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December 19, 2025, 6:30 PM
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Mediagazer
memeorandum
WeSmirchTop News
| Financial Times: |
Memo: TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew says ByteDance's US entities will retain direct control over core US revenue drivers, including ecommerce, ads, and marketing — Oracle, Silver Lake and MGX to invest in new data security joint venture as part of Trump-brokered deal
More: BBC, CNBC, Engadget, The Information, Reuters, Ars Technica, Canadian Press, International Business Times, ABC News, Bloomberg, San Francisco Business Times, Fox Business, Business Insider, HotAir, Tom's Guide, Digital CxO, Inc, PetaPixel, iPhone in Canada, Gizmodo, The Shortcut, 9to5Google, Thurrott, Investing.com, Blockonomi, Social Media Today, Mobile World Live, NPR, PCMag, Capacity, KnowTechie, Straight Arrow News, Benzinga, Oman Observer, TechWire Asia, Marketing Brew, الش …, Wall Street Journal, iClarified, Yahoo Finance, Hong Kong Free Press HKFP, Forbes Middle East, The Verge, Times of India, PYMNTS.com, The Peninsula Newspaper, TRT World, DigiTimes, Investopedia, UPI, France 24, Telecompaper, BERNAMA, Los Angeles Times, Cord Cutters News, Sharecafe, Hindustan Times, The Independent, Deadline, Capital Brief, NBC News, and Axios
| Karl Bode / Techdirt: |
The TikTok deal is the worst of all possible outcomes, shifting ownership of TikTok to Trump's allies, while maintaining the supposed problematic links to China — There were rumblings about this for a while, but it looks like the Trump TikTok deal is done, and it's somehow the worst …
More: Tubefilter, Daring Fireball, Sports Business Journal, 9to5Mac, The Economic Times, Baller Alert, and The Hollywood Reporter
Bluesky: @carnage4life, @salvagni.org, and @karlbode.com
Forums: Hacker News, r/politics, and r/technology
| Blake Brittain / Reuters: |
Google sues data scraping company SerpApi, alleging it used millions of fake search requests to access copyrighted content and sold it to third parties — Google on Friday sued a Texas company that “scrapes” data from online search results, alleging it uses hundreds of millions … | Ashley Gold / Axios: |
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul signs the RAISE Act into law; the AI safety bill's text was modified earlier to more closely resemble California's SB 53 — Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) signed the RAISE Act into law Friday, making New York the latest state to have broad safety rules for the most advanced AI models.| Beatrice Nolan / Fortune: |
Cursor-developer Anysphere acquires code review startup Graphite and says Graphite will continue operating as an independent product — The AI coding market is booming amid enterprise adoption.GRAPHITE — Anysphere, the company behind Cursor, is buying code review startup Graphite in a deal …
More: TechCrunch, Graphite blog, Cursor, Axios, and Accel
| Andrej Karpathy / karpathy: |
2025 LLM Year in Review: shift toward RLVR, Claude Code emerged as the first convincing example of an LLM agent, Nano Banana was paradigm shifting, and more — 2025 has been a strong and eventful year of progress in LLMs. The following is a list of personally notable and mildly surprising … | Financial Times: |
Sources: UK officials believe China was behind the October cyber attack on the UK's Foreign Office, which aimed to access tens of thousands of sensitive files — The UK's Foreign Office was the victim of a major cyber attack in October, which officials believe was carried out by Chinese hackers.
More: The Sun, The Guardian, Bloomberg, ComputerWeekly.com, Resilience Media, and Mirror
| Sarah Perez / TechCrunch: |
Netflix acquires avatar creation platform Ready Player Me to let its subscribers carry their personas and fandoms across games; the startup raised $72M — After shifting its gaming strategy to focus more on games played on the TV, Netflix announced it's acquiring Ready Player Me, an avatar creation platform based in Estonia.
More: Engadget, GamesBeat, MediaPost, Variety, iPhone in Canada, The Verge, and Cord Cutters News
| Lora Kolodny / CNBC: |
The Delaware Supreme Court rules that Elon Musk's 2018 Tesla CEO pay package, worth around $56B when it vested, must be restored, ending a years-long fight — Elon Musk's 2018 CEO pay package from Tesla, worth some $56 billion when it vested, must be restored, the Delaware Supreme Court ruled Friday.
