latent creativity:
Ben Schoon / 9to5Google:
TechCrunch:

Earlier Picks

Elias Schisgall / Wall Street Journal:
The Information:
Mark Gurman / Bloomberg:
Bloomberg: