Techmeme
October 8, 2025, 10:15 AM

Top News

Bloomberg:
Nvidia and OpenAI's wave of circular deals escalates concerns that they're artificially propping up the $1T+ AI market that is tied to every part of the economy  —  A wave of deals and partnerships are escalating concerns that the trillion-dollar AI boom is being propped up by interconnected business transactions.
Bloomberg:
Sources: xAI nears a deal to raise $20B in equity and debt, tied to the Nvidia GPUs that xAI plans to rent for Colossus 2, with Nvidia investing as much as $2B  —  Elon Musk's artificial intelligence startup xAI is raising more financing than initially planned, tapping backers including Nvidia Corp …
Annie Palmer / CNBC:
Sam Clark / Politico:
A website set up by a Danish software developer floods EU lawmakers with emails opposing planned EU “Chat Control” laws to fight CSAM by scanning encrypted apps  —  A software developer from Denmark is having an outsized influence on a hotly debated law to break open encrypted apps.
CryptPad Blog:
Open letter: 40+ European companies oppose the EU's “Chat Control” proposal, which would force services to scan messages for CSAM, fearing a backdoor mandate  —  Today we are adding our signature (and that of our parent company XWiki SAS) to a new open letter against the so-called “Chat Control” EU regulation.
Tom Warren / The Verge:
Microsoft delays last week's 50% price hike for existing Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscribers in Germany, Ireland, South Korea, Poland, India, and other markets  —  Current subscribers in some European countries won't be affected by Microsoft's Game Pass price hikes just yet.
Naga Avan-Nomayo / The Block:
Polymarket CEO Shayne Coplan says the startup raised two undisclosed rounds: $55M at a $350M valuation in 2024 and $150M at a $1.2B valuation earlier in 2025  —  - Polymarket CEO Shayne Coplan says the prediction platform raised $55 million in 2024 and $150 million earlier this year.
John Revill / Reuters:
SoftBank Group agrees to acquire ABB's robotics business, which generated $2.3B in sales in 2024, for $5.4B; ABB expects the deal to close in mid-to-late 2026  —  SoftBank Group (9984.T) said on Wednesday it has agreed to buy the robotics business of Swiss engineering group ABB (ABBN.S) in a $5.4 billion deal.
Bloomberg:
Sources: $TRUMP issuer Fight Fight Fight LLC is working to raise $200M to $1B to create a digital asset treasury company to accumulate the struggling token  —  The startup that issued Donald Trump's memecoin several days before his second presidential inauguration is working to raise …
Washington Post:
An analysis of 1,100 TikTok users' watch histories across six months in 2024 shows just how effective TikTok is at getting even its heaviest users to watch more  —  More than 800 U.S. TikTok users shared their data with The Washington Post.  We used it to find out why some people become power users, spending hours per day scrolling.
The Keyword:
Google releases the Gemini 2.5 Computer Use model, built on Gemini 2.5 Pro's capabilities to power agents that can interact with UIs, in preview via the API  —  Available in preview via the API, our Computer Use model is a specialized model built on Gemini 2.5 Pro's capabilities to power agents that can interact with user interfaces.
Nick Lichtenberg / Fortune:
Harvard economist Jason Furman estimates that investments in data centers and information-processing software accounted for 92% of the US' GDP growth in H1 2025  —  U.S. GDP growth in the first half of 2025 was almost entirely driven by investment in data centers and information processing technology …
Lily Kuo / New York Times:
China's Cyberspace Administration launched a two-month campaign in late September to combat “excessively pessimistic sentiment” on social media, per a notice  —  As China struggles with economic discontent, internet censors are silencing those who voice doubts about work, marriage, or simply sigh too loudly online.
Anthropic:
Anthropic plans to open its first Indian office, in Bengaluru, in early 2026; Dario Amodei is visiting India to meet government officials and potential partners  —  Today we're announcing that we're expanding our global operations to India, with plans to open an office in Bengaluru in early 2026.
Amos Zeeberg / New York Times:
Researchers are investigating using synthetic diamonds to help cool AI data center chips; De Beers-owned Element Six has long used diamonds in satellite chips  —  Data centers squander vast amounts of electricity, most of it as heat.  The physical properties of diamond offer a potential solution, researchers say.
Dasha Afanasieva / Bloomberg:
US House lawmakers release a report criticizing ASML, Tokyo Electron, and other equipment makers for helping build China's chip industry; ASML fell more than 7%  —  Semiconductor companies including Applied Materials Inc. and ASML Holding NV fell after a US House committee said that the industry …
Financial Times:
Sources: top Chinese VCs are close to raising up to $1.1B in total USD-denominated funds in 2025, marking a tentative return of global capital to Chinese tech  —  Venture capital funds close to raising $1.1bn this year in first signs of thaw for sector hit by geopolitical tensions

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More News

Financial Times:
Kunal Manchanada / Entrackr:
Anthropic:

Earlier Picks

Bloomberg:
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Emma Roth / The Verge:
Theo Wayt / The Information: