Techmeme
January 14, 2025, 9:50 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, The Hill, Washington Examiner, Investor's Business Daily, Reuters, PYMNTS.com, Quartz, Barron's Online, South China Morning Post, Livemint, Decrypt, Spyglass, Reuters, The Independent, The Sun, Toronto Star, New York Times, NME, Bitcoin Insider, Arabian Business, Investing.com, Fortune, Agence France-Presse, Music Ally, The Daily Dot, MakeUseOf, CNBC, PetaPixel, The Mirror, Newser, PhoneArena, UPI, Silicon Republic, Tech.co, Euronews, Althouse, International Business Times, Tech in Asia, Hindustan Times, Al Jazeera, Outlook Business, Hypebeast, Benzinga, BGR, indy100, HuffPost, Khaama Press, The Crypto Basic, Neowin, KrASIA, Interesting Engineering, Malay Mail, Tuko.co.ke, Android Authority, Lowyat.NET, The Economic Times, Cryptopolitan, Pixel Envy, Android Police, Mark Carrigan, MEDIANAMA, TVNewsCheck, Cointelegraph, en.ain.ua, Lovin Malta, Mashable, CCN.com, Business Today, Financial Express, 9meters, PRWeek, The Post Millennial, Times of India, Daily Mail, 9News, Wall Street Pit, BroBible, The Wrap, TechCrunch, Consequence, Raw Story, The Information, 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.
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 …
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
Financial Times:
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.
Zeyi Yang / Wired:
Ahead of a likely US TikTok ban, users flee to Chinese apps Xiaohongshu, aka RedNote, and ByteDance's Lemon8, currently the top two apps in the US App Store  —  Some say they joined Xiaohongshu, which translates to “little red book,” to spite the US government after a ban on TikTok became more likely.
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
Todd Bishop / GeekWire:
Microsoft is creating a new “CoreAI - Platform and Tools” unit led by Jay Parikh, the ex-Lacework CEO and Meta engineering executive who joined in October 2024  —  Microsoft is creating a new engineering division, led by the former global head of engineering at Facebook (now Meta) …
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:

Sponsor Posts

Termina:
AI Powered Diligence at Scale  —  VCs and founders deploy Termina AI Scans on >12% of all known series A+ deals to uncover hidden risks and opportunities.  Explore how you too can invest and build better companies with AI.
Zoho:
How to manage AI in employee experience platforms  —  AI is transforming the workplace by simplifying tasks, boosting communication, and creating a more connected environment.  To make the most of this tool …
SBS Comms:
Expect Better: SBS Comms  —  The media landscape is changing fast, so don't be slow — out with the old, in with the new.  SBS helps tech companies like GitHub, Cloudflare, Flexport, Ramp and more modernize comms and secure impactful results.
Techmeme Leaderboards:
Discover the top reporters on AI, VR, policy, and much more  —  We've analyzed Techmeme's news crawl to identify the most influential and prolific writers on 48 news topics.  Download reports immediately for just $100.

Featured Podcasts

Techmeme Ride Home:
A $50 (!!) AI Model?
The day's tech news, every day at 5pm ET. Fifteen minutes and you're up to date.
Subscribe to Techmeme Ride Home.
Decoder with Nilay Patel:
Elon Musk's presidency is just getting started
A show from the Verge about big ideas - and other problems.
Subscribe to Decoder with Nilay Patel.
Generative Now:
Rajarshi Gupta: Artificial Intelligence and Crypto at Coinbase
A podcast from Lightspeed dedicated to highlighting the stories, strategies and insights behind today's most exciting AI companies.
Subscribe to Generative Now.
BG2 Pod:
DeepSeek, Open Source, Tariffs, DOGE, Market Impact
Open-source podcast on all things tech, markets, investing, and capitalism, hosted by Brad Gerstner and Bill Gurley.
Subscribe to BG2 Pod.
Channels with Peter Kafka:
Why Michael Lewis is worried about the sports betting boom
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.
Subscribe to Channels with Peter Kafka.
Lenny's Podcast:
Tobi Lütke's leadership playbook: Playing infinite games, operating from first principles, and maximizing human potential (founder and CEO of Shopify)
Interviews with world-class product leaders and growth experts to uncover actionable advice to help you build, launch, and grow your own product.
Subscribe to Lenny's Podcast.
 

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 9:50 AM ET, January 14, 2025.

The most current version of the site as always is available at our home page. To view an earlier snapshot click here and then modify the date indicated.

More News

Hannah Miller / Bloomberg:
Taylor Soper / GeekWire:

Earlier Picks

Jesse Hamilton / CoinDesk:
Washington Post:
More: Biometric UpdateBluesky: @joffirphd, @drewharwell.com, and @hypervisibleX: @glyncoLinkedIn: Douglas MacMillanForums: r/technology
Leena Rao / Business Insider:
Richard Nieva / Forbes: