Tech Brew Ride Home - TikTok Deals? Visa Rules?

Episode Date: September 22, 2025

Once again, I THINK a TikTok deal is happening, so updates on that. Why lots of folk in the tech industry are worried about new H-1B visa rules. Might those annoying cookie consent checkboxes be going away? And why the real land grab in data center building is happening in Scandinavia. Inside Trump's deal to save TikTok (Axios) Startup leaders warn new $100K H-1B visa fee will hurt U.S. entrepreneurship and innovation (GeekWire) Big Tech companies, foreign governments scramble after Trump slaps $100,000 fee on H-1B visas (CNBC) Europe’s cookie law messed up the internet. Brussels wants to fix it. (Politico) Oura Ring Maker to Become $11 Billion Company With Latest Raise (Bloomberg) Coinbase CEO: We Want To Become A Super App (CoinDesk) Nordic Data Center Boom Fueled by Low Prices, Empty Land and Cool Weather (Bloomberg) My most recent AI content experiment Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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GoogleFi Wireless is not subject to data traffic deprioritization during times of high network usage. Welcome to the Techrewrite home for Monday, September 22nd, 2025. I'm Brian McCullough today. Once again, I think a TikTok deal is happening. So some updates on that. Why a lot of folks in the tech industry are worried about new H-1B visa rules. Might those annoying cookie consent checkboxes be going away and why the real land grab in data center building is happening in Scandinavia? Here's what you miss today in the world of tech. All right, here's the situation with the TikTok deal. I think there is a deal. The president. has said there is a deal, but at least at the time of this writing, I don't see the official confirmations of a deal that I would expect, so all I can tell you is things seem to be going in that direction of a deal, but I'm not sure we're at the end of the line yet. The White House has said that TikTok's new U.S. entity would lease a copy of BightDance's algorithm, which Oracle would retrain. Thus, U.S. users wouldn't need to redownload the app, quoting Axios. President Trump is expected to sign an executive order later this week to approve the proposed deal.

The current plan would be for BytDance to create a duplicate copy of the TikTok algorithm, which would then be leased to a new joint venture controlled by a U.S. investor group, led by Andresen Horowitz, Silver Lake, and Oracle. Oracle would then retrain the algorithm and protect U.S. user data. The White House official says that the Chinese government approved those terms during a bilateral meeting last week in Madrid. Several existing bite-dance investors remain in the dark, though, and even some sources close to the deal are unsure about all the specifics. The United States government would not have a board seat or equity stake in TikTok U.S., although both were discussed at one point. The new board would make final determinations on TikTok U.S. management and would consist of new investors, existing bite-dance investors, and one bite-dance representative.

President Trump said in a Fox News interview aired Sunday that the investor group is expected to include Michael Dell, Lachlan Murdoch and Rupert Murdoch. Axios is told Trump was using shorthand for a firm affiliated with Dell, BDT, and MSD partners, and the Murdoch controlled Fox Corp. Andresen Horowitz, Oracle, and Silver Lake either declined comment or didn't respond, end quote. So there you go. That's what I know at this moment in time. Now, late last week, President Trump signed an executive order forcing companies to pay an annual $100,000 fee, essentially per employee on an H-1B visa, which is the most popular work visa overseas workers are on, especially in the tech industry. So you know I don't like to wait into politics, but I have to with this one because this is a move that could significantly impact the tech industry.

The White House has further clarified that the $100,000 H-1B fee will not apply to renewals or existing H-1B holders re-entering the U.S. only to future applicants. in a February lottery. And the White House Press Secretary later said the H-1B fee is not an annual fee, and it is a, quote, one-time fee that applies only to the petition in the upcoming lottery. But over the weekend, VCs and founders were warning that the $100,000 fee will make H-1B sponsorship prohibitively expensive, especially for startups, not big tech, and thereby might drive talent outside the U.S. quoting Geekwire. Currently, companies, pay several thousand dollars in government fees and legal costs per H-1B application.

