Google sues data scraping company SerpApi for allegedly using hundreds of millions of fake search requests to access copyrighted material from Google products (Blake Brittain/Reuters) https://www.reuters.com/legal/litigation/google-lawsuit-says-data-scraping-company-uses-fake-searches-steal-web-content-2025-12-19/
Techmeme
Google sues data scraping company SerpApi, alleging it used millions of fake search requests to access copyrighted content and sold it to third parties
By Blake Brittain / Reuters. View the full context on Techmeme.
Source: Sam Altman's Merge Labs, which seeks to read brain activity using ultrasound, is being spun out of LA-based nonprofit Forest Neurotech (Emily Mullin/Wired)
WIRED
Sam Altman’s New Brain Venture, Merge Labs, Will Spin Out of a Nonprofit
Merge Labs, a brain-computer interface startup that seeks to read brain activity using ultrasound, is being spun out of Forest Neurotech, a Los Ang...
Techmeme
Source: Sam Altman
By Emily Mullin / Wired. View the full context on Techmeme.
Neural Concept, whose 3D product design software uses deep learning to help cut development times, raised a $100M Series C, bringing its total funding to $130M (Chris Metinko/Axios) https://www.axios.com/pro/enterprise-software-deals/2025/12/18/neural-concept-100-million-goldman-sachs
Techmeme
Neural Concept, whose 3D product design software uses deep learning to help cut development times, raised a $100M Series C, bringing its total funding to $130M
By Chris Metinko / Axios. View the full context on Techmeme.
Netflix acquires avatar creation platform Ready Player Me to let its subscribers carry their personas and fandoms across games; the startup raised $72M (Sarah Perez/TechCrunch)
TechCrunch
Netflix acquires gaming avatar maker Ready Player Me | TechCrunch
The gaming startup will allow Netflix subscribers to create avatars that can extend across gaming titles.
Techmeme
Netflix acquires avatar creation platform Ready Player Me to let its subscribers carry their personas and fandoms across games; the startup raised $72M
By Sarah Perez / TechCrunch. View the full context on Techmeme.
A Paris court rejects a French government request to suspend Shein in the country after finding illegal weapons and child-like sex dolls for sale on the site (Associated Press)
AP News
Paris court rejects bid to suspend Shein platform in France
A Paris court has rejected a government request to suspend the Chinese fast-fashion platform Shein in France.
Techmeme
A Paris court rejects a French government request to suspend Shein in the country after finding illegal weapons and child-like sex dolls for sale on the site
From Associated Press. View the full context on Techmeme.
The TikTok deal is the worst of all possible outcomes, shifting ownership of TikTok to Trump's allies, while maintaining the supposed problematic links to China (Karl Bode/Techdirt)
Techdirt
TikTok Deal Done And It’s Somehow The Shittiest Possible Outcome, Making Everything Worse
There were rumblings about this for a while, but it looks like the Trump TikTok deal is done, and it’s somehow the worst of all possible outc...
Techmeme
The TikTok deal is the worst of all possible outcomes, shifting ownership of TikTok to Trump
By Karl Bode / Techdirt. View the full context on Techmeme.
Cursor-developer Anysphere acquires code review startup Graphite and says Graphite will continue operating as an independent product (Beatrice Nolan/Fortune)
Fortune
Exclusive: Cursor acquires code review startup Graphite as AI coding competition heats up | Fortune
The $29 billion AI code editor is betting that controlling the entire development process will help it fend off competition.
Techmeme
Cursor-developer Anysphere acquires code review startup Graphite and says Graphite will continue operating as an independent product
By Beatrice Nolan / Fortune. View the full context on Techmeme.
Sources: ByteDance is on track for ~$50B profit in 2025 after generating a ~$40B net income in the first three quarters, surpassing its internal target for 2025 (Bloomberg)
Bloomberg.com
TikTok Owner ByteDance on Track for $50 Billion Profit in 2025
ByteDance Ltd. is on track for profits of roughly $50 billion in 2025, capping a record year for a Chinese social media leader making major inroads...
Techmeme
Sources: ByteDance is on track for ~$50B profit in 2025 after generating a ~$40B net income in the first three quarters, surpassing its internal target for 2025
From Bloomberg. View the full context on Techmeme.
Boston-based Neurable, which builds an OS for brain-computer interfaces, raised a $35M Series A led by Spectrum Moonshot Fund, bringing its total raised to $65M (Brock E.W. Turner/Axios) https://www.axios.com/pro/health-tech-deals/2025/12/19/neurable-raises-35m-for-brain-ai
Techmeme
Boston-based Neurable, which builds an OS for brain-computer interfaces, raised a $35M Series A led by Spectrum Moonshot Fund, bringing its total raised to $65M
By Brock E.W. Turner / Axios. View the full context on Techmeme.
Google Cloud and Palo Alto Networks strike a deal that a source says is Google Cloud's largest security services deal "approaching $10B" over several years (Kenrick Cai/Reuters) https://www.reuters.com/business/google-cloud-lands-deal-with-palo-alto-networks-approaching-10-billion-per-2025-12-19/
Techmeme
Google Cloud and Palo Alto Networks strike a deal that a source says is Google Cloud
By Kenrick Cai / Reuters. View the full context on Techmeme.