CyberTechMag

Financial Times : Sources: Waymo nears a $16B round, valuing it at $110B; Alphabet will contribute $12B+, with a16z, Dragoneer, Mubadala, Sequoia, and DST Global participating   —  Google's robotaxi start-up brings in new investors amid global roll out and competition from Elon Musk's Tesla from Techmeme https://ift.tt/Zi42JCw via IFTTT

Bloomberg : Bitcoin has fallen to ~$78K, down ~7% in 24 hours, over 12% in the past week, and down ~37% since its ATH in Oct. 2025; Ethereum dropped ~18% in the past week   —  Bitcoin fell sharply in early Saturday afternoon trading in New York, tumbling below $80,000 mark to hit levels last seen in April 2025. from Techmeme https://ift.tt/76pLiGh via IFTTT

Anna Nicolaou / Financial Times : How the music industry is split over AI; some labels signed licensing deals for AI that mirror revenue splits they use with YouTube for user-generated content   —  A folk-pop song called “I Know, You're Not Mine” recently topped Spotify's charts in Sweden.  The soft vocals … from Techmeme https://ift.tt/XiHrW4b via IFTTT

Reuters : Filing: SpaceX is seeking FCC approval to launch 1M satellites into space; SpaceX claims the fleet will orbit the Earth and use the sun to power AI data centers   —  Elon Musk's SpaceX wants to launch a constellation of 1 million satellites that will orbit Earth and harness the sun to power AI data centers … from Techmeme https://ift.tt/0wBM74L via IFTTT

@tbpn : Gurman: internal development at Apple “runs on Anthropic at this point”, Apple wanted to rebuild Siri around Claude, but Anthropic's terms were too steep   —  Bloomberg's @markgurman says that even though Apple partnered with Google Gemini for Siri, they actually run their business on Anthropic. “Apple runs on Anthropic at this point. Anthropic is powering a lot of the stuff Apple's doing internally in terms of product development and [video] from Techmeme https://ift.tt/E6DscP0 via IFTTT

The US Department of Homeland Security is using AI video generators from Google and Adobe to make and edit content shared with the public, a new document reveals. It comes as immigration agencies have flooded social media with content to support President Trump’s mass deportation agenda—some of which appears to be made with AI—and as workers in tech have put pressure on their employers to denounce the agencies’ activities.  The document, released on Wednesday, provides an inventory of which commercial AI tools DHS uses for tasks ranging from generating drafts of documents to managing cybersecurity.  In a section about “editing images, videos or other public affairs materials using AI,” it reveals for the first time that DHS is using Google’s Veo 3 video generator and Adobe Firefly, estimating that the agency has between 100 and 1,000 licenses for the tools. It also discloses that DHS uses Microsoft Copilot Chat for generating first drafts of documents and summarizing long r...

Financial Times : Apple acquires Q.ai, whose tech can analyze facial expressions and could enable non-verbal discussions with AI assistants; sources: the deal values Q.ai at ~$2B   —  iPhone-maker strikes deal for secretive group that creates technology that analyses facial expressions from Techmeme https://ift.tt/ZLN3FrP via IFTTT

Shirin Ghaffary / Bloomberg : Decagon, which offers AI-powered customer service agents, raised a $250M Series D led by Coatue and Index Ventures at a $4.5B valuation, up from $1.5B in June   —  Decagon AI Inc., a customer support startup, has raised $250 million in a new round of funding that triples its valuation to $4.5 billion … from Techmeme https://ift.tt/ZkYGOyD via IFTTT

Kyle Kucharski / ZDNET : Google updates Gemini in Chrome with a new side panel, an auto browse feature that can navigate pages and take actions for AI Pro and AI Ultra users, and more   —  ZDNET's key takeaways  — Google Chrome is being upgraded with Gemini 3 and a revamped sidepanel UX. from Techmeme https://ift.tt/cj2BGYC via IFTTT

Ben Jiang / South China Morning Post : DeepSeek launches DeepSeek-OCR 2, an upgraded optical character recognition model that replaces OpenAI-developed CLIP framework with Alibaba's Qwen2-0.5b   —  The Chinese AI start-up says its latest OCR model delivers stronger performance after adopting an Alibaba-developed open-source model from Techmeme https://ift.tt/9M2g3SB via IFTTT

OpenAI just revealed what its new in-house team, OpenAI for Science , has been up to. The firm has released a free LLM-powered tool for scientists called Prism , which embeds ChatGPT in a text editor for writing scientific papers. The idea is to put ChatGPT front and center inside software that scientists use to write up their work in much the same way that chatbots are now embedded into popular programming editors. It’s vibe coding , but for science. Kevin Weil, head of OpenAI for Science, pushes that analogy himself. “I think 2026 will be for AI and science what 2025 was for AI in software engineering,” he said at a press briefing yesterday. “We’re starting to see that same kind of inflection.” OpenAI claims that around 1.3 million scientists around the world submit more than 8 million queries a week to ChatGPT on advanced topics in science and math. “That tells us that AI is moving from curiosity to core workflow for scientists,” Weil said. Prism is a response to that user behav...