More: TechCrunch, The Guardian, Reuters, Blockchain.News, Business Insider, The Information, Financial Times, Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, Sherwood News, CNN, and New York Times
Forums: r/StockMarket, r/teslamotors, and r/teslainvestorsclub
| Olga Kharif / Bloomberg: |
Coinbase sues Connecticut, Illinois, and Michigan over attempts to regulate prediction markets, arguing that the markets fall under CFTC's jurisdiction — Coinbase Global Inc. said it is suing the US states of Michigan, Illinois and Connecticut over their attempts to regulate prediction markets.
More: PYMNTS.com, CryptoPotato, The Block, Bitcoin Insider, Decrypt, Yahoo Finance, Cautious Optimism, Blockonomi, Tech in Asia, Coinpedia Fintech News, crypto.news, CoinDesk, CoinGape, Coinspeaker, Cryptonews, and The Defiant
X: @iampaulgrewal, @rvangrack, @iampaulgrewal, @iampaulgrewal, @iampaulgrewal, @ssmccul, @bryanrbeal, @katiebiber, @dustingouker, @jesswelman, and @amandalfischer. Bluesky: @smtuffy
| Bloomberg: |
Sources: ByteDance is on track for ~$50B profit in 2025 after generating a ~$40B net income in the first three quarters, surpassing its internal target for 2025 — ByteDance Ltd. is on track for profits of roughly $50 billion in 2025, capping a record year for a Chinese social media leader … | Adamya Sharma / Android Authority: |
Samsung unveils the Exynos 2600, the world's first smartphone SoC built on a 2nm Gate-All-Around process, expected to power some Galaxy S26 and S26 Plus models — Galaxy S26 could get Samsung's boldest chip yet: Meet the 2nm Exynos 2600. — • — TL;DR
More: Samsung Semiconductor Global, 9to5Google, CNET, Android Central, Deal N Tech, iPhone in Canada, Tom's Guide, T3, MacRumors, SammyGuru, SamMobile, iClarified, Moneycontrol, Android Headlines, Livemint, Trusted Reviews, Neowin, Business Standard, KED Global, NDTV Profit, Sam Lover, Notebookcheck, GSMArena.com, and Tech Advisor
X: @universeice and @arm
Forums: r/Android, r/samsunggalaxy, r/Android, r/hardware, and MacRumors Forums
| Physical Intelligence: |
AI robotics startup Physical Intelligence says it saw improvements in its vision-language-action model by including human video data in the fine-tuning process — HUMAN DATA — NEW ROBOT CAPABILITIES — One of the most exciting (and perhaps controversial) phenomena in large language models is emergence.
X: @ysl_serena, @bettercallmedhi, @wolfejosh, @aliuahma, @bercankilic, @physical_int, @naveen_ing, @karlpertsch, @matthewjgunton, @physical_int, @tylerwillis, @physical_int, @danfei_xu, @kunlei15, @hongfz16, @jiewang_zjui, @xos9000, @yash_347, @jaminball, @rhizonymph, @kunlei15, @surajnair_1, @hausman_k, @jonmschwartz, @mendonca_rl, @donaldjewkes, @tarashakhurana, @thisismyhat, @physical_int, and @tom_jiahao. Forums: r/singularity
Zoho:
From content collaboration to content intelligence: Zoho WorkDrive's 2025 journey — As 2025 draws to a close, we're reflecting on a year marked by meaningful progress, purposeful innovation, and continuous learning at Zoho WorkDrive. Throughout the year, we stayed focused …
From content collaboration to content intelligence: Zoho WorkDrive's 2025 journey — As 2025 draws to a close, we're reflecting on a year marked by meaningful progress, purposeful innovation, and continuous learning at Zoho WorkDrive. Throughout the year, we stayed focused … Sponsor Post
| Kurt Wagner / Bloomberg: |
Meta board member Dina Powell McCormick, an ex-top adviser to Trump, steps down after joining in April; source: she is considering retaining an advisory role — Dina Powell McCormick, a former top adviser to President Donald Trump, is stepping down from the board of Meta Platforms Inc. just eight months after she joined.
More: Reuters, CNBC, and Dow Jones Newswires
| Kenrick Cai / Reuters: |
Google Cloud and Palo Alto Networks strike a deal that a source says is Google Cloud's largest security services deal “approaching $10B” over several years — Alphabet's (GOOGL.O) cloud computing unit and cybersecurity company Palo Alto Networks (PANW.O) on Friday announced …
More: SiliconANGLE, CRN, InfoRiskToday.com, Palo Alto Networks, Inc., UPI, CNBC, Mobile World Live, and Barchart.com. LinkedIn: Joshua Haslett
| Emily Mullin / Wired: |
Source: Sam Altman's Merge Labs, which seeks to read brain activity using ultrasound, is being spun out of LA-based nonprofit Forest Neurotech — Merge Labs, a brain-computer interface startup that seeks to read brain activity using ultrasound, is being spun out of Forest Neurotech, a Los Angeles nonprofit.Sponsor Posts
Google:
Try Gemini 3 Pro — Google's newest and most intelligent AI model that helps you bring any idea to life
Try Gemini 3 Pro — Google's newest and most intelligent AI model that helps you bring any idea to life
Shopify:
Shopify's new AI commerce stack — Their VP of Product digs into just-launched products to help entrepreneurs and developers build with the latest AI and tech.
Shopify's new AI commerce stack — Their VP of Product digs into just-launched products to help entrepreneurs and developers build with the latest AI and tech.
Zoho:
From content collaboration to content intelligence: Zoho WorkDrive's 2025 journey — As 2025 draws to a close, we're reflecting on a year marked by meaningful progress, purposeful innovation, and continuous learning at Zoho WorkDrive.
From content collaboration to content intelligence: Zoho WorkDrive's 2025 journey — As 2025 draws to a close, we're reflecting on a year marked by meaningful progress, purposeful innovation, and continuous learning at Zoho WorkDrive.
IDrive:
Protecting your Cloud Applications Data — Backing up Office 365, Google Workspace, Dropbox & Box data is critical to preventing data loss or corruption, complying with laws and avoiding critical downtime in case of a disaster.
Protecting your Cloud Applications Data — Backing up Office 365, Google Workspace, Dropbox & Box data is critical to preventing data loss or corruption, complying with laws and avoiding critical downtime in case of a disaster.Featured Podcasts
Hard Fork:
Why Roomba Died + Tech Predictions for 2026 + A Hard Forkin' Xmas Song
The future is already here. Each week, journalists Kevin Roose and Casey Newton explore and make sense of the latest in the rapidly changing world of tech.
Subscribe to Hard Fork.
Big Technology Podcast:
Sam Altman: How OpenAI Wins, AI Buildout Logic, IPO in 2026?
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.
Access:
Betting on reality with Kalshi CEO Tarek Mansour
A show about the tech industry's inside conversation, hosted by tech reporter Alex Heath and founder whisperer Ellis Hamburger.
Subscribe to Access.
Lenny's Podcast:
The new AI growth playbook for 2026: How Lovable hit $200M ARR in one year | Elena Verna (Head of Growth)
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.
Channels with Peter Kafka:
"Neither Side Is Used to Losing." Lucas Shaw on What's Next for Netflix and Paramount in the Battle for Warner Bros.
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.
Tools and Weapons with Brad Smith:
Ted Sarandos: Netflix and how tech changed storytelling
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.
Newest
Ashley Gold / Axios:
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul signs the RAISE Act into law; the AI safety bill's text was modified earlier to more closely resemble California's SB 53Find
20 minutes ago
Jacob Adelman / Barron's Online:
Source: Tencent has secured access to Nvidia's Blackwell chips through a cloud service operated by Tokyo-based DatasectionFind
54 minutes ago
Kurt Wagner / Bloomberg:
Meta board member Dina Powell McCormick, an ex-top adviser to Trump, steps down after joining in April; source: she is considering retaining an advisory roleFind
65 minutes ago
Chris Stokel-Walker / Fast Company:
Sequoia's Shaun Maguire speculated in an X post that an innocent Palestinian student was behind the Brown University shooting; the post was later deletedFind
69 minutes ago
Lora Kolodny / CNBC:
The Delaware Supreme Court rules that Elon Musk's 2018 Tesla CEO pay package, worth around $56B when it vested, must be restored, ending a years-long fightFind
1½ hours ago
Andrej Karpathy / karpathy:
2025 LLM Year in Review: shift toward RLVR, Claude Code emerged as the first convincing example of an LLM agent, Nano Banana was paradigm shifting, and moreFind
2 hours ago
Physical Intelligence:
AI robotics startup Physical Intelligence says it saw improvements in its vision-language-action model by including human video data in the fine-tuning processFind
2½ hours ago
From Mediagazer
Paul Glynn / BBC:Natalie Korach / @nataliekorach:
Ken Vogel / @kenvogel:
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Bluesky: @hacks4pancakes.com. Mastodon: @drahardja@sfba.social. Forums: r/cybersecurity, r/worldnews, r/OrphanCrushingMachine, r/nottheonion, and Slashdot