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Techmeme

SpaceXAI open-sources Grok Build under an Apache 2.0 license after the tool had uploaded user repositories to a Google Cloud bucket, causing a severe backlash (Simon Willison/Simon Willison's Weblog)

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Cadence unveils AuraStack AI Super Agent, an AI platform for PCB and advanced chip packaging design, with Nvidia, TSMC, and Schneider Electric among early users (Marco Chiappetta/Forbes)

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Sources: Microsoft security chief Hayete Gallot, who took over in February, has prioritized AI tools, cut several hundred roles, replaced senior execs, and more (The Information)

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Venture funding of fintech startups grew 22.7% YoY in H1 2026 to $28.6B globally, but deal count fell 25.7% and funding fell 17.3% vs. H2 2025's $34.6B funding (Mary Ann Azevedo/Crunchbase News)

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Coinbase's Jesse Pollak says Jordan Fish, aka "Cobie", will now lead the Base app team after acknowledging some of Base's bets on social features fell short (Daniel Kuhn/The Block)

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SpaceX shares fell for a fourth-straight session on Wednesday, briefly dropping below their $135 IPO price for the first time before closing at $135.27 (Samantha Subin/CNBC)

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Apple publishes a policy for upcoming Maps ads, says home services ads are banned, medical services ads will be "evaluated on a case-by-case basis", and more (Sarah Perez/TechCrunch)

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OpenAI details GPT-Red, an internal automated red-teaming model that scales prompt injection vulnerability discovery so it can fix bugs before wider deployment (OpenAI)

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Uber and Waymo are engaged in a DC lobbying battle over AV legislation, with Uber supporting a hybrid human-robotaxi model and Waymo pushing for pure robotaxis (Liam Denning/Bloomberg)

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Dave Brown, AWS SVP of Compute, AI, and Platform, is leaving the company after 19 years for a new job; he is a member of the S-team that advises CEO Andy Jassy (Greg Bensinger/Reuters)

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Apple raises its AppleCare+ prices for Macs and iPads by $0.50 per month and $5 per year; the increases are exclusively for new sign-ups (Mark Gurman/Bloomberg)

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Thinking Machines Lab debuts Inkling, an open-weight MoE model with 975B total and 41B active parameters, trained to be broad rather than optimized for one area (Thinking Machines Lab)

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Anthropic, Blackstone, and Hellman & Friedman's $1.5B AI implementation company, announced in May, launches with the name "Ode with Anthropic" and 100 engineers (Rebecca Bellan/TechCrunch)

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Lumin Digital, which provides cloud-based digital banking software to banks and credit unions, raised more than $115M at a $1.6B post-money valuation (Ryan Lawler/Axios)

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OpenAI employees donated a combined $215K+ to Guardrails Alliance, a super PAC seeking stricter AI rules and opposing Greg Brockman-backed Leading the Future (Maxwell Zeff/Wired)

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OpenAI launches Codex Micro, a $230 desktop keypad built in collaboration with keyboard maker Work Louder, with backlit keys, a rotary knob, and a tiny joystick (Megan Morrone/Axios)

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Sources: ASML has discussed raising prices for its EUV systems with TSMC and plans to charge 10% more for its DUV systems; TSMC is resisting ASML's price plans (Qianer Liu/The Information)

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Source: OnePlus will begin to cease operations in the US and Europe as early as this week and Realme will exit China as part of a restructuring by parent Oppo (Bloomberg)

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Hyundai's South Korea auto workers have gone on a partial strike over wages, AI, and the prospect of it deploying Boston Dynamics' humanoid robot in factories (Jiyoung Sohn/Wall Street Journal)

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Sources: Apple is looking to acquire chip companies to boost its AI server efforts, as it struggles with AI server chip upgrades and M2 Ultra server performance (The Information)

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Spectro Cloud, an AI infrastucture company helping manage token costs, raised a $100M Series D from AMD, LG, others at a $1B+ valuation, up from $750M in 2024 (Lucinda Shen/Axios)

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How TikTok Shop sellers are using AI creators and AI twins to boost affiliate sales; eMarketer: US sales on TikTok Shop will grow 48% YoY to $23.41B in 2026 (Patrick Coffee/Wall Street Journal)

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Israel-based Hemispheric, whose AI model can analyze brain activity measured non-invasively and turn it into quantitative metrics for diagnoses, raised $52M (Meytal Vaizberg/Globes)

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Amsterdam-based Monumental, which develops autonomous robotics and software for the construction industry, raised a $32M Series B led by Khosla Ventures (Tamara Djurickovic/Tech.eu)