Emma Roth / The Verge : UpScrolled, a platform for sharing photos, videos, and text that claims political impartiality, says user growth has surged since TikTok's US takeover   —  UpScrolled is a platform for sharing photos, videos, and text, and it aims to remain ‘impartial’ to political agendas. from Techmeme https://ift.tt/vsDw5BF via IFTTT

Andy Kemp / Gallup : Gallup: 12% of employed US adults reported using AI daily in their job in Q4 2025, compared to 10% in Q3 and 8% in Q2; 49% say they never use AI in their role   —  The total percentage of employees using AI remains flat, but use varies meaningfully by industry and role type. from Techmeme https://ift.tt/1mPCfcz via IFTTT

Jason Lemkin / SaaStr : Many AI founders now find it necessary to raise at valuations requiring absolute domination of the field; Brex, once valued at $12B, shows the downsides of this   —  Capital One just announced it's acquiring Brex for $5.15 billion.  An incredible, top .1% “exit” in less than 10 years … from Techmeme https://ift.tt/CiIpHX9 via IFTTT

Bethan Staton / Financial Times : A profile of Mercor, which pays about $2M daily to ~30K experts training AI models at $95/hour on average, with roles like radiologists earning up to $375/hour   —  Tens of thousands of professionals are joining tech start-up Mercor to hone technology in their skills  —  At first Lola thought the job ads were fake. from Techmeme https://ift.tt/GF2yJxz via IFTTT

Tim McLaughlin / Reuters : Power prices surge in Virginia, home to the world's largest data center hub; record demand is expected during the winter storm, partly due to data center needs   —  Power prices in the largest U.S. grid rose sharply on Sunday as demand in a region with the world's largest concentration … from Techmeme https://ift.tt/x62pvoR via IFTTT

Aisha Down / The Guardian : Tests show GPT-5.2 on ChatGPT citing Grokipedia as a source on a wide range of queries, including on Iranian conglomerates and Holocaust deniers   —  Guardian found OpenAI's platform cited Grokipedia on topics including Iran and Holocaust deniers  —  The latest model of ChatGPT has begun … from Techmeme https://ift.tt/aqwsxSQ via IFTTT

The Information : 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 … from Techmeme https://ift.tt/5wijvsl via IFTTT

Matt Phillips / Sherwood News : 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 … from Techmeme https://ift.tt/NnYWG6Z via IFTTT

CoinDesk : 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. from Techmeme https://ift.tt/Aa7vUkh via IFTTT

Jordan Novet / CNBC : 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. from Techmeme https://ift.tt/VWLwmDp via IFTTT

Yueqi Yang / The Information : Source: Binance considers reintroducing stock tokens after removing them in 2021; OKX, Kraken, Bitget, and others are expanding their tokenized stock offerings   —  Some of the world's biggest crypto exchanges are racing to let their customers trade crypto tokens that seek to track U.S. stocks … from Techmeme https://ift.tt/BsNHP6C via IFTTT

Bloomberg : Source: smart ring maker Oura plans a tender offer for early investors at a 25% discount to its $11B valuation from Series E, aiming to stay private longer   —  Oura Health Oy, the maker of popular smart rings, is working on a tender offer for existing investors at a discount to its latest funding round … from Techmeme https://ift.tt/miad39u via IFTTT

Mark Gurman / Bloomberg : Sources: Apple expanded the job of hardware chief John Ternus to manage design teams at the end of 2025, solidifying his status as a leading CEO candidate   —  Apple Inc. has expanded the job of hardware chief John Ternus to include design work, solidifying his status as a leading contender … from Techmeme https://ift.tt/4exLOyN via IFTTT

On Substack : Substack launches its Substack TV app for Apple TV and Google TV in beta for free and paid subscribers, with access matched to their current subscription levels   —  Today we're launching the Substack TV app for Apple TV and Google TV.  Substack is the home for the best longform … from Techmeme https://ift.tt/ANEco81 via IFTTT

Bloomberg : Sources: Anthropic's revenue run rate hit $9B+ at the end of 2025, up from $4B in July 2025; Iconiq, Lightspeed, and Menlo are set to join its new funding round   —  Iconiq, Lightspeed and Menlo Ventures are set to join the startup's new funding round at a $350 billion valuation. from Techmeme https://ift.tt/jmJTGvg via IFTTT

Todd Spangler / Variety : ElevenLabs launches an album of original tracks made by artists like Liza Minnelli and Art Garfunkel in “collaboration” with its Eleven Music AI model   —  Several well-known music artists have turned to ElevenLabs' AI as a virtual muse — and record producer. from Techmeme https://ift.tt/QcoNAm4 via IFTTT

Carmen Arroyo / Bloomberg : Greg Yang, one of the co-founders of xAI, is stepping down from the company after being diagnosed with Lyme disease   —  Greg Yang, one of the co-founders of Elon Musk's startup xAI, is stepping down from the company after being diagnosed with Lyme disease.  —  Yang will be an informal adviser … from Techmeme https://ift.tt/WifhLOn via IFTTT