Techmeme
February 11, 2026, 12:40 PM

Top News

Matt Shumer:
GPT-5.3-Codex and Claude Opus 4.6 can meaningfully contribute to the improvement of AI models, a sign of what's coming for most knowledge work within five years  —  Think back to February 2020.  —  If you were paying close attention, you might have noticed a few people talking about a virus spreading overseas.
Alex Heath / Sources:
Q&A with Fidji Simo on ChatGPT ads, OpenAI's efforts to ship a new model soon to end Sam Altman's Code Red, Anthropic's Super Bowl ads, Sora, Codex, and more  —  How ads in ChatGPT will work, what will end the Code Red, those Anthropic attack ads, working with Sam Altman, and much more...
Matthias Bastian / The Decoder:
Wall Street Journal:
Sources: OpenAI fired VP Ryan Beiermeister in January for alleged sexual discrimination; she had earlier raised concerns about the upcoming launch of adult mode  —  The executive, who was accused of sexual discrimination against a male employee, had raised concerns about upcoming launch of erotic content
New York Times:
xAI all-hands meeting: Elon Musk told employees that xAI needs a factory on the moon to build AI satellites and a massive catapult to launch them into space  —  In a meeting with employees at his company xAI, Mr. Musk revealed a vision for a facility that includes a giant catapult to launch his satellites into space.
Financial Times:
xAI co-founder Jimmy Ba says he is leaving, the sixth co-founder to depart; sources and social media posts show at least six researchers left in recent weeks  —  Jimmy Ba will be the sixth member of the founding team to depart  —  A sixth co-founder of Elon Musk's xAI is leaving …
Jess Weatherbed / The Verge:
T-Mobile announces a network-level, AI-based Live Translation feature that supports 50+ languages, coming “this spring” in beta and available on 4G LTE and 5G  —  Live Translation will be available to beta testers ‘this Spring.’  —  T-Mobile is preparing to test …
Zoë Hitzig / New York Times:
An OpenAI researcher who helped shape how models were built and priced says she quit after two years due to “deep reservations” about ads and OpenAI's strategy  —  This week, OpenAI started testing ads on ChatGPT.  I also resigned from the company after spending two years …
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
TikTok US launches an opt-in Local Feed for content tied to travel, news, events, shopping, and dining near the user's current location, after changing its ToS  —  TikTok on Wednesday announced the launch of a new “Local Feed” in the U.S. version of the app, which displays content related to travel …
More: The Verge, Engadget, and 9to5Mac
Stephanie Palazzolo / The Information:
Source: to catch leakers, OpenAI security staff use a custom ChatGPT with access to Slack, email, and docs by cross-referencing news articles with access logs  —  Here at The Information, we're always trying to break through the hype to understand how folks are actually using AI in the real world.
Isomorphic Labs:
Tim De Chant / TechCrunch:
Inertia, cofounded by ex-Twilio CEO Jeff Lawson to build one of the world's most powerful lasers for a grid-scale fusion power plant, raised a $450M Series A  —  Inertia Enterprises has raised $450 million to build one of the world's most powerful lasers, which it hopes will serve as the foundation …
More: Axios and Bloomberg
Tim Bradshaw / Financial Times:
Docs: London-based AI chip startup Olix, founded by James Dacombe, CEO of brain monitoring startup CoMind, raised $220M led by Hummingbird at a $1B+ valuation  —  London-based Olix targets development of AI chips that are faster and cheaper than Nvidia's  —  A 25-year-old British entrepreneur …
Russell Brandom / TechCrunch:
Meridian, which uses AI to make financial modeling and spreadsheets more “predictable and auditable”, exits stealth and raised a $17M seed at a $100M valuation  —  The fight to tame spreadsheets with AI isn't over yet.  A new company called Meridian has emerged from stealth …
Saritha Rai / Bloomberg:
A study of 596 Indian high-tech startups suggests that homegrown entrepreneurs fare better over the long run than returning diaspora with overseas experience  —  India's fiercely competitive startup field has provided evidence to suggest that homegrown entrepreneurs fare better over the long run …
Samantha Kelly / Bloomberg:
Austin-based humanoid robot startup Apptronik raised $520M led by Google and others at a $5.5B+ valuation, up ~3x from when it raised $415M in February 2025  —  Apptronik, a fast-growing startup that makes artificial intelligence-powered humanoid robots, has secured about $520 million …
Deborah Sophia / Reuters:
Shopify reports Q4 revenue up 31% YoY to $3.7B, vs. $3.59B est., net income down 43% YoY to $743M, and forecasts Q1 revenue growth above est; SHOP drops 10%+  —  Shopify (SHOP.TO) projected quarterly revenue well above market estimates on Wednesday, as the e-commerce platform benefits …

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More News

Amy Feldman / Forbes:

Earlier Picks

Mike Wheatley / SiliconANGLE:
Gideon Lewis-Kraus / New Yorker:
Max Buondonno / The Shortcut:
The Verge:
New York Times: