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heise | heise Update vom 19. Dezember 2025: Lesetipps fürs Wochenende
Der vorweihnachtliche Newsletter von heise mit den Themen günstige Zugtickets, Heizkurve senken, Aktienmarkt 2025, Gesundheit mit Apple und Streaming für Kids.
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Klarna reports Q3 revenue up 26% YoY to $903M, above $882M est., a $95M net loss, and expects $1B revenue in Q4, in its first post-IPO earnings release (Samantha Subin/CNBC)
https://www.cnbc.com/2025/11/18/klarna-klar-stock-q3-earnings-report-2025.html<…

Klarna tops third-quarter revenue estimates in first earnings report since IPO
Klarna experienced strong U.S. growth, driven the adoption of tools like Klarna Card and fair financing.

This is a great milestone to see for Mastodon, in evolving towards its new community-focused governance structure. I’m optimistic about what this portends for the platform and how its features & future evolve. (And it’s fun that I was there for the photo being taken!) https://

Mastodon CEO steps down as the social network restructures | TechCrunch
Eugen Rochko is stepping down as CEO of decentralized social network Mastodon. Felix Hlatky will now become the executive director as the company becomes structured as a nonprofit government by a board.

App Store Awards 2025: Finalisten aus Deutschland und Österreich
Mit Apps von Klemens Strasser und Leo Mehlig sind bei den App Store Awards 2025 auch Entwickler aus Deutschland und Österreich vertreten.
htt…

The fediverse is an island within an increasingly dystopian capitalist hellscape. And from my perspective, Mastodon is our best shot at bringing this vision of a better future to the masses.
— Eugen Rochko, 18.11.2025

Blick auf die schöne neue Medienwelt 2025 (soweit ich sie nutze).
#rundfunk

Schöne neue Medienwelt, Ausgabe 2025
In meinem Blog finden sich einige Beiträge zu meiner Mediennutzung im Wandel. 2013 habe ich einen langen Beitrag dazu geschrieben, warum ich mit Zeitungen nicht mehr so richtig viel anfangen kann. 2020 geht es dann um die Wiederentdeckung der täglichen Lokalzeitung und um das neu angefangene regelmä

My favorite 20 LPs of 2025: https://spacetimetech.wordpress.com/2025/12/19/my-top-20-favorite-lps-of-2025
Tagging a bunch of you that have helped me out finding things this year or who have expressed interest - sorry if I missed you, there's a lot…

My top 20 favorite LPs of 2025
** Since some of these are metal records, there’s a small amount of R-rated horror type stuff and grossness on a couple of the images below. ** Here are my 20 favorite albums released in 2025…

New dictionary dropped https://www.wbur.org/news/2025/11/18/merriam-webster-new-collegiate-dictionary

Well it sure does sound like Eugen exited for a measly €1M and Mastodon is left with the co-founder of Twitter in a leadership position. I mean, is it too much to ask for for the alternatives to not be run by the same people who built the things they purport to be an alternative to? I guess we should count ourselves lucky it’s not Elon Musk. 🤷‍♂️ http…

Here is the explanation of @… itself why it was down worldwide yesterday (again) and it styled a lot on the Internet.
»Cloudflare outage on November 18, 2025:
On 18 November 2025 at 11:20 UTC (all times in this blog are UTC), Cloudflar's network began experiencing significant failures to deliver core network traffic. […]«
☁️

Cloudflare outage on November 18, 2025
Cloudflare suffered a service outage on November 18, 2025. The outage was triggered by a bug in generation logic for a Bot Management feature file causing many Cloudflare services to be affected.

From @…
https://doctorow.medium.com/https-pluralistic-net-2025-11-18-im-not-bad-im-just-drawn-that-…

Jahresrückblick der Störungen: Die größten Online-Ausfälle 2025
Ein Blick auf das Jahr 2025 zeigt, welche Online-Dienste die weitreichendsten Ausfälle in Europa verzeichneten – von Gaming-Plattformen bis zu Cloud-Anbietern.

Cloudflare says the November 18 outage was caused by a change to one of its "database systems' permissions", not by "malicious activity of any kind" (Matthew Prince/Cloudflare)
https://blog.cloudflare.com/18-november-2025-outage/

Cloudflare outage on November 18, 2025
Cloudflare suffered a service outage on November 18, 2025. The outage was triggered by a bug in generation logic for a Bot Management feature file causing many Cloudflare services to be affected.

So they're saying fuck you to OpenAI? Fascinating. https://blogs.microsoft.com/blog/2025/11/18/microsoft-nvidia-and-anthropic-announce-strategic-partnerships/

The story isn’t that Trump called a woman “piggy”. The story is that there wasn’t a single person there to punch him in the mouth – whether metaphorically or otherwise – when he did. https://masto.ai/@Nonilex/115575674112795477

#heiseshow: Verbrenner-Aus-Aus, Telefonbetrug, 2025-Rückblick
In der #heiseshow: Das Verbrenner-Aus wird aufgeweicht, die Telekom kämpft gegen Betrugsanrufe und wir blicken zurück auf das Tech-Jahr 2025.

CEIP study: 87 of the top 100 Chinese AI researchers who were working in the US in 2019 are still doing research at US universities or companies in 2025 (New York Times)
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/19/technology/ai-research-chinese-talent.html

In the A.I. Race, Chinese Talent Still Drives American Research
Although some Silicon Valley executives paint China as the enemy, Chinese brains continue to play a major role in U.S. research.

really great that we have a government made up of criminals who purposefully completely ignore this for personal gain https://www.theguardian.com/environment/ng-interactive/2025/dec/18/how-climate-breakdown-is-putting-the-worlds-food-in-peril-in-maps-and-charts

Framasoft are one of the sadly very few non-bullshit orgs (they’re like us, Small Technology Foundation, not Mozilla) working for a better future for technology and society.
They’re raising funds at the moment.
Please support them if you can.
Thank you!
💕 https://framapiaf.org/@Framasoft/11556…

Framasoft (@Framasoft@framapiaf.org)
Attached: 1 image 🌳 Renforcez l’internet du partage en contribuant à la robustesse de Framasoft ! Framadate flambant neuf, PeerTube v8, nouveaux services… Pour cette fin d'année, nous vous avons préparé plein de surprises ! Découvrez comment votre solidarité nous permet de proposer un internet sans pub ni pisteur, pensé pour les humains et humaines ! 🤝 https://framablog.org/2025/11/18/renforcons-linternet-du-partage-soutenez-les-outils-solidaires-de-framasoft/

SSD-Nachbrenner: Auch Windows 11 hat Microsofts neuen NVMe-Treiber
Microsoft hat offiziell für Windows Server 2025 einen NVMe-Treiber für schnellere SSD-Zugriffe vorgestellt. Windows 11 hat den auch.
https…

Apple details how it is 3D printing Watch Series 11 and Ultra 3 cases using titanium powder, helping Apple save 400 metric tons of raw titanium in 2025 (Apple)
https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2025/11/mapping-the-future-with-3d-printed-tita…

Mapping the future with 3D‑printed titanium Apple Watch cases
Apple Watch Ultra 3 and titanium Apple Watch Series 11 cases are now 3D-printed with 100 percent recycled aerospace-grade titanium powder.

Boom erneuerbarer Energien zum Durchbruch des Jahres gekürt
„Science“ kürt Boom erneuerbarer Energien zum Durchbruch des Jahres 2025. Erstmals lieferten Solar und Wind weltweit mehr Strom als Kohle.
https://www…

Guardio, which helps detect malicious code created with AI tools, raised $80M led by ION Crossover, and says it has 500K paying users and $100M in ARR in 2025 (Ivan Mehta/TechCrunch)
https://techcrunch.com/2025/11/19/security-startup-guardio-n…

Security startup Guardio nabs $80M from ION Crossover Partners | TechCrunch
Guardio is leveraging its experience building browser extensions and apps that scan for malicious and phishing sites to build a tool that looks for artifacts in code and websites made with vibe coding tools.

Windows: Microsoft will SSD-Performance massiv verbessern
Microsoft erneuert seinen Software-Stack für Datenträger. Zuerst ist Windows Server 2025 dran. Windows 11 folgt hoffentlich.
https://www.

Micron reports Q1 revenue up 57% YoY to $13.64B, vs. $12.84B est., net income up 180% to $5.24B, and Q2 revenue forecast above est.; MU jumps 5% after hours (Kif Leswing/CNBC)
https://www.cnbc.com/2025/12/17/micron-q1-earnings-forecast-memory-demand-ai.html…

Micron forecasts surging revenue as computer memory demand for AI remains high
The high demand for memory has driven Micron shares higher and they are up 168% in 2025.

1&1-Mobilfunknetz erreicht jeden vierten deutschen Haushalt
Das vierte deutsche Mobilfunknetz wächst. 1&1 meldet, die Versorgungsauflage für 2025 erfüllt zu haben. Auch die Altkunden sind jetzt alle im neuen 5G-Netz.

Sources: ByteDance is on track for ~$50B profit in 2025 after generating a ~$40B net income in the first three quarters, surpassing its internal target for 2025 (Bloomberg)
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-12-19/tik…

Kraken raised $200M at a $20B valuation, after raising $600M at a $15B valuation in Sept.; prior to the two rounds, Kraken raised only $27M in venture capital (Ben Weiss/Fortune)
https://fortune.com/2025/11/18/kraken-citadel-securities-ken-griffin-…

Exclusive: Crypto exchange Kraken raises $200 million from Ken Griffin’s Citadel to notch $20 billion valuation
Once skittish about digital assets, Citadel has warmed towards the crypto business in 2025.

