Techmeme
July 29, 2025, 3:15 PM

Top News

Blake Brittain / Reuters:
Sony sues Tencent for copyright and trademark infringement in California federal court, accusing the Chinese tech giant of ripping off its Horizon game series  —  Sony Interactive (6758.T) has sued Tencent (0700.HK) for copyright and trademark infringement in California federal court …
Reece Rogers / Wired:
OpenAI launches study mode in ChatGPT, designed to encourage students to engage with learning material, available to logged-in Free, Plus, Pro, and Team users  —  OpenAI's new study mode for ChatGPT throws questions back at students, but the learning feature doesn't address generative AI's underlying disruption of education.
Jason Koebler / 404 Media:
Internal memo: Meta is piloting AI-enabled coding interviews, letting candidates use AI during the process, and asks for “mock AI-enabled interview” volunteers  —  “This is more representative of the developer environment that our future employees will work in.”
Financial Times:
Sources: Anthropic is nearing a deal to raise $5B in a funding round led by Iconiq, valuing it at $170B; Anthropic was valued at $61.5B in March  —  Deal would almost triple valuation of OpenAI's rival to $170bn  —  Iconiq Capital is set to lead a $5bn funding round for artificial intelligence start …
Lauren Thomas / Wall Street Journal:
Sources: Palo Alto Networks is in talks to acquire Israeli cybersecurity company CyberArk Software; a typical premium could put the deal well above $20B  —  Deal for Israeli firm would be latest in big tech's cybersecurity consolidation  —  Palo Alto Networks is in talks to acquire …
Mark Gurman / Bloomberg:
Sources: Apple loses a fourth AI researcher in a month to Meta's superintelligence team; the AFM team is in flux and Apple has marginally increased their pay  —  Apple Inc. has lost its fourth AI researcher in a month to Meta Platforms Inc., marking the latest setback to the iPhone maker's artificial intelligence efforts.
Jess Weatherbed / The Verge:
Adobe rolls out new generative AI features for Photoshop to let users more easily add or remove people and objects, including “Harmonize” compositing, in beta  —  Generative AI is rapidly eroding the photo editing skill barrier. … Adobe is launching some new generative AI features …
Bloomberg:
Sources: Microsoft is in advanced talks to land a deal that could give it ongoing access to critical OpenAI tech even if OpenAI reaches its goal of building AGI  —  Microsoft Corp. is in advanced talks to land a deal that could give it ongoing access to critical OpenAI technology …
Ben Lovejoy / 9to5Mac:
Tea, which claims to make dating safer for women, is the #2 app in the US App Store, despite multiple security flaws exposing private chats, photo IDs, and more  —  Two major security vulnerabilities in the Tea app - which claims to make dating safer for women - have exposed the private chats …
Emanuel Maiberg / 404 Media:
Kif Leswing / CNBC:
Apple plans to open the Apple Manufacturing Academy in Detroit in August, run by Michigan State University, as Trump ramps up pressure to invest in the US  —  Faced with intensifying pressure from President Donald Trump to bring more jobs to the U.S., Apple is opening a manufacturing program in downtown Detroit.
Dave Michaels / Wall Street Journal:
Sources: the US DOJ fired two of its most senior antitrust enforcers after disagreements related to defusing its lawsuit against HPE over its $14B Juniper deal  —  Dismissals come after disagreements over settling case against HPE, which hired allies of President Trump
Katherine Sayre / Wall Street Journal:
Spotify reports Q2 revenue up 10% YoY to €4.2B, MAUs up 11% YoY to 696M, subscribers up 12% YoY to 276M, and an €86M net loss; SPOT drops 9%+ after missing est.  —  The audio streaming service added more listeners than it had forecast, but reported a net loss for the second quarter
MacKenzie Sigalos / CNBC:
Block-owned Cash App unveils Pools, a new peer-to-peer feature for group payments, and says users can accept contributions via Apple Pay or Google Pay, a first  —  Cash App is going on the offensive in peer-to-peer payments.  —  The Block-owned payments platform on Tuesday unveiled Pools …
Associated Press:
A survey of US adults: only ~40% report using AI for work and 60% say they use AI to find information at least some of the time, rising to 74% of under-30s  —  Most U.S. adults say they use artificial intelligence to search for information, but fewer are using it for work, drafting email or shopping.
More: Implicator.ai.  Bluesky: @karlbode.com and @childlesscatperson.  Mastodon: @koen_hufkens@mastodon.social.  Forums: Slashdot
Natalie Lung / Bloomberg:
Waymo plans to launch its robotaxi service in Dallas in 2026 with Avis as the fleet partner, a first after exclusively working with Uber in Austin and Atlanta  —  Alphabet Inc.'s Waymo plans to launch robotaxi service in Dallas next year in partnership with Avis Budget Group Inc. …
MacKenzie Sigalos / CNBC:
PayPal reports Q2 net revenue up 5% YoY to $8.3B, vs. $8.08B est., TPV up 6% YoY to $443.5B, transactions down 5% YoY to 6.2B, active accounts up 2% YoY to 438M  —  PayPal reported better-than-expected results for the second quarter but saw slowing growth in transaction margin dollars, a key measure of profitability.
AnnaMaria Andriotis / Wall Street Journal:
Sources: JPMorgan Chase is in advanced talks to take over Apple's credit-card program from Goldman Sachs, with Apple telling JPMorgan it is its preferred choice  —  Discussions between the country's biggest bank and Apple accelerated in recent months  —  JPMorgan Chase is in advanced talks …
Michael Nuñez / VentureBeat:
Sparrow, which uses AI to consolidate fragmented leave management processes, raised a $35M Series B led by Silver Lake Waterman, for $64M in total funding  —  Sparrow, the employee leave management technology company, announced Tuesday it raised $35 million in Series B funding led by Silver Lake Waterman …
More: Sparrow and FinSMEs
Anthony Hughes / Bloomberg:
Sources: Figma's IPO, which could raise as much as $1.2B after Figma raised its range to $30 to $32 per share on July 28, is approaching 40 times oversubscribed  —  Figma Inc.'s US initial public offering is approaching 40 times oversubscribed, according to people familiar with the matter …

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