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Miami-based Cyclops, which sells an infrastructure platform that bundles crypto and stablecoin services to payments companies, raised a $20M Series A (Camila Grigera Naón/Fortune)

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Rime, which helps companies field calls using AI voice models trained on conversational data it records in a studio, raised a $24M Series A led by M13 (Ivan Mehta/TechCrunch)

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How Anthropic is pursuing a state-by-state push for ever-tougher AI safety laws, in contrast with OpenAI's "reverse federalism" strategy for common state rules (Politico)

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Sources: the EU is set to fine Google hundreds of millions of euros over alleged self-preferencing of its services in Search and restrictions on app developers (Barbara Moens/Financial Times)

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American Growth Insurance, which aims to acquire struggling independent insurance firms and transform them using AI, raised almost $70M (Mike Wheatley/SiliconANGLE)

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Gavin Newsom is tempering his pro-tech instincts with economic populism ahead of a likely presidential bid, proposing giving Americans equity in AI companies (Jeremy B. White/Politico)

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Indian AI coding startup Emergent raised a $130M Series C at a $1.5B post-money valuation, up from $300M in January, bringing its total funding raised to $230M (Jagmeet Singh/TechCrunch)

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Hinge adds Friend's Take, a new feature that lets daters enlist 10 close contacts to share written feedback, photos, voice notes, or videos on their profiles (Samantha Kelly/Bloomberg)

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Israel-based Oak, which is building an AI-native identity access management system, comes out of stealth with a $60M seed (Anna Heim/TechCrunch)

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China enacts rules forbidding companionship chatbots from encouraging emotional reliance, banning virtual relationships with minors, and more (Stu Woo/Wall Street Journal)

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Neo Security, a cybersecurity startup founded by ex-SentinelOne execs and currently in stealth, raised $50M+, after a $25M seed in 2025 led by a16z and Merlin (Meir Orbach/CTech)

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Samsung unveils a new Flex Titanium foldable display that is slimmer, more durable, and less prone to creasing, debuting in its upcoming Galaxy Z Fold 8 series (Jess Weatherbed/The Verge)

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AI advocates fear New York's moratorium on new data centers could embolden Democrats to enact more state restrictions and seize on the issue in the midterms (Politico)

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India pledges $13.3B to boost domestic chipmaking, building on a $10B incentive program from 2021, which attracted investments from companies like Micron (Sankalp Phartiyal/Bloomberg)

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IBM's stock closed down 25.21% on Tuesday, sinking more than its previous worst day of October 19, 1987, after reporting preliminary Q2 results below estimates (CNBC)

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Nokia plans to sell its AI-driven RAN platform, developed with Nvidia, to mobile operators by 2027, aiming for a 100% increase in spectrum efficiency by 2028 (Paula Doenecke/Bloomberg)

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China's cyberspace regulator says Apple Intelligence has been registered for use on iPhones in the country; Alibaba says the service will use its Qwen model (Reuters)

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MA-based Walden Robotics, a Toyota robotics spin-off that has started selling humanoid robots, emerges from stealth with a ~$300M seed at a $1.1B valuation (Samantha Kelly/Bloomberg)

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ASML says Intel has decided to use ASML's next-gen High NA EUV machines to make some of its flagship Panther Lake laptop chips; a High NA machine costs ~$400M (Max A. Cherney/Reuters)

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ASML reports Q2 net sales of €9.3B, above €8.8B est., a €2.9B net profit, above €2.6B est., and raises its 2026 net sales forecast from €36B-€40B to €43B-€45B (April Roach/CNBC)

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A profile of PsiQuantum, which raised $1B in 2025, is building a quantum computer with photonic chips made by GlobalFoundries and is closely monitored by DARPA (James O'Donnell/MIT Technology Review)

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As China's rules for humanlike AI interaction take effect, many users are bemoaning the loss of the virtual companions they had created on Chinese AI platforms (Bloomberg)

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Sources: DeepSeek's annualized revenue recently reached $400M to $500M as it seeks to raise ~$7.4B at a ~$74B valuation, up from ~$50B after raising ~$7B in May (The Information)

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Court filing: Google says it is ready to add third-party app stores in Google Play in the US on July 22, as Google and Epic withdraw their joint motion (Sean Hollister/The Verge)

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Sources: Oracle leads the race to sell "air-gapped" cloud services to Japan that the US says are key to secure intelligence sharing between Tokyo and its allies (Financial Times)

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The UAE gained broader US AI chip access after aiding the US in the Iran war, letting G42 buy freely for at least nine months; G42 plans to become a US company (Wall Street Journal)

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