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January 18, 2026, 4:30 AM
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| Caroline Haskins / Wired: |
The AI boom is driving an unprecedented wave of data center construction, but there aren't enough skilled workers in the US, such as electricians, to keep up — The AI boom is driving an unprecedented wave of data center construction, but there aren't enough skilled tradespeople in the US to keep up.
More: IEEE Spectrum and Axios
| Maria Sherman / Associated Press: |
Luminate 2025 report: the global music industry hit 5.1T streams, up 9.6% YoY and a single-year record; AI artist Xania Monet had 125M on-demand audio streams — The global music industry hit 5.1 trillion streams in 2025. It's a new single-year record, up 9.6% from 2024, which held the previous record.| Jeremy Kahn / Fortune: |
OpenAI's former Head of Policy Research Miles Brundage announces AVERI, a nonprofit aimed at advocating the idea of external audits for frontier AI models — Former OpenAI policy chief Miles Brundage, who has just founded a new nonprofit institute called AVERI that is advocating … | Ben Cohen / Wall Street Journal: |
A look at the making of The Thinking Game, a documentary about Google DeepMind and its CEO Demis Hassabis, garnering 285M+ views on YouTube since November 2025 — A documentary about Google DeepMind has become wildly popular. Before he turned his attention to AI, the film's director learned everything from the NFL.| Axios: |
David Sacks and top MAGA influencers are publicly opposing House Foreign Affairs Chair Brian Mast's proposed AI OVERWATCH Act to regulate AI chip sales to China — But the accusations are flying fast. — “The AI Overwatch Act (H.R. 6875) may sound like a good idea, but when you examine it closely … | Rob Copeland / New York Times: |
A look at Michael Saylor's Strategy, known for buying bitcoin via creative financing strategies, as its stock trades way below its peak amid the crypto downturn — Had you glanced too quickly at the crowd packed into Michael Saylor's Tuscan-style Miami compound, you might have assumed it was just another rich dude's party.
More: CoinGape. LinkedIn: Rob Copeland. Bluesky: @somershade and @jessefelder
Forums: r/Buttcoin and r/MSTR
| Financial Times: |
OpenAI plans to test ads below ChatGPT replies for users of free and Go tiers in the US; source: OpenAI expects to make “low billions” from ads in 2026 — $500bn start-up seeks ways to fund expansion and fend off competition from rivals Google and Anthropic
More: OpenAI, Trak.in, Ars Technica, The Verge, CNBC, Spyglass, Axios, The American Bazaar, Digit, The Register, Android Police, Windows Central, Appleosophy, Tech in Asia, New York Times, Business Standard, Engadget, Moneycontrol, The Hans India, Neowin, Livemint, Search Engine Journal, Notebookcheck, The Indian Express, PPC Land, The Hacker News, Communicate Online, The Guardian, 9to5Google, TestingCatalog, The Deep View, Deadline, BleepingComputer, Fortune, Gizmodo, San Francisco Chronicle, The Information, Birchtree, Forbes, Nairametrics, Simon Willison's Weblog, AdTechRadar, Tom's Guide, PC Gamer, Fast Company, SiliconANGLE, Variety, KGW-TV, Forbes Middle East, Bloomberg, Vogue, WebProNews, Barron's Online, CBS News, The Independent, PCMag, Reuters, Capital Brief, The Decoder, MediaPost, Sherwood News, Adweek, The Economic Times, Mobile Dev Memo, Search Engine Land, BBC, Türkiye Today, NewsMax.com, Axios, and Wired
X: @openai, @sama, @frantzfries, @basedtorba, @antoniogm, @fidjissimo, @tomwarren, @atabarrok, @anothercohen, @neilcybart, @pmddomingos, @buccocapital, @pitdesi, @meghanbobrowsky, @benjamindekr, @teksedge, @dant3_btc, @alexeheath, @tbpn, @macrocephalopod, @netcapgirl, @sarafischer, @nickfloats, @bindureddy, @brianmcc, @scobleizer, @scaling01, @simonw, @brij, @openai, @rishabhmjain, @tahatesser, @openai, @teksedge, @inafried, and @eric_seufert
