Techmeme
January 14, 2025, 9:00 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: Washington Examiner, PYMNTS.com, Reuters, Quartz, Barron's Online, South China Morning Post, Livemint, Decrypt, Spyglass, Reuters, The Independent, The Sun, Agence France-Presse, New York Times, NME, Investing.com, Fortune, Silicon Republic, Music Ally, The Mirror, MakeUseOf, PetaPixel, PhoneArena, UPI, CNBC, Newser, Tech.co, Graphic Online, CCN.com, indy100, Euronews, Tech in Asia, International Business Times, Hindustan Times, Interesting Engineering, Daily Mail, Al Jazeera, Outlook Business, Hypebeast, Benzinga, BGR, HuffPost, Khaama Press, The Crypto Basic, Neowin, KrASIA, Malay Mail, Tuko.co.ke, Android Authority, The Post Millennial, Lowyat.NET, The Economic Times, Cryptopolitan, Pixel Envy, Android Police, Mark Carrigan, 9meters, MEDIANAMA, TVNewsCheck, Cointelegraph, en.ain.ua, Times of India, Lovin Malta, Mashable, Financial Express, Business Today, 9News, Wall Street Pit, BroBible, The Wrap, TechCrunch, Consequence, Raw Story, The Information, The Verge, NBC Connecticut, SiliconANGLE, and Forbes
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 …
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 …
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.
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.
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.
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.
Dan Mangan / CNBC:
The SEC says that two Robinhood broker-dealers agreed to pay $45M in combined penalties to settle charges that they violated over 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) …
Richard Nieva / Forbes:
Jimmy Wales, Mark Ruffalo, others debut Free Our Feeds to raise $30M by 2028 to “billionaire-proof” AT Protocol, by making it easier for users to leave Bluesky  —  Free Our Feeds, which includes support from the Mozilla Foundation, is working with Bluesky to make sure …
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:
Top live chat software in 2025  —  When it comes to customer communication, every second counts for businesses because it leads to either a treasure trove or an empty cave.  To help with this …
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.
IDrive:
Protecting your Cloud Applications Data  —  Backing up Office 365, Google Workspace, Dropbox & Box data is critical to preventing data loss or corruption, complying with laws and avoiding critical downtime in case of a disaster.

Featured Podcasts

Techmeme Ride Home:
Arm Upends The Entire Semiconductor Industry
The day's tech news, every day at 5pm ET. Fifteen minutes and you're up to date.
Subscribe to Techmeme Ride Home.
The Logan Bartlett Show:
Andy Price (Artisanal): Executive Hiring Advice from the Founder of Tech's Top Recruiting Firm
A podcast hosted by Logan Bartlett, an investor at Redpoint Ventures, covering tech with industry insiders.
Subscribe to The Logan Bartlett Show.
Decoder with Nilay Patel:
The FCC is a weapon in Trump's war on free speech
A show from the Verge about big ideas - and other problems.
Subscribe to Decoder with Nilay Patel.
Generative Now:
Mike Krieger: Product Building Lessons from Co-Founding Instagram to Leading Product at Anthropic
A podcast from Lightspeed dedicated to highlighting the stories, strategies and insights behind today's most exciting AI companies.
Subscribe to Generative Now.
Channels with Peter Kafka:
BuzzFeed wants to build a... social network?
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.
Invest Like the Best:
Marc Andreessen - The Battle For Tech Supremacy
The leading destination to learn about business and investing. We do this by showcasing exceptional talent and ideas.
Subscribe to Invest Like the Best.
 

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 9:00 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

Washington Post:
More: Biometric UpdateBluesky: @joffirphd, @drewharwell.com, and @hypervisibleX: @glyncoLinkedIn: Douglas MacMillanForums: r/technology
Leena Rao / Business Insider:
Mark Gurman / Bloomberg: