Reading List

The most recent articles from a list of feeds I subscribe to.

US political campaign managers and consultants are using AI to analyze voter data, create campaign materials, and more; survey: 87% of campaigners use AI daily (Stuart A. Thompson/New York Times)

Techmeme

Five Chinese tech and advanced manufacturing companies launch Hong Kong listings, seeking to raise up to $5.6B, led by Apple supplier Luxshare's $3.15B offering (Reuters)

Techmeme

Sources: Chinese smartphone makers like Xiaomi, Oppo, and Vivo told suppliers they will again cut 2026 shipment targets, with Xiaomi cutting 30% to ~95M units (Nikkei Asia)

Techmeme

Source: the Trump administration has talked with SpaceX about donating shares to Trump Accounts, which provide children with tax-advantaged savings accounts (Semafor)

Techmeme

Nebex, a fintech startup aiming to act as a broker platform connecting US space tech suppliers, foreign governments, and investors, raised a $30M seed led by GV (Bloomberg)

Techmeme

Australia's ACCC sues Amazon for allegedly introducing ads to Prime Video under unfair contract terms and forcing existing subscribers to pay more to avoid them (Peter Vercoe/Bloomberg)

Techmeme

OpenAI teases a device it is launching in partnership with keyboard maker Work Louder on July 15, saying "Your favorite Codex shortcuts are getting an upgrade" (Emma Roth/The Verge)

Techmeme

Sources: AI video startup Higgsfield is in talks to raise $300M to $500M at a $5B pre-money valuation, more than 4x its valuation in a January 2026 round (The Information)

Techmeme

The UK FCA unveils the updated version of its crypto regulatory framework, after softening proposed rules that critics said risked holding the UK back (Financial Times)

Techmeme

Data Breach at Indian Supplier Tata Electronics Exposes iPhone 18 Pro Details and Photos

Daring Fireball

AI coding startup 8090 raised a $135M Series A led by Salesforce Ventures; founder Chamath Palihapitiya announces that he will lead the company as CEO (Julie Bort/TechCrunch)

Techmeme

The US DOD appoints Marc Andreessen to its Defense Policy Board, a committee that gives strategic advice to the US defense secretary and other top officials (Nick Wadhams/Bloomberg)

Techmeme

AI leaderboard provider Arena says it hit $100M in annualized run-rate revenue eight months after launching AI Evaluations, which offers performance analytics (Marina Temkin/TechCrunch)

Techmeme

[Sponsor] Day One Journal

Daring Fireball

Welcome to the July issue of The Highlight

Vox - All

Netflix is adapting Atlus Persona for new live-action TV series

Polygon - All

Google says the Gemini app now offers personalized Nano Banana image generation, previously limited to Plus, Pro, and Ultra users, to eligible US users for free (Lauren Forristal/TechCrunch)

Techmeme

Sources: hundreds of Meta contractors posed as minors to probe how competitor chatbots responded to prompts involving suicide, sex, and other high-risk subjects (Wired)

Techmeme

Tidal adopts an AI policy that blocks wholly AI-generated music from earning royalties and removes AI-generated music that impersonates artists (Murray Stassen/Music Business Worldwide)

Techmeme

Acclaimed Spirited Away stage play is headed for America

Polygon - All