Techmeme
February 27, 2026, 1:25 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.
More: TechCrunch, No Tech For Apartheid Campaign, The Verge, Video - David Imel, Breitbart, The Information, eWeek, Tom's Hardware, Fortune, The Hill, Bloomberg Law, CNBC, Yahoo Finance, Axios, Fox News, UPI, Gizmodo, Washington Times, Washington Post, CNN, Council on Foreign Relations, CBS News, The Atlantic, Inc.com, Quartz, UNILAD, Understanding AI, Defense One, NOTUS, NPR, Associated Press, TechRadar, RedState, New York Times, France 24, Tech Times, Kotaku, Engadget, The Guardian, diginomica, Straight Arrow News, and Bloomberg
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.
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.
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, TechCrunch, Defector, Quartz, Dallas Express, Barchart.com, Cord Cutter Weekly, Media Matters for America, Paramount, Reuters, primetimer.com, UPI, Livemint, Fast Company, Marketing Week, TODAY.com, Bounding Into Comics, PCMag, Nairametrics, The Streamable, Times of India, and The Wrap
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.
More: The Verge, Axios, Financial Times, Benzinga, and Forbes
X: @sammcallisterBluesky: @theophite and @bdowneyMastodon: @carnage4life@mas.toForums: Hacker News
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
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
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) …

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