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Review of Samsung's Galaxy Z TriFold: sturdy but poor camera performance and has some unique design flaws that make it even less polished than regular foldables (Vlad Savov/Bloomberg)

IDC expects shipments of PCs could shrink by up to 9% YoY in 2026 due to global memory shortages, as demand from AI data centers continues to outstrip supply (Zak Killian/Tom's Hardware)

Two ex-staffers of cybersecurity incident response companies Sygnia and DigitalMint plead guilty to targeting US companies in 2023's BlackCat ransomware attacks (Sergiu Gatlan/BleepingComputer)

Sources: Nvidia is in advanced talks to acquire Tel Aviv-based AI21, which is building its own LLMs, for $2B to $3B; the deal would resemble an acquihire (CTech)

Zhipu AI launches a share sale to raise ~$560M in a Hong Kong IPO at a valuation of ~$6.6B, which would make it the first LLM developer listed in Hong Kong (Themis Qi/South China Morning Post)

Meta just bought into the enterprise market with its Manus deal, which may eventually help it expand into cloud offerings like those of its Big Tech peers (M.G. Siegler/Spyglass)

Sources: SoftBank has completed its $40B investment in OpenAI (Samantha Subin/CNBC)

China's draft AI rules have measures to protect kids, like time limits and parental consent, ban gambling promotion content, and add suicide chats restrictions (Osmond Chia/BBC)

Sources: Chinese AI startup MiniMax is seeking to raise $600M+ from its Hong Kong IPO, set for January 2026, and has secured Alibaba and the ADIA as backers (Bloomberg)

Sources: China is requiring chipmakers to use at least 50% domestically made equipment for adding new capacity, in a rule that is not publicly documented (Reuters)

10h

Sources, PitchBook data, and news reports show the AI boom has produced new billionaires from smaller startups, including Perplexity, Figure AI, and SSI (Natallie Rocha/New York Times)

11h

Sources: Satya Nadella is focused on the increasing AI competition from Amazon and Google; Microsoft Deputy CTO Dee Templeton says Nadella is in "founder mode" (Rafe Rosner-Uddin/Financial Times)

11h

Fast delivery apps like Blinkit, Zepto, and Swiggy are expanding into India's Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities, driven by rising incomes and cheap smartphones and data (Bloomberg)

13h

Sources: the US has granted an annual license to Samsung and SK Hynix to ship their chip manufacturing equipment to their facilities in China for 2026 (Hyunjoo Jin/Reuters)

15h

Sources: Meta is buying Manus for $2B+; Manus was raising at a $2B valuation when Meta approached it; Manus CEO Xiao Hong will report to Meta COO Javier Olivan (Wall Street Journal)

16h

Meta says Manus, initially based in Beijing and Wuhan, will cut Chinese investor ties after the deal and "will discontinue its services and operations in China" (Nikkei Asia)

18h

Shenzhen-based OneRobotics opened flat in its Hong Kong debut after the Chinese home robotics maker raised $210M by selling 22M+ shares at about $9.50 each (Nikkei Asia)

18h

AI drug discovery startup Insilico rose 45% in its Hong Kong trading debut after raising $293M in an IPO; Insilico reported $85M+ in 2024 revenue (Bloomberg)

19h

Samsung, up 125%, and SK Hynix, up 268%, accounted for nearly half of the 76% gain in South Korea's Kospi, the world's best-performing major stock index in 2025 (Youkyung Lee/Bloomberg)

19h

Driven by the AI boom, chipmakers posted $400B+ in sales in 2025; FactSet projects revenue for Nvidia, Intel, Broadcom, AMD, and Qualcomm to reach $538B in 2026 (Wall Street Journal)

19h

Meta says it will continue to operate and sell the Manus service, and Manus' talent will join Meta to deliver agents across Meta products, including Meta AI (Meta)

22h

UK-based Octopus Energy reaches a deal to sell about $1B of equity in Kraken Technologies, its tech spin-off, at an $8.65B valuation to a syndicate of investors (Financial Times)

22h

Meta agrees to acquire Singapore-based startup Manus, which makes an AI agent for SMBs; Manus said earlier in December its annual revenue run rate was $125M+ (Bloomberg)

23h

How diamonds are being converted to quantum sensors by inserting tiny imperfections, opening up potential uses in medicine, brain-computer interfaces, and more (Financial Times)

A look at the rift in the Democratic party over AI and data centers, as pro-business Democrats oppose the fiery, anti-AI politics of the progressive wing (Calder McHugh/Politico)