Internet Governance: Das IGF bekommt ein dauerhaftes UN-Mandat
Die Vereinten Nationen haben sich am Mittwoch in New York darauf verständigt, das Internet Governance Forum (IGF) als ständige UN-Institution einzurichten.

Denmark says Russia was behind "destructive and disruptive" cyberattacks on a water utility in 2024 and DDoS attacks in the lead-up to local November elections (Miranda Bryant/The Guardian)
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/dec…

Biometrie-Deal mit den USA: EU-Rat ebnet Weg für weitreichenden Datenaustausch
Die EU-Staaten haben grünes Licht für Verhandlungen über ein Rahmenabkommen mit den USA gegeben, das den Zugriff auf biometrische Polizeidaten regeln soll.

A UK family and a US family sue Meta for the alleged wrongful deaths of their teenage sons, who died by suicide after falling victim to sextortion on Instagram (Libby Brooks/The Guardian)
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025/d

Etwas mehr der heute besonders häufig geteilten #News:
Umfrage der Datenschutzbeauftragten: Ohne Sicherheit kein Vertrauen in die ePA

North Korean hackers stole a record $2.02B in crypto in 2025, a 51% YoY rise that takes its cumulative stolen total to $6.75B; individual wallet hacks hit 158K (Chainalysis)
https://www.chainalysis.com/blog/crypto-hacking-stolen-funds-2026/

2025 Crypto Theft Reaches $3.4 Billion
North Korean hackers stole $2.02 billion in cryptocurrency in 2025, a 51% year-over-year increase, pushing their all-time total to $6.75 billion.

Streit über Bestpreis: Teilerfolg für über tausend Hoteliers gegen Booking.com
Das Landgericht Berlin hat geurteilt: Booking.com haftet prinzipiell für Schäden, die durch unzulässige Preisvorgaben entstanden sind. 1099 Kläger profitieren.

Perplexity plans to roll out a free agentic shopping product for US users next week in partnership with PayPal (Ashley Capoot/CNBC)
https://www.cnbc.com/2025/11/19/perplexity-ai-online-shopping-paypal.html

Perplexity AI announces free product to streamline online shopping
Perplexity AI announced it will roll out a free agentic shopping product for U.S. users next week

Digitalpakt 2.0 – erneut 5 Milliarden, die nun hälftig geteilt werden
Wie der versprochene Digitalpakt 2.0 genau aussehen wird, blieb lange unsicher. Nun gibt es eine letzte politische Einigung. Eine Dauerlösung ist sie nicht.
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Cursor-developer Anysphere acquires code review startup Graphite and says Graphite will continue operating as an independent product (Beatrice Nolan/Fortune)
https://fortune.com/2025/12/19/cursor-ai-coding-startup-graphite-competition-heats-up/

Exclusive: Cursor acquires code review startup Graphite as AI coding competition heats up
By purchasing Graphite, Cursor, currently valued at $29 billion, gains more code review and debugging capabilities

Truth Social plus Fusionsenergie: Trump-Firma fusioniert mit TAE Technologies
Die Medienfirma der Familie Trump, die bislang primär für Truth Social bekannt ist, macht nun auch Fusionsenergie. Dafür sorgt eine Fusion mit TAE Technologies.

Endra, whose AI tools automate mechanical, electrical, and plumbing design for commercial buildings, raised a $20M seed led by Notion (Jeremy Kahn/Fortune)
https://fortune.com/2025/12/18/endra-ai-startup-automating-mep-design…

Exclusive: Swedish startup automating mechanical, electrical, and plumbing design for commercial buildings raises $20 million in seed round
Notion Capital is leading the seed round for Endra, which says reduces the time to design buildings' electrical systems from months to hours.

Zum Abend noch einige der heute besonders häufig geteilten #News:
WhatsApp und Signal: Privatsphäre angreifbar, Tracker-Software verfügbar

Larry Summers and OpenAI say he has resigned from the OpenAI board, after a US House committee released his emails with Jeffrey Epstein (Ben Berkowitz/Axios)
https://www.axios.com/2025/11/19/epstein-larry-summers-openai

Larry Summers resigns from OpenAI board amid Epstein revelations
Summers said this week he would step back from public commitments amid the latest Epstein news.

Riechen für mehr Immersion: „Escents“ bringt Gerüche in die Virtual Reality
Das tragbare Gerät „Escents“ will Gerüche in VR und AR einbinden und setzt dabei auf magnetische Duftkapseln, Bluetooth-Anbindung und Unity-Unterstützung.

Gemini 3 Pro is integrated into the Gemini app, which now has 650M MAUs, and powers Google Search's AI Mode conversational search feature (New York Times)
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/18/business/google-gemini-3.html

Google Unveils Gemini 3, With Improved Coding and Search Abilities
The new artificial intelligence model is the second the company has released this year. OpenAI and Anthropic made similar updates a few months ago.

Österreichs Höchstgericht verbietet Meta Platforms' Geschäftsmodell
Nach 11 Jahren steht fest: Meta Platforms personalisierte Werbung ist unzulässig, Datensammlung auf Drittseiten ebenso. Metas Auskünfte sind viel zu bescheiden.

Instacart will pay $60M to settle FTC allegations that it used deceptive tactics in its subscription signup and "satisfaction guarantee" advertising (Annie Palmer/CNBC)
https://www.cnbc.com/2025/12/18/instacart-ftc-settlement-deceptive-billing.html

Instacart to pay $60 million to settle FTC claims it deceived customers
The federal agency alleged that Instacart used a number of deceptive tactics in its subscription signup and "satisfaction guarantee" advertising.

TikTok unterzeichnet Deal zum Verkauf von Anteilen der US-Tochter an Investoren
Um eine Sperre in den USA zu vermeiden, verkauft TikTok etliche Anteile der US-Tochter an US-amerikanische und internationale Investoren. Das ist nun bestätigt.

Internal memo: TikTok has signed a deal to sell its US unit; Oracle, Silver Lake, MGX will collectively own 45% of the US entity, and ByteDance will retain ~20% (Sara Fischer/Axios)
https://www.axios.com/2025/12/18/tiktok-sale

Scoop: TikTok signs deal for sale of U.S. unit after years-long saga
The deal would end a years-long saga to force TikTok's Chinese parent ByteDance to sell the company's U.S. operation.

Gigantischer LHC-Nachfolger: Privatleute sagen Geld für Teilchenbeschleuniger zu
Beim CERN steht bald die Entscheidung über den Bau eines gigantischen Nachfolgers für den LHC an. Nun haben mehrere Milliardäre dafür Geld zugesagt.

Source: Microsoft's and Nvidia's investments in Anthropic push its valuation to the range of $350B, up from its $183B valuation after raising $13B in September (CNBC)
https://www.cnbc.com/2025/11/18/anthropic-ai-azure-microsoft-nvidia.html

Anthropic valued in range of $350 billion following investment deal with Microsoft, Nvidia
Microsoft announced new strategic partnerships with Nvidia and the AI startup Anthropic.

Noch einige der zuletzt hier besonders häufig geteilten #News:
WhatsApp und Signal: Privatsphäre angreifbar, Tracker-Software verfügbar

FCC Chairman Brendan Carr tells a Senate committee the FCC "is not an independent agency"; the agency removed "independent agency" from its site as he testified (Axios)
https://www.axios.com/2025/12/17/brendan-carr-fcc-independent-se…

FCC chair suggests agency isn't independent, word cut from mission statement
The statement speaks to a broader trend of regulatory agencies losing power to the executive branch during the Trump era.

Einige der zuletzt hier besonders häufig geteilten #News:
Österreichs Höchstgericht: Personalisierte Werbung Meta Platforms’ unzulässig

Coinbase is rolling out stock trading, more advanced trading tools, prediction markets via Kalshi, and more, amid a push to be a one-stop financial app (MacKenzie Sigalos/CNBC)
https://www.cnbc.com/2025/12/17/coinbase-prediction-markets-stock-tradin…

Coinbase adds prediction markets and stock trading in push to be one-stop trading app
Coinbase is expanding into stocks, advanced trading, prediction markets, and new tools for businesses, developers, and automated financial guidance.

Kommentar: Wenn Copilot zum KO-Pilot wird
Volker Weber macht sich in einer Wutrede Luft, dass ihm die Techkonzerne an jeder Ecke KI verkaufen wollen.
https://www.heise.de/meinung/Kommentar-Wen

Netflix hires ESPN anchor Elle Duncan as its first on-air host for live sports and cultural events; she has appeared on SportsCenter, College GameDay, and more (Todd Spangler/Variety)
https://variety.com/2025/tv/news/netflix-hires-espn-elle-duncan-sp…

Netflix Hires ESPN Anchor Elle Duncan as First Sports On-Air Host
Netflix Hires ESPN anchor and TV sports veteran Elle Duncan as its first on-air sports host.

Freitag: TikTok bestätigt Investoren-Deal, Tastenverzögerung verrät Nordkoreaner
TikTok-Joint-Venture mit Oracle IT-Maulwurf bei Amazon.com Urteil gegen personalisierte Werbung Malware auf Fähre Verbraucherschutzpodcast zu Glasfaser

Apple says it will roll out more App Store ads in 2026 "to increase opportunity in search results"; Apple's website says 800M users visit the App Store weekly (Chance Miller/9to5Mac)
https://9to5mac.com/2025/12/17/apple-announces…

Apple announces more ads are coming to App Store search results - 9to5Mac
Apple is expanding the number of ads that appear in App Store search results. In an update on its Apple...

Schülertablets in Niedersachsen: Mehr als nur eine Geräteausgabe geplant
Die SPD in Niedersachsen will endlich ihr Wahlversprechen von 2022 einlösen: Tablets für Schüler. Diese sollen in Schulen größere Veränderungen anschieben.

Google says Gemini 3 Pro scores 1,501 on LMArena, above 2.5 Pro, and demonstrates PhD-level reasoning with top scores on Humanity's Last Exam and GPQA Diamond (Abner Li/9to5Google)
https://9to5google.com/2025/11/18/gemini-3-launch/

Google launches Gemini 3 with state-of-the-art reasoning, ‘generative UI’ for responses, more
Google today announced Gemini 3 with the goal of bringing “any idea to life.” The first model available in this family is Gemini 3 Pro...

Jugendschutz: OpenAI und Anthropic erweitern Sicherheit
Anthropic schätzt künftig das Alter der Claude-Nutzer. Bei OpenAI ist Sicherheit neuerdings die oberste Priorität.
https://www.hei…

Netflix acquires avatar creation platform Ready Player Me to let its subscribers carry their personas and fandoms across games; the startup raised $72M (Sarah Perez/TechCrunch)
https://techcrunch.com/2025/12/19/netflix-acquires-gaming-avatar-maker-read…

Netflix acquires gaming avatar maker Ready Player Me | TechCrunch
The gaming startup will allow Netflix subscribers to create avatars that can extend across gaming titles.

SoftBank Group Corp was among the Japanese tech stocks that fell on Dec. 18, as AI infrastructure spending worries on Wall Street crossed into the Asian markets (Lim Hui Jie/CNBC)
https://www.cnbc.com/2025/12/18/japan-tech-stocks-plun…

SoftBank leads decline in Japanese tech stocks as worries over AI spending spill over to Asia
The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite slipped 1.81%, dragged by losses in Oracle, Broadcom, Nvidia and other AI names.

Quora's Poe launches group chats, letting users around the world engage in group chats with up to 200 people and collaborate across 200 AI models (Sarah Perez/TechCrunch)
https://techcrunch.com/2025/11/18/poes-ai-app-now-supports-group-chats-acro…

Poe's AI app now supports group chats across AI models | TechCrunch
Quora's AI platform Poe now lets users engage in group chats with up to 200 people across AI models and bots.

OpenAI announces ChatGPT for Teachers, designed for K-12 educators and school districts, and says it will be free to K-12 educators in the US through June 2027 (Ashley Capoot/CNBC)
https://www.cnbc.com/2025/11/19/openai-chatgpt-for-teachers-k-12-educators.html…

OpenAI rolls out 'ChatGPT for Teachers' for K-12 educators and districts
ChatGPT for Teachers will be free to K-12 educators in the U.S. through June 2027

Fox News hires Palantir to build tools that help journalists produce stories across Fox platforms and social media; Fox won't use AI to generate editorial copy (Sara Fischer/Axios)
https://www.axios.com/2025/11/19/fox-news-palantir-ai-newsroom-tools
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Fox News hires Palantir to build AI newsroom tools
Fox News and Palantir have built three main tools to improve efficiency.

In a proposed settlement, the US FTC says crypto bridge Nomad must repay victims of a 2022 cyberattack that led to $186M worth of funds being stolen (Connor Jones/The Register)
https://www.theregister.com/2025/12/17/nomad_ftc_settlement/

Blockchain company Nomad to repay users under FTC deal after $186M cyberattack
: Regulator makes various additional demands over alleged cybersecurity failings

YouTube terminates Screen Culture and KH Studio, two large channels that used AI to create fake movie trailers; the platform earlier suspended the channels' ads (Jake Kanter/Deadline)
https://deadline.com/2025/12/youtube-terminates-scr…

YouTube Shuts Down Channels Using AI To Create Fake Movie Trailers Watched By Millions
YouTube has terminated two prominent channels, Screen Culture and KH Studio, using artificial intelligence to create fake movie trailers.

FTC v. Meta: TikTok's rise undermined the FTC's antitrust case and helped Meta avoid a breakup; Judge Boasberg said the tech landscape has "changed markedly" (New York Times)
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/18/technology/meta-google-antitrust-t…

Technology Is Fast and the Courts Are Slow
Silicon Valley has increasingly pointed at rapid digital changes to blunt government efforts to rein in its power.

Amazon's Zoox announces that users in San Francisco can now sign up for its Zoox Explorers program to take free rides in its robotaxis in select neighborhoods (Annie Palmer/CNBC)
https://www.cnbc.com/2025/11/18/zoox-begins-offering-robotaxi-rid…

Zoox begins offering robotaxi rides in San Francisco, facing off with Waymo
Riders can sign up to join the "Zoox Explorers" program to take free rides on the company's box-shaped vehicles in certain San Francisco neighborhoods.

Snapchat launches Topic Chats, which enables public conversations on subjects like F1, and plans to use AI and other safety tech to moderate the chats (Aisha Malik/TechCrunch)
https://techcrunch.com/2025/11/18/snapchat-rolls-out-topic-chats-for-publ…

Snapchat rolls out 'Topic Chats' for public conversations | TechCrunch
The social network says the new feature will let users chat about what’s happening in the world and across various communities, from Formula 1 to the reality TV show "Below Deck."

Sources detail how Tiger Global fueled the COVID-era unicorn bubble that burst ahead of the AI boom; the firm recently shared its $12.7B 2021 fund is now up 16% (Issie Lapowsky/Rest of World)
https://restofworld.org/2025/tiger-global-unicorn-investment-crash/

Big bets and broken unicorns: Tiger Global’s rise and reckoning
The fast-money pandemic era helped build billion-dollar startups around the world — then brought many down just as quickly. Will the AI boom be a repeat?

Meta is testing limiting Facebook professional accounts and Pages to posting just two links per month, unless they subscribe to $14.99 /month Meta Verified (Ivan Mehta/TechCrunch)
https://techcrunch.com/2025/12/17/facebook-is-te…

Facebook is testing a link posting limit for professional accounts and pages | TechCrunch
Meta said that the test impacts professional accounts and pages on Facebook.

Apple unveils iOS changes in Japan to comply with local law, including alternative app stores and payment options, a new fee structure, and new default controls (Juli Clover/MacRumors)
https://www.macrumors.com/2025/12/17/japan-app-store-feature-updates/

Japan App Store Gets Alternative Marketplaces, Third-Party Payments and More
Apple today introduced several changes to the App Store in Japan to meet the requirements of the Mobile Software Competition Act (MSCA) that goes...

Sources: Salient, which uses AI to automate loan servicing, raised $10M following a $60M Series A in June, pushing its valuation to ~$500M; its ARR hit $25M (Lily Mae Lazarus/Fortune)
https://fortune.com/2025/12/18/salient

Salient’s quiet AI boom: How this two-year old startup is building a company to survive the bubble burst
Salient cofounder Ari Malik built AI to automate loan servicing, turning collections calls into a high-growth business now valued around $500 million.

Meta's win over the US FTC may mean Meta, Google, Microsoft, and others can resume buying startups to stay ahead of the pack, after a slowdown under Lina Khan (New York Times)
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/18/technology/meta-ruling-silicon-valley…

Meta’s Victory Opens the Way for Silicon Valley to Go Deal Shopping
To avoid regulatory scrutiny, big tech companies had steered clear of buying start-ups outright. Meta’s antitrust win may change that thinking.

Rivian launches Universal Hands-Free driving for second-generation R1 EVs, expanding coverage from 135,000 highway miles to 3.5M miles across the US and Canada (Sean O'Kane/TechCrunch)
https://techcrunch.com/2025/12/18/rivian-rolls-out-new-un…

Rivian rolls out new 'Universal Hands-Free' driving feature | TechCrunch
The driver assistance software is available on Rivian's for Gen 2 R1 cars and works on 3.5 million miles of North American roads. But it doesn't slow or stop for traffic lights or stop signs.

Google plans to release Gemini 3 Deep Think to Google AI Ultra subscribers in the coming weeks, once it passes further rounds of safety testing (Russell Brandom/TechCrunch)
https://techcrunch.com/2025/11/18/google-launches-gemini-3-…

Google launches Gemini 3 with new coding app and record benchmark scores | TechCrunch
Google released Gemini 3, its latest and most advanced foundation model, to be made immediately available through the Gemini app and AI search interface.

TikTok will let users choose how much AI-generated content appears in their For You feed and plans to add more advanced labeling tech for AI-content (Aisha Malik/TechCrunch)
https://techcrunch.com/2025/11/18/tiktok-now-lets-you-choo…

TikTok now lets you choose how much AI-generated content you want to see | TechCrunch
With the new AI-generated content control, users who want to see less of this sort of content can dial things down, while those who enjoy it can choose to see more of it.

Paris-based Upciti, which offers city operations software and hardware to over 150 municipalities in 17 countries, raised a $20M Series A led by Notion Capital (Tamara Djurickovic/Tech.eu)
https://tech.eu/2025/10/16/upciti-closes-20m-to-dr…

UPCITI closes $20M to drive global growth of its urban operating platform
UPCITI, a Paris-based company building an operating system for cities, has raised $20 million in a Series A funding round. The round was led by Notion Capital, with participation from Point Nine and Chalfen Ventures.UPCITI combines proprietary software with purpose-built hardware to help municipalities run critical operations, such as traffic flow, street management, and public safety, more efficiently and securely, with a clear ROI that simplifies adoption. By owning both the software an…

Doppel, which makes an AI social engineering detection service, raised a $70M Series C led by Bessemer at a $600M valuation, up from $205M in May (Allie Garfinkle/Fortune)
https://fortune.com/2025/11/19/exclusi

Exclusive: Doppel raises $70 million Series C at more than $600 million valuation to fight AI-powered social engineering attacks
Bessemer-backed Doppel has raised its $70 million Series C, valuing the company at $600 million, Fortune has exclusively learned.

Gemini 3 Pro is priced at $2-$4 per 1M input tokens and $12-$18 per 1M output tokens, cheaper than Claude Sonnet 4.5 but more expensive than GPT-5.1 (Simon Willison/Simon Willison's Weblog)
https://simonwillison.net/2025/Nov/18/gemini-3/

Trying out Gemini 3 Pro with audio transcription and a new pelican benchmark
Google released Gemini 3 Pro today. Here’s the announcement from Sundar Pichai, Demis Hassabis, and Koray Kavukcuoglu, their developer blog announcement from Logan Kilpatrick, the Gemini 3 Pro Model Card, …

Luma AI launches Ray3 Modify, which allows users to modify existing footage by providing character reference images; users can also define start and end frames (Ivan Mehta/TechCrunch)
https://techcrunch.com/2025/12/18/luma

Luma releases a new AI model that lets users generate a video from a start and end frame | TechCrunch
Luma AI's new model is available through the company's Dream Machine platform.

Mastodon founder and CEO Eugen Rochko is stepping down from the decentralized social network as part of its shift to a nonprofit structure overseen by a board (Sarah Perez/TechCrunch)
https://techcrunch.com/2025/11/18/mastodon-ceo-steps-down-as-t…

Mastodon CEO steps down as the social network restructures | TechCrunch
Eugen Rochko is stepping down as CEO of decentralized social network Mastodon. Felix Hlatky will now become the executive director as the company becomes structured as a nonprofit government by a board.

A profile of Credo, which makes active electrical cables to connect AI servers and whose stock price has more than doubled this year, after soaring 245% in 2024 (Kif Leswing/CNBC)
https://www.cnbc.com/2025/10/17/500-purple-cables-put-credo-in-middle-…

$500 purple cables put this little-known company in the middle of the AI boom
Credo's stock has more than doubled this year after soaring 245% in 2024 as the AI boom makes its way downstream.

TikTok is rolling out new digital well-being features like an affirmation journal and says it will also give users badges for limiting their daily screen time (Ivan Mehta/TechCrunch)
https://techcrunch.com/2025/11/18/tiktok-will-now-give-you…

TikTok will now give you badges for limiting your doomscrolling | TechCrunch
TikTok is adding new digital wellbeing tools like an affirmation journal, a background sound generator, and badges for using the app within limits

NetEase says 2M people played martial arts game Where the Winds Meet in the 24 hours after its global release, as Chinese companies' cultural influence expands (Evelyn Cheng/CNBC)
https://www.cnbc.com/2025/11/19/china-conn

CNBC's The China Connection newsletter: China’s homegrown games capture overseas players as its cultural influence expands
In a big year for Chinese cultural exports, a new video game is the latest to win a global audience.

Agentio, which uses AI to help brands automate and scale campaigns with YouTube creators, raised a $40M Series B led by Forerunner at a $340M valuation (Ivan Mehta/TechCrunch)
https://techcrunch.com/2025/11/18/agen

Agentio secures $40 million from Forerunner as it scales its creator marketplace beyond YouTube | TechCrunch
Agentio, which matches creators with brands, is expanding beyond YouTube and testing Meta platforms to facilitate sponsored content.

The TikTok deal is the worst of all possible outcomes, shifting ownership of TikTok to Trump's allies, while maintaining the supposed problematic links to China (Karl Bode/Techdirt)
https://www.techdirt.com/2025/12/19/tiktok

TikTok Deal Done And It’s Somehow The Shittiest Possible Outcome, Making Everything Worse
There were rumblings about this for a while, but it looks like the Trump TikTok deal is done, and it’s somehow the worst of all possible outcomes, amazingly making all of the biggest criticis…

Sphere, which raised a $4.3M seed as an edtech marketplace, pivots and raised a $21M Series A led by a16z to develop an AI tax compliance software service (Dominic-Madori Davis/TechCrunch)
https://techcrunch.com/2025/11/18/a16z-leads-21m-series-…

a16z leads $21M Series A into AI-native tax compliance software Sphere | TechCrunch
Sphere helps automate registration, calculation, filing, and remittance obligations for companies.

