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August 20, 2026, 2:05 PM
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Top News

Jess Weatherbed / The Verge:
Slack launches Slack Code, adding dedicated, project-specific code channels that let teams collaborate with AI coding agents “like teammates” across all plans  —  Slack Code provides a dedicated open space for teams to collaborate with AI agents.
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:
Letter: Stripe told investors January 1 marked the “beginning of the singularity”, a major inflection point in long-term trends, and H1 revenue rose 41% YoY
Erin Griffith / New York Times:
Stripe agrees to acquire NYC-based OpenRouter; a source says Stripe is paying $7.5B, with $1.5B going to the startup's founders and $6B to its investors
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 …
Michael Martina / Reuters:
How Unitree's Go series, which helped the company dominate the quadruped robot market, drew on openly published US university research funded by the US military
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:
At a White House event, Trump says CFTC Chair Michael Selig is working to bring crypto platform Hyperliquid onshore; Hyperliquid's HYPE token jumps 18%+
Alexander Gladstone / Wall Street Journal:
A bankruptcy court delays Google's $10M purchase of Spirit Airlines' data after former flight attendants objected, seeking assurance their info would be removed  —  The flight attendants want assurance that their confidential information will be removed from the sale of the defunct airline's digital records
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 …
Google:
Google DeepMind says its Gemma family of open models has surpassed 1B downloads and developers have published 100K+ Gemma model variants over the past two years  —  From outer space to underwater, here's how developers are bringing a positive impact with our open models.
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 …
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 …
More: PYMNTS
Hugo Lowell / Wired:
Sources: Trump officials expect Elon Musk to spend $100M to $200M in the November midterm elections, with a focus on voter turnout in key races, including Texas  —  Sources tell WIRED that Elon Musk is expected to spend up to $200 million in the midterms.  It could be a big boost …
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 …

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About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 2:05 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.

From Mediagazer

Jennifer Jacobs / CBS News:
US officials discussed firing Stars & Stripes publisher Max Lederer ahead of his Sept. 30 retirement, which was provoked by differences with the Trump admin

Charlotte Klein / New York Magazine:
A look at upcoming changes to 60 Minutes under Nick Bilton, including making greater use of its archive and potentially turning interviews into podcasts

Georg Szalai / The Hollywood Reporter:
Charter closes its $34.5B Cox acquisition, announced in May 2025, uniting two of the biggest US cable and broadband providers, and completes its Liberty deal

More News

Yoolim Lee / Bloomberg:
South Korean media: SK Hynix and its union reach a tentative deal, featuring a 6.3% salary increase and profit-sharing bonuses paid as 60% shares and 40% cash
Bloomberg:
London-based Callosum, whose software matches AI tasks with models and chips, raised a $100M seed led by Atomico; the UK's Sovereign AI Fund also invested
Cecilia Kang / New York Times:
Virginia's Loudoun County hosts 250+ data centers that bring in huge tax revenues, but in 2025, its board voted to slow construction after residents pushed back

Earlier Picks

Lucas Shaw / Bloomberg:
Sources: YouTube is offering top creators millions to post videos exclusively on YouTube for a period and will penalize those that post to Netflix concurrently
Amanda Caswell / Tom's Guide:
Google unveils new study tools, including a student hub, notebooks, and interactive 3D visualizations in Gemini, plus college student offers for Google AI plans
CNBC:
Sources: OpenAI CFO Sarah Friar told employees at an all-hands that OpenAI “will be a public company in 2027”, or sooner if “our business continues to inflect”
Matt Day / Bloomberg:
Amazon plans to expand Prime Air drone delivery to almost 500 cities and towns in the US by the end of 2026, a sixfold increase from its current footprint
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