BitLocker's Quiet Surrender: The Decade-Long Architecture of Encryption Theater
Microsoft's admission that it hands encryption keys to the FBI isn't a scandal—it's the logical endpoint of design choices made a decade ago
TikTok users in the US were presented with a new privacy policy; the changes were part of the app's ownership transition and now allow precise location tracking
According to its new privacy policy, TikTok now collects more data on its users, including their precise location …
Microsoft confirms it does provide BitLocker recovery keys for encrypted data if it receives a valid legal order and the user has stored the keys on its servers
The tech giant said it receives around 20 requests for BitLocker keys a year and will provide them to governments in response to valid court orders.
Google Photos' latest generative AI-powered feature, “Me Meme”, lets users create memes from their own images, launching first in the US
Google Photos will now let you make memes with your own images. On Thursday, Google introduced a new generative AI-powered feature called …
Source: Greenoaks, one of Brex's top investors, will return twice its investment after Capital One's Brex acquisition for $5.15B in a half-cash, half-stock deal
Brex's $5.15 billion agreement to sell to Capital One isn't the kind of exit employees or investors would have dreamed of four years ago …
A look at Kalshi and Polymarket's rise; reports say Polymarket had 491K monthly active traders in December 2025, and <0.04% of addresses took 70% of profits
Two months after quitting his job as a corporate C.P.A. to trade full time in prediction markets, Joel Holsinger, 26, was well along the road to making his first $100,000.
Court filing: SEC drops a case against Gemini Trust, founded by the Winklevoss twins, major Trump donors; the case stemmed from Gemini Earn's implosion
The agency says that victims of an investment offering involving Gemini Trust got their money back, though after a regulatory action brought by the New York attorney general.
Sources: the Trump administration dismissed two Commerce Department officials, who focused on Chinese tech threats, raising concerns about a softening stance
Departing staffers worked for a Commerce Department office charged with protecting the U.S. from Chinese technological advances
Elliptic: ruble-backed stablecoin A7A5 surpassed $100B in transactions in under a year, but demand cooled and daily volume fell from a peak of $1.5B+ to ~$500M
The ruble-backed stablecoin created to circumvent sanctions on Russia has surpassed $100 billion in transactions in less …
Sources: the EU's executive arm is drafting new legislation aimed at promoting tech sovereignty and openly discussing the security risks posed by US tech
Trump's Greenland threats inject urgency into region's efforts to reduce its reliance on American technology
OpenAI and longtime US government contractor Leidos announce a partnership to roll out generative and agentic AI tools for specific missions at federal agencies
While AI is increasingly used in agencies already, company leaders say the collaboration will help tailor the technology to specific missions.
Nifty Gateway, the NFT trading platform which had facilitated $300M in sales by mid-2021, enters withdrawal-only mode and plans to shut down on Feb. 23, 2026
What to know: … Nifty Gateway, the non-fungible token (NFT) trading platform that was once central to the 2021 digital art boom, will shut down on Feb. 23, 2026.
Intel's stock, riding high for months after the US government took a 10% stake, crashed 17% on Jan. 23, after the company flagged continued operational issues
After months of riding positive vibes, the troubled chip maker reminded investors why it needed a rescue in the first place
SanDisk's stock has surged ~1,000% in the past five months, driven by AI demand for its chips, which have a cost advantage thanks to its 20-year JV with Kioxia
Soaring chip prices have fueled a nearly 1,000% run for Sandisk in a matter of months. Industry insiders, prolific hedge fund managers …
Meta says it is temporarily pausing teens' access to its AI characters globally across all its apps as it develops a new version of AI characters
Meta today said that it is pausing teens' access to its AI characters globally across all its apps. The company mentioned that it is not abandoning …
R&D firm Merkle, which sold Farcaster, says it plans to repay VCs the $180M they invested in the social media project, and says Farcaster is not shutting down
Source: OpenAI mulls new tools to help business users understand the financial benefits of using its products and has made changes to its sales force strategy
Some of OpenAI's most attention-grabbing efforts over the past year have involved products for consumers, from a social app …
Sources: Grab's planned acquisition of GoTo has hit a snag over Indonesian carrier Telkomsel's unwillingness to sell its ~2% stake in GoTo at current valuations
Grab Holdings Ltd.'s planned multibillion-dollar acquisition of GoTo Group has hit a stumbling block.
Counterpoint: India smartphone shipments were flat YoY at ~153M; Apple shipped 14M iPhones, raising its share of shipments to a record 9%, up from 7% in 2024
Apple's iPhone is gaining ground fast in India, shipping about 14 million units in 2025, based on market data shared exclusively with TechCrunch.
ByteDance strikes a deal with a group of non-Chinese investors to create a new TikTok US entity and avoid a federal ban, concluding a six-year legal saga
Here's all you need to knowAnkita Chakravarti /Moneycontrol:TikTok avoids US ban after sealing last-minute dealJoy Chakravarty /Arabian Business:Abu Dhabi's MGX buys 15% stake to keep TikTok alive in ...
Google acquires Common Sense Machines, which offers AI models that create 3D assets from 2D images; the startup was founded in 2020 and last valued at $15M
Google has acquired Common Sense Machines, a Cambridge, Mass.,-based startup developing generative artificial intelligence models …
Source: Databricks obtained $1.8B in fresh debt and now has over $7B in debt ahead of a potential IPO; it raised $4B+ in December at a $134B valuation
Data analytics software company Databricks has landed $1.8 billion in fresh debt, a person familiar with the matter told CNBC.
Sources: China deepens its probe into Meta's Manus acquisition in December to investigate cross-border currency flows, tax accounting, and overseas investments
Sources: the US DOJ opened a criminal probe and sent out grand-jury subpoenas in recent weeks over allegations that Deel recruited a spy inside rival Rippling
Subpoenas seek information on allegations that Deel, valued at around $17 billion, recruited a spy inside a rival company
Source: Binance considers reintroducing stock tokens after removing them in 2021; OKX, Kraken, Bitget, and others are expanding their tokenized stock offerings
Capital One agrees to acquire Brex, which specializes in tech to administer corporate credit cards, expenses, and rewards, for $5.15B in cash and stock
That's what you call going out with a whimper.Hugh Son /CNBC:Capital One is buying startup Brex for $5.15 billion in credit card firm's latest deal
Sources: Richard Socher's Recursive is in talks to raise hundreds of millions at a $4B pre-money valuation to build self-improving superintelligent AI
Sources: Ledger is working with banks on a US IPO that could value the French cryptocurrency company at more than $4B; it was valued at $1.5B in 2023
Source: by the end of 2025, Claude Code's ARR had grown by at least another $100M from the $1B announced in November, making up 12% of Anthropic's total ARR
Mews, which makes AI-powered hospitality management software, raised a $300M Series D led by EQT Growth at a $2.5B valuation
Cubby, which makes software for self-storage operators, raised a $63M Series A led by Growth Equity at Goldman Sachs Alternatives
Sources: China has told Alibaba, Tencent, and ByteDance that they can prepare orders for Nvidia's H200 chips, suggesting Beijing is close to approving imports
Memo: TikTok CEO Shou Chew hailed the establishment of the TikTok USDS JV as “great news”, and said the app is used by 200M US users and 7.5M US businesses
- TikTok has finalized a deal to keep its business operating in the US. — The deal, a US joint venture …
Sources: UBS plans to make cryptocurrency investing available for some private banking clients in Switzerland, starting with bitcoin and ether
How Chinese tech companies navigate geopolitical tensions: TikTok and Manus adopted a “China shedding” strategy, while Shein and Meituan seek non-US growth
Meaghan Tobin /New York Times: