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Blockchain-based lender Figure unveils the On-Chain Public Equity Network to issue, trade, and lend stocks natively on a blockchain, not as tokenized replicas (Kyle Baird/The Block)

Source: Apple's Google Gemini deal will be a cloud contract where Apple pays Google; another source says OpenAI declined to be Apple's custom model provider (Financial Times)

OpenAI quietly rolls out ChatGPT Translate, a standalone website that currently supports plain text translations across 50+ languages (Adamya Sharma/Android Authority)

TSMC reports Q4 net profit up 35% YoY to a record ~$16B, handily beating estimates, as it benefited from surging demand for AI chips (Reuters)

Sources: China is drafting rules for Nvidia H200 purchases, limiting how many chips local companies can buy and requiring them to justify the need (Nikkei Asia)

A source close to Thinking Machines alleged that ex-CTO Barret Zoph, who is returning to OpenAI, had shared confidential company information with competitors (Maxwell Zeff/Wired)

GlobalFoundries agrees to acquire Synopsys' ARC processor IP business, which includes ARC-V (RISC-V) and ARC CPU IP, and integrate it into its MIPS business (Nitin Dahad/EE Times)

Bengaluru-based edtech startup Emversity raised a $30M Series A led by Premji Invest, sources say at a $120M post-money valuation, up from $60M in April 2025 (Jagmeet Singh/TechCrunch)

Alibaba links Qwen to its online shopping and travel services, including Taobao, Alipay, Fliggy, and Amap, aiming to build a one-stop AI app for its 100M users (Luz Ding/Bloomberg)

CoinDesk Data: Binance's market share of spot crypto trading fell to 25% in December, its lowest since 2021, and it is also losing ground in derivatives trading (Sidhartha Shukla/Bloomberg)

Project Eleven, which builds tools to prepare blockchains for post-quantum threats, raised a $20M Series A led by Castle Island at a $120M post-money valuation (Yogita Khatri/The Block)

Thinking Machines parts ways with CTO Barret Zoph, with Soumith Chintala taking over the role; sources say the termination is due to "unethical conduct" (Kylie Robison/@kyliebytes)

Fidji Simo says Barret Zoph, Luke Metz, and Sam Schoenholz are returning to OpenAI from Thinking Machines and the move "has been in the works for several weeks" (Fidji Simo/@fidjissimo)

BREAKING: Thinking Machines has terminated its CTO, Barrett Zoph, due to unethical conduct according to two sources familiar with the matter. CEO Mira Murati announced the news at an all-hands with employees today. Soumith Chintala will be taking over as CTO. (Kylie Robison/@kyliebytes)

X updates Grok to prevent the "editing of images of real people in revealing clothing such as bikinis" and geoblocks it for all users "where it's illegal" (Karissa Bell/Engadget)

Coinbase pulls support from the US Senate's crypto market structure bill ahead of a key vote; CEO Brian Armstrong says there are "too many issues" with the bill (Nikhilesh De/CoinDesk)

YouTube now lets parents set time limits on their kids' YouTube Shorts feed, ranging from 15 minutes to two hours, with an option for zero minutes coming soon (Stevie Bonifield/The Verge)

Trump signs an order to impose a 25% tariff on chips "transshipped through the United States to other foreign countries", as part of the Nvidia H200 deal (Josh Wingrove/Bloomberg)

UK PM Keir Starmer says X indicated to government officials it was acting to comply with UK laws by restricting the generation of non-consensual sexual images (Financial Times)

Novee, which utilizes proprietary AI models to perform automated penetration testing, emerges from stealth with a $43M Series A and an $8.5M seed (Chris Metinko/Axios)

PJM trims summer 2027 peak demand forecast to ~160 GW from ~164 GW because some projects, including data centers, lack firm service or construction commitments (Naureen S Malik/Bloomberg)

OpenAI strikes a multibillion-dollar agreement to buy 750 MW of computing capacity from Cerebras over three years; sources: the deal is worth more than $10B (Wall Street Journal)

Bitchat, a P2P messaging app launched by Jack Dorsey, has emerged as a key lifeline for people in Uganda and Iran facing government-imposed internet shutdowns (Reuters)

Digg, rebooted under original founder Kevin Rose and Alexis Ohanian, launches its open beta; the site had been open to 67,000 users on an invite-only basis (Sarah Perez/TechCrunch)

