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Techmeme
March 13, 2026, 2:55 PM
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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:
Elon Musk says xAI “was not built right first time around, so is being rebuilt from the foundations up”
The Information:
xAI hires senior Cursor leaders Andrew Milich and Jason Ginsberg; Elon Musk said he expects xAI to “catch up and exceed our competitors” in coding by mid-2026
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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Newest

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 8Find
50 minutes ago
Jessica E. Lessin / The Information:
Sources: Travis Kalanick prepares to launch a self-driving car company with backing from Uber and has been discussing acquiring Anthony Levandowski's Pronto.aiFind
65 minutes ago
Fred Lambert / Electrek:
Elon Musk says xAI “was not built right first time around, so is being rebuilt from the foundations up”Find
2 hours ago
Wall Street Journal:
AWS plans to deploy Cerebras' Wafer-Scale Engine chip for AI inference functions; AWS will still offer slower, cheaper computing using its Trainium processorsFind
2 hours ago
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 10Find
2½ hours ago
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 TeslaFind
3 hours ago
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 subscriptionsFind
4 hours ago
Full Time-Sorted List

From Mediagazer

Todd Spangler / Variety:
In a DOD press conference, Pete Hegseth says “the sooner David Ellison takes over [CNN], the better” as he complains about media coverage of the war in Iran

Aidan Ryan / The Boston Globe:
The CEO of Boston NPR station GBH says “it would make a lot of sense to merge” with WBUR, another Boston NPR station; both have good short-term finances

Brian Stelter / @brianstelter:
A leak about White House outrage over CBS' reported hiring of Jeremy Adler, who previously worked for Liz Cheney, suggests the WH is trying to prevent the hire

More News

Lauren Forristal / TechCrunch:
Peacock adds a new feature to its app that uses AI to curate personalized vertical video playlists, narrated by a generative AI avatar of host Andy Cohen
Brian Krebs / Krebs on Security:
Source: the perpetrators of the wiper attack on Stryker appear to have used Microsoft Intune to issue a “remote wipe” command against all connected devices
Associated Press:
Social media addiction trial: the plaintiff, Meta, and YouTube make their closing arguments; jurors begin deliberations on the liability for harms to children
Jonathan Stempel / Reuters:
A US appeals court voids much of a March 2025 injunction blocking California's online child safety law, while keeping some of the law's provisions blocked

Earlier Picks

Jessica Lyons / The Register:
A US DOJ-led international law enforcement operation disrupted SocksEscort, a residential proxy network used to exploit residential routers worldwide
Emma Roth / The Verge:
Anthropic says Claude can now generate custom charts, diagrams, and other visualizations directly in a conversation, turned on by default for all users in beta
Tom Warren / The Verge:
Microsoft says EVP of Experiences and Devices, Rajesh Jha, plans to retire on July 1 after 35+ years at Microsoft and promotes four of his direct reports to EVP
Sebastian Herrera / Wall Street Journal:
Microsoft launches Copilot Health, which integrates medical records, biometric data from wearables, and lab test results to give personalized advice, in the US
Andrew J. Hawkins / The Verge:
Google launches Ask Maps, a Gemini-powered conversational Google Maps feature that lets users ask “complex, real-world questions”, available in the US and India
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