Techmeme
February 27, 2026, 1:55 PM

Top News

CNBC:
OpenAI raised $110B at a $730B pre-money valuation, up from $500B in a secondary financing in Oct.; Amazon invested $50B, Nvidia and SoftBank invested $30B each  —  OpenAI announced a $110 billion funding round on Friday, a financing that's more than double the size of its last raise a year ago …
OpenAI:
OpenAI says ChatGPT has 900M+ weekly active users, 50M+ consumer subscribers, and weekly Codex users have more than tripled since the start of the year to 1.6M  —  AI demand is surging across consumers, developers, and businesses.  Meeting that demand and providing everyone access …
About Amazon:
Amazon will invest $15B in OpenAI initially, followed by $35B if certain conditions are met; OpenAI commits to consuming ~2 GW of Trainium capacity through AWS  —  Amazon Web Services (AWS) and OpenAI will co-create a Stateful Runtime Environment powered by OpenAI models …
Anthropic:
Dario Amodei says Anthropic cannot “in good conscience” accede to DOD's request to remove safeguards and will work to ensure a smooth transition if offboarded  —  I believe deeply in the existential importance of using AI to defend the United States and other democracies, and to defeat our autocratic adversaries.
Washington Post:
Sources detail how the standoff between the Pentagon and Anthropic escalated after discussions about using Claude during hypothetical nuclear missile attacks  —  Start-up Anthropic and the U.S. military are careening toward a clash over government use of artificial intelligence — and whether it should be allowed to kill.
Tripp Mickle / New York Times:
Letter: 100+ Google DeepMind and other AI employees urge Jeff Dean to block US military deals that use Gemini for mass surveillance or autonomous weapons  —  More than 100 Google A.I. employees sent a letter to Jeff Dean, a chief scientist, opposing Gemini's use for U.S. surveillance and some autonomous weapons.
Wall Street Journal:
Sources: multiple federal agencies raised concerns about Grok's safety and reliability in recent months, before DOD approved Grok for use in classified settings  —  Warnings about xAI's safety and reliability preceded Pentagon decision to approve Grok for use in classified settings.
Axios:
Jennifer Jacobs / CBS News:
Axios:
Sam Altman says OpenAI shares Anthropic's red lines with respect to AI use by the military, which are “an issue for the whole industry”  —  OpenAI CEO Sam Altman wrote in a memo to staff that he will draw the same red lines that sparked a high-stakes fight between rival Anthropic …
Keach Hagey / Wall Street Journal:
Note to staff: Sam Altman says OpenAI seeks a DOD deal, except for use cases like domestic surveillance, and wants to “help de-escalate” DOD-Anthropic fight  —  Anthropic has spent weeks at odds with the Pentagon over the scope of how its Claude AI tools can be used
Annie Palmer / CNBC:
Block says it is laying off 4,000+ of its 10,000+ employees, saying AI tools have changed “what it means to build and run a company”; XYZ jumps 15%+  —  Block said Thursday it's laying off more than 4,000 employees, or about half of its head count.  The stock skyrocketed as much as 24% in extended trading.
Reuters:
Dan Goodin / Ars Technica:
Security researchers detail AirSnitch, a series of attacks that bypass Wi-Fi client isolation, enabling machine-in-the-middle attacks in modern Wi-Fi networks  —  That guest network you set up for your neighbors may not be as secure as you think.  —  It's hard to overstate the role that Wi-Fi plays in virtually every facet of life.
Jagmeet Singh / TechCrunch:
India-based Ultrahuman launches the $479 Ring Pro, available for pre-order globally, excluding the US, after the ITC ruled in favor of Oura in a patent dispute  —  Ultrahuman on Friday unveiled a new smart ring with longer battery life and a redesigned form factor, as the Bengaluru-based wearable maker seeks …
CNBC:
Netflix walks away from a deal to buy WBD's studio and streaming assets after WBD deemed Paramount's $31/share bid to be superior; NFLX jumps 8%+  —  Netflix is walking away from a deal to buy Warner Bros. Discovery's studio and streaming assets after the WBD board on Thursday deemed a revised bid by Paramount Skydance to be superior.
More: New York Times, About Netflix, Spyglass, The Hollywood Reporter, Investor's Business Daily, Silicon Valley Business …, Warner Bros. Discovery, NBC News, New Republic, Deadline, Associated Press, CNN, TechCrunch, Benzinga, Defector, Quartz, Dallas Express, Barchart.com, Media Matters for America, Paramount, Reuters, Cord Cutter Weekly, UPI, Livemint, Marketing Week, TODAY.com, PCMag, primetimer.com, Nairametrics, Fast Company, The Streamable, The Mac Observer, Times of India, and The Wrap
Bill Toulas / BleepingComputer:
French e-commerce marketplace ManoMano notifies its customers of a data breach affecting 38M; the company said the incident involved a third party subcontractor  —  DIY store chain ManoMano is notifying customers of a data breach that was caused by hackers compromising a third-party service provider.
More: TechRadar
Reuters:
TikTok returns to Albania after a year-long ban, ostensibly linked to the death of a teenage boy, expired; Albania says TikTok has tightened safety measures  —  Social media platform TikTok is back in Albania after a year-long ban expired this month, in a case illustrating the complexity …
More: Lawfare
Luke Barr / ABC News:
CISA's interim director Madhu Gottumukkala is reassigned as DHS' director of strategic implementation; executive assistant director Nick Andersen will take over  —  The nominee to serve as CISA director has not yet received a hearing.  —  The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) …
Jagmeet Singh / TechCrunch:
Deepinder Goyal, who stepped down as Zomato's CEO, raised $54M at a $190M valuation for Temple, which aims to make high-performance wearables for elite athletes  —  Weeks after stepping down as CEO from food delivery service Zomato and its parent Eternal, Indian entrepreneur Deepinder Goyal …

