Tootfinder

Sparkassenchef: Digitaler Euro ist Türöffner für Big-Tech-Player
Der digitale Euro soll Europa unabhängiger machen. Laut dem Präsidenten des Deutschen Sparkassen- und Giroverbands würde er aber die Souveränität gar schwächen.

Comments by heads of Amazon, Microsoft, Anthropic, OpenAI and others, many delivered at the World Economic Forum in Davos, reveal a shift of narrative from optimistic inevitability towards recognition of geopolitical tensions, energy scarcity, economic bubbles and the race to make AI truly useful.
https://www.

Big tech leaders opine on the future of AI
Big tech leaders have been opining this week, on the future of AI, taking on the bubble talk, resource constraints and opportunities.

Montag: Rückkehr der Vorratsdatenspeicherung, Deutschlandfonds für Tech-Boost
Gesetzentwurf in ministerieller Abstimmung Milliarden-Boost für Big-Tech Warnung von US-Firmen vor Visa-Prüfung Avatar-Spiel unterschätzt Trump pro Mond

Sources: tech lobbyists say that David Sacks' push for an EO blocking state AI laws undercut their efforts to craft a permanent, bipartisan federal solution (Politico)
https://www.politico.com/news/2025/12/20/big-tech-gets-worried-about-trumps…

»Digitale Souveränität beginnt dort, wo Allianzen und Appeasement enden:
Airbus, SAP, Capgemini, Forschung, Big Tech: Warum Allianzen keine Sicherheit bieten, Appeasement keine Strategie ist – und digitale Souveränität nur durch Unabhängigkeit entsteht.«
Es ist nicht simpel absolut unabhängig von den Supportern zu sein und einen erheblichen Aufwand. Doch dies entschuldigt gewisse Gläubigkeit von gewissen Open-Source Tools nicht.
🐧

Digitale Souveränität beginnt dort, wo Allianzen und Appeasement enden
Airbus, SAP, Capgemini, Forschung, Big Tech: Warum Allianzen keine Sicherheit bieten, Appeasement keine Strategie ist – und digitale Souveränität nur durch Unabhängigkeit entsteht.

While the AI bubble feels like the internet bubble of 1999, it may actually be larger and scarier with an unstable US economy and greater exposure for Big Tech (Fred Vogelstein/Crazy Stupid Tech)
https://crazystupidtech.com/2025/11/21/boom-bubble-bust…

We remember the internet bubble. This mania looks and feels the same.
The AI revolution is three years old Nov. 30. In just 36 months AI has gone from great-new-toy, to global phenomenon, to where we are today - debating whether we are in one of the biggest technology bubbles or booms in modern times. To us there is no debate. There is too much spending, too much leverage, too many crazy deals, and too much competition from China for us not to see big bumps ahead.

Do you feel that you are too dependent on Big Tech and overwhelmed by the number of services you use?
Are you afraid of the amount of work it takes to get out? - I totally feel you!
But the best is to just start. Start with one service at a time.
Don't overthink it too much.
Don't stress yourself.
Just do the first step. And do the second when you're ready.

Apple is nearing a deal with Google that would see the iPhone maker pay the tech giant roughly
$1 billion a year for a custom version of Google’s Gemini AI model
to power its overhaul of Siri.
The move is a big one for Apple,
which has traditionally relied on its own technology
but plans to use Google’s model as a temporary solution until its own AI becomes powerful enough,
including to power a slate of upcoming features for the voice assistant.
The…

Apple nears deal to pay Google $1B annually to power new Siri, report says | TechCrunch
Apple is turning to Google's technology to help revamp Siri and power a slate of upcoming features for the voice assistant.

Excellent article on digital sovereignty.
#digitalsovereignty

Europe gets serious about cutting digital umbilical cord with Uncle Sam's big tech
Feature: Public bodies migrate in the bloc as hyperscalers claim sovereignty

Gutachter: EU-Kommission will eine "uferlose Sonderrechtszone" für KI
In einer Rechtsanalyse für Verbraucherschützer warnen Experten vor massiven Schutzlücken durch den geplanten "digitalen EU-Omnibus". Big Tech werde bevorzugt.

Analysis: the top US tech companies spent $109M on DC lobbying in 2025, topping $100M for the first time; Meta spent $26.29M, Amazon $17.78M, and Google $13.1M (Bloomberg)
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-…

In acht Tagen spreche ich im #39C3 Sendezentrum im c’t uplink Podcast mit @… und anderen Gästen über #DigitaleSouveränität.
Habt Ihr dazu in letzter Z…

The #libxml2 situation is a sad one. It sucks that big tech companies refuse to fund a library that is so critical to their products.
Let it be known that I support Nick, the now-former, original maintainer of the project.
#opensource

De Nederlandsche Bank waarschuwt voor big tech, maar draait zelf op Microsoft - Follow the Money -
https://www.ftm.nl/artikelen/nederlandsche-bank-waarschuwt-voor-bigtech-microsoft
Archive link https://archive.ph/p3HuI
What the .... 🙈🙈
Maar goed ... Alles draait toch om de MS cloud, dus wat maakt t uit...
... Nou in zoverre dat DNB medewerkers niet alleen over NLse data en ideeën zullen beschikken, maar ongetwijfeld ook over data en documenten van collega centrale banken in andere landen die misschien wel beter beveiligd zijn.
(Via @… )

Unsere #Politiker machen Lippenbekenntnisse zu #digitaleSouveränität aber wenn's ums Entscheiden geht, dann verstehen sie die Rolle von #FOSS offenbar überhaupt nicht:
Analyse zum Di…

Yet it comes with a big risk. That is, the incredible dependence of US stock market growth on the performance of a handful of tech giants. The Magnificent 7 - Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Meta, Microsoft, Nvidia, and Tesla - collectively comprise one third of the valuation of America's entire S&P 500.
BBC News - The Silicon Valley 'AI factory' at the heart of the tech race - BBC News

Al final, te van a obligar a usar la IA para que triunfe la IA.
“Big tech boss tells delegates at Davos that broader global use is essential if technology is to deliver lasting growth”
https://www.

https://www.wired.com/story/doxers-posing-as-cops-are-tricking-big-tech-firms-into-sharing-peoples-private-data/

Doxers Posing as Cops Are Tricking Big Tech Firms Into Sharing People's Private Data
A spoofed email address and an easily faked document is all it takes for major tech companies to hand over your most personal information.

Which big tech service is going down next?

Zo typerend dit,
"DNB laat na vragen in eerste instantie weten dat e-mail niet toegankelijk is voor Microsoft omdat de berichten ‘end-to-end beveiligd blijven’. Geconfronteerd met het oordeel van security-experts, erkent de bank vervolgens dat dit antwoord onjuist is en dat ‘technische toegang’ tot de data in ‘uitzonderlijke scenario’s’ mogelijk is."

De Nederlandsche Bank waarschuwt voor big tech, maar draait zelf op Microsoft
De Nederlandsche Bank maakt volop gebruik van systemen van Microsoft, waarin de Amerikanen kunnen meekijken. Bovendien schroefde DNB de beveiliging van e-mail verder terug. Terwijl de bank eerder waarschuwde voor afhankelijkheid van big tech en het ‘gure geopolitieke klimaat’.

Agora Digitale Transformation fordert: mehr Geld & Strategie für offene Plattformen – von Fediverse bis Bluesky (??). Europas digitale Öffentlichkeit darf nicht länger an BigTech hängen. Souveränität heißt: offene Infrastruktur statt Abhängigkeit. 1-Prinzip jetzt konsequent umsetzen!
#DigitaleSouveränität

Digitale Souveränität: Think Tank empfiehlt mehr Investitionen in Big-Tech-Alternativen
Vor dem Gipfel zur europäischen digitalen Souveränität werden die Appelle an die Bundesregierung lauter, gemeinwohlorientierte Alternativen zu Facebook und Co. zu stärken. Offene Netzwerke wie das Fediverse sollen mit konkreten Maßnahmen aus der Nische geführt werden.

Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos outlines increasing competition for customers' attention from YouTube, Instagram, linear networks that also do streaming, and more (Alex Weprin/The Hollywood Reporter)
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business

Ted Sarandos Warns “Instagram Is Coming” As He Lays Out Competitive Landscape for Netflix
"TV is not what we grew up on. TV is now just about everything," the Netflix co-CEO says, outlining the threat from traditional studios and networks, big tech and social giants, a preview of a potential regulatory fight.

An overview of macro tech trends for 2026, as "AI eats the world": bubbles, the AI platform shift, Big Tech FOMO, capex, Nvidia, US power backlogs, and more (Benedict Evans)
https://www.ben-evans.com/presentations

Presentations — Benedict Evans
Every year, I produce a big presentation exploring macro and strategic trends in the tech industry. New in May 2025, ‘AI eats the world’.

The Plan Is to Make the Internet Worse. Forever.
https://novaramedia.com/2025/12/07/the-plan-is-to-make-the-internet-worse-and-big-tech-rich/
An interesting interview with Cory Doctorow.

Doxers Posing as Cops Are Tricking Big Tech Firms Into Sharing People’s Private Data
A spoofed email address and an easily faked document is all it takes for major tech companies to hand over your most personal information.
👉 https://www.wired.com/stor…

US may owe $1 trillion in refunds if SCOTUS cancels Trump tariffs - Ars Technica https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2025/11/tariff-refunds-may-get-messy-if-trump-loses-supreme-court-fight/

US may owe $1 trillion in refunds if SCOTUS cancels Trump tariffs
Tech industry primed for big refunds if SCOTUS rules against Trump tariffs.

Zum Abend noch einige der heute besonders häufig geteilten #News:
Gutachter: EU-Kommission will eine "uferlose Sonderrechtszone" für KI

#WritersCoffeeClub
10. What have you recently learned which will have a big impact on your work?
11. How accessible is your work?
12. How can writers ensure the focus is on the work and not the writer? Or should they?
---
10. That's a hard question.
I fear I've reached a plateau where nothing freshly learned can do that.
11. It consists of words.

Thank you all for 3,000 followers on here! Here’s a photo of Danny to celebrate the occasion ☺️
3 years into being part of Mastodon, I continue to be impressed with how wonderful the people here are and how much this social network actually FEELS social. People replying to one another, having conversations, learning things, sharing moments of joy, making friends.
Mastodon brought my business clients, helped me gain confidence in my own voice, freed me from dependence on big tech and algorithms, rekindled my interests, introduced me to incredible people and projects, and served as a source of hope in humanity in the times when cynicism and nihilism felt all but inevitable.
I love our little corner of the internet, and am so glad that it’s still here despite everyone who professed it was doomed to fade into irrelevance.
Thank you to everyone reading these words for being here on the Fedi. The world is a little better thanks to your choice to support an independent web.

Wenn ihr Mitarbeiter einstellt, mit denen ihr noch nie persönlich interagiert habt und wahrscheinlich auch nicht mal regelmässig per Videokonferenz, dann kann es gut sein, dass sie gar nicht sind, wen sie vorgeben zu sein.
Eigentlich keine überraschende Erkenntnis. Ausser für Big-Tech-Firmen.
https://www.<…

https://VoteYesOrNoAI.com/vote/no

Are you YES AI or NO AI? Vote now.
Big Tech doesn't care if you want AI or not. They should.

Einige der zuletzt hier besonders häufig geteilten #News:
Gutachter: EU-Kommission will eine "uferlose Sonderrechtszone" für KI

let me rephrase that title : Big Tech basically flipped their script and bowed to the King (other images come to mind but would be very vulgar)
https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2025/12/big-tech-basically-took-trumps-unpredicta…

Big Tech basically took Trump’s unpredictable trade war lying down
From Apple gifting a gold statue to the US taking a stake in Intel.

