Echo, which uses AI agents to build Docker images that eliminate vulnerabilities at the source, raised a $35M Series A, bringing its total funding to $50M (Ionut Arghire/SecurityWeek)
SecurityWeek
Echo Raises $35 Million in Series A Funding
The fresh investment comes less than six months after the startup’s seed funding announcement.
Techmeme
Echo, which uses AI agents to build Docker images that eliminate vulnerabilities at the source, raised a $35M Series A, bringing its total funding to $50M
By Ionut Arghire / SecurityWeek. View the full context on Techmeme.
Sources: The US DHS is investigating whether 6 CISA staffers who were suspended in July misled CISA's acting director into taking a polygraph, which he failed (John Sakellariadis/Politico) https://www.politico.com/news/2025/12/21/cisa-acting-director-madhu-gottumukkala-polygraph-investigation-00701996
Techmeme
Sources: DHS is investigating whether six staffers misled CISA
By John Sakellariadis / Politico. View the full context on Techmeme.
Source: OpenAI's compute margin has jumped to about 70% in October from about 52% at the end of 2024 and roughly 35% in January 2024 (Sri Muppidi/The Information) https://www.theinformation.com/articles/openai-getting-efficient-running-ai-internal-financials-show
Techmeme
Source: OpenAI
By Sri Muppidi / The Information. View the full context on Techmeme.
Sources detail the efforts SoftBank is making to raise the necessary funds as it races to close its $22.5B funding commitment to OpenAI by the end of this year (Reuters) https://www.reuters.com/business/media-telecom/softbank-races-fulfill-225-billion-funding-commitment-openai-by-year-end-sources-2025-12-19/
Techmeme
Sources detail SoftBank
From Reuters. View the full context on Techmeme.
Sources: tech lobbyists say that David Sacks' push for an EO blocking state AI laws undercut their efforts to craft a permanent, bipartisan federal solution (Politico) https://www.politico.com/news/2025/12/20/big-tech-gets-worried-about-trumps-ai-czar-00701112
Techmeme
Sources: tech lobbyists say that David Sacks
From Politico. View the full context on Techmeme.
Q&A with Blizzard President Johanna Faries on company staff bonus transparency, working under Xbox leadership, restoring the NetEase partnership, and more (Jason Schreier/Bloomberg)
Bloomberg.com
Blizzard President Talks Culture, Bonuses and Releasing More Games
Johanna Faries, who took over as president of Blizzard in 2024, reveals what’s coming from the storied studio
Techmeme
Q&A with Blizzard President Johanna Faries on company staff bonus transparency, working under Xbox leadership, restoring the NetEase partnership, and more
By Jason Schreier / Bloomberg. View the full context on Techmeme.
US CHIPS Act-funded SMART USA Institute, focused on digital twins for chipmaking, says the Department of Commerce will terminate its $285M five-year contract (Samuel K. Moore/IEEE Spectrum) https://spectrum.ieee.org/semiconductor-digital-twins-funding
Techmeme
US CHIPS Act-funded SMART USA Institute, focused on digital twins for chipmaking, says the Department of Commerce will terminate its $285M five-year contract
By Samuel K. Moore / IEEE Spectrum. View the full context on Techmeme.
Q&A with Harvard economist Jason Furman, who consults for OpenAI, on the similarities between the AI boom and the dot-com era, AI's impact on jobs, and more (Shirin Ghaffary/Bloomberg)
Bloomberg.com
OpenAI Is β€˜Definitely Not’ Too Big to Fail, Economist Says
A leading economist isn’t overly concerned about the fallout from the AI bubble bursting, if it happens. But first…
Techmeme
Q&A with Harvard economist Jason Furman, who consults for OpenAI, on the similarities between the AI boom and the dot-com era, AI
By Shirin Ghaffary / Bloomberg. View the full context on Techmeme.
DataLane, which is using AI to build an identity graph to map local businesses across the US, raised a $22.5M Series A led by Amplify Partners (Chris Metinko/Axios) https://www.axios.com/pro/enterprise-software-deals/2025/12/16/datalane-amplify-local-business-data
Techmeme
DataLane, which is using AI to build an identity graph to map local businesses across the US, raised a $22.5M Series A led by Amplify Partners
By Chris Metinko / Axios. View the full context on Techmeme.
Waymo says it temporarily suspended its ride-hailing service in San Francisco during a citywide blackout, as downed traffic lights appeared to halt its vehicles (Joe Rivano Barros/Mission Local)
Mission Local
Waymo halts service during massive S.F. blackout after causing traffic jams
Numerous autonomous vehicles caused traffic jams across San Francisco after a PG&E outage hit 1/3 of the city.
Techmeme
Waymo says it temporarily suspended its ride-hailing service in San Francisco during a citywide blackout, as downed traffic lights appeared to halt its vehicles
By Joe Rivano Barros / Mission Local. View the full context on Techmeme.