Techmeme
October 8, 2025, 2:50 PM

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.
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.
Suzanne Smalley / The Record:
German officials say they will vote against the EU's “Chat Control” proposals, signaling the bloc will not have enough support to pass the measure on October 14  —  German officials on Wednesday said they will vote against a European Union proposal to allow the scanning …
Sam Clark / Politico:
Ryan Whitwam / Ars Technica:
Google Pixel 10 Pro Fold review: nice display and most AI features run on device, but cameras are a step down from other Pro Pixels, Tensor G5 shows small gains  —  Google delivers another phone that is slightly better than its predecessor—is that enough?  —  When the first foldable phones …
Victoria Song / The Verge:
Billy Steele / Engadget:
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.
Mark Hallam / DW News:
Germany's Federal Cartel Office opens an investigation into whether Temu is influencing the pricing of third-party merchants, potentially stifling competition  —  Germany's competition watchdog has announced an investigation of Chinese discount online retail site temu.com, suspecting it of influencing retailers' prices.
More: Reuters
Dasha Afanasieva / Bloomberg:
US House lawmakers criticize ASML, Tokyo Electron, KLA, and other equipment makers for selling to the Chinese military and helping build China's chip industry  —  Semiconductor companies including Applied Materials Inc. and ASML Holding NV fell after a US House committee said that the industry …
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.
Pew Research Center:
A survey of US parents: 90% say their kids aged 12 or younger watch TV, 68% use a tablet, 61% use a smartphone, 50% use a gaming device, and 8% use a chatbot  —  From YouTube to smartphones to tablets, tech is part of kids' lives.  AI chatbots are part of the mix now, too.
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.
Barbara Moens / Financial Times:
Sources: Meta and Apple are close to settling two EU antitrust cases and agreeing to a deal to change their business practices after a total €700M in DMA fines  —  US Big Tech groups in final stages of agreeing deal with Brussels to avoid series of escalating fines
Ben Thompson / Stratechery:
Q&A with Sam Altman on OpenAI's unifying vision, infrastructure deals, the investor mindset, ChatGPT apps, Instant Checkout, Sora, copyright, feedback, and more  —  Today's Stratechery Interview is with OpenAI co-founder and CEO Sam Altman.  I have interviewed Altman twice before …
Kurt Schlosser / GeekWire:
Amazon announces Amazon Pharmacy kiosks to quickly dispense medications to patients after an appointment, initially rolling out in its One Medical offices in LA  —  Amazon is erasing the distance between the doctor's office and the pharmacy with the introduction of new Amazon Pharmacy kiosks …
Annie Palmer / CNBC:
Financial Times:
Sources: OpenAI and Anthropic consider using investor funds to settle potential claims from multibillion-dollar lawsuits, as insurers balk at covering AI risks  —  Companies struggle to assess scale of financial risks emerging from artificial intelligence  —  OpenAI and Anthropic …
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.
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 …
Alex Konrad / Upstarts Media:
New York-based Crosby, a law firm that uses AI to help speed up the contracts process, raised a $20M Series A co-led by Index Ventures, BCV, and Elad Gil  —  Crosby, led by lawyer turned founder Ryan Daniels, has raised a $20 million Series A from Index and Bain Capital Ventures to expand its AI-assisted legal work.
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 …

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Earlier Picks

Financial Times:
Kunal Manchanada / Entrackr:
Bloomberg:
Anthropic:
Anthropic: