Trump pardons Silk Road creator Ross Ulbricht, a crypto and libertarian cult hero serving a life sentence since 2015 on money laundering, drug charges, and more
Ross Ulbricht was serving a life sentence for creating a site in a shady corner of the internet to sell heroin, cocaine and other illicit substances.
OpenAI, SoftBank, and Oracle unveil The Stargate Project, a JV to invest in US AI infrastructure, committing $100B now and up to $500B over the next four years
OpenAI says that it will team up with both the Japanese conglomerate SoftBank and with Oracle, along with others, to build multiple data centers for AI in the U.S.
A look at The Stargate Project: unanswered questions, PR wins, SoftBank only has ~$30B cash, many projects are old news, and Elon Musk trolled the announcement
$500B in CapEx for AI in the US feels like a good thing for US security and for AI's continued progress in capabilities. Google's entire capex in 2024 was $50B. This is a hard amount of money to actua...
Netflix reports Q4 revenue up 16% YoY to $10.2B and 301.6M global subscribers, adding 18.9M subscribers, more than double analysts' estimates; NFLX jumps 14%+
- Netflix is raising subscription prices in its biggest market — Report marks the end of regular quarterly customer updates
The Trump administration fires all advisory committee members within the DHS, including those in the CISA's CSRB, which was investigating Salt Typhoon hackers
In a letter sent today, the acting DHS secretary terminated membership to all advisory boards, including the Cyber Safety Review Board …
Netflix raises prices in the US, Canada, Portugal, and Argentina; the standard US plan rose from $15.49 to $17.99 and standard with ads jumped a dollar to $7.99
entertainment TV and films. — Now, customers are going to be subsidizing Netflix's push into live events like NFL and WWE, whether they want to or not. … @durrell : I swear to God, these MFs raise t...
In 2024, Cloudflare's autonomous DDoS defense systems blocked ~21.3M DDoS attacks, up 53% YoY, and 420+ DDoS attacks in Q4 2024 exceeded 1Tbps, up 1,885% QoQ
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Sources: Google is investing $1B+ more in Anthropic, which is also nearing a further $2B round from Silicon Valley VCs led by Lightspeed at a ~$60B valuation
Artificial intelligence group closes in on $60bn valuation — Google is making a fresh investment of more than $1bn into OpenAI rival Anthropic …
Sources: a deep philosophical rift over how DOGE should operate spurred Vivek Ramaswamy's exit, with Donald Trump's January 20 EO embodying Elon Musk's vision
A deep philosophical rift between the two billionaire leaders of the “Department of Government Efficiency” left Musk to run the group.
Insomniac Games founder and CEO Ted Price plans to step down from the Sony-owned studio after 30+ years; a trio of Insomniac veterans will serve as co-heads
Taking over for Price, who will be staying with the PlayStation Studio through March, are a trio of Insomniac vets who will serve …
Donald Trump says he would be open to Elon Musk or Larry Ellison purchasing TikTok US as part of a joint venture that would give the US government 50% ownership
“I have the right to make a deal,” Trump said at an event alongside Ellison at the White House on Tuesday.
Microsoft says it has signed a new deal with OpenAI that gives Microsoft “right of first refusal”, meaning it's no longer OpenAI's exclusive cloud provider
Microsoft was once the exclusive provider of data center infrastructure for OpenAI to train and run its AI models. No longer.
UK CMA Chair Marcus Bokkerink plans to leave the antitrust agency, forced out by UK ministers; the CMA appoints ex-Amazon executive Doug Gurr as interim chair
Marcus Bokkerink replaced at CMA with government saying it wants pro-business decisions to drive prosperity and growth
Samsung launches a kid-friendly mode for the Galaxy Watch 7, letting children call and text trusted contacts, and parents track kids via GPS
Samsung dropped some wearable news ahead of its Unpacked event later today: parents can now use the cellular Samsung Galaxy Watch 7 as a smartwatch for their kids.
A survey of 3,000+ game developers: 11% were laid off in the past year, 58% back unionization, 30% say generative AI negatively impacts the industry, and more
The 2025 GDC survey revealed the impact of industry-wide layoffs in 2024 where one of every 11 game developers lost a job.
Nielsen: Netflix captured 8.5% of all US streaming viewership in December 2024, its highest share since July 2023, in part due to NFL games; YouTube had 11.1%
Drew Lerner / Awful Announcing :
Source: OpenAI plans to release a new ChatGPT feature called Operator this week to automate complex tasks typically done via a web browser
OpenAI is preparing to release a new ChatGPT feature this week that will automate complex tasks typically done through the Web browser …
Truecaller rolls out real-time caller ID to its ~750K iOS subscribers, who account for 40% of its revenue; Truecaller has 2.6M+ paying subscribers in total
Popular caller ID app Truecaller has long left iPhone users at a disadvantage by not offering the caller information in real-time …
MrBeast joins a US investor group led by Employer.com founder Jesse Tinsley that made an all-cash bid to acquire TikTok US; several groups have shown interest
Alexandra S. Levine / Bloomberg :
A Texas District Court rules against the sanctions on Tornado Cash, ordering a previous decision to be reversed; the US sanctioned Tornado Cash in August 2022
- A U.S. District Court has ordered the sanctions on Tornado Cash to be reversed. — The price of TORN jumped over 140% following the news.
