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January 21, 2025, 10:25 PM
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Kyle Wiggers / TechCrunch:
OpenAI, SoftBank, and Oracle announce The Stargate Project, a JV to invest in US AI infrastructure, committing $100B now and up to $500B in the next four years  —  OpenAI says that it will team up with both the Japanese conglomerate SoftBank and with Oracle, along with others, to build multiple data centers for AI in the U.S.
New York Times:
Trump grants a pardon to Ross Ulbricht, the creator of Silk Road and a cryptocurrency cult hero, serving a life sentence on money laundering and drug charges  —  Ross Ulbricht was serving a life sentence for creating a site in a shady corner of the internet to sell heroin, cocaine and other illicit substances.
Bloomberg:
Trump says he would be open to Elon Musk or Larry Ellison purchasing TikTok US as part of a joint venture that would give the US government 50% ownership  —  “I have the right to make a deal,” Trump said at an event alongside Ellison at the White House on Tuesday.
Alexandra S. Levine / Bloomberg:
MrBeast joins an investor group led by Employer.com founder Jesse Tinsley in an all-cash bid to acquire TikTok US operations; several groups have shown interest  —  - YouTube star is part of investor group run by Jesse Tinsley  — TikTok has less than three months to sell or face a US ban
Washington Post:
Legal experts and lawmakers: Trump's EO halting the TikTok ban may not protect companies that host or distribute the app, as Trump cannot overturn Congress' law
Lucas Shaw / Bloomberg:
Netflix reports Q4 revenue up 16% YoY to $10.2B and 301.6M global subs, adding 18.9M subs, more than doubling Wall Street estimates; NFLX jumps 14%+ after hours  —  - Netflix is raising subscription prices in its biggest market  — Report marks the end of regular quarterly customer updates
Nicole Sperling / New York Times:
Netflix raises prices in the US, Canada, Portugal, and Argentina; the standard US plan rises from $15.49 to $17.99, standard with ads jumps a dollar to $7.99  —  The company said those results were buoyed by programming in recent months that exceeded internal expectations.
Drew Lerner / Awful Announcing:
Nielsen: Netflix captured 8.5% of all US streaming viewership in December 2024, its highest share since July 2023, in part due to NFL games; YouTube had 11.1%
Kyle Wiggers / TechCrunch:
Microsoft says it has a new deal with OpenAI that gives Microsoft “right of first refusal”, meaning it's no longer OpenAI's exclusive cloud provider  —  Microsoft was once the exclusive provider of data center infrastructure for OpenAI to train and run its AI models.  No longer.
Mark Gurman / Bloomberg:
Sources: Meta aims to debut glasses with a built-in display and new Oakley-branded smart glasses for athletes in 2025; it has resumed work on watches, earbuds  —  - Company resumes work on smartwatch and develops AirPods rival  — First real AR glasses, dubbed ‘Artemis,’ are planned for 2027
Dean Takahashi / VentureBeat:
Survey of 3,000+ game devs: 11% were laid off in the past year, 58% back unionization, 30% say generative AI is having a negative impact on the industry, more  —  The 2025 GDC survey revealed the impact of industry-wide layoffs in 2024 where one of every 11 game developers lost a job.
Radhika Rajkumar / ZDNET:
DeepSeek's new MIT-licensed AI models can be accessed via DeepSeek's API at a fraction of the cost of comparable OpenAI models but there are censorship concerns  —  Open-source artificial intelligence (AI) has reached another milestone — and the cost differences it represents could shake up the industry.
Juli Clover / MacRumors:
Apple says installing macOS Sequoia 15.3, iOS 18.3, or iPadOS 18.3 will turn on Apple Intelligence automatically on compatible devices; users can opt out later  —  When installing macOS Sequoia 15.3, iOS 18.3, or iPadOS 18.3, Apple Intelligence will be turned on automatically on compatible devices …
Washington Post:
Sources: a deep philosophical rift over how DOGE should operate helped spur Vivek Ramaswamy's exit, with Donald Trump's Jan. 20 EO embodying Elon Musk's vision  —  A deep philosophical rift between the two billionaire leaders of the “Department of Government Efficiency” left Musk to run the group.
Jeff Cox / CNBC:
The SEC launches a “Crypto 2.0” task force led by SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce, to create a “comprehensive and clear regulatory framework for crypto assets”  —  The Trump administration took its firs steps Tuesday toward an expected lowering of regulatory barriers for cryptocurrency.
Aisha Malik / TechCrunch:
Meta says it will offer eligible TikTok creators free verification, content deals, and up to $5,000 in bonuses to post Reels  —  Meta is luring TikTok creators over to its platforms with the promise of cash bonuses, content deals, and support to grow their communities.
Anna Gross / Financial Times:
The UK debuts digital driving licenses and veteran ID cards, launching in 2025 via the GOV.UK Wallet, and AI tools, nicknamed “Humphrey”, to help civil servants  —  New app will also include documents showing criminal record checks and proof of eligibility for state benefits
MK Manoylov / The Block:
Crypto.com launches its institutional exchange service for US customers; it had closed the service in June 2023 due to “limited demand”  —  - Crypto.com Exchange gives users access to over 300 cryptocurrencies and 480 trading pairs, acting as a complement to the existing retail-focused Crypto.com App for U.S. customers.
Mike Wheatley / SiliconANGLE:
Render, which offers developers cloud services for building, deploying, and running apps and websites, raised an $80M Series C led by Georgian  —  Developer-focused cloud infrastructure startup Render Services Inc. says it's ready to disrupt traditional giants such as Amazon Web Services Inc …
More: Render
New York Times:
Sources: Elon Musk is likely to get a West Wing office, putting him close to Donald Trump, after Musk had for many days been asking about his level of access  —  The world's richest man had been expected to be situated in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, but a West Wing office would give him closer access to President Trump.
Kyle Wiggers / TechCrunch:
Trump signs an EO renaming the US Digital Service as the US DOGE Service, directing agency heads to form “DOGE Teams” of at least four employees within 30 days

