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February 14, 2025, 7:25 PM
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Mark Gurman / Bloomberg:
Apple and Google restore TikTok to their US app stores after its January 18 removal, following Trump admin assurances that a ban won't immediately be enforced  —  - Companies had removed the app to abide by US legislation  — Trump signed executive order to delay a potential ban
Mark Gurman / Bloomberg:
Sources: Meta plans major investment in AI-powered humanoid robots, with an initial focus on household chores, and has formed a new team within Reality Labs  —  - Company is aiming to be the engine powering humanoid market  — Ex-Cruise CEO Marc Whitten to run new group in Reality Labs
Cade Metz / New York Times:
OpenAI's board rejects the $97.4B bid by Elon Musk and a consortium of investors, saying they reject “Musk's latest attempt to disrupt his competition”  —  Bret Taylor, the chairman of OpenAI's board, said the artificial intelligence company was “not for sale.”
Brody Ford / Bloomberg:
Sources: Dell nears a $5B deal to provide servers with Nvidia's GB200 chips for xAI's supercomputer project in Memphis  —  - Musk's AI startup developing supercomputer project in Memphis  — Dell working to win large share of xAI's Memphis build-out  —  Dell Technologies Inc …
Mark Gurman / Bloomberg:
Sources: Apple's overhaul of Siri faces engineering problems and software bugs; some features, planned for April, may have to be postponed until May or later  —  - Software's makeover is key to Apple Intelligence ambitions  — New Siri features slated for April at risk of being postponed
Scharon Harding / Ars Technica:
In an AMA, Steve Huffman says Reddit is planning to roll out paid subreddits in 2025 and is “laying the foundation” to monetize commerce within subreddits  —  Huffman previously showed interest in potentially introducing a new type of subreddit with “exclusive content or private areas” that Reddit users would pay to access.
Jason Koebler / 404 Media:
The doge.gov website tracking Elon Musk's cuts to the federal government pulls from a database that anyone can edit, say two sources who found the vulnerability  —  The doge.gov website that was spun up to track Elon Musk's cuts to the federal government is insecure and pulls from a database …
Bloomberg:
Source: TSMC is considering taking a controlling stake in Intel's factories at the request of Trump's team; it is unclear whether Intel is open to a transaction  —  - TSMC would take controlling stake in potential partnership  — Administration aims to boost manufacturing of advanced chips
Ivan Mehta / TechCrunch:
Instagram is testing a dislike button for comments; Instagram will not show a dislike count and dislikes may eventually count toward ranking comments  —  After users noticed a new button on Instagram to downvote or dislike comments, the company confirmed that it is testing a way for users …
Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:
Meta announces Project Waterworth, a subsea cable project that will span over 50,000 km and connect five continents  —  Back in November, we broke the news that Meta — owner of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, with billions of users accounting for 10% of all fixed and 22% of all mobile traffic …
Reuters:
Sources: the White House plans to renegotiate some Chips Act awards after changing current requirements, and has signaled delays to some upcoming disbursements  —  The White House is seeking to renegotiate U.S. CHIPS and Science Act awards and has signaled delays to some upcoming semiconductor disbursements …
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Mastodon is working on a quote posts feature, which it says is a “source of concern” for some and “highly requested” by others  —  Mastodon, the decentralized alternative to X, is going to adopt a controversial feature from the platform formerly known as Twitter: quote posts.
Tom Bristow / Politico:
The UK recasting its AI Safety Institute as an AI Security Institute, without bias concerns, followed JD Vance's speech criticizing “hand-wringing about safety”  —  LONDON — The hints first came in Paris.  Rumors were circulating over the two-day Artificial Intelligence Action Summit …
Lauren Feiner / The Verge:
Sources: around 20 technologists at CFPB were fired on Thursday, gutting a team that specialized in understanding Big Tech's entrance into financial products  —  The terminations leave a gaping hole in the oversight of financial institutions and tech firms venturing into financial technology.
Heather Haddon / Wall Street Journal:
Uber sues DoorDash, accusing it of anticompetitive practices like coercing restaurants to exclusively work with DoorDash for parts of their delivery business  —  Lawsuit accuses DoorDash of strong-arm tactics that inflate restaurants' costs; DoorDash disputes Uber's allegations
Vittoria Elliott / Wired:
DOGE's Tom Krause, the US Treasury's new Fiscal Assistant Secretary, is still the CEO of Cloud Software Group; critics say it may be a conflict of interest  —  An email sent to workers at the US Treasury Department's Bureau of the Fiscal Service said DOGE's Tom Krause is “currently” the CEO of the Cloud Software Group.
Sophie McEvoy / GamesIndustry.biz:
Ubisoft reports revenue for the nine months ending December 31, 2024, down 31.4% YoY to €990M, net booking down 34.8% to €944M, but remains optimistic about Q4  —  Firm also experienced a 51.8% drop in net bookings during its third quarter  —  Ubisoft has released its financial results …

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This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 7:25 PM ET, February 14, 2025.

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From Mediagazer

Alex Weprin / The Hollywood Reporter:
As Democrats take the House and the Senate, David Ellison and other media executives are likely to face inquiries and hearings over their deals and Trump ties

Katie Robertson / New York Times:
NYT adds 420K net digital-only subscribers in Q3, boosting total paid subscribers to 13.8M, keeping it on pace to meet a goal of 15M subscribers by 2027's end

Jeremy Barr / The Guardian:
President Trump says Fox News “bears responsibility” for the GOP's losses after “constantly and consistently putting on the Dumocrat opposition, and worse”

More News

Earlier Picks

Mark Gurman / Bloomberg:
Sources: Apple plans to launch its AI features in China as early as May 2025, using its own on-device models and Alibaba software to censor or filter the output
Abner Li / 9to5Google:
Google's Gemini can now recall and “reference past chats for more tailored help”, rolling out in English for Advanced subscribers on the web and in the app
Emma Roth / The Verge:
Tim Cook teases an announcement of “the newest member of the family” on February 19; Mark Gurman reported Apple would update the iPhone SE
Amanda Silberling / TechCrunch:
YouTube updates Shorts to integrate Google DeepMind's latest video model Veo 2, letting creators generate AI video clips to add to any of their Shorts
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