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Techmeme
February 20, 2026, 4:50 PM
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Top News

Ryan McCaffrey / IGN:
Xbox President Sarah Bond, long thought to be Phil Spencer's heir, is leaving; Xbox Game Studios head Matt Booty is promoted to Chief Content Officer  —  Spencer's run with Xbox ends just months shy of the brand's 25th anniversary.  —  Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer …
Jordan Novet / CNBC:
Phil Spencer will retire after 38 years at Microsoft; Asha Sharma, the president of product in Microsoft's Core AI business, will become the CEO of gaming  —  Microsoft's head of gaming, Phil Spencer, is leaving the software maker following a 38-year tenure, as the company faces increased challenges in its Xbox business.
Rafe Rosner-Uddin / Financial Times:
Sources: Amazon's AI tools have caused at least two AWS outages, including a 13-hour disruption in December; Amazon says it was “user error, not AI error”  —  Tech giant blames ‘user error, not AI error’ for incident in December involving its Kiro tool
The Information:
Sources: OpenAI has 200+ people working on AI devices, including a smart speaker with a camera costing $200 to $300, possibly smart glasses and a smart lamp  —  OpenAI has more than 200 people working on a family of AI-powered devices that will include a smart speaker and possibly smart glasses …
Ryan Vlastelica / Bloomberg:
Anthropic launches Claude Code Security, which “scans codebases for security vulnerabilities and suggests targeted software patches”; cybersecurity stocks fall  —  Shares of cybersecurity software companies tumbled Friday after Anthropic PBC introduced a new security feature into its Claude AI model.
Adam Levine / Barron's Online:
Tech stocks rise slightly from their morning lows after the Supreme Court ruled that President Trump lacked the authority to impose sweeping global tariffs  —  Shares of tech goods makers rose off their morning lows on news of the high court's ruling.  Tech goods have been some of the least …
Chris Lattner / Modular Blog:
Claude's C Compiler shows AI elevates the role of human judgment and vision; it's a milestone, but closely mirrors LLVM/GCC, and hard codes things to pass tests  —  Compilers occupy a special place in computer science.  They're a canonical course in computer science education.  Building one is a rite of passage.
Fred Lambert / Electrek:
A US judge rejects Tesla's bid to overturn a $243M jury verdict over a fatal 2019 Autopilot crash, a blow for Tesla as it faces a growing wave of lawsuits  —  A federal judge has rejected Tesla's bid to overturn a $243 million jury verdict over a fatal 2019 Autopilot crash in Florida …
Lauren Goode / Wired:
Code Metal, which uses AI to let engineers translate legacy code into modern languages, raised a $125M Series B led by Salesforce Ventures at a $1.25B valuation  —  The Boston startup uses AI to translate and verify legacy software for defense contractors, arguing modernization can't come at the cost of new bugs.
Georgia Wells / Wall Street Journal:
Sources: OpenAI staff raised concerns about a Canadian mass shooting suspect months ago; OpenAI says her activity didn't meet the bar for reporting to police  —  ChatGPT maker opted against informing authorities about Jesse Van Rootselaar's descriptions of violence last June
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.

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About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 4:50 PM 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

Alex Weprin / The Hollywood Reporter:
FCC Chair Brendan Carr announces a voluntary campaign for broadcasters to celebrate the United States' 250th birthday by airing patriotic content

Elizabeth Lopatto / The Verge:
By partnering with betting markets, news organizations undercut themselves by effectively endorsing competitors and opening audiences up to ripoffs by insiders

Adam Liptak / New York Times:
How Alan Dershowitz's petition to seek review of his CNN libel suit threatens NYT v. Sullivan, which Dershowitz argues should only apply to government officials

More News

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
Andrew R. Chow / Time:
How some political candidates and activists across ideologies and professions are pushing back on the spread of data centers and AI in the US
More: Oklahoma Watch.  LinkedIn: Dr. Alicia M. Johnson.  Bluesky: @johnpalowitch, @amandalitman, and @enjohnston.  Forums: r/technology

Earlier Picks

Dan Gallagher / Wall Street Journal:
Uber's market cap fell to ~$150B, down ~25% in six months, as investors weigh robotaxi disruption and see the market as a two-horse race between Waymo and Tesla
Evan Halper / Washington Post:
Tech companies are increasingly building private power plants to fuel off-grid data centers, a move some warn has reliability challenges and hurts climate goals
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
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
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
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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