Adding a $100,000 surcharge per worker would be unprecedented. Now we're making H-1B sponsorship prohibitively expensive. Cities outside the U.S. like Toronto, Vancouver, and London will pick up the talent. Manny Medina, co-founder of Seattle Startup Outreach, wrote on LinkedIn. Medina, who is working on a new startup recently relocated to London, quote, to my founder friends stuck in Visa Limbo, London's doors are open, he wrote in his post. Larger companies could theoretically absorb the new costs, but startups with limited runway and cash would be especially impacted. Early teams can't swallow that tax, Gary Tan, CEO of San Francisco's Y Combinator, wrote on LinkedIn.

Zhao Wang, CEO of Seattle Immigration Startup Boundless, said the policy would be a, quote, blow to H-1B and could hurt the country's competitiveness. Quote, the U.S. has built its leadership in technology and innovation by making itself the destination of choice for the world's top talent, Wang said in a blog post. Policies like this alongside growing scrutiny of student visa applications make it harder for bright, ambitious people to come here and put the United States as a global leader in innovation at risk, end quote. The new policy will likely be challenged in court, according to Boundless, which noted that the new visa fees, quote, can typically only be introduced either through legislation passed by Congress or through a formal rulemaking process that requires months of public notice and comment, end quote. Cassium, another Seattle area immigration startup added, this is an evolving situation. The proclamation is now in effect, but its real-world application will depend on how agencies implement it, how courts respond to legal challenges, and whether additional guidance is released, end quote. Now, among the potential impacts of this, I'm hearing, is the threat

to the $280 billion IT services sector based in India, which heavily relies on H-1B visas to deploy engineers to U.S. client sites. And also, who has the most H-1B workers among the big tech players? Quoting CNBC. Amazon employed the most H-1B holders more than 14,000 as of the end of June. Microsoft, Meta, Apple, and Google had over 4,000 such visas each among the top 10 recipients for the fiscal year of 2025. The announcement sent shockwaves through some of the country's biggest tech and finance companies. Amazon's immigration team advised its H-1B and H-4 visa holders to remain in the U.S. and for those overseas to return before 12.01 a.m. Eastern Time on September 21st, according to internal messages viewed by CNBC.

J.P. Morgan Chase's law firm sent a memo asking H-1B visa holders at the firm to remain in the U.S. and avoid international travel until further guidance, according to a person familiar with the matter. Goldman Sachs told employees holding H-1B visas to exercise caution when traveling internationally based on guidance from Immigration Services firm Fragomen, then, according to an internal memo seen by Reuters, Microsoft has also reportedly advised H-1B visa holders to remain in the U.S. and for those overseas to return, warning that international travel could jeopardize their immigration status, according to emails seen by Reuters. This measure is likely to have humanitarian consequences by way of the disruption caused for families. Government hopes that

these disruptions can be addressed suitably by the U.S. authorities, India's Ministry of External Affairs said in a statement. South Korea's foreign ministry also said it is assesses the implications for Korean firms and skilled workers, end quote. You know how years ago the EU passed some rule, and suddenly the whole internet was plastered with those cookie consent banners every time you visited a website? Well, quoting Politico, in a bid to slash red tape, the European Commission wants to eliminate one of its peskiest laws, a 2009 tech rule that plastered the online world with pop-ups requesting consent to cookies. It's the kind of simplification ordinary Europeans can get

behind. Cookies are a foundation of the internet that allow website holders to collect information about visitors, everything from whether they've logged in with a password to what items they're looking to buy and therefore might want to see advertising about. European rulemakers in 2009 revised the law called the e-privacy directive to require websites to get consent from users before loading cookies on their devices unless the cookies are strictly necessary to provide a service. Fast forward to 2025, and the internet is full of consent banners that users have long learned to click away without thinking twice. Too much consent basically kills consent. People are used to giving consent for everything, so they might stop reading things in as much detail,

