Airbnb co-founder Joe Gebbia takes wraps off his first assignment for DOGE
Almost two weeks after The New York Times reported that Airbnb co-founder Joe Gebbia had joined Elon Musk's “Department of Government Efficiency,” Gebbia clarified his role on Thursday, announcing on X that as a starting point, he'll be leveraging his design expertise as part of an effo
SEC says meme coins are not securities
The Securities and Exchange Commission issued guidance on Thursday saying it does not view most meme coins, which are crypto tokens that originated from memes, as securities under United States federal law.
As a result, the SEC says it does not believe people who purchase or hold meme coins are pr
a16z hires former Republican congressman Patrick McHenry as advisor
Former North Carolina congressman Patrick McHenry announced Wednesday that he landed a job with VC firm Andreessen Horowitz. He will be a senior advisor.
His post on X said little about what the job entails, except to be advocating for startups (which a16z likes to call “little tech”)
Indonesia, Apple reach agreement to end iPhone 16 sales ban
Apple will be able to resume its iPhone 16 smartphone sales in Indonesia after the two sides came to an agreement, the Industry Ministry said during a press conference Wednesday, per a Reuters report.
The ban was lifted five months after Indonesia blocked the U.S. iPhone maker from selling its iPh
DOGE has an official ‘acting’ administrator, and it’s not Elon Musk, White House confirms
Amy Gleason has been named as the acting administrator of DOGE, the ostensible head of the Trump administration team of Elon Musk advisors and associates known as the Department of Government Efficiency, technewss has confirmed.
The news, first reported by Semafor, is the first time the White Hou
IBM’s $6.4B HashiCorp acquisition cleared by UK
The U.K.’s antitrust authority has given the go-ahead to IBM’s planned multibillion-dollar acquisition of infrastructure software company HashiCorp.
In a brief case update published today, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) said it had “cleared the anticipated acquisitio
Palantir CEO's new book says Silicon Valley has 'lost its way'
Palantir co-founder and CEO Alexander Karp opens his new book with a provocative declaration: “Silicon Valley has lost its way.”
Over the past decade or so, as the data analytics company rose to prominence with its work for U.S. military and intelligence, Karp has largely stayed out of the lim
Meta, X approved ads containing violent anti-Muslim, antisemitic hate speech ahead of German election, study finds
Social media giants Meta and X approved ads targeting users in Germany with violent anti-Muslim and anti-Jew hate speech in the run-up to the country’s federal elections, according to new research from Eko, a corporate responsibility nonprofit campaign group.
The group’s researchers te
Mark Zuckerberg's charity U-turns, ends DEI efforts
Mark Zuckerberg’s charity has eliminated its DEI programs and efforts just weeks after assuring staff it would continue supporting DEI efforts, The Guardian reports.
The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative (CZI), co-founded by Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan, will end internal DEI programs a
Elon Musk staffer created a DOGE AI assistant for making government ‘less dumb’
A senior Elon Musk staffer has created a custom AI chatbot that purports to help the Department of Government Efficiency eliminate government waste and is powered by Musk’s artificial intelligence company xAI, technewss has learned.
The chatbot, which was publicly accessible until Tuesday,
Thousands protest Elon Musk's DOGE in NYC on Presidents’ Day
More than 10,000 protesters gathered in New York City on Presidents’ Day to speak out against the current Trump administration and the actions in particular of Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
It was one of several protests that took place Monday in major cit
NATO backs its first cohort of European dual-use startups
With both Vice President J.D. Vance and U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth making loud noises Friday about Europe stepping up to the plate in spending more on its own defense, it might come as a surprise that Europe is already on the path toward far greater investment in defense, especially in tec
VC industry reacts to Trump nominating a16z’s Brian Quintenz for regulatory role
Brian Quintenz, who leads policy for Andreessen Horowitz's crypto team, announced on Wednesday that he's being tapped to head the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), according to his X post. And many in the VC industry appear to be thrilled about it.
The CFTC regulates the trading
EU abandons ePrivacy, AI liability reforms as bloc shifts focus to AI competitiveness
A long-stalled bid to beef up European Union rules around online tracking technologies and put penalties on a similar footing to the bloc’s data protection framework, GDPR, has been withdrawn by the Commission after co-legislators failed to reach agreement over the plan.
The original proposa