Stockholm-based vibe coding startup Lovable raised $330M led by CapitalG and Menlo Ventures at a $6.6B valuation, up from $1.8B after raising $200M in July (Niko Gallogly/New York Times)
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/18/busines

Lovable, a Start-Up That Makes Anyone a Coder, Raises $330 Million
The Swedish company is now valued at $6.6 billion, more than triple its $1.8 billion valuation set by investors in July.

Apono, which helps enterprises manage cloud permissions by eliminating standing privileges, raised a $34M Series B, bringing its total funding to $54M (Duncan Riley/SiliconANGLE)
https://siliconangle.com/2025/11/18/apono-rais…

Apono raises $34M to tackle cloud privilege sprawl with Zero Standing Privilege model - SiliconANGLE
Apono raises $34M to tackle cloud privilege sprawl with Zero Standing Privilege model - SiliconANGLE

Edtech startup Physics Wallah closed up 44% in its Indian IPO, giving it a ~$5B market cap; it was last valued at $2.8B in 2024 when it raised a $210M Series B (Jagmeet Singh/TechCrunch)
https://techcrunch.com/2025/11/18/phys

Physics Wallah enjoys a rosy IPO day, bucking the broader slowdown in Indian edtech | TechCrunch
The Indian edtech startup ended its first day as a public company on a high, with its shares closing 44% higher than they were listed for, indicating that the country's edtech sector may still recover after years of gloom.

As TSMC readies its €10B Germany plant for 2027, its Taiwanese suppliers say they're struggling with the EU's complex permitting, labor, and environmental rules (New York Times)
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/19/technol

Europe’s Chip Dreams Confront Business Realities
European chipmakers need TSMC’s help to grow their own semiconductor supply chain, but the chip giant’s Taiwanese suppliers find Europe a tough place to do business.

Meta release SAM 3, a model for detection, segmentation, and tracking of objects in images and video, and SAM 3D, which can reconstruct objects and humans in 3D (Mike Wheatley/SiliconANGLE)
https://siliconangle.com/2025/11/19/me

Meta's new image segmentation models can identify objects and people and reconstruct them in 3D - SiliconANGLE
Meta's new image segmentation models can identify objects and people and reconstruct them in 3D - SiliconANGLE

The US Senate confirms FDIC acting chairman Travis Hill to lead the agency, which regulates stablecoin issuers and impacts how the crypto industry is banked (Jesse Hamilton/CoinDesk)
https://www.coindesk.com/policy/2025/12/11/s…

Two Trump Appointees Confirmed to Take Over Core Crypto Regulators CFTC, FDIC
In a package of confirmations, the U.S. Senate approved Mike Selig to lead the CFTC and Travis Hill to run the FDIC, both with major potential reach into crypto.

Anthropic commits to buy $30B in Azure capacity in a new deal with Microsoft and Nvidia, which commit to invest up to $5B and $10B, respectively, in Anthropic (Microsoft)
https://blogs.microsoft.com/blog/2025/11/18/microsoft-nvidia-…

Microsoft, NVIDIA and Anthropic announce strategic partnerships - The Official Microsoft Blog
Anthropic to scale Claude on Azure Anthropic to adopt NVIDIA architecture NVIDIA and Microsoft to invest in Anthropic Today Microsoft, NVIDIA and Anthropic announced new strategic partnerships. Anthropic is scaling its rapidly-growing Claude AI model on Microsoft Azure, powered by NVIDIA, which will broaden access to Claude and provide Azure enterprise customers with expanded model choice and new capabilities. Anthropic...

Wall Street clearinghouse DTCC selects the Canton Network blockchain as a real-world asset tokenization partner after receiving a No-Action Letter from the SEC (Ian Allison/CoinDesk)
https://www.coindesk.com/business/2025/12/

Wall Street giant DTCC Picks privacy focused blockchain Canton Network for tokenization
Canton creator Digital Asset will help tokenize DTC-custodied U.S. Treasury securities.

Boston-based Neurable, which builds an OS for brain-computer interfaces, raised a $35M Series A led by Spectrum Moonshot Fund, bringing its total raised to $65M (Brock E.W. Turner/Axios)
https://www.axios.com/pro/health-tech-deals/2025/12/19/neurable-r…

Exclusive: Neurable raises $35M for brain-computer interface AI
The company plans to kick off another raise next year, despite having 18 months of runway.

Atomico: European startups are on track to raise $44B in 2025, up from $41B in 2024; tech now makes up 15% of Europe's GDP, up from 4% in 2016 (Kai Nicol-Schwarz/Sifted)
https://sifted.eu/articles/state-european-tech-report-2025/