and if consent is the default for everything, it is no longer perceived in the same way by users, said Peter Kredek, data lawyer with Keller and Heckman. Cookie technology is now a focal point of the EU executive's plans to simplify technology regulation. Officials want to present an omnibus text in December, scrapping burdensome requirements. on digital companies. On Monday, it held a meeting with the tech industry to discuss the handling of cookies and consent banners. A note sent to industry and civil society attending a focus group on September 15th, seen by Politico, showed the commission is pondering how to tweak the rules to include more exceptions or make sure users can set their preferences on cookies once,

for example, in their browser settings instead of every time they visit a website. EU countries have floated similar ideas. Denmark, currently presiding over meetings in the Council of the European Union, suggested in May to drop consent banners for cookies collecting data, quote, for technically necessary functions, or simple statistics, end quote. Ready to soundtrack your summer? With Red Bull Summer All Day Play, you choose a playlist that fits your summer vibe the best.

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celebrating its 40th anniversary. You in? Must be 21 to enter. Interesting raise time. Sources say that smart ring maker ORA is raising a $875 million Series E round at a $10.9 billion valuation, which is up from a $5 billion valuation back in November of 2024,

probably because they have reportedly sold around 3 million of their smart rings just in the past year. Quoting Bloomberg. ORA Health OI, the maker of the popular ORA Health and Fitness ring, is closing in on a roughly 11 billion. dollar valuation after selling about three million rings of the past year. Tom Hale, ORA's chief executive officer, declined to comment on the company's fundraising process, but in an interview, he said ORA has been growing, quote, like a rocket ship, adding that he has,

quote, never had a stronger quarter in his 130 quarters working in business. The company now has sold 5.5 million rings in total up from two and a half million through June of 2024, Hale said. Orra is on track to generate more than $1 billion in revenue in 2025, doubling the $500 million that posted in 2024. Looking ahead, it expects sales to exceed $1.5 billion in 20206. Recent growth has been fueled by female shoppers, retail store sales, purchases made with health savings account funds, and international expansion. Orr launched its latest ring in Japan and Germany earlier this year and is planning

further global rollouts. Today, the company sells its devices across 4,000 stores. The U.S. military is or as largest business customer, with tens of thousands of service members using the rings for fatigue tracking and research. Still, Hale said revenue from that arrangement is a relatively small contributor to overall sales. Hale also said that ORA has widened its margins in recent quarters, though he declined to disclose profitability. The combination of hardware and subscription revenue puts us on a different level than most hardware companies, he said. About 20% of ORA's revenue now comes from subscriptions, he added.

Asked about a potential IPO, Hale said there are real advantages to being a private company, pointing to the success of firms like SpaceX and Stripe. I don't want to say we're never going public, but I am also not saying we plan to go public or have made a decision to go public, he said. Compared with smartwatches, fitness rings are still in their infancy and make up a small slice of the overall wearables market, though some consumers are choosing to use both. A common setup is wearing a smartwatch during the day and using the smaller ring for sleep or exercise tracking.

ORA remains the dominant player in its category, but competition is increasing. Samsung launched the Galaxy ring last year to a tepid reception, while startups like Amaze Fit, Velia, and Ultra Human have also entered the space. Apple has also explored ring-style devices in the past as well, end quote. Another interesting raise will allow us to talk about something that I've been noticing, but we haven't really spoken about that much yet. Cardless, which lets Coinbase and others launch co-branded credit cards, raised $60 million and projects annualized revenue will grow from $15 million right now to $150 million,

by Q2 of next year. And that's what I've been seeing. Fintech is not only back, it's literally everywhere all of a sudden. I could do a story every day about some new Robin Hood product or neobank product that blurs the lines of banking and investing and often includes crypto in some way. This is becoming ubiquitous. For example, here's an interview with Brian Armstrong saying, Coinbase plans to become a financial super app that integrates its crypto offering

with traditional banking services. Quoting CoinDesk. Coinbase intends to integrate services people typically get from banks and fintechs and deliver them on crypto rails. He pointed to a recently launched Coinbase credit card that pays 4% back in Bitcoin as an early example, and argued card networks two to three percent swipe fees show why payments need an overhaul. The longer-term target, he said, is a comprehensive application that handles spending, savings, payments, and investing, not just trading. Armstrong spelled out the ambition explicitly. we want to be a bank replacement for people, we want to be their primary financial account,

adding that Coinbase aims to, quote, provide all types of financial services, not only crypto. He agreed with the framing that this amounts to becoming a super app and said crypto rails make that feasible by offering faster, cheaper settlement. While building a super app is a monumental task that has gained momentum, Coinbase still needs to look out for rivals who might be fighting for market share. However, Armstrong isn't worried, rather he welcomes the competition, with new exchanges entering the U.S. market, including platforms launched by Gemini and others, Armstrong said Coinbase benefits from its head start. He argued that a thriving ecosystem is essential

for mainstream adoption and Coinbase's advantage comes from trust. According to Armstrong, Coinbase now stores more crypto than any other provider, which encourages customers to use its broader suite of services from trading to payments. He said the ambition is not just to facilitate transactions, but to eventually become the platform people use as their primary financial account. Armstrong's primary account vision echoes remarks from Robin Hood, CEO Vlad Tenev, who asked at the All In Summit 2025, can we be your comprehensive financial platform, and outlined banking and wealth features as steps toward that goal, according to a business insider report. The comparison suggests multiple U.S. fintechs are angling to expand beyond

trading into everyday finance, end quote. Finally today, remember when crypto was first ascendant and people were flocking to weird places and doing things like setting up their crypto mining rigs and abandoned power plants and near waterfalls and things like that. Well, according to Bloomberg, with this new data center land rush, it's the same thing, a search for cheap electricity. But it's even more massive. For example, power companies in Sweden, Norway, and Finland are positioning themselves to benefit substantially from Europe's surging demand for data centers.

Bloomberg Intelligence estimates that power. demand from data centers in the Nordics could quadruple by 2032, with annual electricity consumption growth of 14 to 19 percent, outpacing much of the rest of the EU. Why? Well, it's colder up there. Key Nordic utilities, Vattenfall AB, Statscraft AS, Fortem Oij, and Orsted AS are expected to see materially improved earnings as more capacity is built in cooler northern climates. These areas are offer two big competitive advantages, lower power prices, especially relative to Central Europe, and naturally cool weather that reduces cooling and operating costs. Other favorable conditions are helping drive the trend, plenty of available land,

regulatory environments that are relatively favorable and strong incentives, including for renewable power sources. Additionally, the climate lets facilities rely more on free cooling, which is essentially cool ambient air to reduce energy use. In short, the Nordic countries are increasingly attractive for companies developing these mega data centers seeking reliable cheap low carbon power. Utilities in these countries are expected to capture much of the upside from this. Who could have predicted? The bottom final link in the show notes today is to my second AI content experiment. Remember when I did those tech history for sleep videos?

I was like, well, I can do these because I know this stuff already. And so that made me think I wanted to see if I could create something credible that I didn't know about. Like you hear all the time that the potential end game of AI creation for content is for all of us someday to have the ability on demand to create content just for us. So the video I've linked to is a three-hour, four-sleep style video breaking down every single episode of Season 5 of The Simpsons, the behind-the-scenes of the production, the jokes, who wrote what, who got the guest star, what the guest star said, the whole nine yards. and yeah, I created something that I didn't know that I myself would listen to.

Something that I would listen to, and I got to be honest, is very, very entertaining to me. Like, it is a niche interest, a niche topic, but it's targeted just directly to me on demand. It did take a few hours to do, but I was like, AI, I want you to make me my dream behind-the-scenes documentary of the making of a classic Simpson season. And it did it. Is it 100% accurate? I took pains to prompt it in a way that I had to have it show work and sources, so I think it's good, although of course I don't know. All I know is, it is entertaining. Hit the link and see what I mean.

It did exactly what I want to done. If you want to know if we are on the cusp of being able to produce ad hoc bespoke content for ourselves on demand, I'm here to tell you, folks, we are very, very close. Talk to you tomorrow. Ambition comes in all shapes and sizes. At First Citizens Bank, we roll with your goals because we're built for what you're building. Fit for your ambition, First Citizens Bank.