Techmeme
August 20, 2026, 1:15 PM

Top News

Jess Weatherbed / The Verge:
Douglas Gillison / Reuters:
Study: 150+ Polymarket wallets may have traded on internal US military information, making $8M overall with a 97.2% average win rate and attracting copycat bets  —  More than 150 wallets on Polymarket International may have traded on inside U.S. military information, attracting copycat bets …
Axios:
Erin Griffith / New York Times:
Edward Ludlow / Bloomberg:
Waymo says it has built an ASIC chip that will improve its robotaxis' reflexes and navigational skills and help it diversify away from third parties like Nvidia  —  Alphabet Inc.'s Waymo has built a custom chip that the company said will improve the performance of its robotaxis …
Bloomberg:
Trump urges Congress to pass the Clarity Act at a White House event with execs, including the CEOs of Coinbase and Robinhood; the bill has stalled in the Senate  —  President Donald Trump pressed Congress to pass digital asset market structure legislation that is a top priority for the industry …
Bloomberg:
Michael Martina / Reuters:
Bloomberg:
Luz Ding / Bloomberg:
Alibaba reports Q1 revenue up 9% YoY to ~$39.64B, meeting est., and net income down 75% to ~$1.54B due to heavy AI spending and weak domestic retail consumption  —  Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.'s profit plunged more than 75% after the Chinese company ratcheted up quarterly capital spending …
Jagmeet Singh / TechCrunch:
Binance launches Agent OS, a platform that lets AI agents analyze markets and execute trades on users' behalf; users have to limit AI agents' access and trades  —  Binance, the world's largest crypto exchange with more than 300 million registered users, on Thursday launched a platform …
Reuters:
Former Facebook Director of Engineering Arturo Béjar testifies that Mark Zuckerberg prioritized Facebook and Instagram's growth and engagement over child safety  —  A former engineering director at Meta Platforms (META.O) testified on Wednesday that CEO Mark Zuckerberg fostered a culture …
Julia Hornstein / The Information:
Anthropic-backed enterprise AI venture Ode acquires four-year-old AI consultancy Casper Studios for an unknown amount; Ode employs 100+ after buying Fractional  —  A joint venture established by Anthropic and Wall Street firms such as Blackstone has made its first acquisition since its July launch …
Ram Iyer / TechCrunch:
Ramp launches Router, an AI model routing service it has been using over the past three years, in the US; the service is free to use for the rest of 2026  —  Corporate expense management platform Ramp is hot on the heels of Stripe in setting up toll houses for AI inference.
More: RuntimeWireForums: Hacker News

Sponsor Posts

Subquadratic:
Subquadratic: the LLM built for 12M-token reasoning  —  SubQ can reason across entire codebases and document sets in one pass with no RAG workarounds.  Read how SubQ 1.1 Small holds near-perfect retrieval out to 12M tokens.
Cape:
Most carriers track everything.  Cape doesn't.  —  Unlimited talk, text & data, 24-hr metadata deletion, network ID rotation, SIM-attack defense, and more.  Switch today and get 29% off for life.
Zoho:
App Spotlight: MessageWhiz SMS for Zoho CRM  —  App Spotlight brings you hand-picked solutions that enhance your Zoho apps and tools.  Visit Zoho Marketplace to explore all of our apps, integrations …
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

Channels with Peter Kafka:
The $12.5 Billion Lakers, the NFL's TV Fight, and Sports Media's Big Split
Media and tech aren't just intersecting - they're fully intertwined. To understand how those worlds work, Peter Kafka talks to industry leaders, upstarts and observers.
Subscribe to Channels with Peter Kafka.
Big Technology Podcast:
Nick Bostrom: Worries About AI Existential Risk Just Became More Concrete
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.
Training Data:
Rich Sutton and Khurram Javed: Why AI Models Stop Learning, and How to Start It Again
Sequoia Capital partners host conversations with leading AI builders and researchers to develop a deeper understanding of the evolving technologies and their implications.
Subscribe to Training Data.
Invest Like the Best:
Ben Thompson on Big Tech, China, and the AI Boom Running Out of Money
The leading destination to learn about business and investing. We do this by showcasing exceptional talent and ideas.
Subscribe to Invest Like the Best.
Lenny's Podcast:
OpenAI's Head of Design: This is the best time in history to be a designer | Ian Silber
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.
Tools and Weapons with Brad Smith:
Connecting the Unconnected: Doreen Bogdan-Martin
Microsoft Vice Chair and President Brad Smith speaks with leaders in government, business, and culture to explore the most critical challenges at the intersection of technology and society.
Subscribe to Tools and Weapons with Brad Smith.
 

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 1:15 PM ET, August 20, 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

Yoolim Lee / Bloomberg:
Bloomberg:
Cecilia Kang / New York Times:

Earlier Picks

Lucas Shaw / Bloomberg:
Amanda Caswell / Tom's Guide:
Bloomberg:
CNBC:
Matt Day / Bloomberg: