Tootfinder

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.

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.

"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

Hear hear!
Universiteit Groningen probeert zich los te rukken van big tech: ‘Geen alternatief voor Microsoft’ | BNR Nieuwsradio
https://www.bnr.nl/nieuws/tech-innovatie/10593189/universite…

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.

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.

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.

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.

"That's it. That's why every government in the world allowed US Big Tech companies to declare open season on their people's private data and ready cash.
The alternative was tariffs. Well, I don't know if you've heard, but we've got tariffs now!
I mean, if someone threatens to burn your house down unless you follow their orders, and then they burn your house down anyway, you don't have to keep following their orders. So…Happy Liberation Day?" - @…
https://pluralistic.net/2026/01/01/39c3/#the-new-coalition

Mailing Lists? In this day and age!?
I've been pointed to Groups.io and Gaggle Mail as alternatives to Google Groups for a mailing list, but I've love to hear about others.
Google Groups tends to be a default for many people doing a mailing list because it's free and well known, but I want to offer an alternative to Google and other big US-based tech companies.
Any other suggestions?
(Thanks to @…

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.
-- @…

Like financial transactions, barter transactions are treated as taxable supplies for VAT purposes as well in the EU.
Italy has considered that handing over personal details in exchange for services, as e.g. in the case of Facebook, is barter, and therefore VAT-able. If they succeed in making that work, other EU member states are bound to follow. Big tech platforms are worried, especially as the EU Commission agrees with the Italian stance. Interesting.

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.

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.

Just saw how various websites are using 50 GB total in Chrome. A big culprit is every site with an embedded YouTube video seems to have its own copy of 313MB of YouTube crap. It's partitioned for privacy purposes and I'm guessing nothing is de-duping that storage. I wonder if every site has to download it too?

Wow. Finally a truly good article about moving away from big tech in the national news here in Denmark. And yes, Mastodon is in it. It’s not a perfect list, but it’s the first good one I’ve seen outside of personal blogs. https://www.dr.dk/nyheder/viden/teknolo…

Not that many people here will need it, but as an indicator it's interesting:
In case you're looking for an alternative New Year resolution, Denmark has a new people's movement: Danmark skifter, Denmark switches, which aims to help people regain focus, change their social media habits and get off US big tech platforms.
Here's their English website:
https://danmarkskifter.dk/en/

Big Tech's dominance on the S&P 500 is becoming more extreme; the eight biggest tech stocks account for 60% of the gains since the market bottomed in April 2025 (George Steer/Financial Times)

Geen persoonsgegevens voor Big Tech-lobbyisten! | WeMove Europe
https://action.wemove.eu/sign/2025-11-dpc-ireland-petition-NL/?referring_akid=16801.1140952.VhuFml&source=mailto
> Een voormalig lobbyi…

Podcast-Episoden-Empfehlung:
#AuchDasNoch? #RicardaLang zu #SocialMedia-Beeinflussung: "Wir sind nicht wehrlos"

My big gripe with "AI" is that a big reason why it's sold as the second coming of Jesus is that most tech people fundamentally do not understand how it actually works.
Their reasoning goes something like, "It works sort of ok for code generation, and programming is the hardest possible thing in the world to do, every other human endeavor is trivial compared to writing code, therefore it must excel at anything else!".
So it ends up being pushed due to a mixture of ignorance and hubris; and especially being stuffed into things it should never be used for (usually when users don't have a say which software they need to use for work).
The finbros are happily along for the ride because they just need something that can be hyped to pump and dump.

ICE Asks Companies About 'Ad Tech and Big Data' Tools It Could Use in Investigations (Caroline Haskins/Wired)
https://www.wired.com/story/ice-asks-companies-about-ad-tech-and-big-data-tools/
http://www.memeorandum.com/260125/p35#a260125p35

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.

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…

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…

Det var på tide med en god artikel om alternativerne hos DR! https://www.dr.dk/nyheder/viden/teknologi/kan-man-klare-sig-uden-amerikansk-big-tech-her-er-nogle-af-alternativerne

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.

Good news, any progress in more federated social media is a good thing in my view.
https://openfuture.eu/blog/eurosky-dawns-building-infrastructure-for-sovereign-social-media/

Eurosky dawns – Open Future
The Eurosky initiative is building European social media infrastructure on the ATProtocol, representing a new step in Europe's digital sovereignty agenda as policymakers seek alternatives to Big Tech platforms that serve public interest rather than commercial imperatives.

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.

What life is like for Palestinians from Gaza on centralised, US-based, Big Tech networks like Bluesky (yes, it’s all those things… did something about them make you think otherwise?)
#Bluesky #complicity #genocide

dalia rezk (@daliarezk@mastodon.social)
Attached: 1 image @aral@mastodon.ar.al

Many are surprised as the owners/managers of big high-tech companies have embraced and paid de facto bribes to trump.
I was part of the silicon valley (and Boston) era when those now-huge companies got started.
Having observed many of the people who controlled those then-new companies, I am not surprised that those companies are now institutions of political reaction and economic concentration.
Back then the Silicon valley was filled with cocaine and money-worshiping people…

Interesting article about trust when providing services for others:
https://blog.avas.space/alternatives-trust/

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.

Zwei #Podcast Tipps zum Abend:
Im Hörsaal klärt Martin Andree noch einmal sehr kurzweilig darüber auf, dass das Versprechen der Techkonzerne von freien Internet eine Lüge ist und sie an der digitalen Oligarchie arbeiten.
Hörsaal - Deutschlandfunk Nova: Populismus als Waffe - Wie Big Tech Demokratie und Öffentlichkeit kaputtmacht
Webseite der Episode:

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.

https://restofworld.org/2025/chatgpt-india-alternative-ai-llms/
Thanks @… for sharing!

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.

heise | Tschüss, Big Tech: Acht sichere E-Mail-Alternativen aus Europa im Vergleich
Gmail, iCloud, Outlook – die größten E-Mail-Anbieter sitzen in den USA. Mit diesen europäischen Alternativen erklären Sie Ihre digitale Unabhängigkeit.

This is why Digital Independance Day is so important:
Big tech banning apps when politics want it:
#fosdem #fosdem2026

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.

The EU unconditionally approves Omnicom's $13.25B all-stock deal to buy Interpublic, creating the world's largest ad agency to better compete with Big Tech (Bart Meijer/Reuters)
https://www.reuters.com/business/eu-approves-omnicoms…

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…

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

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.

For this #blackfriday why not buy and build a #nocode website of your own. Break free of big tech and try #carrd.

Choose a Starting Point - Carrd
Templates

Which big tech service is going down next?

#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.

»USA und China rüsten bei KI massiv auf – diese Szenarien drohen Europa:
Digitale Souveränität statt Abhängigkeit von Big-Tech-Konzernen - Dieses für das demokratische Europa erstrebenswerte Ziel wird durch die KI-Offensiven der Amerikaner und Chinesen infrage gestellt. Eine aktuelle Studie zeigt vier Zukunftsszenarien auf.«
Ich frage mich wann die KI-Lücke real wird und in welchem Ausmaß für wen?
🤖

Wie Europa im KI-Rennen gegen die USA und China bestehen kann
Digitale Souveränität statt Abhängigkeit von Big-Tech-Konzernen? Eine aktuelle Studie zeigt vier Zukunftsszenarien auf.

Nu är spottan bytt mot Deezer och Loopia hostingen är flyttad till Inleed. Min flytt från big tech och företag som jag inte gillar börjar komma långt. Ska bort från gmail också - men det kommer att ta tid att byta ut mailen hos alla ställen som jag använder gmail till att logga in eller ha lösenordsreset på.

A look at ChatGPT's impact on US stocks three years after its release: AI mania revived Big Tech, making an already concentrated S&P 500 even more top heavy (Bloomberg)

With the holidays upon us, it's easy to default to giving the tech gifts that retailers tend to push on us this time of year:
smart speakers, video doorbells, bluetooth trackers, fitness trackers, and other connected gadgets are all very popular gifts.
But before you give one, think twice about what you're opting that person into.
One big problem with giving these sorts of gifts is that you're opting another person into a company's intrusive surveillance prac…

Think Twice Before Giving Surveillance for the Holidays
With the holidays upon us, it's easy to default to giving the tech gifts that retailers tend to push on us this time of year: smart speakers, video doorbells, bluetooth trackers, fitness trackers, and other connected gadgets are all very popular gifts. But before you give one, think twice about...

Optimise for #continuouschange, not #modernisation or #legacy

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

RE: #Microsoft #MS

Did you know?
You can help struggling billionaire owners of big tech companies that can’t build AI data centers fast enough by closing accounts and canceling subscriptions

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

RE: https://cyberplace.social/@GossiTheDog/115944285350406235
Consejo no solicitado: Protejan su información confidencial e importante de las big-tech.

Meta just bought into the enterprise market with its Manus deal, which may eventually help it expand into cloud offerings like those of its Big Tech peers (M.G. Siegler/Spyglass)
https://spyglass.org/meta-manus-deal/

Manus: The Hands of AI Fate
Meta acquires an AI business model...

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.

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’.

»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.

Once again impressed by WiThings. Just bought a new Body Comp scale and it's a lovely new product experience. Their software quality is excellent. Just a great experience.
(And a big raspberry to InBody: did not like their comparable product.)

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

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

EU member states agree a position on draft child protection legislation without forcing Big Tech to find and remove CSAM; states now negotiate with EU lawmakers (Reuters)
https://www.reuters.com/sustainability/soc

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 …

Frankreich nimmt die digitale Souveränität selbst in die Hand. Mit der flächendeckenden Einführung der Videokonferenzplattform Visio verabschiedet sich der Staat von US-Diensten wie Microsoft Teams und Zoom.
Zum Artikel: https://heise.de/-11155120?wt_mc=sm.re<…

Warum weiter Big Tech folgen, wenn’s auch anders geht? Das Whitepaper „Reinvent Social Platforms“ vom SWR zeigt: Das Fediverse passt besser zu unabhängigen Medienwerten als kommerzielle Plattformen. Auf ~60 Seiten werden Chancen, echte Probleme und konkrete Lösungen skizziert. Journalismus braucht digitale Souveränität, nicht nur Klick-Optimierung. #SWR

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.

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…

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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://

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

Over the past month, the US paused talks on a tech pact with the UK, canceled a South Korea trade meeting, and threatened the EU over Big Tech regulations (Politico)
https://www.politico.com/news/2025/12/23/trump-administra…

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.

EU lawmakers agree on new rules that hold platforms like Meta and TikTok liable for financial scams that have been reported, requiring them to compensate banks (Politico)
https://www.politico.eu/article/social-media-giants-meta-tik…

Social media giants liable for financial scams under new EU law
The new rules set a dangerous precedent, big tech companies say.

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’.

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.

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.

As US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents wreak havoc on American communities,
big tech companies have been making themselves indispensable to the increasingly tyrannical state.
Among them is Amazon subsidiary Ring,
the company behind those AI doorbell cameras that have exploded in popularity over the last few years.
Back in October, Ring announced that its devices would soon be looped into a network of Flock AI surveillance cameras.
That network, an inv…

Fury as Amazon Ring Cameras Are Hooked Up to ICE System
Online activists are telling owners of Ring Doorbell cameras that it's time to get rid of their devices, which can be used by ICE.

The EU gives Google a six-month deadline to lift technical barriers to rival AI search assistants on Android and give key data to other search engine providers (Samuel Stolton/Bloomberg)
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-…

Google Android Told by EU to Open Up to Rival AI Systems
Google was handed a six-month European Union deadline to lift technical barriers to rival AI search assistants on Android and give key data to other search engine providers in the latest round of its Big Tech crackdown.

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

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…

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

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-…

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.

The EU unconditionally approves Omnicom's $13.25B all-stock deal to buy Interpublic, creating the world's largest ad agency to better compete with Big Tech (Bart Meijer/Reuters)
https://www.reuters.com/business/eu-approves-omnicoms…

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.

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.

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

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…

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.

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.

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.

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.