Techmeme
July 19, 2026, 2:40 PM

Top News

Bloomberg:
Alibaba launches a 2.4T parameter Qwen3.8 Max preview that it says rivals frontier AI models and is second only to Fable 5, plans to make it “open-weight soon”  —  Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. launched a preview version of its flagship Qwen3.8 Max model, which it described as comparable …
Mark Gurman / Bloomberg:
Thoughts on why Jony Ive, a close friend of Laurene Powell Jobs, isn't named in Apple's OpenAI suit; sources: Apple tests AI to record Genius Bar customer chats  —  Also: The company tries out AI recording for Genius Bar appointments.  —  This week, we'll look at why Apple's massive lawsuit …
Wall Street Journal:
Alexandra Lindsay / The San Francisco Standard:
Analysis: OpenAI and Anthropic employees are donating to campaigns more heavily and cohesively than Google, Meta, and Airbnb employees did post-IPO  —  San Francisco is still waiting for the AI IPOs — the wave of money from Anthropic and OpenAI millionaires and billionaires that is likely …
Ann Davis Vaughan / The Information:
Permit hurdles push up costs for AI data centers; Oracle pivoted from gas turbines to costlier fuel cells for its Project Jupiter in NM, costing billions more  —  Building an AI supercampus increasingly means paying more than you bargained for.  Oracle's attempt to salvage a proposed $165 billion project …
Reuters:
Grassroots org HumansFirst says it organized 142 protests across 42 US states on July 18 against what it calls the “unaccountable” buildout of data centers  —  Opponents of the rapid buildout of data centers held 142 protests across 42 states on Saturday in the first nationwide effort …
Geraldine McKelvie / The Guardian:
UK's incoming PM Andy Burnham is expected to scrap Keir Starmer's plans for digital ID cards; last year a petition opposing the cards attracted ~3M signatures  —  Incoming PM will reallocate unspecified resources from unpopular plan to helping with cost of living
AI Security Institute:
Leo Schwartz / The Information:
How the Trump administration shifted from a “light-touch” approach to AI policy to an interventionist stance that led to restrictions on top AI models in the US  —  In January 2025, just three days after entering office for his second term, President Donald Trump signed …
Antonio G. Di Benedetto / The Verge:
A review of Microsoft's 13-inch Surface Laptop shows 8GB of RAM is not enough for a good Windows 11 experience; PC makers have unveiled upcoming 8GB laptops  —  Last year, Microsoft's 13-inch Surface Laptop quickly became one of my favorite thin-and-light Windows notebooks.

Sponsor Posts

Command Line:
What will the next generation of developers do when AI writes the code?  —  Microsoft and Carnegie Mellon are betting that the junior devs we train today will be the senior engineers of tomorrow.
Will Reed:
The best sales leaders aren't job hunting.  Here's how to reach them without months of cold outreach.  —  Our team came from Box, Square, and Brex, so we already know the GTM leaders worth meeting.
Zoho:
UK tax compliance with Zoho Books  —  The evolving tax landscape in the UK has added an additional responsibility to business owners, accountants, and bookkeepers to ensure their choice of accounting software supports compliance …
IDrive:
Protecting your Cloud Applications Data  —  Backing up Office 365, Google Workspace, Dropbox & Salesforce data is critical to preventing data loss or corruption, complying with laws and avoiding critical downtime in case of a disaster.

Featured Podcasts

Lenny's Podcast:
Inside the black box of AI: How AI models actually think | Emmanuel Ameisen (Anthropic)
Interviews with world-class product leaders and growth experts to uncover actionable advice to help you build, launch, and grow your own product.
Subscribe to Lenny's Podcast.
Big Technology Podcast:
Anthropic IPO Panic, A Spy At OpenAI?, The Great Food Slop Debate
The Big Technology Podcast takes you behind the scenes in the tech world featuring interviews with plugged-in insiders and outside agitators.
Subscribe to Big Technology Podcast.
Great Chat:
What happened to tech's backbone?
A podcast mostly about tech. Brought to you weekly by Angela Du, Sally Shin, Mac Bohannon, Helen Min, and Ashley Mayer.
Subscribe to Great Chat.
The Upstarts Podcast:
The $7B Startup Mapping Your Health In Just One Hour | Neko's Hjalmar Nilsonne
Veteran tech reporter Alex Konrad sits down with breakout entrepreneurs taking on the status quo to shake up their fields in AI, design, nuclear energy, space, and more.
Subscribe to The Upstarts Podcast.
Cheeky Pint:
The company building underwater drones for $50,000
Stripe cofounder John Collison interviews founders, builders, and leaders over a pint.
Subscribe to Cheeky Pint.
BG2 Pod:
Jensen Huang | Does AI Revenue Justify Capex, '27 AI Bottlenecks, Singularity, Open vs Closed & more
Open-source podcast on all things tech, markets, investing, and capitalism, hosted by Brad Gerstner.
Subscribe to BG2 Pod.
 

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 2:40 PM ET, July 19, 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.

More News

Earlier Picks