Techmeme
January 14, 2025, 10:30 AM

Top News

Bloomberg:
Sources: Chinese officials are evaluating an option involving Elon Musk acquiring TikTok US; X would take control of TikTok US and run the businesses together  —  - ByteDance's preferred strategy is to fight ban, people say  — Trump has said he would like to delay ban to seek resolution
More: Financial Times, Wall Street Journal, AppleInsider, The Verge, PCMag, The Hill, Washington Examiner, Investor's Business Daily, Reuters, PYMNTS.com, Quartz, Barron's Online, South China Morning Post, Livemint, CNBC, Reuters, Decrypt, Spyglass, Forbes, Sky News, Toronto Star, The London Economic, Dazed, The Independent, Music Business Worldwide, New York Times, Sharecast, Asia Financial, Bitcoin Insider, Arabian Business, NME, The Sun, Investing.com, Fortune, The Daily Dot, MakeUseOf, Music Ally, PetaPixel, The Mirror, Agence France-Presse, Newser, UPI, PhoneArena, Euronews, Althouse, Al Jazeera, Outlook Business, Tech.co, Hypebeast, Hindustan Times, BGR, Silicon Republic, indy100, Khaama Press, The Crypto Basic, Neowin, Interesting Engineering, Tuko.co.ke, Android Authority, Lowyat.NET, The Economic Times, International Business Times, Cryptopolitan, Pixel Envy, Android Police, Mark Carrigan, MEDIANAMA, Cointelegraph, en.ain.ua, Lovin Malta, Mashable, CCN.com, Business Today, HuffPost, KrASIA, TVNewsCheck, Malay Mail, Benzinga, Financial Express, 9meters, The Post Millennial, Times of India, Daily Mail, 9News, Wall Street Pit, TechCrunch, and The Verge
Todd Spangler / Variety:
TikTok denies a report that China is looking at potentially facilitating a sale of the app to Elon Musk to keep it operating the US, calling it “pure fiction”  —  TikTok denied a report that China is looking at potentially facilitating a sale of the app to tech billionaire Elon Musk …
Ryan Browne / CNBC:
The UK CMA opens an investigation into whether Google has “strategic market status” in search and how it impacts consumers, advertisers, publishers, and rivals  —  LONDON — Britain's competition watchdog on Tuesday said that it's opening a formal antitrust investigation into Google's search and search advertising services.
Reece Rogers / Wired:
How Cleo AI and Bright, personalized AI chatbots offering financial advice, often function as a way to sell high-interest loans and cash advances to young users  —  AI finance apps are reaching Gen Z and millennial users with personalized chatbots that offer money advice—and upsell them big-time.
Financial Times:
Kashmir Hill / New York Times:
Texas sues Allstate and its subsidiary Arity, accusing the insurer of illegally collecting and selling data about people's driving behavior through mobile apps  —  The lawsuit accuses Arity, an Allstate subsidiary, of collecting data about people's driving behavior through mobile phone apps …
Cheng Ting-Fang / Nikkei Asia:
Sources: Apple is in the final stage of verifying its first cutting-edge chips from TSMC's Arizona plant, with the first batch expected as early as this quarter  —  TAIPEI — Apple is in the final stage of verifying its first “made in America” cutting-edge processor chips from Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co.'s plant in Arizona.
Niket Nishant / Reuters:
Zurich- and Singapore-based Sygnum, a crypto-focused bank and trading platform for institutional users, raised $58M led by Fulgur Ventures at a $1B valuation  —  Crypto-focused bank Sygnum secured a valuation of $1 billion after raising $58 million in its latest funding round, it said on Tuesday.
Bloomberg:
Sources: Databricks secures $5B+ in its largest debt raise to date, from lenders including Blackstone and Apollo, after raising $10B in equity in December 2024  —  - Blackstone, Apollo, Blue Owl among lenders in private loan  — Financing also includes a $2.5 billion credit line from banks
Dan Mangan / CNBC:
The US SEC says that two Robinhood broker-dealers agreed to pay $45M in combined penalties to settle charges that they violated 10+ securities law provisions  —  - CNBC Councils  — CNBC on Peacock  — Join the CNBC Panel  — Supply Chain Values  — Select Shopping  — Ad Choices
Richard Nieva / Forbes:
Free Our Feeds, backed by Jimmy Wales and others, aims to raise $30M by 2028 to billionaire-proof the AT Protocol by making it easier for Bluesky users to leave  —  Free Our Feeds, which includes support from the Mozilla Foundation, is working with Bluesky to make sure the open source social media landscape …
Will Knight / Wired:
The US' new chip export rule enters a 120-day consultation period, requiring the Trump admin to listen to input, perhaps modify the rule, and then enforce it  —  The US government has announced a radical plan to control exports of cutting-edge AI technology to most nations.
Financial Times:

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More News

Hannah Miller / Bloomberg:
Taylor Soper / GeekWire:

Earlier Picks

Todd Bishop / GeekWire:
Jesse Hamilton / CoinDesk:
Washington Post:
Bluesky: @joffirphd, @drewharwell.com, and @hypervisibleX: @glyncoLinkedIn: Douglas MacMillanForums: r/technology
Zeyi Yang / Wired:
Leena Rao / Business Insider: