Techmeme
August 7, 2025, 12:55 PM

Top News

Peter Elstrom / Bloomberg:
Max A. Cherney / Reuters:
GOP Senator Tom Cotton sends a letter to Intel's board chair with questions about CEO Lip-Bu Tan's ties to China and subpoenas when he was Cadence Design's CEO  —  U.S. Republican Senator Tom Cotton sent a letter to Intel's (INTC.O) board chair on Wednesday with questions about the chipmaker's …
Tom Warren / The Verge:
A now-deleted GitHub blog post reveals GPT-5, available as gpt-5, gpt-5-mini, gpt-5-nano, and gpt-5-chat with “major improvements” in reasoning, code, and more  —  GPT-5 will have ‘enhanced agentic capabilities’ and handle ‘complex coding tasks with minimal prompting.’
Alexey Shabanov / TestingCatalog:
Hannah Lang / Reuters:
Ripple plans to acquire stablecoin payments platform Rail for $200M, set to close in Q4 2025; Rail says it handles 10% of all global stablecoin payment activity  —  Ripple will buy stablecoin payments platform Rail for $200 million, the company said on Thursday, weeks after U.S. President Donald Trump signed …
Bloomberg:
President Trump says he will impose a “tariff of approximately 100% on chips and semiconductors”, exempting firms like Apple that “committed to build” in the US  —  Donald Trump declared plans to slap a 100% tariff on semiconductor imports yet promised to exempt companies …
Kosaku Narioka / Wall Street Journal:
Sony reports Q1 revenue up 2.2% YoY to ~$17.8B, net profit up 23% YoY to ~$1.8B, 2.5M PS5s sold, up from 2.4M in Q1 2024, and expects a lower FY tariff impact  —  The company expects uncertainty over the economy to increase due to U.S. tariffs  —  Sony Group reported higher quarterly net profit …
Financial Times:
Sources: Samsung plans to produce iPhone 18 image sensors in Austin, Texas; an expert says Apple chose Samsung as a supplier because Sony doesn't have US plants  —  Deal suggests South Korean company's US investments are paying off as Trump dials up his tariff policies
Apple:
Apple commits $2.5B to produce all iPhone and Apple Watch glass at Corning's Kentucky facility, as part of its plan to invest $600B+ in the US over four years  —  The new $2.5 billion commitment from Apple is part of the company's expanded plan to invest $600 billion in the U.S. over the next four years
Politico:
Sources: the US federal judiciary's electronic case filing system was hit in a sweeping hack, potentially compromising the identities of confidential informants  —  It is not immediately clear who is behind the hack, though nation-state-affiliated actors are widely suspected, the people said.
Takashi Mochizuki / Bloomberg:
Tokyo Electron says it fired an employee in Taipei and is cooperating with Taiwan's investigation after Taiwan arrested six people over alleged TSMC IP theft  —  Tokyo Electron Ltd. said it's fired an employee at its Taipei unit, making its first public statement since the island's government …
Humeyra Pamuk / Reuters:
State Department cable: Marco Rubio orders diplomats in Europe to lobby against the DSA, arguing it stifles free speech and imposes costs on US tech companies  —  President Donald Trump's administration has instructed U.S. diplomats in Europe to launch a lobbying campaign to build an opposition …
More: The Register, Euractiv, and Benzinga
Bluesky: @claesdevreese.  X: @globalaffairs.  Forums: r/worldnews and r/europe
Matthew Gault / 404 Media:
Trump Media says it is public beta testing Truth Search AI, a Perplexity-powered search feature, initially on Truth Social for web and coming to Android and iOS  —  Donald Trump's media company is teaming up with Perplexity to bring AI search to Truth Social, the President's X.com alternative.
Naga Avan-Nomayo / The Block:
Tether acquires a minority stake in MiCA-licensed Spanish crypto exchange Bit2Me and is leading a €30M funding round that will close in the coming weeks  —  - Tether buys a minority stake and leads a 30 million-euro round in MiCA-licensed Bit2Me to fund EU and Latin-American growth.
Reuters:
SMIC reports Q2 revenue up 16.2% YoY to $2.2B, in line with expectations, and profit down 19.5% YoY to $132.5M, below $183.35M est.  —  Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (0981.HK) ,China's largest contract chip maker, reported on Thursday a 19.5% year-on-year decline in second-quarter profit.
Natalie Lung / Bloomberg:
Airbnb reports Q2 revenue up 13% YoY to $3.1B, vs. $3.03B est., net income up 16% YoY to $642M, and warns revenue growth may moderate in H2 2025; ABNB drops 6%+  —  Airbnb Inc. shares slid in Thursday trading after the short-term rental company warned that sales growth may moderate in the second half of the year.

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Adam Levine / Barron's Online: