Techmeme
March 13, 2026, 2:55 PM

Top News

Financial Times:
Sources: Elon Musk pushed out two more xAI co-founders after getting frustrated with xAI's coding product progress and brought in “fixers” from SpaceX and Tesla  —  Tesla and SpaceX managers sent in to review work as billionaire's start-up struggles to keep pace with rivals
Fred Lambert / Electrek:
The Information:
Eli Tan / New York Times:
Sources: Meta delayed the launch of its Avocado model to at least May over performance concerns and discussed temporarily licensing Gemini to power its products  —  The tech giant pushed back the timeline after spending billions to be on the cutting edge of artificial intelligence.
Karandeep Singh Oberoi / Android Police:
Meta updates a support page to say that end-to-end encrypted messaging on Instagram will no longer be supported after May 8  —  Can you imagine a world where WhatsApp stops offering end-to-end encryption (E2EE)?  That's not happening, but a different Meta-owned company …
Mark Gurman / Bloomberg:
Apple is lowering its commission for its App Store in mainland China from 30% to 25%, starting on March 15, “following discussions with the Chinese regulator”  —  Apple Inc. is lowering the fees it collects from app developers for software and in-app purchases in China …
Clive Thompson / New York Times:
Developers on AI coding: many are enthusiastic and now feel more like architects than construction workers, some say software jobs openings may grow, and more  —  Lately, Manu Ebert has been trying to keep his A.I. from humiliating him.  —  I recently visited Ebert, a machine-learning engineer …
Kelby Vera / HuffPost:
Alex Karp says AI disrupts the economic power of “humanities-trained, largely Democratic voters” and strengthens that of “working-class, often male voters”  —  In a new interview, Palantir CEO Alex Karp predicted who will be hit hardest by shifts in technology ... and it wasn't the typical MAGA base.
Emma Roth / The Verge:
Amazon Prime Video plans to raise the price of its ad-free plan, Ultra, to $4.99 per month, and add support for up to five simultaneous streams, from April 10  —  The revamped Prime Video ‘Ultra’ tier will cost $4.99 per month and come with ‘exclusive’ access to 4K streams.
Jonathan Stempel / Reuters:
Adobe agrees to pay $75M to resolve a US government lawsuit accusing it of concealing hefty termination fees and making it difficult to cancel subscriptions  —  Adobe (ADBE.O) said on Friday it will pay $75 million to resolve a U.S. government lawsuit accusing the Photoshop and Acrobat maker …
Natalie Lung / Bloomberg:
Uber is relaunching a robotaxi service with Hyundai-backed Motional in Las Vegas; the service will have a safety driver behind the wheel until the end of 2026  —  Uber Technologies Inc. is relaunching a robotaxi service with the Hyundai Motor Co.-backed company Motional in Las Vegas …
Wall Street Journal:
Sources: ByteDance is working with Aolani Cloud to deploy ~500 Nvidia Blackwell systems in Malaysia, totaling ~36,000 B200 chips; the hardware could cost $2.5B+  —  TikTok parent, pushing global expansion, plans to tap Blackwell processors that are barred for export to China
Nathan Vifflin / Reuters:
STMicro says it will retrain workers and deploy humanoid robots in its older chip plants for repetitive and physically demanding tasks, aiming to avoid closures  —  STMicroelectronics (STMPA.PA) unveiled plans on Thursday to retrain workers and deploy robots in its older chip manufacturing plants …
More: Tech in Asia
Lawrence Abrams / BleepingComputer:
Telus Digital confirms a security incident after ShinyHunters claimed to have stolen nearly 1PB of data from the Canadian BPO giant in a multimonth breach  —  Canadian business process outsourcing giant Telus Digital has confirmed it suffered a security incident after threat actors claimed …
Financial Times:
Banking, manufacturing, and other EU businesses warn “tech sovereignty” could hit profits and competitiveness as Brussels aims to cut reliance on US tech giants  —  Companies argue that ‘tech sovereignty’ drive could hit profits and undermine continent's competitiveness
Jordan Novet / CNBC:
Adobe says CEO Shantanu Narayen will step down after it names his successor; Narayen became CEO in 2007 and will stay on as chair of the board; ADBE drops 6%+  —  Adobe said CEO Shantanu Narayen will step down after a successor has been appointed, and he will remain as the design software company's chair.
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Fortune:
Docs: Binance investigators found accounts, including of a VIP Chinese trader and a suspected Iranian gold smuggler, that helped move $1B to Iran-linked groups  —  In early 2025, an embattled Iranian regime was turning increasingly to crypto in order to thwart sanctions choking its economy.

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Earlier Picks

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Andrew J. Hawkins / The Verge: