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Techmeme
January 9, 2026, 10:50 AM
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Top News

Helena Horton / The Guardian:
Grok says image generation and editing are now limited to paid subscribers, after outcry over its use to create sexually explicit and violent imagery  —  X to limit editing function to paying subscribers after platform threatened with fines and regulatory action
Robert Hart / The Verge:
X is restricting Grok's image capabilities via the @grok command for free users, but they can still create sexual deepfakes via X's “Edit image” or Grok's app  —  X's sexual deepfake machine is still running, despite Grok saying otherwise.
Hadas Gold / CNN:
Source: weeks before Grok started “digitally undressing” people, Musk expressed frustration to xAI staff about restrictions on Grok's image and video generator
Dan Primack / Axios:
a16z raises $15B+ across five new funds, including $6.75B for its fifth growth fund, the largest sum, and $3B for unspecified “other venture strategies”  —  Venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, whose past investments included Airbnb and Coinbase, on Friday announced …
Iain Martin / Forbes:
A16z captured 18%+ of all US venture capital allocated in 2025 and now manages $90B in assets, vs Sequoia Capital's $56B and General Catalyst's $43B  —  Andreessen Horowitz has raised $15 billion for five new growth and venture funds in one of the largest-ever raises for a venture capital fund.
Shirin Ghaffary / Bloomberg:
OpenAI launches a HIPAA-compliant version of ChatGPT for clinicians to help with medical reasoning and reduce administrative work, at Cedars-Sinai and elsewhere  —  Health care is shaping up to be a key battleground for the top AI labs this year.  But first...  Three things to know:
Sophie Bates / Associated Press:
Mississippi Gov. Reeves says xAI is set to spend $20B+ to build its MACROHARDRR data center in Southaven, xAI's third data center in the greater Memphis area  —  Elon Musk's artificial intelligence company xAI is set to spend $20 billion to build a data center in Southaven, Mississippi …
Suvashree Ghosh / Bloomberg:
Artemis Analytics: total stablecoin transaction volumes rose 72% YoY to a record $33T in 2025, led by Circle's USDC at $18.3T and Tether's USDT at $13.3T  —  Stablecoin transactions reached unprecedented heights last year, buoyed by favorable policy in the US under pro-crypto President Donald Trump.
Barry Schwartz / Search Engine Land:
Microsoft debuts Copilot Checkout in the US, enabling in-chat purchases via PayPal, Shopify, Stripe, and more; Shopify merchants will be automatically enrolled

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This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 10:50 AM ET, January 9, 2026.

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From Mediagazer

Jeremy Barr / The Guardian:
President Trump says Fox News “bears responsibility” for the GOP's losses after “constantly and consistently putting on the Dumocrat opposition, and worse”

Katie Robertson / New York Times:
NYT adds 420K net digital-only subscribers in Q3, boosting total paid subscribers to 13.8M, keeping it on pace to meet a goal of 15M subscribers by 2027's end

Alex Weprin / The Hollywood Reporter:
As Democrats take the House and the Senate, David Ellison and other media executives are likely to face inquiries and hearings over their deals and Trump ties

More News

Jennifer Hiller / Wall Street Journal:
Meta strikes a 20-year deal to buy 2,600+ MW of nuclear power from Vistra, and announces deals to back new reactor projects from TerraPower and Oklo
Jeanny Yu / Bloomberg:
Chinese AI startup MiniMax's stock closed up 109% in its Hong Kong debut on January 9, after raising ~$619M in its IPO, which was priced at ~$21.17 per share
Rebecca Szkutak / TechCrunch:
Snowflake agrees to acquire Observe, an observability platform built on Snowflake databases; the deal was previously reported to be valued at around $1B

Earlier Picks

Maxwell Zeff / Wired:
OpenAI VP of Research Jerry Tworek is leaving, sources say after OpenAI sided with Chief Scientist Jakub Pachocki in a disagreement over its research direction
Ed Hardy / Cult of Mac:
Statcounter: only ~15% of iPhone users have iOS 26 installed four months after its release; in January 2025, ~63% of users were using iOS 18, a 4x adoption rate
Cody Combs / The National:
NetBlocks says internet connectivity in Iran has fallen on multiple providers, as protests spread to 100+ cities; Cloudflare says IPv6 traffic share dropped 85%
Barry Schwartz / Search Engine Roundtable:
Tailwind Labs, the maker of Tailwind CSS, lays off staff after online traffic to its documentation fell ~40% from 2023 due to AI, causing an ~80% revenue drop
Jay Peters / The Verge:
Google rolls out an AI Inbox view for Gmail that shows users to-dos and summaries of topics rather than a traditional email list, first for US “trusted testers”
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