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About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 10:25 PM ET, January 21, 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.

From Mediagazer

Sara Fischer / Axios:
The White House says it will bar AP from events in the Oval Office and on Air Force One over AP's refusal to use “Gulf of America” instead of “Gulf of Mexico”

McKay Coppins / The Atlantic:
James and Kathryn Murdoch detail the succession battle that has pitted James and Lachlan Murdoch against each other, leaving the family empire's future unclear

Jessica Toonkel / Wall Street Journal:
Sources: Paramount execs weigh risks of settling Trump's lawsuit against CBS News, concerned about potential shareholder litigation or criminal bribery charges

More News

Maxwell Zeff / TechCrunch:
Perplexity debuts Sonar, an API service to let devs build AI search tools into their apps, with a base tier costing $5/1K searches and a pricier Sonar Pro tier
Max Goldbart / Deadline:
Parrot Analytics estimates Severance season 1 earned $200M+, with ~50% coming in the year following the finale; Ted Lasso generated $609.4M from Q3'20 to Q3'24
Lauren Feiner / The Verge:
ByteDance-owned video editing app CapCut is now working in the US, but is still not in app stores, after Trump signed an EO attempting to pause the TikTok ban

Earlier Picks

Aisha Malik / TechCrunch:
Meta will soon let users link WhatsApp accounts with Instagram and Facebook, allowing cross posts of WhatsApp Statuses as Stories on Instagram and Facebook
Krisztian Sandor / CoinDesk:
Circle, which issues the USDC stablecoin, acquired Hashnote; rwa.xyz data: Hashnote's USYC token last year become the largest tokenized US Treasury product
James Hunt / The Block:
MicroStrategy bought 11K bitcoin for ~$1.1B from January 13 to 20, at an average of $101,191 per BTC, taking its holding to 461K, worth $48B+, or 2%+ of supply
Noah Smith / Noahpinion:
How purchasing Trump's memecoin, of which he reportedly holds $50B+ at January 19 prices, could be used to buy favors without actually transferring him funds
Lauren Feiner / The Verge:
Brendan Carr becomes FCC chair, and plans to focus on tech and media regulation, combating China, spectrum licenses, infrastructure, the space economy, and more
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