Techmeme
January 24, 2025, 5:30 PM

Top News

Jaspreet Singh / Reuters:
Mark Zuckerberg says Meta is planning to invest $60B to $65B in capex in 2025, will end the year with 1.3M+ GPUs, and plans to grow its AI teams “significantly”  —  Meta Platforms (META.O) will invest $60 billion to $65 billion in capital expenditure in 2025, CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in a Facebook post on Friday.
Meghan Bobrowsky / Wall Street Journal:
Wall Street Journal:
In email to X staff, Musk says “user growth is stagnant, revenue is unimpressive, and we're barely breaking even”; sources: banks plan to sell their debt in X  —  Banks are hoping to sell the X debt at around 90 to 95 cents on the dollar  —  Wall Street banks are getting ready …
Politico:
Financial Times:
Ivan Mehta / TechCrunch:
Meta begins a “limited, early test” of ads in Threads in the US and Japan, with the goal of making the ads “as interesting as organic content”  —  Meta's X rival Threads said Friday that it is now testing ads with select brands in the U.S. and Japan.
Sergiu Gatlan / BleepingComputer:
The FBI warns that North Korean IT workers are abusing their access to steal source code and extort US companies that have been tricked into hiring them  —  The FBI warned today that North Korean IT workers are abusing their access to steal source code and extort U.S. companies that have been tricked into hiring them.
Mark Gurman / Bloomberg:
Sources: Apple moved Kim Vorrath, a company veteran known for fixing troubled products, to its AI group to help improve Siri and Apple Intelligence  —  - Kim Vorrath previously worked on Vision Pro, iPhone software  — The company is racing to catch up in artificial intelligence
Rolling Stone:
Sources: Trump's team members don't buy Zuckerberg's right-wing conversion as entirely genuine; one senior official says he has a “lot more ass-kissing” to do  —  Trump's aides and allies aren't ready to buy the Facebook chief's right-wing conversion.  “He can't just snap his fingers and make the past not happen”
MacKenzie Sigalos / CNBC:
The US SEC revokes SAB 121, a controversial accounting rule added in 2022 that forced banks to treat BTC and other tokens as a liability on their balance sheets  —  After years of lobbying by the crypto industry, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has rescinded an accounting rule …
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Similarweb: RedNote's DAUs in the US fell by 54% on January 20 when the TikTok ban was put on hold, after reaching a high of 32.5M DAUs on the day of the ban  —  In the days leading up to the TikTok ban in the U.S. on Sunday, U.S. users flooded the Chinese app RedNote, which offered …
More: Dexerto
Jess Weatherbed / The Verge:
The CMA says Google has agreed to curb UK businesses using fake reviews to boost star ratings and must report to the CMA on its efforts for the next three years  —  Google will take firmer action against British businesses that use fake reviews to boost their star ratings on the search giant's reviews platform.
TechCrunch:
Sources: ElevenLabs closed a $250M Series C led by ICONIQ Growth at a valuation of between $3B to $3.3B; it was initially looking for funding at a $4B valuation  —  Companies that want to build AI voice into their products are rushing to work with ElevenLabs, the startup …
New York Times:
The TikTok ban forced a dilemma on US tech companies: risk alienating a mercurial president or risk breaking federal law and face up to billions in penalties  —  The federal law banning TikTok has revealed a major schism among American tech companies: Some are willing to flout the law — and some, including Apple and Google, are not.
Katie Deighton / Wall Street Journal:
ShopMy, which lets brands run influencer marketing efforts, raised a $77.5M Series B led by Bessemer and Bain, sources say at a $410M valuation vs. $80M in 2024  —  Tech firms that speed up and automate brands' partnerships with social-media influencers are becoming hot commodities as advertisers scramble to reach consumers online
MacKenzie Sigalos / CNBC:
Trump signs an EO to create a crypto working group led by David Sacks to consider a national digital asset stockpile “potentially derived” from seized crypto  —  President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Thursday to promote the advancement of cryptocurrencies in the U.S …
Associated Press:
Jay Peters / The Verge:
OpenAI releases a “research preview” of its Operator AI agent that can automate web-based tasks, launching to US subscribers of its $200/month ChatGPT Pro tier  —  OpenAI is releasing a “research preview” of an AI agent called Operator that can “go to the web to perform tasks for you,” according to a blog post.
Maxwell Zeff / TechCrunch:

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 5:30 PM ET, January 24, 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

Financial Times:
New York Times:
Kyle Chan / High Capacity:

Earlier Picks

Jon Keegan / Sherwood News:
Jonathan Stempel / Reuters:
Kyle Wiggers / TechCrunch:
Kyle Wiggers / TechCrunch:
Ryan Browne / CNBC: