Yogita Khatri / The Block:
Auradine, which manufactures Bitcoin miners and offers AI infrastructure, raised a $153M Series C, with $138M in equity and $15M in debt, led by StepStone Group — – Auradine has raised $153 million in new funding to grow its bitcoin mining and AI infrastructure businesses.
Bloomberg:
Sources: Perplexity is in discussions to integrate its AI assistant on Samsung’s devices and has reached an agreement to preload Perplexity on Motorola’s phones — Perplexity AI Inc., an artificial intelligence startup vying with Google and OpenAI, is ramping up efforts to get prime placement for its virtual assistant on smartphones.
Kyle Wiggers / TechCrunch:
xAI announces a memory feature for Grok in beta that enables the AI chatbot to remember details from past conversations and give more personalized responses — Elon Musk’s AI company, xAI, is slowly bringing its Grok chatbot to parity with top rivals like ChatGPT and Google’s Gemini.
Chris Scullion / Video Games Chronicle:
Discord requires some UK and Australian users to verify their age by scanning their face or ID to access sensitive material; Discord says it’s “an experiment” — THE COMPANY SAYS THE AGE VERIFICATION FEATURE IS “AN EXPERIMENT” — Discord has added a new age verification system …
Bloomberg Law:
A US judge grants a permanent injunction against an Ohio law that required platforms to verify users are at least 16 and seek parental consent for younger users — A federal judge struck down Ohio’s law limiting teen social media use, marking another court win for the tech industry group …
Abner Li / 9to5Google:
Google is making Gemini Live camera and screen sharing features free for all Android users in the coming weeks after launching them for Advanced users last week — Last week, Google started widely rolling out Gemini Live camera and screen sharing to Advanced subscribers …
Bloomberg:
FTC challenges ex-Meta COO Sheryl Sandberg over past emails; she called Google+ a “real” competitor in 2011 and discussed blocking its ads on Facebook in 2012 — – Former Meta COO testified during antitrust trial’s third day — FTC alleges Meta is a monopoly, seeks breakup of company
New York Times:
The US House opens a probe on whether Nvidia knowingly provided AI tech to DeepSeek in violation of US rules and asks Nvidia for details on its Asian customers — China’s success in artificial intelligence has the Trump administration and lawmakers weighing rules and investigations to slow Beijing’s progress in the industry.
Julia Shapero / The Hill:
FTC v. Meta: Mark Zuckerberg says he considers TikTok the “highest competitive threat” for Facebook and Instagram in the past few years — Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg emphasized Wednesday that his social media company faces stiff competition from TikTok, as Meta seeks to fend off accusations …
Samantha Subin / CNBC:
Tech stocks plunge amid uncertainty over US tariff plans and China export controls: AMD, Nvidia, and ASML dropped 7%, Applied Materials and Lam Research fell 5% — Technology stocks dropped Wednesday, led by a 7% plunge in Nvidia, as the chipmaking sector signaled that President Donald …
