Techmeme
August 22, 2025, 9:25 PM

Top News

Wall Street Journal:
The US government takes a 10% stake in Intel; Howard Lutnick said earlier the US won't be on the board or play a role in Intel's governance; INTC closes up 5%+  —  Conversion of Chips Act grants to equity will likely be followed by other moves to help troubled chip maker, analysts say
Intel:
Intel says the US will make an $8.9B investment by purchasing 433.3M primary shares of Intel common stock for $20.47/share; INTC closed on August 22 at $24.80  —  U.S. Government to make $8.9 billion investment in Intel common stock as company builds upon its more than $100 billion expansion of resilient semiconductor supply chain
Mark Gurman / Bloomberg:
Sources: Apple is in talks with Google about using Gemini to power a revamped Siri; Google has started training a model that could run on Apple's servers  —  Apple Inc. is in early discussions about using Google Gemini to power a revamped version of the Siri voice assistant …
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Bluesky blocks access to its service in Mississippi, saying it doesn't have the resources to comply with the state's broad new law requiring age verification  —  Social networking startup Bluesky has made the decision to block access to its service in the state of Mississippi, rather than comply with a new age assurance law.
Samantha Subin / CNBC:
NYC grants Waymo its first permit, which extends through late September, to test up to eight of its autonomous vehicles in Manhattan and Downtown Brooklyn  —  Waymo is getting one step closer to rides in New York City.  —  The Alphabet autonomous vehicle subsidiary received its first permit …
Alexandr Wang / @alexandr_wang:
Meta announces a partnership with Midjourney to license the startup's “aesthetic technology” for Meta's future models and products  —  1/ Today we're proud to announce a partnership with @midjourney, to license their aesthetic technology for our future models and products, bringing beauty to billions.
Newley Purnell / Bloomberg:
Apple sues ex-staffer for allegedly stealing Watch trade secrets to benefit Oppo before leaving Apple in June, claims Oppo knew of and encouraged his actions  —  Apple Inc. accused smartphone maker Oppo in a lawsuit of poaching a highly paid member of the Apple Watch team and encouraging …
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
On its 10th anniversary, YouTube Music gets new features, including “Taste Match” playlists similar to Spotify Blend and event notifications through Bandsintown  —  YouTube is celebrating 10 years of its YouTube Music app on Thursday with the launch of new features that bring it closer to rival Spotify and others.
Qianer Liu / The Information:
Nikkei Asia:
Financial Times:
Email: TikTok plans to lay off several hundred UK trust and safety staff in the UK and Asia, citing “technological advances” such as LLMs in content moderation  —  Moves comes despite Online Safety Act requirements on dangerous material  —  TikTok is poised to lay off hundreds …

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Earlier Picks

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