Hochul Caves to Big Tech on AI Safety Bill (David Dayen/American Prospect)
https://prospect.org/2025/12/11/hochul-caves-big-tech-ai-safety-bill-new-york/
http://www.memeorandum.com/251211/p117#a251211p117

Check out the nifty article from my (younger, wiser) brother about the oligopoly on smartphones, and what you can do about it.
https://www.aclu.org/news/free-speech/app-store-oligopoly

Your Smartphone, Their Rules: How App Stores Enable Corporate-Government Censorship | ACLU
Big Tech Oligopoly helps the Trump Administration crack down on free speech

A look at Indian startups like TuluAI, which are building LLMs for low-resource languages by creating data sets nearly from scratch with community involvement (Rest of World)
https://restofworld.org/2025/chatgpt-india-alternative-ai-llms/

ChatGPT is huge in India. These locally focused startups found a way to compete
Indian founders are building digital data sets for low-resource languages by involving the community, and count on local relevance to go against big tech platforms.

Der #39C3 naht fast so schnell wie Weihnachten. 🎅
Ich bin gespannt auf die dortige c‘t Uplink #podcast Episode zum Thema #DigitaleSouveränität, bei der ich auch dabei sein w…

Es ist ja gerade fast so, als wollte Big Tech uns zeigen, dass solche Konzentrationen im Markt nicht gut sind.
#cloudflare #azure #aws

Regulating Big Tech is like regulating a malignant tumour. You don’t regulate a malignant tumour. You cut it out, with enough of a surgical margin to ensure you get every last putrid bit to avoid regrowth.
(This is moot, of course, as we’re not even regulating Big Tech, we’re feeding it with subsidies, government contracts, and access to national healthcare and other sensitive data while the folks who should be regulating them eye their next lucrative gig beyond the revolving doors of …

RE: https://mastodon.social/@404mediaco/115918464978934903
This is why we should continue to fight for our right on privacy, encryption, and don't give away all our data to big tech. Germany should not buy Palantir!

Optimise for #continuouschange, not #modernisation or #legacy

RE: https://mastodon.social/@Gargron/115569820207257167
This is why all the big tech bosses you have heard of are insane: because the sane people filter themselves out. There is no sane version of Mark Zuckerman, because if Mark Zuckerman was sane, he woul…

»Tech companies are betting big on nuclear energy to meet AIs massive power demands and they're using that AI to speed up the construction of new nuclear power plants.«
What could possibly go wrong. Trust me, I'm an engineer. 🤦
Full story over at @…:

Power Companies Are Using AI To Build Nuclear Power Plants
Tech companies are betting big on nuclear energy to meet AIs massive power demands and they're using that AI to speed up the construction of new nuclear power plants.

Setting humane goals for #BigTech
https://www.wired.com/story/big-interview-event-techdirt-mike-masnick-common-tools-alex-komoroske/

EU-Kommission verkauft den Digitalen Omnibus als Bürokratieabbau – laut NGO-Analyse liest sich das Gesetz aber wie eine Wunschliste von Big Tech. Datenschutz und KI-Regeln werden gelockert, digitale Rechte abgebaut. Stärkung der EU oder Aufschwung für US-Giganten? Autor: Tomas Rudl.
🔗 https://

The World Economic Forum in Davos is now dominated by tech giants, whose interests shunt aside topics like climate change, as Trump and AI take center stage (Peter S. Goodman/New York Times)
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/20/business/davos-trump.html

A.I., Big Tech and Trump Shine Most Brightly at the Davos Spectacle
The World Economic Forum is now dominated by global technology companies whose interests shunt aside most others.

Senator Marsha Blackburn said
“I look forward to introducing the
"TRUMP AMERICA AI Act"
in the new year to create one federal rulebook for AI
to protect children, creators, conservatives, and communities"
Combats the consistent pattern of bias against conservative figures demonstrated by Big Tech and AI systems by requiring:
Audits of high-risk AI systems to undergo regular bias evaluations to prevent discrimination based on protected characte…

Blackburn Unveils National Policy Framework for Artificial Intelligence

"Don't be evil" is so far in the past, it's not even a memory anymore
(Original title: Google Has Chosen a Side in Trump's Mass Deportation Effort)
https://www.404media.co/google-has-chosen-a-side-in-trumps-mass-deportation-ef…

Google Has Chosen a Side in Trump's Mass Deportation Effort
Google is hosting a CBP app that uses facial recognition to identify immigrants, while simultaneously removing apps that report the location of ICE officials because Google sees ICE as a vulnerable group. “It is time to choose sides; fascism or morality? Big tech has made their choice.”

