~techmeme | Bookmarks (1054)

Lauren Feiner / The Verge: Trump signs the Take It Down Act, criminalizing the distribution of nonconsensual intimate content and requiring platforms to promptly remove it when notified  —  The bill sailed through Congress with a focus on deepfakes and other nonconsensual intimate images.

Fahad Abuljadayel / Bloomberg: Graphiant, a San Jose-based NaaS startup, raised a $19M Series B extension led by Aramco's Wa'ed and Saudi Telecom's Tali, bringing the round total to $102M  —  The venture capital arms of Saudi Arabia's oil and telecom giants have invested in US tech startup Graphiant Inc. as the kingdom seeks …

Luisa Beltran / Fortune: Sources: Circle recently engaged in informal talks to sell itself to Coinbase or Ripple, seeking at least $5B, the valuation it is targeting in a potential IPO  —  Brian Armstrong is cofounder and CEO of Coinbase  —  Circle Internet Financial, the issuer of the crypto stablecoin USDC …

Arjun Kharpal / CNBC: Qualcomm plans to launch a CPU for data centers designed to work with Nvidia's GPUs, marking its re-entry into the data center market dominated by Intel and AMD  —  Qualcomm on Monday said it plans to launch processors designed for data centers to power artificial intelligence, which will link to Nvidia's chips.

SemiAnalysis: AI deals that the US struck with the UAE and Saudi Arabia reinforce its AI leadership, but raise security concerns that the US can mitigate through safeguards  —  5 GW Datacenter, HUMAIN, G42, Diversion and Misuse Risks, Security Requirements, American AI Wins

Financial Times: Nvidia's deals with Saudi Arabia's Humain and the UAE's G42 highlight its strategy to diversify beyond Big Tech customers by partnering with nation states  —  Chipmaker establishes ties with nation states and ‘neoclouds’ in effort to reduce reliance on Microsoft, Amazon and Google

Noah Tong / Fierce Healthcare: Cohere Health, which uses AI to provide prior authorization for health plans, raised a $90M Series C led by Temasek, taking its total funding to ~$200M  —  Cohere Health funding round series C Administrative costs  —  Digital health company Cohere Health has raised $90 million …

Marc Vartabedian / Wall Street Journal: NYC-based Optimal Dynamics, a provider of AI-powered fleet management software to trucking companies, raised a $40M Series C led by Koch Disruptive Technologies  —  With this latest investment, Koch's venture wing has put over $300 million to work across seven startups in the sector

Nikkei Asia: About 30% of South Korean schools have adopted AI-powered digital textbooks since the country's education ministry began a full-scale rollout in March 2025  —  JEJU, South Korea/TOKYO — Digital textbooks that make use of artificial intelligence are being adopted throughout South Korea.

Gil Press / Forbes: Somite AI, which is developing AI foundation models for stem cell therapies, raised a $47M+ Series A led by Khosla Ventures, taking its total funding to ~$60M  —  Gil Press writes about technology, entrepreneurs and innovation.  —  SaveComment  —  Startup Somite AI announced today …

Lawrence White / Reuters: Addepar, which provides wealth management software, raised a $230M Series G co-led by Vitruvian Partners and WestCap at a $3.25B valuation, up from $2B in 2021  —  Wealth management platform provider Addepar has hit a valuation of $3.25 billion in a fresh $230 million funding round …

Lucy Adams / Tech.eu: London-based Origin, which offers software to help HR teams administer employee benefits, emerges from stealth with a $21M Series A led by Felix Capital  —  Origin's clients include Pfizer, Comcast, EA, BCG, and bp.  —  British startup has launched out of stealth with $21 million in Series A funding.

Ezra Reguerra / Cointelegraph: A Fireblocks survey of 295 finance executives: 49% say their institutions use stablecoins in payments, 23% are testing them, and 18% are in the planning stages  —  A report from enterprise-grade digital assets platform Fireblocks shows that 90% of institutional players are using or exploring the use of stablecoins in their operations.

Jessica Testa / New York Times: An analysis of YouTube's new weekly ranking of top podcasts in the US by watch time shows many popular and well-established podcasts did not rank in the top 100  —  YouTube, now the most popular platform for consuming podcasts, is introducing a chart ranking shows by watch time.

Kinling Lo / Rest of World: Chinese startups are highlighting their roots instead of downplaying them as they grow overseas, fueled by the success of Chinese social media apps and DeepSeek  —  Following DeepSeek's rise, more Chinese companies are highlighting their roots as they expand overseas.

Logan Plant / IGN: Q&A with Nintendo of America President Doug Bowser on Switch 2 pricing backlash, physical games' importance to its business despite Game-Key cards, and more  —  We also asked Bowser about Switch 2 Game-Key Cards, if Nintendo can meet demand in the U.S., and a lot more.

Bloomberg: How rapid advances in AI are helping Harvard's Galileo Project and other UFO research efforts process huge amounts of data in real time from multiple sources  —  Harvard's Galileo Project has brought high-end academic research to a once-fringe pursuit, and the Pentagon is watching.

Alana Yzola / Wired: A look at EA's attempts to shut down “anti-DEI” mods for The Sims 4, including one that changes LGBT and Black NPCs to straight and white  —  The download automatically changed Black NPCs to white, trans NPCs to cis-gendered, and gay NPCs to straight.  And it's just the beginning.

Kyle Wiggers / TechCrunch: What to expect at Google I/O 2025: an updated Gemini Ultra model, updates for Android 16, Project Astra AI assistant, and Project Mariner AI agents, and more  —  Google I/O, Google's biggest developer conference of the year, is nearly upon us.  —  Scheduled for May 20 to 21 …

Bloomberg: Sources: President Trump's Middle East AI deals open rifts with China hawks in his administration over concerns AI chips shipped to the Gulf end up in China  —  President Donald Trump's flurry of artificial intelligence deals during his tour of the Middle East is opening a rift within …

Wall Street Journal: Sources: Facebook and Instagram face scam ad surge from Asia and Meta is reluctant to add hurdles for ad buyers; Meta says it's tackling an “epidemic of scams”  —  Fake puppies and phony offers of mouthwatering bargains are often seeded by overseas crime networks …

Jason Schreier / Bloomberg: Sony's Haven Studios head Jade Raymond leaves the company she founded in 2021; sources say some developers worried over its first game's reception and progress  —  Her company, Haven Studios, is developing an online shooter title called Fairgames … PlayStation leadership didn't give Haven staff …

Brent Lang / Variety: MoviePass secures a $100M capital investment from Global Emerging Markets to accelerate the development of Mogul, a fantasy gaming service launched this month  —  MoviePass has secured a $100 million capital investment from Global Emerging Markets to accelerate the development of Mogul …

Karoline Kan / Bloomberg: Shanghai-based Synyi AI launches a trial program in Saudi Arabia to let patients see an AI doctor for diagnoses and prescriptions, which a human doctor reviews  —  A Chinese startup has opened the world's first clinic in Saudi Arabia where artificial intelligence diagnoses patients …