2026 may be the year of the mega IPO, as sources say Anthropic, OpenAI, and SpaceX took early steps to go public, setting up a watershed moment for the AI boom (New York Times)

Verizon says it is "aware of an issue impacting wireless voice and data services for some customers", as thousands of users report no cellular reception (Jacob Krol/TechRadar)

California AG Rob Bonta opens an investigation into xAI over the proliferation of nonconsensual, sexualized images generated by Grok, and urges xAI to act (Politico)

Elon Musk claims he's "not aware of any naked underage images generated by Grok" and that Grok's operating principle is to "obey the laws of any given country" (Raphael Satter/Reuters)

Elon Musk claims he's "not aware of any naked underage images generated by Grok" and that Grok's operating principle is to "obey the laws of any given country" (Reuters)

Depthfirst, which provides AI tools for codebase scanning, credential exposure protection, and threat monitoring, raised a $40M Series A led by Accel Partners (Lucas Ropek/TechCrunch)

Google launches Personal Intelligence, a Gemini feature that links to Gmail, Google Photos, Search, and YouTube history to tailor answers, for paid subscribers (Sabrina Ortiz/ZDNET)

Sources: the Trump administration is weighing a substantial shift in its cyberstrategy, including by enlisting private companies to assist with cyberattacks (Adam Sella/New York Times)

Dutch court hearing: Nexperia claims Chinese owner Wingtech pushed for tech transfers out of Europe and threatened execs; Wingtech attacks Nexperia's management (Bloomberg)

Belgium-based Aikido Security, which offers automated security guardrails for developers, raised a $60M Series B led by DST Global at a $1B valuation (Supantha Mukherjee/Reuters)

Source: Microsoft has become one of Anthropic's top clients and was recently on pace to spend nearly $500M/year for Anthropic's AI to power Microsoft products (The Information)

Tel Aviv- and Boston-based IO River, which helps companies manage multiple CDN and edge networks, raised a $20M Series A led by Venture Guides and New Era (Chris Metinko/Axios)

UK police say they banned Maccabi Tel Aviv fans from a soccer match in 2025 after Copilot hallucinated a fake West Ham-Maccabi match in an intelligence report (Tom Warren/The Verge)

Pittsburgh-based Skild AI, which makes robotics foundation models, raised a $1.4B Series C at a $14B+ valuation, up from ~$4.5B in June 2025 (Samantha Kelly/Bloomberg)

Airbnb hires Meta executive Ahmad Al-Dahle, who led the generative AI and Llama team after working at Apple, as its CTO, as it aims to add more AI to its app (Natalie Lung/Bloomberg)

Polymarket is hosting a growing number of contracts tied to military conflicts, including China invading Taiwan; possible US strikes in Iran has $18M+ in trades (Denitsa Tsekova/Bloomberg)

Sources: McKinsey pilots an overhaul in how it recruits its next generation, asking candidates to use its AI tool Lilli to analyze a case study during a test (Financial Times)

Alpaca, which builds software to let companies offer stocks, ETFs, and other financial instruments, raised a $150M Series D led by Drive at a $1.15B valuation (Ben Weiss/Fortune)

Sources: Chinese chip designer Montage, a Shanghai-listed company valued at $22B, plans a Hong Kong IPO that could raise $900M+, backed by Alibaba and JPMorgan (Dave Sebastian/Bloomberg)

Sources: Chinese authorities told domestic companies to stop using cybersecurity software made by ~12 US and Israeli companies due to national security concerns (Reuters)

How Ireland, an early data center winner, missed out on much of the current AI boom, hampered by creaking infrastructure and a strained electricity grid (Bloomberg)

Ahead of WEF 2026, the IMF urges governments to step up support for young workers displaced by AI, arguing candidates could use AI "rather than compete with it" (Delphine Strauss/Financial Times)

China's market regulator says it is investigating Trip.com, the country's largest online travel agency, over alleged antitrust conduct, without offering details (Bloomberg)

US Big Tech companies have been on an energy-related hiring spree; Workforce.AI says Microsoft has hired 570+ people with energy-related expertise since 2022 (Tasmin Lockwood/CNBC)

UK satellite company Open Cosmos wins a highly contested Ka-band spectrum license, used for high-speed internet, beating companies backed by Peter Thiel (Josh Gabert-Doyon/Financial Times)

In South Korea's competition to develop an indigenous AI model, three of the five finalists used foreign open-source code, which they argue is practical (Jiyoung Sohn/Wall Street Journal)