"for the rest of us who don’t have the technical knowledge and time to follow his accomplishments, his advice is to “Never use your primary WiFi network for IoT devices” and to “Treat them as strangers in your home.” "
https://www.tomshardware.com/tech-industry/big-tech/manufacturer-issues-remote-kill-command-to-nuke-smart-vacuum-after-engineer-blocks-it-from-collecting-data-user-revives-it-with-custom-hardware-and-python-scripts-to-run-offline

Trump announces 10% punitive tariffs from 1 February 2026 against Germany, among others – as leverage in the Greenland dispute. From 1 June, the tariff will rise to 25%. This serves as a reminder that dependence makes us vulnerable to blackmail. It is time to detach ourselves from the United States as quickly as possible – especially digitally: away from big tech, US platforms and US offices.

Donald Trump says eight European countries face 10% tariff for opposing US control of Greenland – Europe live
Denmark, Norway, Sweden, the UK, France, Germany, the Netherlands and Finland will face tariffs from 1 February

The National Association of Broadcasters launches a campaign to support live sports on free broadcast channels as more big games move to streaming services (George Winslow/TV Tech)
https://www.tvtechnology.com/platform/broadcast/n…

NAB Launches Effort to Keep Live Sports on Broadcast Channels
The campaign comes at a time when fans are increasingly complaining about the cost of accessing games behind paywalls and the complexity of accessing the games

@…
https://voteyesornoai.com/vote/no 🚫

Are you YES AI or NO AI? Vote now.
Big Tech doesn't care if you want AI or not. They should.

To be fair, if you costed out hardware 9 months ago, you probably couldn't account for changes to technology prices influenced by a) AI companies b) US policies. The price of RAM alone will force adjustments.
https://www.theregister.com/2025/12/16/ukgov_expan…

UK.gov doubles hardware spending framework to £24B in 6 months
: Massive procurement deal for laptops, software and services comes after minister vows to squeeze better value from big vendors

https://VoteYesOrNoAI.com/vote/no

Are you YES AI or NO AI? Vote now.
Big Tech doesn't care if you want AI or not. They should.

I am so glad I am no longer working in the tech industry. It was kinda fun in the "princes of labor" era, but with all the layoffs and mow the AI race to the bottom I can’t imagine it being a good environment.
Big Tech joins the race to build the world's heaviest airplane
by @…

idk instead of hoping that your Big Tech software vendor—who had many data leaks before and was sued many times for abusing customer data—doesn't steal your data for AI training you could maybe not store your data in a Big Tech cloud

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)
https://www.cnbc.com/2026/01/14/big-tech-google-microsoft-energy-hiring-ai.html…

Big Tech is poaching energy talent to fuel its AI ambitions
Hires of energy-related talent by Big Tech was 30% higher in 2025 than pre-AI levels.

3/x
Ein Perspketivwechsel:
Das Fediverse ist keine Alternative zu #BigTech #SocialMedia, sondern der erste Versuch des Aufbaus eines dezentralen, demokratischen, öffentlichen Netzwerks. Big Tech-Plattformen sind dysfunktionale Alternativen zu einer öffentlichen Infrastruktur, die wir nicht haben. So gesehen geht es sehr gut voran, trotz mangelhafter Ressourcen:
• Anerkennung v. Mastodon als digitales öffentliches Gut
• #GrimmeOnlineAward für Mastodon/Fediverse
• …

Big Tech, business groups and the governor successfully gutted State Sen. Steve Padilla's attempt to protect consumers from the costs, emissions & unintended consequences of the AI data center frenzy. Big money wins again! https://

Big Tech blocked California data center legislation, leaving only a study requirement
Tools that power artificial intelligence devour energy. But attempts to shield regular Californians from footing the bill in 2025 ended with a law requiring regulators to write a report about the issue by 2027.

Oh, FFS. And here I thought EU leaders might have grown a spine. Guess I was wrong. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/nov/07/european-commission-ai-artificial-intelligence-act…

Tech whistleblowers like Yaël Eisenstat say coming forward has unexpectedly derailed their lives and careers; Meta is in litigation with Sarah Wynn-Williams (Naomi Nix/Washington Post)
https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2025/12/15/big-tech-whist…

Tech whistleblowers face million-dollar debts, job loss and isolation
After exposing the harms of Big Tech, many whistleblowers say they faced poor job prospects and isolation in Silicon Valley. They have no regrets.

ARD und ZDF vertrauen bei der Verbreitung digitaler Inhalte zunehmend auf die wenigen Big-Tech-Plattformen. Sie geben also Schritt für Schritt, Sendemast für Sendemast, die unabhängige Verbreitung auf - und begeben sich gleichzeitig in ein Ökosystem, dessen Regeln andere festlegen. "Wer die Infrastruktur beherrscht, beherrscht auch die Information und Meinung", schreibt Björn Staschen - epd medien #Medien

Digital Networks Act: EU verzichtet angeblich auf Milliardenstrafen für Big Tech
Der Digital Networks Act sollte Big Tech zur Kasse bitten. Doch statt harter Regulierung erwarten Netflix, Google und Meta nun Dialog und Handreichungen.

Keep hitting US Big Tech with fines, Europe's Greens tell von der Leyen (Max Griera/Politico)
https://www.politico.eu/article/keep-hitting-us-big-tech-fines-europe-greens-tell-ursula-von-der-leyen/
http://www.memeorandum.com/251207/p28#a251207p28

Australia begins consultations with publishers and platforms on its News Bargaining Incentive, requiring Big Tech to pay local publishers or face new taxes (April Ossington/Channel News)
https://www.channelnews.com.au/australia-m

channelnews : Australia Moves to Make Tech Giants Pay for News As Google Faces New Scrutiny In Europe
Global technology companies are facing mounting regulatory pressure, with the Albanese government moving ahead on new laws that would force platforms like Facebook, Google and TikTok to pay for Australian news content, just as Google faces a fresh competition probe in Europe. Under the federal government’s proposed News Bargaining Incentive, social media and search companies... Read More

At a time when the majority of Americans distrust big tech
and believe artificial intelligence will harm society,
Silicon Valley has built its own network of alternative media
where CEOs, founders and investors
are the unchallenged and beloved stars.
What was once the province of a few fawning podcasters
has grown into a fully fledged ecosystem of publications and shows
supported by some of the tech industry’s most powerful.

Alibaba halves Qwen3-Max prices, from $0.861 to $0.459 per 1M input tokens and $3.441 to $1.836 per 1M output tokens for API users, amid China's AI price wars (Vincent Chow/South China Morning Post)
https://www.scmp.com/tech/big-tech/article

Alibaba slashes Qwen3-Max model charges up to 50% amid latest AI price war
The new pricing strategy reflects heightened competition in China’s foundational model market.

Duk op the Danish privacy focused and free of big tech event announcement platform is looking for volunteers to help refresh its UX 👇
https://dukop.dk/en/news/42/

Deutschland hängt in zentralen digitalen Infrastrukturen am Tropf der USA – und der Bundesregierung fällt nichts Besseres ein, als nach Deregulierung und Entbürokratisierung zu rufen. Sprich: Die Schutzrechte zurückbauen, die wir mal als Bollwerk gegen Big Tech erkämpft haben. - @…
Viel heiße Luft beim

Viel heiße Luft beim Digitalgipfel
Was heute auf dem Europäischen Digitalgipfel zur digitalen Souveränität in Berlin passiert, ist in großen Teilen eine Farce. Deutschland hängt in zentralen digitalen Infrastrukturen am Tropf der USA – und die Bundesregierung fällt nichts Besseres ein, als nach Deregulierung und Entbürokratisierung zu rufen. Sprich: Die Schutzrechte zurückbauen, die wir mal als

Big Tech 2025: Alphabet und Nvidia dominieren die Börse – den übrigen fehlt Luft
Erstmals seit drei Jahren KI-Hype geriet der AI-Trade 2025 etwas ins Wanken. Das Jahr, in dem Big Tech an der Wall Street teilweise entzaubert wurde.

