Apple signs a multiyear Google deal to use Gemini and Google Cloud to power Siri's features in 2026, saying Google's tech “provides the most capable foundation”
- Apple is teaming up with Google to use Gemini models for an AI-powered Siri
Ofcom opens an investigation under the OSA into Grok over the sexualized deepfakes of women and kids being generated on X and threatens X with a ban or a fine
Media regulator threatens chatbot with ban or multimillion-pound fine — Ofcom, Britain's media regulator …
Meta appoints Dina Powell McCormick, a prominent banking executive and former Republican official, as president and vice chair, reporting to Mark Zuckerberg
Dina Powell McCormick, a prominent banking executive and former Republican official, is joining Meta full-time as president and vice chairman …
Anthropic launches Cowork for Claude, built on Claude Code to automate complex tasks with minimal prompting, as a research preview for Claude Max subscribers
ZDNET's key takeaways — Anthropic is launching Cowork for Claude as a research preview. — It's built upon Claude Code and can automate complex tasks.
President Trump says “we may speak to Elon” about using Starlink to restore the internet in Iran, which has blocked the internet since January 8 amid protests
U.S. President Donald Trump said on Sunday he plans to speak with billionaire Elon Musk about restoring internet in Iran …
Global smartphone shipments rose 2% YoY in 2025; Apple led with 20% market share and 10% YoY growth, followed by Samsung's 19% market share and 5% YoY growth
- Global smartphone shipments grew 2% YoY in 2025, driven by increasing premium demand and improving momentum in key emerging markets.
Meta says it shut down nearly 550K accounts in Australia to comply with its under-16 social media ban, including 330,639 Instagram and 173,497 Facebook accounts
Meta Platforms Inc. said it has shut down almost 550,000 accounts in Australia to comply with the country's landmark social media ban for children.
Instagram denies a breach and says it fixed an issue that let an “external party” send password reset emails, after a report that 17.5M users' data was exposed
If you're one of the many, many people who received a password reset email from Instagram the other day, the company says it fixed the issue.
Sources and filings: Peter Thiel donated $3M to a group to beat California's wealth tax proposal, the first of several expected tech leader donations in 2026
More large donations from wealthy Silicon Valley figures are expected as they try to marshal opposition to a proposed ballot measure …
Eddy Cue says 2025 was a “record-breaking year” for Apple services: December was a monthly TV engagement record, the App Store has 850M+ weekly users, and more
The Apple services executive released a note saying that Apple TV set new monthly engagement records, while Apple Music has hit subscriber records.
Despite dire projections of PC and phone memory shortages, producers like Micron will proceed cautiously in adding new capacity, ever mindful of past downcycles
Sandisk, Western Digital, Seagate and Micron need to keep undershooting demand — The world needs a lot more memory chips and hard drives.
Google unveils the Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP), an open standard that lets AI agents work across customer buying processes, from discovery to support
Google today announced a new open standard, called the Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP) for AI agent-based shopping, at the National Retail Federation (NRF) conference.
Investigation: Google removed AI Overviews for two liver health queries after experts warned of “alarming” results, but slight tweaks still trigger AI responses
Exclusive: Guardian investigation finds AI Overviews provided inaccurate and false information when queried over blood tests
Sources: Meta plans to lay off ~10% of its 15,000-person Reality Labs division, disproportionately affecting those working on VR headsets and Horizon Worlds
The layoffs are set to be announced this week and would affect Meta's work on the metaverse, as the company spends heavily on building artificial intelligence.
Malaysia becomes the second country to limit access to xAI's Grok, after Indonesia, over it generating nonconsensual sexual content and asks X for clarification
Indonesia and Malaysia restricted access to Elon Musk's Grok AI over the weekend, becoming the first countries to ban the artificial intelligence system over its generation of sexual content.
Anthropic debuts Claude for Healthcare, which offers HIPAA-ready tools for providers, insurers, and consumers, building on its Claude for Life Sciences offering
- Anthropic launched Claude for Healthcare to expand AI use in regulated medical industries. — Claude for Healthcare offers HIPAA-ready tools …
Nvidia and Eli Lilly say they will invest $1B over five years in a new Silicon Valley-based AI drug lab, aiming to speed up the pharmaceutical industry's AI use
Nvidia Corp. plans to invest $1 billion over five years in a new laboratory with Eli Lilly & Co., aiming to speed up the use …
Sources: the US nears a trade deal with Taiwan that would reduce tariffs on the island's exports and include a commitment from TSMC to build 5+ fabs in Arizona
The trade deal would cut tariffs and include a commitment from Taiwanese Semiconductor Manufacturing Corporation …
A viral Chinese app called “Are You Dead?” that asks users living alone to “check in” with a button press becomes the top paid app in Apple's App Store in China
Popularity among Chinese Apple users highlights concerns created by rapidly changing demographics
OpenAI acquires Torch, a one-year-old AI healthcare app that aggregates and analyzes medical records; source: OpenAI is paying $100M in equity
OpenAI has agreed to buy Torch, a one-year-old AI healthcare app, for about $100 million in equity, according to a person with direct knowledge of the acquisition.
Michael Saylor's Strategy bought 13,627 bitcoin for ~$1.25B between January 5 and 11, taking its total holdings to 687,410, and boosts its USD reserve to $2.25B
Partner offers — Quick Take — Strategy has purchased another 13,627 BTC for approximately $1.25 billion at an average price …
Chinese AI executives say China is unlikely to eclipse the US in the AI race anytime soon, citing limited resources and US chip export curbs as key constraints
Some of China's most prominent figures in generative artificial intelligence warned that the Asian nation is unlikely to eclipse the US in the global AI race anytime soon.
World Liberty Financial launches World Liberty Markets, letting users lend and borrow digital assets among one another, supporting its own token USD1 and others
CES 2026 report: AI, autonomy, and robotic products are still finding their way, country-level booths are growing, Nvidia underpinned much of the show, and more
This was a great show and if you spent enough time on the floor (I did so you don't have to), you could see it really did live …
Crypto custody startup BitGo aims to raise up to $201M in its IPO on the NYSE at an up to $1.96B valuation, selling 11.8M shares priced between $15 and $17 each
Crypto custody startup BitGo said on Monday it was targeting a valuation of up to $1.96 billion in its U.S. initial public offering …
The US says Qatar and the UAE will join Pax Silica on January 12 and January 15, respectively, expanding the US-led program to secure AI and chip supply chains
Qatar and the United Arab Emirates will soon join a U.S.-led initiative to secure AI and semiconductor supply chains …
CES 2026: how some companies are trying to make their AI products cute and relatable, from Lenovo's chatty motorized laptop to Sharp's ChatGPT-powered Poketomo
Robots for seniors, AI “pals” for women, and laptops are embracing the power of cute — for better or worse.
Google says Gemini will help power not only a more personalized version of Siri, but also future Apple Intelligence features
Google today announced that its AI platform Gemini will help power not only a more personalized version of Siri, but a range of future Apple Intelligence features.
The UK plans to bring into force a law this week that will make it illegal to create non-consensual intimate images, as Ofcom investigates X
The UK will bring into force a law which will make it illegal to create non-consensual intimate images, following widespread concerns over Elon Musk's Grok AI chatbot.
Paris-based autonomous drone maker Harmattan AI raised a $200M Series B led by Dassault at a $1.4B valuation, and aims to produce 10K drones per month in 2026
Dassault Aviation SA, developer of the Rafale fighter jet, led a $200 million investment into the relatively unknown drone company Harmattan AI …
Google introduces new personalized ads in its Gemini-powered AI Mode, letting advertisers offer exclusives for users preparing to buy a product
Tech giant moves to gain an edge in race to monetise popular AI tools — Google is introducing new personalised advertising …
A look at claims from Google, HSBC, and others about quantum computing breakthroughs over the past few months that helped boost quantum computing stocks in 2025
Amid some scepticism, many say the machines can now achieve results beyond the capability of traditional computers
A profile of SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell, who has worked at the startup since 2002 and is known as a customer emissary and an Elon Musk translator
Shotwell has an expansive role at the rocket and satellite company, helping to foster its rise. With an IPO looming, the toughest stretch may still lie ahead.LinkedIn:Jacob BungeandMicah MaidenbergLi...
Bakkt agrees to acquire Distributed Technologies Research, the stablecoin infrastructure company founded by Bakkt CEO Akshay Naheta; BKKT closes up 18.69%
ATG, which is developing the AI-powered wealth strategist app Autonomous, emerges from stealth and raised a $15M pre-seed led by Y Combinator CEO Garry Tan
- ATG cofounders Dillon Erb and Daniel Kobran raised $15 million to build an AI wealth strategist. — Y Combinator CEO Garry Tan led ATG's latest round.
Elon Musk says Apple and Google's Gemini deal “seems like an unreasonable concentration of power for Google given that [they] also have Android and Chrome”
Elon Musk today expressed concern about Apple and Google partnering on a more personalized version of Siri powered by Google's generative AI platform Gemini.
Italy's antitrust authority says it reduced the record fine imposed on Amazon in 2021, from €1.13B to €752M, after a recalculation
Walmart partners with Google to offer AI-enhanced shopping, allowing users to purchase Walmart and Sam's Club items directly on Gemini
Jaewon Kang /Bloomberg:
Mark Zuckerberg says Meta is establishing a new “top-level” initiative called Meta Compute to build “tens of gigawatts” of AI infrastructure during this decade
Sara Fischer /Axios:
Ampere Analysis expects streaming services' content spend to grow 6% in 2026 to $101B, crossing $100B for the first time, and overall content spend to grow 2%
Walmart plans to expand Wing, Alphabet's on-demand drone delivery service, to another 150 stores, bringing the total to 270+, covering ~10% of US population
Kirsten Korosec /TechCrunch:
Hands-on with Claude Cowork: looks well positioned to bring the powerful capabilities of Claude Code to a wider audience, but risks of prompt injections remain
Since the release of Claude Code, software developers have been living in the future.
Naver, the largest South Korean buyer of Nvidia chips, is pitching its AI cloud services as an alternative for countries reluctant to use US or Chinese systems
Naver targets countries reluctant to use American and Chinese cloud systems out of security concerns
Document: Meta said last week that it would exclude Italy from its ban on rival AI chatbots on WhatsApp, after an order from the country's antitrust authority
Alphabet hits a $4T market cap, becoming the fourth Big Tech company to reach the milestone, after its stock has risen 6%+ in the past month
Latest Gemini artificial intelligence model has fuelled investor optimism over competitiveness with OpenAI's ChatGPT
Researchers from Nvidia, Microsoft, and others develop AI models, trained on 1M+ species' data, to generate potential new gene editing and drug therapies
Financial Times:
A profile of China's memory chipmaker CXMT, whose $4.2B IPO goal would rank among the century's biggest by a chipmaker, as it faces US and South Korean curbs
As AI demand drives prices up, CXMT overcomes Washington's curbs to vie with Micron and South Korean leaders