Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:
French AI startup H, which raised a $220M seed in May 2024, announces its first product, Runner H, an “agentic” AI model, available in private beta — H, the Paris startup founded by Google alums, made a big splash last summer when, out of the blue, it announced a seed round of $220 million …
Sources: Trump’s team is talking with the crypto industry over whether to create a White House post dedicated to cryptocurrency policy and is vetting candidates (Bloomberg)
Bloomberg:
Sources: Trump’s team is talking with the crypto industry over whether to create a White House post dedicated to cryptocurrency policy and is vetting candidates — – President-elect’s team is vetting candidates for the job — Crypto industry executives spoke with Trump this week
US prosecutors charge five alleged members of the Scattered Spider hacking group for their role in the hacks of 29+ individuals and theft of $11M+ in crypto (Margi Murphy/Bloomberg)
Margi Murphy / Bloomberg:
US prosecutors charge five alleged members of the Scattered Spider hacking group for their role in the hacks of 29+ individuals and theft of $11M+ in crypto — – $11 million stolen in years-long campaign targeting US firms — Loosely-knit group consists of young men in US and UK
Microsoft opens up Xbox Cloud Gaming to existing Xbox game libraries, letting Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscribers stream 50 supported games they already own (Tom Warren/The Verge)
Tom Warren / The Verge:
Microsoft opens up Xbox Cloud Gaming to existing Xbox game libraries, letting Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscribers stream 50 supported games they already own — Microsoft is starting to open up Xbox Cloud Gaming to existing Xbox game libraries today.
Meta unveils new Messenger features, including audio and video voicemail, AI backgrounds for video calls, and hands-free calling and messaging via Siri (Zac Hall/9to5Mac)
Zac Hall / 9to5Mac:
Meta unveils new Messenger features, including audio and video voicemail, AI backgrounds for video calls, and hands-free calling and messaging via Siri — There’s a pretty cool update for Messenger out today. Meta has introduced phone and video calling voicemail, similar to FaceTime.
The Biden admin finalizes $1.5B CHIPS Act incentives for GlobalFoundries, meaning it can start receiving federal funding for facilities in Vermont and New York (Mackenzie Hawkins/Bloomberg)
Mackenzie Hawkins / Bloomberg:
The Biden admin finalizes $1.5B CHIPS Act incentives for GlobalFoundries, meaning it can start receiving federal funding for facilities in Vermont and New York — – Pact doesn’t include $1.6 billion loan from proposed agreement — Biden administration has been firming up Chips Act awards
GSMA: 4.6B people are now connected to mobile internet, or 57% of the world; mobile subscriber growth fell to 160M in 2023, from 200M per year from 2015 to 2021 (Rest of World)
Rest of World:
GSMA: 4.6B people are now connected to mobile internet, or 57% of the world; mobile subscriber growth fell to 160M in 2023, from 200M per year from 2015 to 2021 — What happened to the “next billion” internet users? They’re already online. — 57% of the population is already connected to mobile internet.
A US judge sentences FTX co-founder Gary Wang to “time served”, meaning no jail time; Wang pleaded guilty in December 2022 to fraud charges after FTX collapsed (Sarah Wynn/The Block)
Sarah Wynn / The Block:
A US judge sentences FTX co-founder Gary Wang to “time served”, meaning no jail time; Wang pleaded guilty in December 2022 to fraud charges after FTX collapsed — – Gary Wang pleaded guilty in December 2022 to fraud-related charges following the collapse of FTX a month earlier.
Amazon unveils the $400 Echo Show 21, an upgrade to the Echo Show 15 from 2022, with a 21″ 1080p display and auto-framing camera, and updates the Echo Show 15 (Jennifer Pattison Tuohy/The Verge)
Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The Verge:
Amazon unveils the $400 Echo Show 21, an upgrade to the Echo Show 15 from 2022, with a 21″ 1080p display and auto-framing camera, and updates the Echo Show 15 — Amazon’s first wall-mounted smart display just got a big upgrade. Today, the company announced the launch of the Echo Show 21 …
Vista sells a minority stake in IT infrastructure monitoring company LogicMonitor to investors in a deal valuing it at ~$2.4B; LogicMonitor also raised $800M (Ryan Gould/Bloomberg)
Ryan Gould / Bloomberg:
Vista sells a minority stake in IT infrastructure monitoring company LogicMonitor to investors in a deal valuing it at ~$2.4B; LogicMonitor also raised $800M — – PSG Equity, Golub, others inject $800 million in equity, debt — Vista acquired LogicMonitor for $415 million in mid-2018
