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February 19, 2026, 11:50 AM
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Saritha Rai / Bloomberg:
India's AI Summit: Modi orchestrated a photo op with tech and business leaders holding hands in a line, but Sam Altman and Dario Amodei refused to clasp hands  —  Once a rival, always a rival.  —  As Prime Minister Narendra Modi kicked off the busiest day of India's AI Summit in New Delhi …
Cherylann Mollan / BBC:
The Gates Foundation says Bill Gates will not deliver his keynote at India's AI Summit after “careful consideration”, amid controversy over his Epstein ties  —  Bill Gates will not deliver his keynote address at the India AI Impact Summit in Delhi, his philanthropic organisation …
New York Times:
Inside India's AI Impact Summit: 300+ exhibitors, 500 sessions, 250K visitors, billions in investment, and entrepreneurs touting solutions to real-world issues  —  The event promised to be a global coming-out party for India's artificial intelligence aspirations.
Bloomberg:
Indian conglomerate Reliance plans to invest up to ~$110B to build AI-related infrastructure over the next seven years, and JioHotstar plans a ChatGPT-based bot
Jagmeet Singh / TechCrunch:
India-based Tata Group signs OpenAI as its first data center client, starting with 100MW of capacity, and plans to deploy ChatGPT Enterprise, starting with TCS
Reuters:
Sources: the US State Department is building an online portal at freedom.gov that will let users in Europe and elsewhere see content banned by their governments  —  The U.S. State Department is developing an online portal that will enable people in Europe and elsewhere to see content banned …
Jordyn Holman / New York Times:
Ring founder Jamie Siminoff is on an apology tour to quell an outcry over privacy concerns after Ring's Super Bowl Search Party ad, calling it a “perfect storm”  —  Since the commercial aired, Jamie Siminoff has been trying to quell an outcry over privacy concerns with his doorbell cameras.
Abner Li / 9to5Google:
Google rolls out Gemini 3.1 Pro, which it says is “a step forward in core reasoning”, for AI Pro and Ultra subscribers; 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.
Bloomberg:
Sources: OpenAI is close to finalizing the first phase of its record $100B+ round; its overall valuation, including the eventual funding, could exceed $850B  —  OpenAI is close to finalizing the first phase of a new funding round that is likely to bring in more than $100 billion …
Spencer Soper / Bloomberg:
Amazon dethrones Walmart as the world's largest company by revenue, reporting $717B in 2025 sales, compared to Walmart's $713.2B for the 12 months to January 31  —  Amazon.com Inc. has officially dethroned Walmart Inc. as the biggest global company by revenue, a milestone attesting …
Gayoung Lee / Gizmodo:
Microsoft's Project Silica team details its laser-modified glass storage tech, saying tests suggest that it can preserve large amounts of data for 10,000+ years  —  “This will change the way we think about keeping data and archival preservation.”  —  Our knowledge of the past comes from stone tablets and old parchment.
CNBC:
Social media addiction trial: Mark Zuckerberg says increasing engagement on Instagram is not a company goal and that Meta removes underage users it identifies  —  Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg pushed back against the notion that the social media company made increasing time spent on Instagram a company goal.
Katie Roof / The Information:
ZaiNar, a developer of a GPS alternative that uses Wi-Fi and 5G to provide location data, raised $10M at a $1B valuation, bringing its total funding to $100M  —  Over the last two years, investors and researchers have flocked to startups helping bring AI into the physical world …
Mary Ann Azevedo / Crunchbase News:
Ownwell, which uses AI to let homeowners appeal property taxes, raised a $30M Series B, bringing its total funding to $54M; it also raised $20M in debt  —  Ownwell, an AI-powered startup that appeals property taxes on behalf of homeowners, has secured $50 million in financing …
More: FinSMEs
Bloomberg:
Atlassian's founders lost ~$7.2B in wealth in 2026, behind AppLovin's three founders, amid a SaaS rout; TEAM is down 45%+ YTD, the Nasdaq 100's worst performer  —  Michael Cannon-Brookes became a billionaire in his 30s and one of Australia's richest tech executives with the initial public offering …
Ece Yildirim / Gizmodo:
Study: X's feed algorithm favors conservative content, and switching to For You for seven weeks shifted users' views toward more conservative political opinions  —  The algorithm also doesn't like posts by traditional news media, the researchers found.  —  In case you had any doubt …
Tim Fernholz / TechCrunch:
FreeForm, which is building an AI native 3D printing system that uses 18 lasers to fuse metal powders into precision components, raised a $67M Series B  —  Tech investors haven't given up on the dream of making physical products with the same speed and ease as coding software.
Niko Gallogly / New York Times:
eBay agrees to acquire secondhand clothing app Depop from Etsy for ~$1.2B in cash; Etsy bought Depop, popular with Gen Z, in 2021 for $1.6B; ETSY jumps 5%+  —  The $1.2 billion deal comes as eBay looks to expand its appeal among younger users.  —  Secondhand clothing apps hit a stride during …
The Guardian:
The UK proposes requiring tech companies to remove nonconsensual abusive content within 48 hours, or risk being blocked and fined up to 10% of global revenue  —  PM says measure, also applied to deepfake nudes, is needed owing to a ‘national emergency’ of online misogyny

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About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 11:50 AM ET, February 19, 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

Daniel Arkin / NBC News:
Gene Shalit, a longtime film critic for NBC's Today who was with the show from 1970 until his retirement in 2010, dies at 100

Gary Baum / The Hollywood Reporter:
A look at the first “case” brought before Objection, which aims to use AI to evaluate news stories, and a Q&A with Objection's founder; the site is now dark

Aidan Ryan / The Boston Globe:
A look at an AI-reliant news site for 19 towns south of Boston, which uses public meeting transcripts and LLMs to produce stories and has 350 paid subscribers

More News

Earlier Picks

Jyoti Mann / The Information:
Sources: Meta has revived a previously shelved smartwatch project, now code-named Malibu 2, and plans to release it in 2026 with health features and Meta AI
OpenAI:
OpenAI and Paradigm announce EVMbench, a benchmark that measures how well AI agents can detect, exploit, and patch high-severity smart contract vulnerabilities
Juli Clover / MacRumors:
Apple adds support for third-party voice-based conversational apps in CarPlay starting with iOS 26.4, letting CarPlay users access apps like AI chatbots
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