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January 16, 2026, 11:25 AM
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| Sean Hollister / The Verge: |
Meta says it will discontinue Workrooms, its VR space for workers, on February 16, and stop selling Quests and Horizon services to businesses from February 20 — Meta continues to trickle out the bad news for VR. … Today, the company announced it's shutting that space down …
More: The Register, Thurrott, Meta, Engadget, Mashable, Road to VR, PCMag, Constellation Research, Android Headlines, Tech in Asia, and GeekWire
X: @yoda, @kojirovr, and @playtest_vr. Bluesky: @flglchicago. Mastodon: @rysiek@mstdn.social. Forums: r/OculusQuest
| Alex Heath / Sources: |
Sources: Thinking Machines lacks a clear product or business strategy and has been struggling over the past couple of months to raise a new round of financing — More Thinking Machines employees are in talks to join OpenAI. Also: Rivian CEO RJ Scaringe on ACCESS and the Sources Live @ Davos lineup.
More: Newcomer, Implicator.ai, The Information, and Analytics India Magazine
| Wired: |
Source: at least two more Thinking Machines employees are set to join OpenAI soon; some AI researchers say they are exhausted by the industry's constant drama — OpenAI is planning to bring over more researchers from Thinking Machines Lab after nabbing two cofounders, a source familiar with the situation says.
More: Fortune, The Information, David Shapiro's Substack, eWeek, The Rundown AI, Benzinga, TechCrunch, Neowin, The Decoder, Spyglass, Sherwood News, Wired, Digit, and Bloomberg
X: @jonchu, @alexrkonrad, @signulll, @kimmonismus, @ns123abc, @scobleizer, and @fidjissimo
| Darren Loucaides / Financial Times: |
A profile of Wikipedia as it faces myriad challenges, including attacks from Elon Musk and the far right, reduced traffic due to AI, and a legal battle in India — As the website turns 25, it faces myriad challenges from regulators, AI, the far right and Elon Musk
More: Block Club Chicago, ZDNET, PCMag, Chicago Tribune, Futurism, Cord Cutters News, San Francisco Chronicle, and ABC. Bluesky: @sjvn
| Emma Roth / The Verge: |
More: The Register, Anil Dash, Wikimedia Foundation, Wikimedia Foundation, Shelly Palmer, Wikipedia, Forbes, Diff, The Independent, Observer, Wired, 9to5Mac, Freedom of the Press …, and Wikipedia
Bluesky: @chrisoregan, @celebrityhottub, @depthsofwikipedia, @newsguy, @wikimediafoundation.org, and @wikimediafoundation.org
Mastodon: @kottke@mastodon.social and @joebeone@techpolicy.social
| Emma Roth / The Verge: |
More: Ars Technica, Decrypt, Associated Press, Wikimedia Enterprise, TechCrunch, MediaPost, WebProNews, Implicator.ai, MediaNama, Reuters, CNBC, Social Media Today, The A.V. Club, Sherwood News, The Decoder, Engadget, Constellation Research, and Blockonomi
LinkedIn: Arul George Scaria and Lane Becker
Bluesky: @nickgarcia, @tjheffernan, @emilymbender, @adzebill, @craiggrannell, and @levikornelsen. Mastodon: @carnage4life@mas.to
Forums: r/BetterOffline, r/news, r/technology, and r/wikipedia
| Natalie Lung / Bloomberg: |
DoorDash Chief Revenue Officer Lee Brown is departing the delivery app company after less than six months; long-term VP Shanna Prevé will succeed Brown as CRO — DoorDash Inc. Chief Revenue Officer Lee Brown is departing the delivery app company after less than six months to pursue a new opportunity.
