Elon Musk says xAI has acquired X in an all-stock transaction valuing xAI at $80B and X at $33B  —  @xAI has acquired @X in an all-stock transaction. The combination values xAI at $80 billion and X at $33 billion ($45B less $12B debt). Since its founding two years ago, xAI has rapidly become one of the leading AI labs in the world, building models and data centers at

Sources: DOGE aims to migrate all Social Security Administration's computer systems off COBOL in a matter of months, risking the integrity of SSA infrastructure  —  Social Security systems contain tens of millions of lines of code written in COBOL, an archaic programming language.

Sources: OpenAI is finalizing a $40B round led by SoftBank, receiving $10B initially and another $30B by 2025's end if it restructures into a for-profit company  —  A stipulation of the funding round, led by SoftBank, adds pressure to OpenAI's efforts to convert to a for-profit company

Trump pardons BitMEX founders Arthur Hayes, Benjamin Delo, and Samuel Reed, who previously pled guilty to federal criminal charges related to money laundering  —  President Donald Trump has granted pardons to three co-founders of the BitMEX cryptocurrency exchange, CNBC has learned.

CoreWeave raised $1.5B in its IPO, selling ~37.5M shares at $40 each, down from a planned 49M shares at $47-$55; source: Nvidia anchored with a ~$250M order  —  CoreWeave on Thursday priced shares at $40 in the company's IPO, raising $1.5 billion in the biggest U.S. tech offering since 2021, CNBC has confirmed.

Interviews with Dario Amodei, Daniela Amodei, and other executives about Anthropic's origin, Claude, why DeepSeek isn't a threat, reaching AGI safely, more  —  The brother goes on vision quests.  The sister is a former English major.  Together, they defected from OpenAI, started Anthropic …

The US FDIC says banks can engage in cryptocurrency and other legally permitted activities without prior regulatory approval if they manage risks appropriately  —  Another U.S. bank regulator has announced that banks do not need to receive advance permission to engage in some crypto-related activities.

Reddit shares are down 50% from a February high, after its Q4 earnings report showed its traffic took a hit from a change in Google's search algorithm  —  Reddit's outlook seemed precarious because its US traffic took a hit from a change in Google's search algorithm.

Former Twitch CEO Emmett Shear, who was OpenAI's interim CEO in 2023 when Sam Altman was fired, launches Softmax, a startup focused on AI alignment  —  Insert coup pun here  —  A new AI alignment player has entered the arena.  —  Emmett Shear, Adam Goldstein and David Bloomin have set …

A jury finds Frank founder Charlie Javice guilty of defrauding JPMorgan Chase by falsifying Frank user numbers; the charges carry a maximum sentence of 30 years  —  A Manhattan jury on Friday issued a guilty verdict against Charlie Javice, the 33-year-old CEO who duped JPMorgan Chase into buying …

Sources: the EU will impose minimal fines on Apple and Meta next week, far below the DMA's 10% of global turnover cap, to avoid tensions with President Trump  —  Brussels to push ahead with enforcing digital rules on Big Tech groups but with low financial penalties for breaches

Sources: ScaleAI is seeking a valuation as high as $25B in a potential tender offer; it was last valued at $13.8B in a $1B Series F round led by Accel in 2024  —  - Scale AI has become increasingly in demand as companies need to label and sort data to train AI models.

Google will pay $100M in cash to settle a 2011 lawsuit accusing the company of charging for clicks on ads outside the geographic areas the advertisers targeted  —  Google has agreed to pay $100 million in cash to settle a long-running lawsuit claiming it overcharged advertisers by failing …

A US judge dismisses Samsung's Oura lawsuit, saying Samsung acted prematurely in seeking a judgment that Galaxy Ring doesn't infringe on Oura's patents  —  Samsung essentially jumped the gun in trying to preemptively block any potential Oura patent claims.

Crypto.com says the US SEC won't pursue enforcement action; Crypto.com sued the SEC in October after receiving a Wells notice signaling potential charges  —  - Crypto.com said that the SEC will not file an enforcement action against the company.  — Crypto.com sued the SEC in October …

Google starts offering user choice billing in the UK, initially to non-game developers, says 90%+ of developers are satisfied with Google Play's native billing  —  Google said today that it will start offering user choice billing in the U.K., giving Google Play developers the ability to use …