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January 16, 2026, 12:05 AM
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Wired:
Source: at least two more Thinking Machines staffers are expected to join OpenAI soon; some 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.
Alex Heath / Sources:
Sources: Thinking Machines lacks a clear product or business strategy and has been struggling over the last 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.
Kif Leswing / CNBC:
The US says Taiwanese companies will invest $250B+ in chip production in the US as part of a trade deal, with Taiwanese government guaranteeing $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.
Peter Senzamici / New York Post:
Ashley St. Clair, 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:
X updates Grok to prevent the “editing of images of real people in revealing clothing such as bikinis” and geoblocks it for all users “where it's illegal”
Emma Roth / The Verge:
The Wikimedia Foundation says Microsoft, Meta, Amazon, Perplexity, and Mistral joined Wikimedia Enterprise to get “tuned” API access; Google is already a member  —  The companies have joined Google as the latest members of the Wikimedia Enterprise program.
Emma Roth / The Verge:
Wikimedia celebrates Wikipedia's 25th anniversary, marking its growth from 100 pages to 65M+ articles with nearly 15B monthly views, and releases a docuseries
Tim Culpan / Culpium:
Sources: Apple now needs to fight for TSMC production capacity amid the AI boom; Nvidia was likely TSMC's top customer in at least one or two quarters in 2025  —  [Exclusive] A 15-year relationship helped TSMC grow and Apple leap ahead of rivals.  But now the iPhone maker is struggling …
André Beganski / Decrypt:
X revises its developer API policies to “no longer allow apps that reward users for posting on X (aka 'infofi')”, amid a backlash about increasing AI slop on X  —  X is making major changes to its API to prevent access by “InfoFi” crypto projects that seek to incentivize “reply spam,” an exec said.
New York Times:
Australia's eSafety Commissioner reports social media platforms “removed access” to ~4.7M accounts under its ban for under-16s, which took effect in December  —  Governments around the world are watching the rollout of the landmark law, which made it illegal for those under 16 to have accounts.
CNBC:
Amazon files an objection to Saks Global's bankruptcy financing plan, and says its $475M investment in the department store is now effectively “worthless”  —  Amazon wants a federal judge to reject Saks Global's bankruptcy financing plan, writing in court papers the beleaguered department store …
Mary Ann Azevedo / Crunchbase News:
Total global VC funding to fintech startups totaled $51.8B in 2025, up 27% YoY and above pre-pandemic totals, but much lower than 2021's peak of $141.6B  —  Global venture funding to fintech startups climbed in 2025 to its highest level in several quarters, boosted by later-stage deals, Crunchbase data shows.
Sam Gutelle / Tubefilter:
YouTube revises policy to allow full monetization of nongraphic videos on sensitive issues including 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.
See also Mediagazer
Financial Times:
Source: Apple's Gemini deal is a cloud contract where it pays Google several billion dollars; a source says OpenAI declined to be Apple's custom model provider  —  Multibillion-dollar deal to secure Gemini models reflects cautious approach to infrastructure spending
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 …
The Keyword:
Google releases TranslateGemma, a suite of Gemma 3-based open translation models available in 4B-, 12B-, and 27B-parameter sizes, with support for 55 languages  —  Today, we're introducing TranslateGemma, a new collection of open translation models built on Gemma 3, helping people communicate …
Boone Ashworth / Wired:
As Meta shifts resources away from its Supernatural VR fitness service, users mourn the loss of a community built around the platform and its coaches  —  Users of the VR fitness service are distraught that Supernatural has had its staff cut and won't receive any more content updates.
Ike Swetlitz / Bloomberg:
Brain-computer interface startup Merge Labs, which Sam Altman co-founded, raised a $252M seed from OpenAI, Bain Capital, Gabe Newell, and others  —  Merge Labs, a company co-founded by AI billionaire Sam Altman that is building devices to connect human brains to computers, raised $252 million.

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About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 12:05 AM ET, January 16, 2026.

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

Nancy Scola / Washingtonian:
A deep look at FCC Chairman Brendan Carr's moves favoring the Trump administration; former chair Tom Wheeler warns against the agency becoming a political tool

Lucia Moses / Business Insider:
WaPo opinion editor Adam O'Neal says he's stepping down after a year in the role; his hiring was part of a push to promote “personal liberties and free markets”

Matt Stout / The Boston Globe:
The Massachusetts Senate passes an amendment that would in many instances bar judges, grand juries, and others from forcing reporters to identify their sources

More News

Ciara O'Brien / The Irish Times:
Equal1, which was spun out from University College Dublin, raised $60M to deploy its new quantum server for data centers, bringing its total funding to $85M
Krystal Hu / Reuters:
AI video startup Higgsfield raised an $80M Series A extension from Accel and others at a $1.3B+ valuation, and says it hit a $200M annualized revenue run rate
Wired:
Researchers detail WhisperPair, vulnerabilities in Google's Fast Pair protocol affecting 17 audio device models from 10 brands; Google rolled out updates
Francisco Rodrigues / CoinDesk:
Bitmine, the largest corporate holder of ether, invests $200M in MrBeast's Beast Industries, set to close on January 19; Bitmine holds 4M+ ETH valued at ~$13.6B
Financial Times:
Anthropic researchers say rich countries' higher AI adoption risks deepening economic disparities and widening living standard gaps, assuming productivity gains

Earlier Picks

Molly Schuetz / Bloomberg:
Spotify plans to raise its Premium subscription by $1 to $12.99/month in the US, its first US price hike since July 2024, and increase it in Estonia and Latvia
Arjun Kharpal / CNBC:
AWS launches European Sovereign Cloud, creating a new parent company for its sovereign cloud that will be locally controlled in the EU and run by EU citizens
Cade Metz / New York Times:
Scientists say that AI has become a powerful and rapidly improving research tool, and that whether it is generating ideas on its own is, for now, a moot point
Adamya Sharma / Android Authority:
OpenAI quietly rolls out ChatGPT Translate, a standalone website that supports plain text translations across 50+ languages and features prompt customization
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