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November 17, 2025, 9:50 AM
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Top News

Cade Metz / New York Times:
Sources: AI startup Project Prometheus raised $6.2B, including from Jeff Bezos, who is its co-CEO, his first operational role since leaving Amazon in July 2021  —  Called Project Prometheus, the company is focusing on artificial intelligence for the engineering and manufacturing of computers, automobiles and spacecraft.
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.
Bloomberg:
US filing: Peter Thiel's Thiel Macro sold 537,742 Nvidia shares, worth ~$100M as of September 30, during Q3, amid rising concerns about an AI investment bubble  —  Peter Thiel's hedge fund Thiel Macro LLC sold off its holdings in Nvidia Corp. during the third quarter, marking another retreat …
Laith Al-Khalaf / Financial Times:
Klarna CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski says he is “nervous about the size of these investments in these data centres”; he owns stakes in OpenAI, Perplexity, and xAI  —  OpenAI backer Sebastian Siemiatkowski says tech industry is committing too much money to huge computing infrastructure
Ben Bergman / Business Insider:
In an informal survey of 300+ Cerebral Valley AI Conference attendees asking which $1B+ valuation startup to short, most voted Perplexity, followed by OpenAI  —  - An audience at a top AI conference in San Francisco was asked what startup they would short.  — Perplexity, an AI search …
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.
Forums: r/technology
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.
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.”
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, like about fire and kinks  —  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, Macquarie, NEA, Lux, 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 …
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 …
Bloomberg:
Meta says its 2Africa subsea cable project remains incomplete in the southern Red Sea segment due to security risks; Google's Blue-Raman cable is also delayed  —  Multiple subsea internet cables slated to run through the Red Sea are yet to complete as planned, as political tensions …
More: Benzinga

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This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 9:50 AM ET, November 17, 2025.

The most current version of the site as always is available at our home page. To view an earlier snapshot click here and then modify the date indicated.

From Mediagazer

Gary Baum / The Hollywood Reporter:
A look at the first “case” brought before Objection, which aims to use AI to evaluate news stories, and a Q&A with Objection's founder; the site is now dark

Daniel Arkin / NBC News:
Gene Shalit, a longtime film critic for NBC's Today who was with the show from 1970 until his retirement in 2010, dies at 100

Aidan Ryan / The Boston Globe:
A look at an AI-reliant news site for 19 towns south of Boston, which uses public meeting transcripts and LLMs to produce stories and has 350 paid subscribers

More News

Tim Higgins / Wall Street Journal:
Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and Sundar Pichai have each discussed lunar and orbital AI data centers, which could offer steady solar power with fewer regulations

Earlier Picks

Ben Cohen / Wall Street Journal:
A look at flight-tracking app Flighty, which often beats airlines' updates; downloads tripled when the FAA reduced air traffic during the US government shutdown
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
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