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OpenAI suspected the three fired researchers of leaking internal model designs to AI safety researcher Ryan Greenblatt, including via disappearing Signal chats (Wall Street Journal) (Visit Techmeme dot com for the link and full context!)

Spotify confirms it is rolling out a new family plan verification method requiring members to scan QR codes on plan managers' phones within seven days of notice (@sarahpereztc / TechCrunch) (Visit Techmeme dot com for the link and full context!)

US Treasury proposes rules tightening restrictions on US investments in areas including AI and supercomputing in China, Russia, and other "countries of concern" (Associated Press) (Visit Techmeme dot com for the link and full context!)

An interview with Ondřej Surý, a volunteer who maintains PHP and automates its patches, about his role in fixing two critical PHP security vulnerabilities (@cwarzel / The Atlantic) (Visit Techmeme dot com for the link and full context!)

German energy company PreussenElektra says it is working with Nvidia to assess whether the country's idle nuclear plants could be turned into data centers (Eva Brendel / Bloomberg) (Visit Techmeme dot com for the link and full context!)

a16z rebrands a16z Crypto as a16z Frontier and expands the fund's scope to back startups developing AI, robotics, and other emerging technologies (@c_grigera / Fortune) (Visit Techmeme dot com for the link and full context!)

Sources: OpenAI has cut its valuation target to $1.25T, down from the $1.4T valuation it pitched earlier this month, after facing resistance from some investors (Financial Times) (Visit Techmeme dot com for the link and full context!)

Sources: SpaceX is in talks with at least one major cellular infrastructure firm to secure a minimum of 80K US cell sites, as it eyes a wireless carrier launch (@kelceegriffis / Bloomberg) (Visit Techmeme dot com for the link and full context!)

Anthropic donates the Agent Skills open standard to the Agentic AI Foundation and says 70+ platforms have integrated it, after donating MCP to the AAIF in 2025 (Anthropic) (Visit Techmeme dot com for the link and full context!)

Sources: OpenAI nears an up to $30B round led by investors from the UAE and Coatue at a $1.25T pre-money valuation, as an "opportunistic" bridge ahead of an IPO (@kr00ney / CNBC) (Visit Techmeme dot com for the link and full context!)

Canva launches Craft, its first image generation model, trained on human-designed templates, available to all users, with plans to support third-party chatbots (@indianidle / TechCrunch) (Visit Techmeme dot com for the link and full context!)

Microsoft and Alphabet join 14 other companies objecting to a plan by OKXICE, a venture of OKX and ICE, to trade blockchain-based versions of their shares (@c_grigera / Fortune) (Visit Techmeme dot com for the link and full context!)

Amazon issues refunds from a 2025 settlement, crediting "President Trump's Federal Trade Commission," the first time an FTC refund has been tied to a president (@al___ng / Politico) (Visit Techmeme dot com for the link and full context!)

Microsoft says its GPT-5-powered Diagnostic Orchestrator uses agents that mimic panels of experts to diagnose conditions up to 4x more accurately than doctors (@theroberthart / The Verge) (Visit Techmeme dot com for the link and full context!)

Sources: Datadog offered to buy Israeli cloud cybersecurity startup Upwind Security for ~$4B; Upwind is finalizing a $300M funding round at a ~$3.8B valuation (The Information) (Visit Techmeme dot com for the link and full context!)

Amazon rebrands Kindle Unlimited as Kindle+ and expands access to audiobooks, including titles narrated by AI (Maria Diaz / ZDNET) (Visit Techmeme dot com for the link and full context!)

Sources: SoftBank's SB Energy is considering going public in December or possibly waiting until next year as it monitors Anthropic's IPO, expected next month (The Information) (Visit Techmeme dot com for the link and full context!)

US officials say Trump asked Elon Musk to lift Starshield restrictions; Ukraine officials said it was not fully fixed Thursday but was working at higher speeds (Wall Street Journal) (Visit Techmeme dot com for the link and full context!)

Chicago-based Formic, which provides robots-as-a-service automation to manufacturers, raised $50M, including a $40M Series B and $10M in asset-backed financing (@natalie_breym / Axios) (Visit Techmeme dot com for the link and full context!)

The Browser Company plans to shut down its Arc browser on December 22, as it shifts attention to the AI-focused Dia browser (@jaypeters / The Verge) (Visit Techmeme dot com for the link and full context!)