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Hi there, this is your daily ☕️ Techpresso.
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In today's Techpresso:
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📱 OpenAI rejected Apple deal to build own hardware ❌ Meta has discontinued its metaverse for work 🇹🇼 Taiwan to invest $250 billion in US chipmaking ⚡ Trump wants Big Tech to pay $15 billion to fund new power plants 💸 OpenAI invests in Sam Altman’s brain computer interface startup 🎁 + 15 other news & articles you might like 🧰 + 5 trending tools 📚 + 2 trending papers & reports
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📱 OpenAI rejected Apple deal to build own hardware
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- OpenAI turned down a chance to become Apple's main AI provider last fall, choosing instead to focus on building its own hardware devices that would compete directly with big tech companies.
- Apple has now expanded its partnership with Google, making Gemini the default AI for Siri while ChatGPT becomes just an optional backup for more complex requests on iPhone.
- The original Apple deal was a disappointment for OpenAI, which had hoped it would bring billions in revenue and break Google's hold on Apple devices, but it brought almost no extra traffic.
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❌ Meta has discontinued its metaverse for work
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- Meta is shutting down Horizon Workrooms, the virtual reality collaboration app that Mark Zuckerberg introduced in 2021 as a workplace meeting space, with the standalone app ending on February 16, 2026.
- The company will also stop selling Meta Quest headsets and managed services to businesses starting February 20, 2026, signaling a retreat from its business-to-business VR efforts after recent layoffs.
- Meta is shifting its metaverse focus toward mobile phones and smart glasses instead of fully immersive VR headsets, with plans to bring Horizon experiences and AI creator tools to mobile devices.
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🇹🇼 Taiwan to invest $250 billion in US chipmaking
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- Taiwan and the United States signed a trade deal that will bring $250 billion in chip and technology investments to American soil, with the Taiwanese government backing the companies with $250 billion in credit.
- In return, the U.S. will cut reciprocal tariffs on Taiwan from 20% to 15%, and remove them entirely on generic pharmaceuticals, aircraft components, and some natural resources from the island.
- Taiwan Semiconductor has purchased hundreds of acres next to its existing Arizona property and may expand there, while companies building U.S. chip fabs can import equipment tariff-free during construction.
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⚡ Trump wants Big Tech to pay $15 billion to fund new power plants
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- The Trump administration is pushing a plan that would require Big Tech companies to pay around $15 billion to directly finance new power plants needed for their data centers and AI infrastructure.
- The proposal asks PJM Interconnection, the largest grid operator in the country, to run an emergency electricity auction where data center operators could bid for 15-year contracts to support new power plant construction.
- The plan responds to concerns that households are paying higher electricity bills because of energy-hungry data centers, with utility costs rising 9.6% in 2025 compared to the previous year.
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💸 OpenAI invests in Sam Altman’s brain computer interface startup
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- OpenAI has invested in Merge Labs, a brain computer interface startup co-founded by its own CEO Sam Altman, writing the largest single check in the company's $250 million seed round at an $850 million valuation.
- Merge Labs plans to develop non-invasive technology that connects with neurons using molecules and ultrasound instead of electrodes, unlike Elon Musk's Neuralink, which requires surgery to implant electrode threads into the brain.
- The deal creates a circular business relationship: if Merge Labs succeeds, it could drive more users to OpenAI's software, which would justify the investment while increasing the value of a startup Altman personally owns.
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Other
news & articles you might like
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Chinese AI Developers Say They Can’t Beat America Without Better Chips
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OpenAI Seeks US-Based Suppliers for Planned Robotics, AI Device Push
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AI startup Replit launches feature to vibe code mobile apps
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Cloudflare acquires AI data marketplace Human Native
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NASA’s first-ever medical evacuation from space ends with on-target splashdown
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Six months later, Trump Mobile still hasn’t delivered preordered phones
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TikTok tightens age verification across Europe
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OpenAI tells investors to brace for 'deliberately outlandish' claims from Musk ahead of trial
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Apple forced to ‘fight’ for chip capacity, pay higher TSMC prices: report
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How scientists are using Claude to accelerate research and discovery
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Nikita Bier causes collapse of crypto InfoFi
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From Tokens to Burgers: A Water Footprint Face-Off
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🧰 Trending tools
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The habits of high-performing mobile teams: The Bitrise Mobile Insights Report breaks it down using real customer data, showing what drives app development success and what sets high-performing teams apart. Get the full report.
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TranslateGemma: an open-source translation model suite supporting 55 languages across mobile, local, and cloud deployments, helping developers avoid proprietary API dependencies and costs.
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Dynamic Content by beehiiv: personalizes newsletter emails by displaying different content blocks to segmented subscribers within a single campaign, no coding required.
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Design in Figma using Cursor Agent + MCP: automates Figma design tasks through natural language commands, enabling bulk updates, component management, and programmatic design modifications via Cursor AI integration.
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ADB Wrench: a browser-based Android debugging tool using WebUSB with an AI assistant that helps you execute ADB commands without memorizing syntax or complex setup.
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Reversing YouTube's "Most Replayed" Graph: reverse engineers YouTube's replay heatmap feature to explain why visual artifacts appear as dips surrounding peak replay moments.
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