Techmeme
February 3, 2026, 8:55 AM

Top News

Bloomberg:
SpaceX acquires xAI; sources say the all-stock deal values the combined company at $1.25T, with SpaceX valued at $1T and xAI at $250B; xAI burns ~$1B per month  —  Elon Musk's SpaceX has acquired xAI, in a deal that encompasses the billionaire's increasingly costly ambitions to dominate artificial intelligence and space exploration.
Eric Berger / Ars Technica:
If assumptions hold, SpaceX-xAI could own a full stack of capabilities, from launch to orbital bandwidth to frontier AI models, and offer AI on demand anywhere  —  SpaceX has formally acquired another one of Elon Musk's companies, xAi, the space company announced on Monday afternoon.
New York Times:
Liv McMahon / BBC:
Paris prosecutors say they raided X's French offices with assistance from Europol; Elon Musk and ex-CEO Linda Yaccarino have been summoned to April hearings  —  Offices belonging to Elon Musk's social media platform, X, in France are being raided by the Paris prosecutor.
Reuters:
Sources: OpenAI is unsatisfied with some of Nvidia's AI chips used for inference and has sought alternatives since last year, including from Cerebras and Groq  —  OpenAI is unsatisfied with some of Nvidia's latest artificial intelligence chips, and it has sought alternatives since last year …
@oracle:
Oracle says the Nvidia-OpenAI deal has “zero impact” on its financial relationship with OpenAI and it is “highly confident in OpenAI's ability to raise funds”  —  The NVIDIA-OpenAI deal has zero impact on our financial relationship with OpenAI. We remain highly confident in OpenAI's ability to raise funds and meet its commitments.
David Gewirtz / ZDNET:
Brian Barrett / Wired:
The US DOJ releasing emails between tech industry notables and Jeffrey Epstein kicks off a renewed flurry of acrimonious social posts and lurid news coverage  —  The Department of Justice has released more than 3 million documents and photos related to Jeffrey Epstein.
More: 404 Media, The Verge, Garbage Day, Protos, The Verge, Ars Technica, Wired, 404 Media, Wall Street Journal, The Standard, Axios, Financial Times, NewsMax.com, New York Times, Bloomberg, New York Times, Forbes, New York Magazine, Time, New York Times, People, ZeroHedge News, Gizmodo, and CBS News
Edward Ludlow / Bloomberg:
Waymo raised $16B led by Sequoia, DST, and Dragoneer at a $126B valuation, plans an expansion across the US and into the UK in 2026, and has 400K+ weekly rides  —  Waymo, Alphabet Inc.'s autonomous driving unit, raised $16 billion at a $126 billion valuation, a funding round that reflects its rapid ascent as a robotaxi pioneer.
Arjun Kharpal / CNBC:
Nintendo reports Q3 revenue of $5.2B, below $5.45B est., a net profit of $1.03B, vs. $950M est., and maintains its 19M Switch 2 sales forecast for fiscal 2026  —  Nintendo maintained its full-year Switch 2 sales forecast on Tuesday allaying some fears that the flagship console was losing momentum.
Jess Weatherbed / The Verge:
Paige Smith / Bloomberg:
PayPal names HP CEO Enrique Lores as CEO, replacing Alex Chriss on March 1, and reports Q4 revenue up 4% YoY to $8.7B, missing est.; PYPL falls 15% pre-market  —  PayPal Holdings Inc. said HP Inc. Chief Executive Officer Enrique Lores will take the top job from Alex Chriss …
Variety:
Disney names Josh D'Amaro, head of its theme parks and consumer products division, as CEO, replacing Bob Iger, effective March 18; D'Amaro joined Disney in 1998  —  Dana Walden named president and chief creative officer of the company  —  The Walt Disney Co., after a more than two-year saga …
Matthew Green / A Few Thoughts …:
A look at WhatsApp's E2E encryption and whether it protects from metadata and chat backup leaks, after a lawsuit alleges Meta can read users' private data  —  It's not every day that we see mainstream media get excited about encryption apps!  For that reason, the past several days have been fascinating …
Cristina Criddle / Financial Times:
Sources: OpenAI is prioritizing ChatGPT over long-term research, prompting senior staff departures; Sora and DALL-E teams felt neglected and under resourced  —  Resources at $500bn company are being redirected from long-term research towards improving the flagship chatbot
More: BenzingaX: @thedataroom and @thedataroomMastodon: @carnage4life@mas.toForums: r/OpenAI
Bill Toulas / BleepingComputer:
Notepad++ and security researchers say Chinese state-sponsored threat actors were likely behind the hijacking of its update traffic from June to December 2025  —  Chinese state-sponsored threat actors were likely behind the hijacking of Notepad++ update traffic last year that lasted for almost half a year …

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More News

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Isaac Rouse / Polygon.com:
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Earlier Picks

Samantha Subin / CNBC:
Sergiu Gatlan / BleepingComputer:
Alex Konrad / Upstarts Media:
Raphael Satter / Reuters: