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The Information: Source: ByteDance keeps using a loophole for US chip sanctions and told suppliers it planned to spend up to $7B to access Nvidia chips outside China in 2025  —  ByteDance continues to use Nvidia's most advanced artificial intelligence chips despite U.S. efforts to block Chinese companies from using them.

Charles Rollet / TechCrunch: Accounting startup Bench, which had raised $100M+ and abruptly shut down last week, will be acquired by Employer.com for an undisclosed price  —  Bench, the VC-backed accounting startup that left thousands of customers locked out of their accounts after it suddenly shut down last week …

Geoffrey A. Fowler / Washington Post: Waymo robotaxis, which are now ubiquitous in parts of CA, will often not stop for pedestrians using crosswalks there, unless a pedestrian is far into the road  —  Our tech columnist captured videos of Waymo self-driving cars failing to stop for him at a crosswalk.  How does an AI learn how to break the law?

Kyle Wiggers / TechCrunch: The UK's CMA opens an antitrust investigation into IBM's planned acquisition of cloud software vendor HashiCorp; the US FTC has been investigating it since July  —  The Competition and Markets Authority, the U.K.'s antitrust watchdog, has opened an investigation into whether IBM's planned acquisition …

New York Times: Donald Trump's next term may widen the longstanding speech divide between the US and Europe, putting social media companies in the middle of a global tug-of-war  —  President-elect Donald J. Trump's picks for the F.C.C. and F.T.C. have vowed to remove censorship online.

Cagan Koc / Bloomberg: Kyivstar, Ukraine's largest mobile operator, signs a deal with Starlink to roll out text messaging in Q4 2025, and plans to add voice and data in later stages  —  - Kyivstar to offer text messages via Starlink by late 2025  — Starlink terminals are critical to Ukraine's war effort

Dean Takahashi / VentureBeat: Nvidia completes its $700M acquisition of Israel-based Run:ai, which helps orchestrate GPU clouds for AI, and plans to open source Run:ai's software  —  Nvidia has completed its acquisition of Run:ai, a software company that makes it easier for customers to orchestrate GPU clouds for AI, and said that it would open-source the software.

Zack Abrams / The Block: Three industry groups sue the IRS, challenging a rule that would require some DeFi brokers to report users' personal information to the agency starting in 2027  —  - The Blockchain Association and two other groups sued the IRS to challenge a recently-finalized rule that would require DeFi front-ends …

Bloomberg: RWA.xyz estimates the total value of tokenized real-world assets, excluding stablecoins, is $13B, as Opimas says just 0.003% of global asset value is tokenized  —  - ‘It may even be bigger than the internet,’ proponent says  — BlackRock, Trump's election win have re-energized efforts

Kelcee Griffis / Bloomberg: AT&T and Verizon say their networks are now clear after the Salt Typhoon intrusion; AT&T says a few “individuals of foreign intelligence interest” were targeted  —  - Carriers said hackers targeted political, intelligence figures  — White House said nine telecom companies were victims

A.J. Vicens / Reuters: The US plans to update HIPAA with new cybersecurity rules to protect patients' private data, including mandatory encryption and multifactor authentication  —  Healthcare organizations may be required to bolster their cybersecurity, to better prevent sensitive information from being leaked …

Jon Levine / New York Post: Trump supports H-1B visas, saying “I have many H-1B visas on my properties. I've been a believer in H-1B”, siding with Musk in the MAGA debate on the issue  —  President-elect Trump told The Post Saturday he supports immigration visas for highly skilled workers …

Matt Burgess / Wired: Finland, Canada, the US, and other countries are testing tech for passport-free travel, including facial recognition and a “digital travel credential”  —  Smartphones and face recognition are being combined to create new digital travel documents.  The paper passport's days are numbered—despite new privacy risks.

Jennifer Elias / CNBC: A look at Google's pressure-filled 2024 under Sundar Pichai, notching some AI wins with new Gemini models and navigating product mishaps, layoffs, and more  —  Google's blowout earnings report in April, which sparked the biggest rally in Alphabet shares since 2015 and pushed …

Clara Murray / Financial Times: Analysis: mentions of deepfakes or AI-made content in X's Community Notes were more correlated with new image generation model releases than elections in 2024  —  The panic over AGI disinformation in this year's political cycle seems to have been overblown  —  Around this time last year …

Wall Street Journal: What to expect in 2025: increased hype around AI agents, new generative AI-powered gadgets, better weather forecasts due to Google DeepMind's GenCast, and more  —  Weather forecasts will get smarter, EVs could get pricier, crypto will be for everyday investors and AI will be everywhere

Bloomberg: Analysis: 50%+ of the US households showing highly-distorted power readings from February to October were within 20 miles of significant data center activity  —  AI data centers are multiplying across the US and sucking up huge amounts of power.  New evidence shows they may also be distorting …

Coco Feng / South China Morning Post: Four districts in southern China formed a pilot framework to mutually recognize qualifications and open roads for autonomous robotaxis to travel across cities  —  After having registered and been certified in one area, autonomous-driving cars can travel on open roads in other regions

Ian Carlos Campbell / Engadget: Microsoft acknowledges that Xbox Cloud Gaming has been experiencing issues with launching games for more than a day, with the problems yet to be resolved  —  Games take an unusually long time to load if they don't disconnect first.  —  If you've tried to use Xbox Cloud Streaming …

Jordan Novet / CNBC: Oracle's shares are up ~63% in 2024, lifting Larry Ellison's net worth to $217B+, as the company enjoyed its biggest stock rally since 1999 and the dot-com boom  —  It's been a good year for Larry Ellison.  —  Oracle's co-founder has gained roughly $75 billion in paper wealth as the software company …

Callum Booth / The Verge: A look at the EU's common charging regulations, which come into force on Dec. 28 and cover USB-C ports, fast charging, unbundling of charging bricks, and more  —  The common charging standard brings USB PD support, improved labelling, and less e-waste.

Vicky Ge Huang / Wall Street Journal: A profile of Tron founder Justin Sun, who wants to be the “Elon Musk of the crypto world” and advises the Trump-backed crypto project World Liberty Financial  —  The Tron blockchain entrepreneur courts attention, and backs the president-elect  —  President-elect Donald Trump's newest ally …

Angrej Singh / Axios: Some conservative critics of Elon Musk allege censorship and claim they were stripped of their X verification badges after challenging his views on H-1B visas  —  - Since Musk purchased Twitter and implemented sweeping staff cuts, it's often been difficult to get answers as to whether …

Greg Stohr / Bloomberg: Filing: Trump asks SCOTUS to pause the law that could ban TikTok, saying the court should give him time to “pursue a political resolution” of the dispute  —  - Biden administration says Chinese control of app is threat  — TikTok says law infringes rights of 170 million Americans