5 Things Happening in Tech Today - 18 August 2026

[Luis]

Big change to YouTube, and Nvidia discloses R1-trillion stake in Elon Musk company

Anthropic is on track to generate annualised revenue of more than $65 billion based on its current performance, according to people familiar with the matter, up more than sevenfold from last year.

 

[Scooby_Doo]

YouTube changes the way it counts views on videos: Google has updated how it will count public views for Shorts to better reflect how viewers watch on YouTube. Beginning on 24 August, a view will be counted the moment a video begins to play—from the very first frame. This standard will now apply globally across all formats. [Google]

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Nvidia reveals $21 billion stake in SpaceX: Nvidia revealed that it owns nearly 123 million shares in Elon Musk’s SpaceX, further highlighting the chipmaker’s entangled financial relationships with some of its biggest customers. [Ars Technica]

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US states seeking penalties as high as $1.4 trillion as Meta heads to court again: Meta heads to court this week in yet another trial over social media addiction and other alleged harms caused by its apps. The social media giant said in a court filing that US states were seeking penalties as high as $1.4 trillion, an amount it described as “outlandish.” [Engadget]

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Anthropic expects to generate more than $65 billion in revenue: Anthropic is on track to generate annualised revenue of more than $65 billion based on its current performance, up more than sevenfold from its pace at the end of last year. [Bloomberg]

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Pokémon Center data breach exposes customer info: Pokémon Center has notified customers in the UK and Germany that it suffered a third-party data breach after hackers stole customer personal and order information from logistics provider CEVA Logistics. [Bleeping Computer]

 

[Swa]

So Youtube will now count all rubbish videos nobody wants to watch.

 

[Sargeant]

The tech industry is currently just one big pyramid scheme waiting to collapse! Wait for one of the big players to fail (my money is on Starlink - there is now way it's valuation is in any way linked to reality) and what the whole tower of cards coming down!

 

[Justanotherguybythesea]

So Youtube will now count all rubbish videos nobody wants to watch.

They will count every video you mouse over as a view, and you will find the thumbnails will autoplay in the tiny window, likely being classed as a view, and adding to the noise on the counter. You can bet though the amount paid per thousand clicks though will not increase, but likely will drop badly.

 

[Justanotherguybythesea]

The tech industry is currently just one big pyramid scheme waiting to collapse! Wait for one of the big players to fail (my money is on Starlink - there is now way it's valuation is in any way linked to reality) and what the whole tower of cards coming down!

Well when it does it will be isolated like Iridium, and likely will be practically free till sold, and till the last links deorbit and come down who knows where. With the number of those, your chances of getting a love tap land within 50km of you at least once a year will be a lot higher, because they will not burn up during the last orbit.