LinkedIn: Akshay Khandekar, Varun Nahar, Robert Derow, Lily Ray, and Fidji Simo
Bluesky: @abraham, @aleyda, @timfduffy.com, @mbogen, @edzitron.com, and @shiraovide. Threads: @benedictevans. Mastodon: @carnage4life@mas.to
Forums: r/technews, r/artificial, r/ChatGPT, r/singularity, r/ChatGPT, r/technology, and Slashdot
| Elissa Welle / The Verge: |
More: OpenAI, Enterprise AI Trends, WebProNews, Digital Trends, Android Central, BleepingComputer, WinBuzzer, Neowin, Cult of Mac, Benzinga, TechCity, TestingCatalog, ZDNET, CNET, The Mac Observer, Constellation Research, iClarified, Android Authority, The Information, NBC News, iPhone in Canada, Thurrott, Analytics India Magazine, MacRumors, Crypto Briefing, 9to5Mac, Reuters, and Daring Fireball
X: @simonw and @mweinbach
Forums: r/technology, r/singularity, and r/OpenAI
| Marc Jones / Reuters: |
Atlantic Council: China-led cross-border digital currency platform mBridge, still a prototype, has processed 4,000+ cross-border transactions totaling $55.5B — Transactions on a new China-led digital currency platform have surged to over $55 billion, a new report shows … | John Reynolds / Tech.eu: |
Mannheim, Germany-based osapiens, a provider of ESG compliance software, raised a $100M Series C from Decarbonization Partners at a $1.1B valuation — The $100m Series C was funded solely by Decarbonization Partners, the joint venture between BlackRock and Temasek.
More: FinSMEs, EU-Startups, Ventureburn, Tech Funding News, Pulse 2.0, FinTech Global, and osapiens
| Iain Martin / Forbes: |
Listen Labs, whose AI tools help Microsoft and others run customer research and interviews, raised a $69M Series B led by Ribbit Capital at a $500M+ valuation — The San Francisco-based company, which has run more than 1 million customer interviews with its automated AI tools …
LinkedIn: Alfred Wahlforss, Listen Labs, Florian Juengermann, Romani Patel, Florian Juengermann, and Lenny Murphy. Bluesky: @iainmartin
| Valentine Baldassari / Bloomberg: |
Micron signs a letter of intent to buy a fabrication site in Taiwan from Powerchip for $1.8B to expand DRAM memory chip production, expected to close in Q2 2026 — Micron Technology Inc. has signed a letter of intent to buy a fabrication site in Taiwan from Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp …
More: Benzinga, Pulse 2.0, MarketWatch, and DigiTimes
| Sage D. Young / Sherwood News: |
Beaconcha.in: a record ~36M ethereum tokens, or 30% of ethereum's total supply, worth ~$119B, are now staked, as institutional investors grow their share — The new record comes as institutional players grow their share in the staking scene. Ether.fi, a restaking protocol known …
More: The Coin Republic, Cointelegraph, Blockonomi, and crypto.news
| Daniel Kuhn / The Block: |
ZachXBT: a crypto user lost $282M+ in BTC and LTC in a hardware wallet social engineering scam; XMR jumped as the attacker began converting the funds to Monero — Partner offers — Quick Take — XMR hit an all-time high of $797.73 on Jan. 14, coinciding with a series …
More: Bitcoin News, Web3 is Going Just Great, Bitcoin Insider, BeInCrypto, Cointelegraph, CryptoPotato, CoinDesk, The Crypto Times, NullTX, Coinpedia Fintech News, crypto.news, The Defiant, Cryptonews, and Crypto Briefing
X: @zachxbt, @pepperpetey, @hackapreneur, @golarrr, @xenumonero, @tanuki42_, @beausecurity, @drtnky, and @tradepro16. LinkedIn: ZeroShadow
| Christopher Mims / Wall Street Journal: |
TrendForce: data centers will use 70%+ of the high-end memory chips all manufacturers will produce in 2026, with little new manufacturing capacity until 2027 — AI companies' need for a type of once-affordable microchip threatens to drive up prices of all electronics—and limit data-center ambitions
More: Reuters, Trusted Reviews, NNY360, Syracuse Post-Standard, and Benzinga
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