Some crypto executives fear investor backlash over $TRUMP and $MELANIA memecoins; CoinMarketCap reports most $TRUMP trading is concentrated on Asian exchanges
Industry trying to rebuild its reputation frets over potential conflicts of interest and investor losses
YouTube adds experimental features for Premium users, including higher audio bitrate of up to 256kbps for music videos and faster playback on mobile
YouTube said Wednesday that it is adding new experimental features for Premium users, including high-quality audio, faster playback speed option on mobile …
Apple says installing macOS Sequoia 15.3, iOS 18.3, or iPadOS 18.3 will turn on Apple Intelligence automatically on compatible devices; users can opt out later
Do You Have a Say? Chris Barylick / O'Grady's PowerPage : Apple publishes macOS Sequoia 15.3 release notes with Release Candidate The Indian Express : iOS 18.3 update enables Apple Intelligence on iPh...
Documents: Google gave Israel access to its latest AI tools from the early weeks of the Israel-Hamas war, directly assisting the Defense Ministry and the IDF
The company fulfilled requests from Israel's military for more access to AI tools, as it sought to compete with Amazon, documents obtained by The Post show.
Days before TikTok briefly went dark, Meta made Instagram and Facebook design tweaks, added new features, and ran ads promoting its apps as TikTok alternatives
In the days before TikTok went dark, Instagram and Facebook released a flurry of new features and ran advertisements promoting its platforms as a comparable alternative.
Sources: Meta aims to debut glasses with a built-in display and Oakley-branded smart glasses for athletes in 2025, resumes work on a watch, and explores earbuds
Meta's first ‘real’ AR glasses tipped to debut in 2027 Harsh Shivam / Business Standard : Meta developing Oakley-branded smart glasses, new wearables: What to expect Andy Boxall / Digital Trends : Met...
Data analytics startup Databricks closed its $10B Series J, announced in December 2024, with investment from Meta, Temasek, and QIA, and raised $5.25B in debt
Data analytics platform Databricks has confirmed that it has closed a previously announced $10 billion in Series J equity financing at a $62 billion valuation.
London-based Vertice, which offers an AI-powered SaaS spend management platform, raised a $50M Series C led by Lakestar, taking its total funding to ~$100M
Vertice has made a name for itself over the years in the crowded world of expenditure management by focusing on applying AI to optimize …
Google unveils classroom and accessibility ChromeOS features, and rolls out a tool that lets users control their computer with their head and facial expressions
Antonio G. Di Benedetto / The Verge :
Music AI, the AI startup behind Moises music creation service, raised a $40M Series A led by monashees and Connect Ventures, a partnership between CAA and NEA
Music AI, the “AI-first” company behind the increasingly popular Moises music creation platform, has announced it has raised USD $40 million in a Series A funding round.
Crypto.com launches its institutional exchange service for US customers, after closing the service in June 2023 due to “limited demand”
MK Manoylov / The Block :
Crypto exchange Deribit reports total trading volume, including options, futures, and more, rose 95% YoY to $1.19T in 2024; options volume rose 99% YoY to $743B
Omkar Godbole / CoinDesk :
Eager to attract investments, politicians in Brazil, India, and other non-Western nations with nascent AI regulations have warmly welcomed major AI companies
For Rest of World's new feature, @katiemcque.bsky.social, @laismartins.com, Ananya Bhattacharya, and @carienduplessis.bsky.social track the global effort to define the role that artificial intelligenc...
Memo: ByteDance asks Chinese staff in Singapore to pay tax to China or risk losing their ability to cash out on stock options, as China steps up tax enforcement
Financial Times : Forums: r/singapore Forums: r/singapore : TikTok owner asks Chinese staff in Singapore to pay taxes to Beijing
An internal probe into SoftBank-backed eFishery, one of Indonesia's most prominent startups, finds the agritech company allegedly faked most of its 2024 sales
Our story last night delves into the size, scope and details of the alleged fraud …
Filing: OpenAI spent $1.76M on lobbying in 2024, up from 2023's $260K, including for the AI Advancement and Reliability Act and the Future of AI Innovation Act
with more than $10 million spent in 2024 David Meyer / Fortune : Elon Musk fumes as Trump's Stargate AI announcement elevates arch-rival Sam Altman LinkedIn: James O'Donnell : I dug into OpenAI's late...
Microsoft plans to buy 3.5M carbon credits, estimated to be worth ~$200M, from Re.green over 25 years to restore parts of Brazil's Amazon and Atlantic forests
Kenza Bryan / Financial Times :
Quant trading firm XTX Markets, which manages $250B+ in daily trades, plans to invest €1B+ in five data centers in Finland to support its growing use of ML
Bloomberg :
Highnote, which offers APIs for issuing cards and accepting payments, raised a $90M Series B led by Adams Street Partners, a source says at a $750M+ valuation
Stephen Pastis / Forbes :
DealStreetAsia: Southeast Asian startups raised $4.56B in 2024, down 42% YoY and falling to a fifth of a 2021 peak, as the number of deals fell 10% YoY to 633
Tsubasa Suruga / Nikkei Asia :
StackBlitz, which offers an AI tool to create websites using text prompts, says it's finalizing raising $83.5M at a $700M valuation, following a $22M Series A
Bloomberg : Bluesky: @katieroof . LinkedIn: Katie Roof Bluesky: Katie Roof / @katieroof : Product is Bolt.New (how many Bolts are there??) [embedded post] LinkedIn: Katie Roof : After 7 years, develo...
Sources: ByteDance plans to spend ~$5.5B to acquire AI chips in China in 2025, double the amount spent in 2024, with ~60% going to Chinese suppliers like Huawei
Financial Times :
Render, which offers developers cloud services for building, deploying, and running apps and websites, raised an $80M Series C led by Georgian
Mike Wheatley / SiliconANGLE :
Shopify: Revolutionizing Commerce with Winter Edition '26
Over 150+ new features transform how merchants build, design, and grow—with technology that amplifies creative vision.
Email fatigue is real: Here's how smart email tools help you regain control
Picture this: It's Monday morning. You walk into the office feeling energized and ready to take on the week.
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.