FTC Chairman Andrew Ferguson says the agency is examining Big Tech's acqui-hires to make sure "they are not an attempt to get around" its merger review process (Bloomberg)
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/20

Manufacturer issues remote kill command to disable smart vacuum after engineer blocks it from collecting data
— Then the user revives it with custom hardware and Python scripts to run offline

Manufacturer issues remote kill command to disable smart vacuum after engineer blocks it from collecting data — user revives it with custom hardware and Python scripts to run offline
The smart vacuum cleaner was remotely bricked for not collecting data.

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.

Even before Microsoft Azure had a global failure this week,
Austria's Ministry of Economy had taken a decisive step toward digital sovereignty.
The Ministry is migrating 1,200 employees to a Nextcloud-based cloud and collaboration platform hosted on Austrian-based infrastructure
It's the latest move in a European trend to shift away from Big Tech.

European governments and agencies want to control sensitive data.

Another European agency shifts off Big Tech, as digital sovereignty movement gains steam
European Union states are increasingly shifting toward European-based companies that offer open-source solutions. Here's why.

Big Tech's EU lobbying hit €151M in 2025, up from €113M in 2023 and €97M in 2021; between January and June 2025, Big Tech had 146 meetings with EU officials (Corporate Europe Observatory)
https://corporateeurope.org/en/2025/10/big-tech-lobby-budgets-hit-re…

Big Tech lobby budgets hit record levels | Corporate Europe Observatory
New figures show that the digital industry as a whole is now spending €151 million a year on lobbying the EU, a major increase to what was already considerable firepower.

Flying drones used during the Ukraine war have changed land battle tactics for ever.
Now the same thing appears to be happening under the sea.
Navies around the world are racing to add autonomous submarines.
https://www.theguardian.com…

39C3: Digital Independence Day – CCC-Sprecher über Weg raus aus Big Tech
Auf dem Hackerkongress 39C3 wurde der Digital Independence Day ausgerufen. Warum und was das bedeutet, erklärt CCC-Sprecher Linus Neumann im Interview.

Investment in subsea cable projects is expected to reach $13B between 2025 and 2027, almost 2x the amount invested between 2022 and 2024, driven by AI buildout (Magdalena Petrova/CNBC)
https://www.cnbc.com/2025/11/08/big-tech-ai-underwater-cables.html

Underwater cables are a vital piece of the AI buildout and internet — investment is booming
Over 95% of international data and voice traffic travels through subsea telecom cables. Tech giants Meta, Google, Amazon and Microsoft are investing for AI.

Poland's President Karol Nawrocki vetoes legislation meant to enforce the EU's DSA in Poland, arguing it would grant excessive powers to government officials (Wojciech Kość/Politico)
https://www.politico.eu/article/polish-pre

Polish president aligns with Trump to block Brussels’ Big Tech law
Nawrocki called EU social media law “Orwellian,” echoing Washington’s main line of attack.

US investors are boosting Chinese AI-related tech stocks and adding cash to ETFs tracking China's tech sector, as US lawmakers push for tighter capital curbs (Wall Street Journal)
https://www.wsj.com/tech/ai/u-s-i…

Ireland has been every bit as important in exporting US Big Tech around the world as the US has been.
But Ireland has another key export, one that is confined to the European Union.
Because every tax haven must be a crime haven,
and because Big Tech's favorite crime is illegal surveillance,
Ireland has exported American tech spying to the whole European Union.
-- @…

DeepSeek researchers detail a new mHC architecture they used to train 3B, 9B, and 27B models, finding it scaled without adding significant computational burden (Vincent Chow/South China Morning Post)
https://www.scmp.com/tech/big-tech/article

DeepSeek opens 2026 with paper signalling race to train bigger models for less
DeepSeek has published a technical paper co-authored by founder Liang Wenfeng proposing a rethink of its core deep learning architecture.

French President Emmanuel Macron criticizes the EU for being too slow to act on probes into Big Tech companies, attributing the delay to US pressure against DSA (Politico)
https://www.politico.eu/article/brussels-afraid-of-tackling-us-big-tech-em…

Macron says Brussels is ‘afraid’ of tackling US Big Tech
An “American offensive” has cowed the European Commission and some EU capitals, French president complains.

Sources: ByteDance plans to spend about $14B on Nvidia's AI chips in 2026, an increase of about 18% from 2025 (Wency Chen/South China Morning Post)
https://www.scmp.com/tech/big-tech/article/3338191/bytedance-pour-u…

Exclusive | ByteDance to pour US$14 billion into Nvidia chips in 2026 as AI demand surges
Chinese unicorn’s computing needs have climbed across its portfolio of popular apps, cloud unit Volcano Engine and large language models.

French lawmakers vote to raise France's digital services tax on US tech giants to 6%, up from 3%; the French government opposes the move, fearing US retaliation (Politico)
https://www.politico.eu/article/french-lawmakers-progress-tax…

French lawmakers progress tax on American Big Tech amid huge pushback
PARIS — French lawmakers are moving ahead with plans to double a tax on big tech firms — backing away from a more aggressive push amid fears of provoking U.S. trade retaliation. France’s National A…

Dealogic: 51 US tech IPOs raised $16.8B in 2025, driven by AI and crypto, above the past three-year average but far below 2021's 127 IPOs raising $74.4B (Valida Pau/The Information)
https://www.theinformation.com/articles/ai-crypto-companies-dominat…

AI and Crypto Companies Dominated IPO Winners in 2025
The drought in initial public offerings ended this year, led by big winners in AI and crypto, but gains were rare for companies outside those industries. Bankers expect those trends to hold in 2026. Booms in AI and crypto delivered two of the biggest winners of the year: data center developer ...

Source: Italian police searched the offices of the country's data protection agency, one of EU's most proactive regulators, as part of a corruption probe (Reuters)
https://www.reuters.com/sustainability/boa

Trump says Microsoft will "ensure" Americans don't face higher bills due to data centers' power use and Big Tech must "pay their own way" for their data centers (Business Insider)
https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-micr

Trump says that Microsoft will 'ensure' Americans don't 'pick up the tab' for its data center power consumption
President Donald Trump said that tech companies must pay for their own data centers without spiking utility bills for American households.

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)
https://asia.nikkei.com/business/technology/artificial-inte…

China drafting purchase rules for Nvidia H200 chips
Beijing wants to boost domestic industry, but big tech companies need top hardware

Big Tech got almost everything it wanted from President Trump, as he backs policies that allow the industry to grow unfettered, worrying some conservatives (Cecilia Kang/New York Times)
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/28/technol<…

From A.I. to Chips, Big Tech Is Getting What It Wants From Trump
The president has backed policies that allow the industry to grow unfettered. The mutually beneficial alliance is causing concern among some conservatives.

An investor group and AI developer Voltai plan to use AI to design, build, and run a 3GW data center in South Korea, set to cost up to $35B and open in 2028 (Jiyoung Sohn/Wall Street Journal)
https://www.wsj.com/tech/a-…

How Microsoft, Amazon, Meta, and Google are managing the strain of AI's increased energy demand with their promises of net-zero carbon emissions (Emily Forgash/Bloomberg)
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/20

Qualcomm unveils the Dragonwing IQ10 Series, a full-stack robotics architecture integrating hardware, software, and AI for industrial and consumer humanoids (Katie Collins/CNET)
https://www.cnet.com/tech/qualcomm-announces-dragonwing-iq10-…

Qualcomm Bets Big on Robotics, Beginning With This Bendy-Backed Humanoid
A new wave of humanoids are coming. Qualcomm is ready to power them.

A profile of Aaron Greenspan, who has spent years on a crusade to expose what he believes are financial problems at Tesla and at big tech companies (Noam Scheiber/New York Times)
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/31/busines

What If You Spent Every Waking Moment Taking On Elon Musk?
Aaron Greenspan was once a promising entrepreneur. He has spent the last two decades lobbing grenades at the country’s most powerful tech moguls.

Big US hospital systems have become a proving ground for AI adoption; a survey finds that 27% of health systems are paying for commercial AI licenses (Wall Street Journal)
https://www.wsj.com/tech/ai/hospitals-are-

Alphabet hits a $4T market cap in intraday trading, becoming the fourth Big Tech company to reach the milestone, after its stock rose 6% in the past month (Tim Bradshaw/Financial Times)
https://www.ft.com/content/02d44794-815f-40dc-9b49-0e10432147a9