Techmeme

Lucas Shaw / Bloomberg : Sources: YouTube is offering top creators millions to post videos exclusively on YouTube for a period and will penalize those that post to Netflix concurrently —  YouTube will pay creators to post their videos to YouTube before any other service.  If creators post to YouTube and Netflix at the same time, they will face consequences.

Reuters : Former Meta engineering director Arturo Béjar testifies that Mark Zuckerberg prioritized growth and engagement over child safety on Facebook and Instagram —  A former engineering director at Meta Platforms (META.O) testified on Wednesday that CEO Mark Zuckerberg fostered a culture …

Amanda Caswell / Tom's Guide : Google announces new study tools, including a student hub, notebooks, and interactive 3D visualizations in Gemini, plus student offers for Google AI plans —  Head back to school equipped with AI tools for studying, researching and more  —  Once again, Google is giving eligible college students …

Axios : Letter: Stripe told investors January 1 marked the “beginning of the singularity”, a major inflection point in long-term trends, and H1 revenue rose 41% YoY —  Stripe on Wednesday told investors that January 1st marked the “beginning of the singularity,” which it refers …

Bloomberg : Sources: SpaceX approached Cognition about a potential acquisition, but Cognition didn't engage; Cognition CEO Scott Wu says the company is “not for sale” —  SpaceX Attempted to Buy AI Coding Startup Cognition  —  Video Player is loading.  —  Unmute  —  Current Time 0:00 Loaded: 26.60% Playback Rate

CNBC : Sources: OpenAI CFO Sarah Friar told employees at an all-hands that OpenAI “will be a public company in 2027”, or sooner if “our business continues to inflect” —  OpenAI CFO Sarah Friar told employees during an all-hands meeting on Wednesday that the artificial intelligence lab …

Bloomberg : Sources: AI chip startup Fractile is in talks to raise ~$600M at a $6.5B pre-money valuation, up from ~$1B in May, and has an initial ~$250M deal with Anthropic —  Fractile, a startup developing chips tailored for artificial intelligence use that has a deal to supply Anthropic PBC …

The Information : Source: Nvidia has discussed an investment in Mercor as part of a round valuing the startup at $20B; Nvidia paid Mercor tens of millions of dollars last quarter —  Nvidia has discussed an investment in Mercor, a data labeling provider that helps the chip designer develop its open-source AI models …

Erin Griffith / New York Times : Stripe agrees to acquire New York-based OpenRouter; a source says Stripe is paying $7.5B, with $1.5B going to the startup's founders and $6B to its investors —  The deal is significant for the artificial intelligence industry, uniting Stripe's payments business with OpenRouter's helping businesses direct their spending on A.I. models.

Dave Michaels / Wall Street Journal : The US FTC says businesses must disclose when they use personalized pricing and it will “deploy enforcement resources” against companies that do not disclose it —  Agency says businesses must disclose when they use personalized pricing and may face lawsuits if they don't

New York Times : Internal memo: ICE bars its employees from wearing Meta's AI glasses, saying they “could unintentionally capture, record, or transmit sensitive information” —  The agency joins a growing number of workplaces and groups to ban Meta's devices, which have spurred privacy concerns.

Allan Smith / NBC News : Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro signs an executive order imposing new requirements on data center projects, including getting approval from local officials —  Shapiro, a potential Democratic 2028 contender, earlier welcomed data center developments.  His new executive order takes a starkly different tone toward the industry.

Reuters : In opening arguments, US state AGs said Meta intentionally sought to addict children to Facebook and Instagram in pursuit of profit; Meta rejected the claims —  Meta Platforms (META.O) rejected accusations by U.S. states that it intentionally sought to addict children to its Facebook …

Alex Heath / Time : Sam Altman says OpenAI's decision to pace its AI development was caused by a collection of research observations showing “various degrees of misalignment” —  “I think it is a good time to slow down,” OpenAI CEO Sam Altman told me last week, describing the company's decision …

The Information : Sources: Anthropic has been preparing to give its co-founders shares with extra voting power to help insulate them from outside pressure, ahead of a planned IPO —  Anthropic has been preparing to give CEO Dario Amodei and other co-founders a class of stock with extra voting power to help insulate …

Bloomberg : The US SEC proposes exempting certain digital asset offerings from securities registration statements, with exemptions for offerings up to $5M and $75M —  The Securities and Exchange Commission unveiled a proposal to exempt certain digital asset offerings from securities registration statements …

Mary Ann Azevedo / Crunchbase News : VC funding in physical AI companies totaled $47.4B across 521 deals in H1, up 80% from H1 2025, and more than the $41.9B invested from 2022 to 2024 —  Funding to physical AI companies is booming in 2026.  —  Venture investors appear to increasingly see physical AI as the next leg of the broader AI boom.

Ina Fried / Axios : OpenAI changed safety practices and paused RL training for two weeks after the Hugging Face breach and evidence Astra may have met a critical cyber threshold —  OpenAI said Tuesday that it has made several changes to its safety practices following its determination that an upcoming system …

Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The Verge : Comcast is rolling out Wi-Fi motion sensing to its Xfinity XB7 and newer gateways, a free opt-in feature that enables its routers to detect movement at home —  Comcast is activating free Wi-Fi motion sensing on Xfinity gateways, allowing its routers to detect movement at home.

Bloomberg : Sources: Anthropic's revolving credit facility is set to surpass its ~$10B target as banks compete for roles on the upcoming IPO; Anthropic could limit the size —  Anthropic PBC's revolving credit facility is set to rise above its roughly $10 billion target, according to people familiar with the matter …