How Japan's viral horse racing game Umamusume, developed by Cygames, passed 30M downloads in Asia, spurring anime adaptations, concerts, and new racetrack fans (Katria Alampay/Bloomberg)

Michał Kiciński, co-founder of CD Projekt and DRM-free digital games store GOG, acquires 100% ownership of GOG from CD Projekt and signs a distribution deal (Vikki Blake/Eurogamer.net)

China's SMIC plans to acquire the remaining 49% stake in its SMNC unit for ~$5.8B, making the unit wholly owned; SMNC focuses on 12" integrated circuit wafers (Reuters)

Samsung and Google partner to bring Google Photos to TizenOS-powered TVs, launching in March 2026 and showing curated memories, ahead of CES 2026 (Rajesh Pandey/Android Police)

SoftBank agrees to acquire NYSE-listed DigitalBridge, a PE firm that invests in data centers and digital infrastructure operators, for $4B, including debt (Bloomberg)

Sources detail how JD Vance, David Sacks, and others brokered a fragile truce between President Trump and Elon Musk, who threatened to fund an America Party (Washington Post)

ACCA, the world's largest accounting body, says it is ending remote exams to combat a rise in students cheating by using AI tools when taking tests (Ellesheva Kissin/Financial Times)

SEC filing: Nvidia acquires Intel shares worth $5B, carrying out a transaction announced in September, buying 214.7M shares for $23.28 each (Arsheeya Bajwa/Reuters)

China's central bank unveils an overhaul of its digital yuan framework, including saying that commercial banks will soon begin paying interest on holdings (Timmy Shen/The Block)

Coupang says it is offering $1B+ in compensation to all 33.7M customers affected by South Korea's biggest-ever data breach, after an ex-staffer accessed data (Shinhye Kang/Bloomberg)

Framework says it is raising DDR5 RAM prices to charge $10 per GB, after a price hike earlier in December due to "substantially higher costs" amid the AI boom (Emma Roth/The Verge)

PitchBook: the biggest US private startups raised $150B in 2025, surpassing the previous high of $92B in 2021, boosted by large funding rounds by AI startups (George Hammond/Financial Times)

A Kapwing study of the 15,000 top YouTube channels finds 278 of them have only posted AI-generated "slop" videos, amassing 63B+ views and 221M+ subscribers (Aisha Down/The Guardian)

Sources: SoftBank is in advanced talks to buy NYSE-listed DigitalBridge, a private equity firm that invests in data centers and digital infrastructure operators (Bloomberg)

Since the GENIUS Act's passage in July, the total value of stablecoins circulating rose from ~$250B to $300B+, as they become the "respectable" face of crypto (Joel Khalili/Wired)

Sources and a memo: the US DOJ is using a novel reading of a federal anti-fraud law to probe contractors, including Google and Verizon, over their DEI programs (Lydia Wheeler/Wall Street Journal)

In 2025, Big Tech got almost everything it wanted from President Trump, as he backs policies that let the industry grow unfettered, worrying some conservatives (Cecilia Kang/New York Times)

How tech worker activism has grown more cautious as companies crack down and once-privileged workers realize they don't have much leverage (Noam Scheiber/New York Times)

Global hotel groups are intensifying efforts to get customers to book directly, as they seek to save on online platform commissions and prepare for AI agents (Stephanie Stacey/Financial Times)

Lou Gerstner, a former IBM CEO and chairman credited with turning the company around, died at 83; IBM's market value rose from $29B to ~$168B during his tenure (Patrick Oster/Bloomberg)

How executives at humanoid robot startups like Agility Robotics and Weave Robotics are managing safety risks and tempering expectations for the technology (Sean McLain/Wall Street Journal)

Tracxn: VC funding for Indian startups fell 17%+ YoY to $10.5B in 2025 across 1,518 deals, down ~39% YoY; AI startups raised $643M, up 4% YoY, across 100 deals (Jagmeet Singh/TechCrunch)

US data center developers, facing grid access wait times of up to seven years, are turning to aeroderivative turbines and diesel generators to power the AI boom (Martha Muir/Financial Times)

Bengaluru-based quick grocery delivery startup Zepto confidentially files for a ~$1.3B India IPO; Zepto raised $450M at a $7B valuation in October 2025 (Pranav Mukul/The Economic Times)

Ubisoft reopens Rainbow Six Siege after shutting down the server amid a breach exploiting the game's internal systems, and says the Marketplace remains closed (Lawrence Abrams/BleepingComputer)