More: The Information
| Supantha Mukherjee / Reuters: |
TikTok says it will roll out new age detection tech, which analyzes profile information to predict whether a user is under 13, across Europe in the coming weeks — TikTok will start rolling out new age-detection technology across Europe in the coming weeks, it told Reuters on Friday … | Bloomberg: |
Sources: Trump and several state governors agree to direct grid operator PJM to hold an auction for tech companies to fund new power plants due to AI demand — President Donald Trump and the governors of several US Northeastern states agreed to push for an emergency wholesale electricity auction …
More: Quartz, DatacenterDynamics, CNBC, Axios, ABC17NEWS, Sherwood News, Wall Street Journal, Forbes, New York Times, CNN, ZeroHedge News, Heatmap News, Benzinga, BeInCrypto, Financial Times, PYMNTS.com, Implicator.ai, Reuters, and The Boston Globe
LinkedIn: Almas Kaptagayev and Naureen S. Malik. Bluesky: @manuelsalgado. Mastodon: @waltbaldwin@mastodon.energy. Forums: r/Economics
| Davis Giangiulio / CNBC: |
Cloudflare acquires AI data marketplace Human Native for an undisclosed sum, to help it develop a system where AI developers pay creators for training content — Cloudflare is acquiring artificial intelligence data marketplace Human Native, the company said Thursday, as it expands its push … | Reuters: |
Italy's competition watchdog opens two investigations into Microsoft's Activision Blizzard over sales practices the regulator calls “misleading and aggressive” — Italy's competition watchdog on Friday announced investigations into Microsoft's (MSFT.O) Activision Blizzard unit over allegedly … | Sam Gutelle / Tubefilter: |
YouTube revises its policy to allow full monetization of nongraphic videos on sensitive issues, like abortion, self-harm, suicide, and domestic and sexual abuse — YouTube's guidelines for ad-friendly content are changing, and creators who cover controversial topics are in line for increased revenue.| Dina Bass / Bloomberg: |
ClickHouse, a Snowflake challenger that offers an OLAP database management system, raised $400M led by Dragoneer at a $15B valuation, up from $6.35B in May 2025 — Dragoneer is leading a $400 million funding round for the startup. — Database technology startup ClickHouse Inc … | Marco Chiappetta / Forbes: |
SiFive says it will integrate Nvidia's NVLink Fusion with its RISC-V processor IP platforms, letting SiFive silicon communicate with Nvidia's and partner chips — SiFive To Integrate Nvidia NVLink Fusion — In a move that could have major implications for future AI datacenters, SiFive …
More: SiFive, The Register, More Than Moore, Futurum, ServeTheHome, and Reuters
| Kif Leswing / CNBC: |
The US says that Taiwanese companies will invest $250B+ in chip production capacity in the US as part of a trade deal, and Taiwan will guarantee $250B in credit — The U.S. and Taiwan have reached a trade agreement to build chips and chip factories on American soil, the Department of Commerce announced on Thursday.
More: U.S. Department of Commerce, eWeek, DatacenterDynamics, Tom's Hardware, Bloomberg, The Decoder, Fortune, Inc.com, Le Monde, The Indian Express, Forbes Middle East, DigiTimes, Silicon Republic, Android Headlines, Crypto Briefing, Reuters, Dow Jones Newswires, Benzinga, New York Times, NewsMax.com, Supply Chain Dive, Twin Cities, iClarified, Engadget, Financial Times, Proactive, The Verge, TechCrunch, Barron's Online, Wall Street Journal, CBS News, The National Pulse, Reuters, Washington Examiner, Reuters, and Fox Business
LinkedIn: W. Patrick Wilson, Josh Wingrove, Chris Cottorone, William Hao-Wei Yang, and Deborah Elms. Bluesky: @marypcbuk
Forums: r/worldnews, r/taiwan, r/NvidiaStock, r/Economics, and r/Economics
| Wall Street Journal: |
Sources: Chinese AI companies seek to rent compute in Southeast Asia and the Middle East for Nvidia Rubin access, as Zhipu and Alibaba warn of a widening US gap — Companies in China scrap for access to Nvidia's latest Rubin lineup while better-funded U.S. competitors are first in line
More: Asia Times
| SemiAnalysis: |
Analysis: Colossus 2, one of the world's largest AI datacenters, will use as much water/year as 2.5 average In-N-Outs, assuming only drinkable water and burgers — A different perspective on the datacenter water debate, forget tokens/watt or tokens/dollar, it's about tokens/burger …
X: @firstadopter and @sriramk
| Peter Senzamici / New York Post: |
Ashley St. Clair, the mother of one of Elon Musk's children, sues xAI, alleging Grok refused to stop making sexualized deepfakes of her, amid custody disputes — Elon Musk baby mama Ashley St. Clair is suing his AI platform, Grok, for refusing to stop making sexually explicit deepfake images of her … | Karissa Bell / Engadget: |
More: Business Insider, Ars Technica, 9to5Mac, Digiday, Cyber Daily, Washington Post, The Verge, BBC, New York Times, The American Bazaar, MobileSyrup, X, The Shortcut, campaignlive.com, The Hill, The Record, The Mac Observer, Tech Times, Phandroid, Reuters, The Hollywood Reporter, Deadline, Mashable, France 24, and Decrypt
X: @safety, @yacinemtb, @theobertram, @adrianweckler, @helios_movement, @lyeuhm, @digiphile, @loudmouthjulia, @mweinbach, and @jdpoc. LinkedIn: Mark James
Bluesky: @druce.ai, @ashleybelanger, @davidho, @campuscodi.risky.biz, and @parismarx.com. Forums: r/musked
| CNBC: |
Replit launches Mobile Apps on Replit, which enables vibe-coding of iOS apps with integrated Stripe monetization — AI coding startup Replit is now letting users create and publish mobile apps for Apple devices using only natural language prompts, the latest evolution in so-called vibe-coding.
More: Android Police, Moneycontrol, eWeek, TechCentral.ie, Digital Trends, and Implicator.ai
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