Sponsor Posts

Command Line:
Cheap code, precious trust: Code modernization at scale  —  The promise—and challenges—of agentic software engineering, from large-scale code migration to language modernization.
Will Reed:
The best sales leaders aren't job hunting.  Here's how to reach them without months of cold outreach.  —  Our team came from Box, Square, and Brex, so we already know the GTM leaders worth meeting.
Zoho:
Your Linkthread page just leveled up!  Better analytics, bolder designs, bigger teams.  —  Since we launched Linkthread in March 2025, over 10,000 businesses have signed up to make their one bio link work harder.
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:
Cliff Sosin - Owning the Complements to Intelligence
The leading destination to learn about business and investing. We do this by showcasing exceptional talent and ideas.
Subscribe to Invest Like the Best.
Big Technology Podcast:
Emergency Pod: Anthropic's S-1 IPO Filing — With Dan Primack
The Big Technology Podcast takes you behind the scenes in the tech world featuring interviews with plugged-in insiders and outside agitators.
Subscribe to Big Technology Podcast.
The Talk Show With John Gruber:
'Lubricate the Inside of the Hinge', With Joanna Stern
The director's commentary track for Daring Fireball. Long digressions on Apple, technology, design, movies, and more.
Subscribe to The Talk Show With John Gruber.
Lenny's Podcast:
An 86-minute guide to finding PMF | Rob Snyder (Author, The Power of Pull)
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.
Machine Gods:
Fired OpenAI Safety Researchers Speak Out + We Look Inside Pandora's Box
The official podcast of the singularity, from Casey Newton and Kevin Roose. Twice-weekly news, analysis, and interviews with the people who are building the future.
Subscribe to Machine Gods.
The Upstarts Podcast:
The Parking Startup That Swallowed A 100-Year-Old Giant | Metropolis CEO Alex Israel
Veteran tech reporter Alex Konrad sits down with breakout entrepreneurs taking on the status quo to shake up their fields in AI, design, nuclear energy, space, and more.
Subscribe to The Upstarts Podcast.
 

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 1:55 PM ET, February 27, 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

Tamsin McMahon / Bloomberg:

Earlier Picks

Associated Press:
Reuters:
Jess Weatherbed / The Verge: