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Techmeme
February 20, 2026, 9:40 AM
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Top News

Rafe Rosner-Uddin / Financial Times:
Sources: Amazon's AI tools have caused at least two AWS outages, including a 13-hour disruption in December after Kiro AI deleted and recreated an environment  —  Tech giant blames ‘user error, not AI error’ for incident in December involving its Kiro tool  —  Amazon's cloud unit has suffered …
Robert Burnson / Bloomberg:
A US grand jury indicted two former Google engineers and one of their husbands for allegedly stealing trade secrets relating to the Tensor chip for Pixel phones  —  Two former Google engineers and one of their husbands were indicted for allegedly stealing trade secrets relating to the company's Tensor processor for Pixel phones.
Financial Times:
Sources: Nvidia is close to finalizing an up to $30B investment into OpenAI, replacing 2025's long-term $100B commitment; the deal could be closed this weekend  —  Chipmaker swaps last year's complex framework with AI start-up in favour of equity cheque  —  Nvidia is close to finalising …
Jay Peters / The Verge:
Meta says it is “explicitly separating” Quest VR from its Worlds platform, making Worlds “almost exclusively mobile” to better compete with Roblox and Fortnite  —  Horizon Worlds is now going to be a platform that's ‘almost exclusively mobile.’
Jason Schreier / Bloomberg:
Sony shuts down Bluepoint Games, the PlayStation subsidiary behind remakes of older games like Demon's Souls and Uncharted; ~70 employees will lose their jobs  —  The PlayStation subsidiary previously made remakes of games like 'Demon's Souls'  —  Sony Group Corp. is shutting down Bluepoint Games …
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Google rejected 1.75M policy-violating Android apps and blocked 80K+ developer accounts from Google Play in 2025, down from 2.36M apps and 158K accounts in 2024  —  Fewer bad actors are targeting Google Play with malicious apps, the company says, a shift that the tech giant credits …
Chris Metinko / Axios:
Pepper, which provides a digital storefront for independent food distributors, raised a $50M Series C led by Lead Edge, bringing its total funding to $100M  —  Pepper, a business platform developer for independent food distributors, raised a $50 million Series C led by Lead Edge Capital, CEO Bowie Cheung tells Axios Pro exclusively.
Abner Li / 9to5Google:
Google rolls out Gemini 3.1 Pro, which it says is “a step forward in core reasoning”, for all users in the Gemini app; the .1 increment is a first for Google  —  In November, Google introduced Gemini 3 Pro in preview, with Gemini 3 Flash following a month later.

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About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 9:40 AM ET, February 20, 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.

From Mediagazer

Cynthia Littleton / Variety:
A look at the challenges facing Skydance, including nearly $80B in debt and a commitment to achieve $6B in operational savings over three years

Brian Stelter / CNN:
The White House barred Politico from Air Force One Monday; sources: other outlets declined to take Politico's seat, leaving no primary print pooler on the trip

New York Times:
President Trump says his super PAC, MAGA Inc., will now pay for TV ads promoting him nationwide; AdImpact: $10M+ in taxpayer-funded ads have run since September

More News

Evan Halper / Washington Post:
Tech companies are increasingly building private power plants to fuel off-grid data centers, a move some warn faces reliability challenges and climate risks
Jonathan Lloyd / NBC Los Angeles:
Los Angeles County sues Roblox, alleging it engaged in deceptive business practices that exposed children to sexual content, exploitation, and online predators
Makena Kelly / Wired:
Docs: DHS has signed a five-year, $1B blanket purchase agreement with Palantir, allowing agencies like ICE to skip the competitive bidding process
Wall Street Journal:
CZ returned to the US for the first time since his 2024 prison release to attend a World Liberty Financial event at Mar-a-Lago with Brian Armstrong and others

Earlier Picks

Reece Rogers / Wired:
Workers describe a deteriorating culture at Jack Dorsey's Block as morale plunges amid rolling layoffs and a push to use AI tools to improve productivity
More: The Hans India.  X: @rtehrani.  Bluesky: @rjrjr.com, @prietschka, and @thiccreese.  Forums: r/technews
Max A. Cherney / Reuters:
Toronto-based chip startup Taalas, which hardwires AI models into custom silicon to achieve faster inference, raised $169M, bringing its total funding to $219M
The Information:
Sources: AMD agrees to backstop a $300M loan from Goldman Sachs for Crusoe to buy AMD's AI chips, the first known example of AMD chips used as debt collateral
Natalie Lung / Bloomberg:
New York pulls a proposal that would have allowed robotaxi services outside NYC, a blow to Waymo, which aims to reach 1M paid weekly US rides by the end of 2026
Zoë Bernard / Wired:
Inside the “gay tech mafia” that mixes social and professional lives, as 51 investors, entrepreneurs, and executives detail gay influence in Silicon Valley
Kalley Huang / New York Times:
West Virginia's AG sues Apple for allegedly violating consumer protection law by not implementing tools like PhotoDNA to detect CSAM stored and shared on iCloud
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