Techmeme
February 17, 2022, 9:40 PM

Top News

New York Times:
Sources: the value of Spotify's deal with Joe Rogan, which covers three and a half years, was at least $200M, twice the $100M that reports suggested at the time  —  The deal that brought his podcast to Spotify is said to be worth over $200 million, more than was previously known.
Alex Heath / The Verge:
Meta's combined Horizon Worlds and Venues monthly user base grows to 300K people, up 10X since launching in December  —  That's a 10x increase in about three months.  But can the growth continue?  —  Facebook has bet its future on virtual reality and the metaverse, rebranding to Meta …
Andrew Blok / CNET:
YouTube details new efforts to stop misinformation, including stopping such content before it goes viral and limiting cross-platform sharing of misinformation  —  Stopping misinformation before it goes viral is a top goal for the video site. … YouTube outlined on Thursday new efforts it plans to undertake to tackle misinformation.
Chaim Gartenberg / The Verge:
Intel says its discreet Arc GPUs for laptops will ship in Q1 2022, Arc GPUs for desktop will ship in Q2, and Arc GPUs for workstations will ship in Q3  —  Intel has given an update on the timeline for its long-awaited entry into the discrete graphics game: Arc GPUs for laptops are set to ship soon in Q1 2022 …
Chris Strohm / Bloomberg:
DOJ establishes the National Cryptocurrency Enforcement Team to investigate illegal schemes run by criminals and countries like North Korea and Iran  —  The Justice Department named a veteran cybersecurity prosecutor to lead a new team dedicated to investigating and prosecuting illicit …
Helen Coster / Reuters:
Sources: Truth Social, Trump's new social media app, has about 500 beta testers, one year after Trump was banned from Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube  —  Details about former U.S. President Donald Trump's new social media app are trickling out as about 500 beta testers have begun using an early version of …
Eric Benjamin Seufert / Mobile Dev Memo:
Susan Dominus / New York Times:
A look at tech recruitment issues as the US unemployment rate for tech workers is 1.7% and 0.2% for cybersecurity experts, well below 4% for the general economy  —  Recruiters in tech are desperate for workers.  But candidates are the ones who hold all the power.
Dan Primack / Axios:
Sequoia Capital to raise $500M to $600M for a fund focused on liquid crypto investments, along with a $900M-$950M Ecosystem Fund and $3.2B-$3.5B Expansion Fund  —  Sequoia Capital last fall disclosed plans to blow up the traditional VC model, saying it would form a single fund to hold …
Jordan Novet / CNBC:
Roku Q4: revenue of $865.3M vs. $894M est., up 33% YoY, 60.1M active accounts, up 17% YoY, 19.5B streaming hours, up 15% YoY, stock down ~18% after hours  —  - Roku's revenue growth slowed to a rate that was lower than analysts had expected.  — The company said during the quarter …
Frank Chaparro / The Block:
USDC stablecoin developer Circle says its forthcoming SPAC deal now values the company at $9B, up from $4.5B when the deal was announced  —  Circle — the firm behind stablecoin USDC — announced on Thursday that it has scrapped its previous deal with special purpose acquisition company …
Reuters:
How a Pegasus infection on the iPhone of Saudi activist Loujain al-Hathloul revealed a zero-click exploit that turned the tide against NSO Group  —  A single activist helped turn the tide against NSO Group, one of the world's most sophisticated spyware companies now facing a cascade …
Lawrence Abrams / BleepingComputer:
Mozilla warns that Firefox and Chrome 100 versions may break some sites, including HBO Go and Yahoo, due to user-agent strings with three-digit version numbers  —  Mozilla is warning website developers that the upcoming Firefox 100 and Chrome 100 versions may break websites …

Sponsor Posts

Command Line:
Bringing local models and sandboxed tools to Windows and GitHub Copilot  —  GitHub Copilot will soon determine when a task is best handled by on-device AI and when it needs cloud-scale models.
Will Reed:
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IDrive:
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Featured Podcasts

The Upstarts Podcast:
Bringing Back Mammoths And Building Noah's Ark 2.0 | Colossal's Ben Lamm
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.
Great Chat:
The launch industrial complex
A podcast mostly about tech. Brought to you weekly by Angela Du, Sally Shin, Mac Bohannon, Helen Min, and Ashley Mayer.
Subscribe to Great Chat.
Big Technology Podcast:
Can AI Keep Growing Exponentially? Let's Ask SemiAnalysis — With Dylan Patel and Jordan Nanos
The Big Technology Podcast takes you behind the scenes in the tech world featuring interviews with plugged-in insiders and outside agitators.
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Channels with Peter Kafka:
Larry Ellison's Media Ambitions & Kevin Roose on AI's Biggest Gamble
Media and tech aren't just intersecting - they're fully intertwined. To understand how those worlds work, Peter Kafka talks to industry leaders, upstarts and observers.
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Training Data:
Google's AI Infrastructure Chief, Amin Vahdat, on the Physics & Economics of Frontier AI
Sequoia Capital partners host conversations with leading AI builders and researchers to develop a deeper understanding of the evolving technologies and their implications.
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Invest Like the Best:
Andrew Huberman - The Frontier of Neurotechnology
The leading destination to learn about business and investing. We do this by showcasing exceptional talent and ideas.
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More News

Financial Times:

Earlier Picks

Bloomberg:
Tom Metcalf / Bloomberg:
Phelim Kine / Politico:
Corin Faife / The Verge: