A (0:01)

The world moves fast, your workday even faster. Pitching products, drafting reports, analyzing data Microsoft 365 Copilot is your AI assistant for work built into Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and other Microsoft 365 apps you use, helping you quickly write, analyze, create and summarize so you can cut through clutter and clear a path to your best work. Learn more@Microsoft.com M365 copilot.

B (0:34)

Welcome to the tech Brew. Write home for Friday, January 23, 2026 I'm Brian McCullough today okay, maybe the whole TikTok thing is a done deal. At long last, Amazon is planning another major round of layoffs. Are Epic Games and Google doing an end run around the judge? Capital One acquires Brex and of course, the weekend Long Read Suggestions here's what you missed today in the world of tech. There's a ton of chatter right now about using AI agents, but no one seems to be talking about how these agents aren't always perfect. Sometimes they delete the wrong files or make changes you didn't authorize. And when that happens, you're left to clean up the mess. That is, unless you're using Rubrik Agent Cloud. It's the only platform that allows you to monitor, govern and rewind AI agent actions. And if your business relies on AI agents, you need those abilities on a singular platform platform. It helps you unleash more agents faster while mitigating risk. If you're running AI agents and want to sleep better at night, Rubrik is worth checking out. Right now my listeners get exclusive early access to the platform. Head to rubrik.com that's R U B R I K.com all right, I think it's finally, finally, finally done. ByteDance has struck a deal with a group of non Chinese investors to create a new TikTok US entity and avoid a federal ban, thereby including this six year legal saga. I think get back to me on that. TikTok's new majority US owned joint venture includes investors Oracle, Silverlake and Abu Dhabi's MGX, each holding 15% and the Dell family office. ByteDance retains 19.9%. Adam Presser, previously TikTok's head of operations and trust and safety, will be the CEO of TikTok USDS joint venture. TikTok CEO Sho Chu will be a director quoting the FT for ByteDance, this outcome could hardly be more favorable. It lifts a persistent drag at an opportune moment. The company generated an estimated $155 billion in revenue in 2024 and about $33 billion in profit, according to investor estimates, outpacing China's older Internet champions such as Alibaba and Tencent. In the first quarter of 2025, it even overtook Meta in quarterly sales, making it briefly the world's largest social media business by revenue. With the US question settled, ByteDance now sits in the top tier of global technology companies and at the center of China's tech ambitions. It is investing heavily in AI. Its chatbot Daobao is the most widely used in China, supported by large spending on computing power. In recent years, it has emerged as a major buyer of Nvidia chips, planning roughly $14 billion in purchases this year. Trump's deal solved a narrow political problem, keeping a popular app online without backlash. But he has also removed a restriction from a Chinese that is moving quickly. Washington has stabilized one of Beijing's most important technology companies at a moment when both governments are leaning heavily on their private sectors to set the pace of innovation. ByteDance was constrained not by technical capacity but political risk. That constraint is now gone. Whether securing TikTok's future in the US has made the country safer or simply cleared the Runway for a formidable global competitor remains an open question. End quote and quoting CNBC TikTok's prized content recommendation algorithm will now be hosted within Oracle's American data centers, and it'll be retrained, tested and updated on US User data, the company said. The new structure also helps keep sibling apps like Capcut, Lemonade and other unspecified services and websites operational in America, the statement said. Although the Chinese government hasn't commented publicly on the deal, Semaphore reported earlier on Thursday, citing people familiar with the matter, that the US And Chinese governments have signed off on the sale and that the deal was set to close this week. End quote and quoting Axios. The deal values TikTok US at around $14 billion, a source confirmed to Axios, which is an extremely low price given that TikTok's US entity makes roughly $14 billion annually in advertising revenues alone, per analyst estimates. End quote. A source is telling Reuters that Amazon is planning a second round of job cuts next week as part of its goal of trimming 30,000 corporate workers after cutting 14,000 jobs just back in October. Jobs in the company's Amazon Web services, retail, prime, video and human resources known as People, Experience and technology units are slated to be affected, the people said. Though the full scope was unclear, the people cautioned that the details of Amazon's plans could change. The Seattle online retailer tied the October round of job cuts to the rise of artificial intelligence software, saying in an internal letter that this generation of AI is the most transformative technology we've seen since the Internet, and it's enabling companies to innovate much faster than ever before. However, CEO Andy Jassy later told analysts during the company's third quarter earnings call that the reduction was not really financially driven and it's not even really AI driven. Rather, he said, it's culture, meaning the company has too much bureaucracy. You end up with a lot more people than than what you had before and you end up with a lot more layers, he said. Jassy had said earlier in 2025 that he expected Amazon's corporate workforce to shrink over time as a result of efficiencies gained from the use of AI. Corporations are increasingly using AI to write code for their software and adopting AI agents that automate routine tasks as they look to save costs and cut reliance on people. Amazon touted its latest AI models during its annual AWS Cloud Computing conference in December. The full 30,000 jobs would represent a small portion of Amazon's 1.58 million employees, but nearly 10% of the firm's corporate workforce. The majority of Amazon's workers are in fulfillment centers and warehouses. It would be the largest layoff in Amazon's three decade history. The company trimmed about 27,000 jobs in 2022. End quot. This is interesting. Quoting the Verge A judge is questioning whether Epic Games and Google are settling their long running antitrust fight partly because of a previously unannounced partnership involving the Unreal engine, Fortnite and Android. In a hearing in San Francisco today, the court revealed that Epic and Google have struck a new deal that apparently includes, quote, joint product development, joint marketing commitment, joint partnerships. California District Judge James Donato expressed concerns that the agreement, which he indicated would involve Epic Epic helping Google market Android. And Google newly using Epic's core technology could have led Epic to soften its demands for changes to the overall Android ecosystem. Donato allowed Epic and Google to keep most of the details of the plan under wraps. But during the hearing, he quizzed witnesses, including Epic CEO Tim Sweeney and economics expert Doug Barnheim, on how it might impact settlement talks, revealing some hints in the process. You're going to be helping Google market Android and they're going to be helping you market Fortnite. That deal doesn't exist today, right? Ask Bernheim, who answered in the affirmative. He also described it as a new business between Epic and Google. Sweeney's testimony cracked the mystery a little further. He referred to the agreement as relating to the Metaverse, a term Sweeney has used to refer to Epic's game Fortnite. Epic's technology is used by many companies in the space Google is operating in to train their products, so the ability for Google to use the Unreal engine more fulsome. Sorry I'm blowing this confidentiality, sweeney said. Donato then offered a hard dollar figure on one part of the deal. An $800 million spend over six years. That's a pretty healthy partnership, he said. We soon learned that refers to Epic spending $800 million to purchase some sort of services from Google. Every year we've decided against Google and this year we're deciding to use Google at market rates, he said. Sweeney did throw cold water on the idea that Epic and Google are jointly building a single new product together, though. This is Google and Epic each separately building product lines, he clarified when Judge Donato asked what the term sheet refer the line Google and Epic will work together. Donato seemed potentially leery of the partnership, asking Bernheim whether it could constitute a quid pro quo that reduced Epic's incentive to push for terms that would benefit other developers. Currently, Epic is backing a settlement that would see Google reduce its standard app store fees worldwide and allow alternative app stores to register for easy installation on Android. Sweeney disputed the notion that Epic might be getting paid off to soften its terms when it's the one paying out. I don't see anything crooked about Epic paying Google off to encourage much more robust competition than they've allowed in the past, he said. We view this as a significant transfer of value from Epic to Google. He also says the Epic Games store won't get any special treatment from Android in the future under this deal. It appears that the settlement arrangement is tied to the business deal, though Judge Donato suggested that Epic and Google would only make the deal if the settlement goes through. Sweeney says the specific terms of the deal have not yet been reached, but admitted that he expects them to. He told Judge Donata that yes, he considers the settlement and deal, quote, an important part of Epic's growth plan for the future. End quote. Did you know that Zipline, the autonomous drone delivery company, didn't start out by delivering packages. In fact, they actually started out with a robotic toy. We all remember the choices that shaped the course of our lives in business. World renowned venture capital firm Sequoia Capital calls them Crucible Moments. Their podcast brings you inside the pivotal decisions that defined some of today's most influential companies. Crucible Moments is entrepreneurial podcasting done right, not just talking endlessly. Actual key takeaways you can learn from. Hosted by Sequoia's World of Botha, Season three deep dives into the stories behind companies like Zipline, Palo Alto Networks, and Supercell. Crucible Moments is available everywhere you get your podcasts and@CrucibleMoments.com go listen to Crucible Moments today. Just because you're a small business doesn't mean you're a small target for bad actors. Cybercriminals know that lean teams often lack the resources to prevent or respond to a breach. However, even the smallest teams can foil cybercrime with 1Password. They provide simple security to help small teams manage the number one risk that bad actors Weak passwords 1 passwords Enterprise Password Manager helps your company eliminate security headaches and improve security by identifying weak and compromised passwords and replacing them with strong, unique credentials. Take the first step to better security by securing your team's credentials. Find out more at 1Password.com Ride and start securing every login. That's 1Password com ride sources say that Apple has expanded the job of hardware chief John Ternus to manage the design teams at the end of 2025, which further solidifies his growing status as a leading CEO candidate to maybe replace Tim Cook someday. Quoting Bloomberg. Cook, who has led Apple since 2011 and turned 65 in November, quietly tapped Ternus to manage the company's design teams at the end of last year, according to people with knowledge of the matter. That widens Ternus role to add one of the company's most critical funct. The responsibilities have special significance at Apple. The role, which includes overseeing both hardware and software design, has long been entrusted to a senior leader going back to the Steve Jobs era. The company's success has always been closely linked to how its products look and feel. The role was held by Jony I've Jobs, longtime design partner until his departure in 2019. Tim Cook oversaw design from 2015 to 2017, when I've temporarily stepped back from the position. Jeff Williams, Apple's longtime chief operating officer and Cook's top deputy, most recently held the job until his retirement at the end of 2025. Ternus is now billed internally as the executive sponsor of all design on Cook's management team, according to the people who asked not to be identified because the change wasn't public. That entails being a bridge between design staff and Apple's top brass. He represents the design organization in executive team gatherings and manages the group's leaders. Even with the change, there are no signs within Apple that Cook is poised to step down. And when he does eventually retire, the executive is expected to stick around. As Apple told shareholders this month that its current chairman, Art Levinson, would remain in his role past the company's February shareholder meeting, despite the fact that he's now 75, the usual retirement age for directors that implies a chairman transition won't happen until at least 2027. The Ternus move was made discreetly. The heads of Apple's design teams continue to report directly to Cook in both internal organizational charts and the company's public disclosures. People with knowledge of the move said that Cook himself is trying to expose Tarnas to more parts of the company's oper. As senior vice president of hardware engineering, Ternus already worked closely with the industrial design team, which focuses on hardware. But he hadn't previously been responsible for that group or the one developing the user interface in Apple's software. The move is seen as an acknowledgement that Ternus may be better suited to the design role. Cook, who rose through Apple's sales and operations ranks to become CEO, is known to keep a distance from design decisions. He's had limited involvement with product design since taking the reins. Capital One has struck a deal to acquire Brex, which specializes in tech, to administer corporate credit cards, expenses and rewards for $5.15 billion in cash and stock, Quoting the Journal the privately held Brex, founded nearly a decade ago, specializes in technology used by companies to administer corporate credit cards, expenses and rewards. It also oversees nearly $13 billion in deposits held at partner banks and money market. The acquisition comes at a key moment in the payments world, as fintech and crypto firms threaten to siphon business away from banks. Some established players have looked to team up with these firms to stay competitive with the Trump administration, signaling less scrutiny of such partnerships and deals. Brazilian entrepreneurs Pedro Francese and Henrique Dubugras founded Brex after dropping out of Stanford University. The two ran Brex as co CEOs until 2024, when de Brugas stepped off the executive team to serve as chairman of its board. Francese serves as CEO and plans to continue in the role after the deal closes. Brex became one of the youngest US startups to join the billion dollar valuation club in 2018. It had been valued at more than $12 billion by 2022, thanks in part to a pandemic induced growth spurt. Investors in Brex have included hedge fund firms Tiger Global Management and Lone Pine Capital, and venture capital firms Green Oaks Capital and Technology Crossover Ventures. According to PitchBook. In 2023 Brex got an influx of deposits from tech companies that had fled Silicon Valley bank when it collapsed. Higher interest rates and cooling demand after the pandemic made for a tougher operating environment for Brex and other startups. End quote. Just one long read for you this week, but it's about a sticky situation I had never thought of before. The FT takes a look at how Ukraine and Russia rely on the same Chinese drone suppliers whose tech is vital to that war, obviously Quote on his numerous visits to the factories of southern China, Alexander Yakovenko finds that his hosts increasingly plan his arrivals and departures down to minutes and seconds. They sometimes ask him to wait nearby for a while or usher him through side doors, down service corridors or into empty conference rooms. It took the founder of TAF Industries, now one of Ukraine's biggest drone producers, a while to realize why his arrival at the head office of a camera developer or a battery maker required such opaque rituals of scheduled juggling and extreme punctuality. It was because the Russians had been there, or they were on their way there, or both. Our suppliers make an effort to manage Ukrainian and Russian customers. They try to make it so we will not be in the same factory at the same time, he tells the ft. They invite us for one time, but they invite the Russians for a different time. So as soon as the car with the Russians drives away, the car with Ukrainians goes in, he adds. Drones have emerged as the most decisive and most rapidly evolving weapon in the attritional war between the two countries, accounting for three quarters of recent casualties. Both Russia and Ukraine have moved to build up their own production capability, but mostly utilizing Chinese componentry. As a result, their militaries now find themselves dependent on the same Chinese suppliers whose processors, cameras and motors determine how far a drone can fly and how clearly it can see, and whose components cost a third of their Western equivalents. Technological advances often reach both sides at roughly the same time. We might see a new video transmitter on Russian drones, and we will understand immediately what company in China produced it, said Olesky Babenko of Viridrone, another large supplier to the Ukrainian military. So we write to them. Of course they say, no, it's not ours. But we ask again and they say, okay, we can sell it to you too. The same process works in reverse, he adds. We ask them to produce something specific for us, and a week later they send the samples to Russia and then start to produce the same thing for them. Officially, China is neutral in the conflict and has banned exports of sensitive drone technology to both Russia and Ukraine. But Western intelligence sources and Ukrainian policymakers charged that China's government puts its thumb on the scale, even allowing better funded Russian companies to buy entire production lines for relocation to Russia. Despite Western sanctions and Chinese export controls. Ukraine is working to localize production of drones, but Yakovenko says it remains dependent on China for about 85% of the components that go into simple first person view drones, which are piloted by remote operators, assisted by onboard cameras and often used for kamikaze strikes. Nothing more for you this week. No bonus episodes. We're supposed to get socked with more than a foot of snow this weekend here in New York City, so yay. Talk to you on Monday.