Techmeme
October 16, 2025, 3:30 PM

Top News

Tom Warren / The Verge:
Bloomberg:
Sources: F5 blames its breach on state-backed hackers from China who used the Brickstorm malware to infiltrate its network for 12+ months and steal source code  —  A potentially “catastrophic” breach of a major US-based cybersecurity provider has been blamed on state-backed hackers from China …
Heather Knight / New York Times:
Email: Ron Conway, a close friend of Marc Benioff for 25+ years, stepped down from the Salesforce Foundation board, citing Benioff's comments supporting Trump  —  Ron Conway stepped down from the board of Salesforce's philanthropic arm after the company's chief executive, Marc Benioff …
Ryan S. Gladwin / Decrypt:
Paxos says it “mistakenly minted” $300T of PayPal's PYUSD stablecoin on October 15 on the Ethereum blockchain and then “burned” the tokens 20+ minutes later  —  Crypto industry observers were baffled Wednesday afternoon when an on-chain transaction showed that Paxos …
Alex Weprin / The Hollywood Reporter:
Apple and NBCUniversal announce an Apple TV and Peacock Premium bundle for $14.99 per month, a 30% discount over the individual subscriptions  —  In addition to getting both services at a discount of more than 30 percent, Apple TV will add select Peacock programming, while Peacock will get selected Apple TV shows.
Megan Morrone / Axios:
OpenAI hires black hole theoretical physicist Alex Lupsasca, the first person to join the OpenAI for Science initiative led by Kevin Weil, to shape its research  —  Prize-winning black hole theoretical physicist Alex Lupsasca has joined OpenAI's new science team, Axios has learned.
Bluesky: @wesley83
Financial Times:
Analysis: 10 loss-making AI startups, like OpenAI and Anthropic, gained almost $1T in valuation over the past year, fueling fears of a bubble in private markets  —  Unprecedented funding leads 10 groups including OpenAI and Elon Musk's xAI to gain almost $1tn in value in past year
Ina Fried / Axios:
Commonwealth Fusion Systems partners with Google DeepMind to use Google's open-source plasma simulator, TORAX, for accelerating fusion energy development  —  Google DeepMind is partnering with a Boston-area energy startup to use AI to speed the development of fusion as a clean energy source.
More: Google DeepMind, TechCrunch, and GeekWire
X: @pfau and @googledeepmindLinkedIn: Anna KoivuniemiForums: r/singularity
Mark Gurman / Bloomberg:
Sources: Apple executive Ke Yang, who was appointed just weeks ago as the head of the AKI team developing AI-driven web search for Siri, is leaving for Meta  —  The Apple Inc. executive leading an effort to develop AI-driven web search is stepping down, marking the latest in a string …
Steven J. Horowitz / Variety:
Spotify partners with Sony Music Group, WMG, UMG, Merlin, and Believe to develop “responsible” AI products and says it will build a generative AI research lab  —  In a significant step towards interfacing with AI and its impact on the music industry, Spotify has partnered …
The Keyword:
Google releases Cell2Sentence-Scale 27B (C2S-Scale), a 27B-parameter foundation model for single-cell analysis built on its Gemma family of open models  —  We're launching a new 27 billion parameter foundation model for single-cell analysis built on the Gemma family of open models.
Krisztian Sandor / CoinDesk:
Ripple acquires GTreasury, a platform used by Fortune 500 companies for managing cash, foreign exchange, and risk, for $1B, set to close in the coming months  —  The deal, pending regulatory approvals, would give Ripple access to large enterprise clients as it is building out financial services around its digital asset business.
Emily Nicolle / Bloomberg:
Kraken acquires US-licensed futures exchange Small Exchange from IG Group, for $32.5M in cash and $67.5M in Kraken parent company's Payward stock, before an IPO  —  Kraken has acquired a US-licensed futures exchange from IG Group as the crypto heavyweight seeks to broaden the range of products it can offer directly to US customers.
Wall Street Journal:
The White House says representatives from Microsoft, Meta, Google, Amazon, and other corporate donors to a $250M ballroom attended a dinner with President Trump  —  Event included representatives from Lockheed Martin, Microsoft, Meta, Google, Amazon.com and Palantir
Debby Wu / Bloomberg:
TSMC reports Q3 net profit up 39% YoY to ~$14.8B, above est., and raises its 2025 revenue growth projection to the mid-30% range, citing “very strong” AI demand  —  Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. hiked its projection for 2025 revenue growth for the second time this year …
Nikkei Asia:
Sources: Microsoft aims to produce most of its new products, such as servers and Surface laptops, outside of China from 2026; AWS is adopting a similar strategy  —  TAIPEI — Microsoft aims to produce the majority of its new products outside of China as early as next year …
Financial Times:
Investigation: the Trump family's crypto empire has reaped over $1B in pre-tax profits over the past year; Eric Trump says the true figure is “probably more”  —  The president and his family have built a rapidly growing digital assets empire which has been fuelled by the administration's industry-friendly policies
Matt Burgess / Wired:
How facial recognition software rejects people with facial differences, who number an estimated 100M+ worldwide, blocking them from accessing essential services  —  An estimated 100 million people live with facial differences.  As face recognition tech becomes widespread …
Bluesky: @brbarrett, @lhn, @mattburgess1, and @coutsForums: r/technews
Deena Mousa / MIT Technology Review:
How AI-powered tools like PainChek, an app that scans a person's face for tiny muscle movements, are helping health care providers better assess patients' pain  —  For years at Orchard Care Homes, a 23‑facility dementia-care chain in northern England, Cheryl Baird watched nurses fill …
Financial Times:
HR software startup Deel raised $300M led by Ribbit Capital at a $17B valuation, up from $12.6B earlier in 2025, and says revenue crossed $100M in September  —  HR start-up raises $300mn from Ribbit, Coatue and Andreessen amid espionage allegations from rival Rippling

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Dominic Preston / The Verge: