Open Links In New Tab
Mobile Archives Advertise Site News
Techmeme
December 19, 2025, 3:00 PM
Mediagazer memeorandum WeSmirch
Home River Leaderboards About Events Newsletter

Top News

Sara Fischer / Axios:
Internal memo: TikTok has signed a deal to sell its US unit; Oracle, Silver Lake, MGX will collectively own 45% of the US entity, and ByteDance will retain ~20%  —  TikTok has signed a deal to divest its U.S. entity to a joint venture controlled by American investors, per an internal memo seen by Axios.
More: CNBC, Reuters, Ars Technica, Semafor, Bloomberg, Bloomberg Law, Silicon Republic, CNN, Inc, 9to5Google, Thurrott, Benzinga, Observer, Gizmodo, The Week, Nerdist, PC Gamer, HotAir, Tom's Guide, Cautious Optimism, The Shortcut, DatacenterDynamics, Spyglass, NPR, The Hill, Entrepreneur, TechCrunch, Social Media Today, Capacity, Music Ally, TVREV, Quartz, Wall Street Journal, PR Daily, PetaPixel, Proactive, Telegraph, Investor's Business Daily, Digital Trends, IWCP Online, Investing.com, BGR, Blockonomi, AR Insider, Finance Magnates, Sharecast, New York Times, Mediaite, BBC, Pixel Envy, iClarified, Yahoo Finance, KnowTechie, NBC News, Straight Arrow News, The Information, Associated Press, Nairametrics, Forbes Middle East, The Verge, CGTN, Times of India, Ukrainian National News, ABC News, TRT World, UPI, TechRadar, MacRumors, Blockchain.News, International Business Times, Dexerto, Tech in Asia, Telecompaper, The National, 9to5Mac, Mashable, Cord Cutters News, Livemint, Sinocism, Variety, The Independent, Washington Examiner, and The Straits Times
X: @mattwhitlock, @mattzeitlin, @adamscochran, @peterhamby, @billevanina, @senwarren, @acedtect, @pkafka, @davidshepardson, @thestalwart, @gordongchang, @rushdoshi, @danprimack, @michaelsocolow, @michaelsobolik, and @sarafischer.  LinkedIn: Emil Protalinski
Bluesky: @thebluenami.is.democrat, @evangreer, @evacide, and @rswestmore.land.  Threads: @carnage4life
Forums: r/neoliberal, r/Fauxmoi, and MacRumors Forums
See also Mediagazer
Financial Times:
Memo: TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew says ByteDance's US entities will retain direct control over core US revenue drivers, including ecommerce, ads, and marketing  —  Oracle, Silver Lake and MGX to invest in new data security joint venture as part of Trump-brokered deal
Alex Weprin / The Hollywood Reporter:
Memo: the TikTok US deal is set to close on Jan. 22; terms include retraining the recommendation algorithm on US user data and Oracle overseeing data protection
Financial Times:
Sources: UK officials believe China was behind the October cyber attack on the UK's Foreign Office, which aimed to access tens of thousands of sensitive files  —  The UK's Foreign Office was the victim of a major cyber attack in October, which officials believe was carried out by Chinese hackers.
Adamya Sharma / Android Authority:
Samsung unveils the Exynos 2600, the world's first smartphone SoC built on a 2nm Gate-All-Around process, expected to power some Galaxy S26 and S26 Plus models  —  Galaxy S26 could get Samsung's boldest chip yet: Meet the 2nm Exynos 2600.  —  •  —  TL;DR
Olga Kharif / Bloomberg:
Coinbase sues Connecticut, Illinois, and Michigan over attempts to regulate prediction markets, arguing that the markets fall under CFTC's jurisdiction  —  Coinbase Global Inc. said it is suing the US states of Michigan, Illinois and Connecticut over their attempts to regulate prediction markets.
Chris McGuire / Council on Foreign Relations:
US approving Nvidia H200 exports to China is based on the idea that Huawei is a viable competitor, but data shows the gap between Nvidia and Huawei is widening
Erin Woo / The Information:
Sources: Google has formed a new executive council to allocate computing capacity given a critical shortage; members include Thomas Kurian and Demis Hassabis  —  Earlier this year, Google convened a group of its top executives to address what some staffers see as an existential problem …
Emily Mullin / Wired:
Source: Sam Altman's Merge Labs, which seeks to read brain activity using ultrasound, is being spun out of LA-based nonprofit Forest Neurotech  —  Merge Labs, a brain-computer interface startup that seeks to read brain activity using ultrasound, is being spun out of Forest Neurotech, a Los Angeles nonprofit.
Lydia Beyoud / Bloomberg:
The US Senate confirms Trump pick Michael Selig as chairman of the CFTC, as lawmakers consider legislation to give the agency more control over digital assets

Sponsor Posts

ElevenLabs:
ElevenAgents by ElevenLabs  —  You know us for voice.  Now meet ElevenAgents — featuring Expressive Mode, our most human-sounding AI voice technology in 70+ languages with ultra-low latency.  Hear it for yourself.
Intel:
5G's most deployed platform  —  Powering live networks with built-in Inference across Core and RAN.  That's the power of Intel Inside®
Zoho:
5 common AI pitfalls in staffing and how to fix them  —  Staffing teams are turning to AI to keep up with growing hiring demands.  It helps recruiters move faster, handle more applications, and stay on top of their pipelines.
IDrive:
Protecting your Cloud Applications Data  —  Backing up Office 365, Google Workspace, Dropbox & Salesforce data is critical to preventing data loss or corruption, complying with laws and avoiding critical downtime in case of a disaster.
Sponsor Techmeme

Featured Podcasts

Access:
 Live @ Nvidia's nerd Super Bowl, poker takes over tech, and the future of AI banking
A show about the tech industry's inside conversation, hosted by tech reporter Alex Heath and founder whisperer Ellis Hamburger.
Subscribe to Access.
Big Technology Podcast:
 OpenAI's Superapp Ambitions, Jensen on Jobs, Bezos's $100 Billion Automation Fund
The Big Technology Podcast takes you behind the scenes in the tech world featuring interviews with plugged-in insiders and outside agitators.
Subscribe to Big Technology Podcast.
Hard Fork:
 'A.I.-Washing' Layoffs? + Why L.L.M.s Can't Write Well + Tokenmaxxing
The future is already here. Each week, journalists Kevin Roose and Casey Newton explore and make sense of the latest in the rapidly changing world of tech.
Subscribe to Hard Fork.
The Social Radars:
 Paul Graham, Founder, Y Combinator
Come be a fly on the wall as Y Combinator's Jessica Livingston and Carolynn Levy talk to some of the most successful founders in Silicon Valley about how they did it.
Subscribe to The Social Radars.
The Upstarts Podcast:
 Star Catcher's Andrew Rush: Harnessing The Sun To Build The First Energy Grid In Space
Veteran tech reporter Alex Konrad sits down with breakout entrepreneurs taking on the status quo to shake up their fields in AI, design, nuclear energy, space, and more.
Subscribe to The Upstarts Podcast.
Tools and Weapons with Brad Smith:
 Everybody Goes Home: How technology is helping prevent wildfires from spreading
Microsoft Vice Chair and President Brad Smith speaks with leaders in government, business, and culture to explore the most critical challenges at the intersection of technology and society.
Subscribe to Tools and Weapons with Brad Smith.
Add your podcast here
 

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 3:00 PM ET, December 19, 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

Wall Street Journal:
Sources: ABC could lose ~$50M in licensing costs to WBD and an estimated $35M in advertising revenue after abruptly pulling the new season of The Bachelorette

Chris Geidner / Law Dork:
A federal judge slows Voice of America return-to-work order and eliminates the March 23 deadline, now ordering 70 people due back each week

Erik Wemple / New York Times:
A district court judge rules in favor of the NYT in its suit challenging rules that limited press access to the Pentagon, citing the First Amendment

More News

Miranda Bryant / The Guardian:
Denmark says Russia was behind “destructive and disruptive” cyberattacks on a water utility in 2024 and DDoS attacks in the lead-up to local November elections
Alex Heath / Sources:
Meta's head of Threads Connor Hayes says that fediverse compatibility isn't a top priority, but it is something that “we're maintaining”
Vicky Ge Huang / Wall Street Journal:
The administrator winding down Do Kwon's Terraform Labs sues Jump Trading for $4B, alleging it unlawfully profited from and contributed to Terraform's collapse

Earlier Picks

Cecilia D'Anastasio / Bloomberg:
Sources: Riot Games is working on a major overhaul of League of Legends, internally called League Next, for 2027; Riot confirms a big update is in the works
Suzanne Smalley / The Record:
Pennsylvania's Supreme Court rules that police can get Google search data without a warrant; an expert warns it may encourage warrantless searches nationwide
Mistral AI:
Mistral launches Mistral OCR 3, featuring improvements in processing forms, scanned documents, complex tables, and handwriting, priced at $2 per 1,000 pages
Wall Street Journal:
Sources: OpenAI's new fundraising round could value it at as much as $830B; it aims to raise up to $100B and complete the round by the end of Q1 at the earliest
Financial Times:
Trump Media agrees to merge with Google-backed fusion energy company TAE in a $6B deal and build the “world's first utility-scale fusion power plant” in 2026
Jake Bleiberg / Bloomberg:
Amazon CSO Stephen Schmidt says subtle keystroke data lag, measuring 110ms instead of the expected tens of milliseconds, helped catch a North Korean IT worker
Mediagazer memeorandum WeSmirch
Home River Leaderboards About Events Newsletter