Techmeme
November 17, 2025, 8:25 AM

Top News

Mark Gurman / Bloomberg:
Sources: Apple plans three high-end iPhones for fall 2026 and lower-end iPhones and an Air 2 six months later; Mac Pro gets deprioritized; Jeff Williams retires  —  Apple's iPhone is getting its biggest makeover yet — both to its features and release schedule.  Here's what's happening to the company's flagship product.
Cade Metz / New York Times:
Sources: AI startup Project Prometheus raised $6.2B, including from Jeff Bezos, who will become co-CEO, his first operational role since leaving Amazon in 2021  —  Called Project Prometheus, the company is focusing on artificial intelligence for the engineering and manufacturing of computers, automobiles and spacecraft.
Brandon Vigliarolo / The Register:
Chinese toymaker FoloToy suspends sales of its GPT-4o-powered teddy bear, after researchers found the toy gave kids harmful responses, including sexual content  —  Consumer advocacy researchers at PIRG tested four AI toys, and none of them passed muster  —  Picture the scene …
Nikkei Asia:
Tokyo-based Sakana AI raised a ~$135M Series B from MUFG, Khosla Ventures, and others at a ~$2.6B valuation, becoming Japan's most valuable unicorn  —  TOKYO — Artificial intelligence company Sakana AI has completed a funding round that pushed its value to approximately 400 billion yen …
New York Times:
Investigation: $28B+ in crypto tied to illicit activity flowed into crypto exchanges like Binance over the last two years, as President Trump embraces crypto  —  President Trump has started his own cryptocurrency business and vowed to make the United States the world's “crypto capital.”
Zoë Schiffer / Wired:
Q&A with OpenAI CEO of Applications Fidji Simo on joining OpenAI, ChatGPT users' mental health, profitability, data center deals, her chronic illness, and more  —  As OpenAI expands in every direction, the new CEO of Applications is on a mission to make ChatGPT indispensable and lucrative.
M.G. Siegler / Spyglass:
The FT's Tim Cook retirement story could be a “trial balloon” from people close to him, if Cook decides to leave on a high note after Apple's Q1 earnings report  —  Might Tim Cook retire as CEO of Apple in early 2026?  There are signs...  Two weeks ago, Tim Cook turned 65.
Connie Loizos / TechCrunch:
Empower: US BNPL use has grown to 91.5M users, with 25% financing groceries, as default rates accelerate and most loans aren't reported, creating “phantom debt”  —  When Nigel Morris tells you he's worried about the economy, you listen.  As industry observers know …
Jeffrey Dastin / Reuters:
Sources: Demis Hassabis pursued a Nobel as a DeepMind goal and favored high-minded work over short-term revenue or a stronger AI race position for Alphabet  —  Demis Hassabis has spent much of the past decade trying to unlock the secrets of the universe through artificial intelligence.

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