Meta's AI Capex Surge, Zoom's Deepfake-Proof Badges & More Tech News

AI

Meta Q3 2026: Revenue Hits $64.6B While AI Spending Soars

Meta reported third-quarter revenue of $64.6 billion, a 26% year-over-year increase. Ad impressions grew 10% and the average price per ad climbed 14%.

Operating income, however, fell 37% to $13 billion. A $9.89 billion settlement charge with attorneys general from 52 U.S. states and territories weighed heavily on the results. Excluding that one-time item, adjusted EPS came in at $7.40, beating consensus estimates.

The standout figure is capital expenditure: $34.91 billion in a single quarter, nearly all directed at AI data center expansion. Q4 revenue guidance was set at $73 billion to $76 billion. The SEC 10-Q filing shows robust top-line growth, but the AI buildout continues to pressure free cash flow.

Zoom Launches World ID “Proof of Human” Badges

Zoom has rolled out World ID-powered “Human Badges” for enterprise customers globally. The feature is now available through the Zoom Marketplace.

The system compares a participant’s live video feed against data captured during a one-time enrollment at a World Orb, an iris-scanning device. Once verified, a “Human Badge” appears next to the participant’s name, visible to everyone in the meeting.

The feature was motivated by the 2024 Arup incident, where attackers impersonated executives via deepfake video and stole approximately $25 million. Over 1,500 Orb devices are now deployed worldwide.

Big Tech

ETS Breach Exposes Data of 5.7 Million California Students

The California Department of Education disclosed on October 16 that a breach at ETS (Educational Testing Service) compromised personal data for more than 5.7 million public school students.

An attacker used stolen credentials to copy files from an ETS secure file transfer site between May 22 and September 18, 2026. ETS detected the anomaly on September 25 and launched an investigation.

Exposed data includes names, student IDs, dates of birth, addresses, demographic information, disability status, program participation, and test scores. Social Security numbers and financial account information were not involved. ETS is offering affected families two years of free identity protection services.

TSMC Asks Equipment Makers About Rare-Earth Magnet Alternatives

TSMC has asked ASML, Applied Materials, and other semiconductor equipment vendors to assess whether rare-earth permanent magnets used in factory automation motors can be replaced.

The inquiry is a preemptive response to China’s tightening rare-earth export controls. It remains at an early feasibility-study stage, not an immediate equipment swap. TSMC’s CFO has stated that the company holds one to two years of rare-earth supplies, limiting near-term impact.

Chinese rare-earth magnet exports to the United States fell to 512 tonnes in August, down 20% from July. If equipment vendors cannot secure alternative materials for components in systems like EUV lithography, the semiconductor supply chain could face longer-term disruptions.

Startups

Legora Raises $550M Series E at $8.8B Valuation for Legal AI

Swedish legal AI startup Legora has closed a $550 million Series E round at an $8.8 billion valuation. That is roughly 60% higher than its March 2026 Series D valuation of $5.55 billion.

Legora has surpassed $100 million in annual recurring revenue and now serves over 1,000 customer organizations across more than 50 markets. The funds will go toward U.S. and Asia expansion and the development of AI agents for legal workflows.

Satellite navigation startup Xona Space Systems has closed a $170 million Series C led by Natural Capital, with participation from Samsung NEXT Ventures, Woven Capital, and Hexagon.

Xona is building a low-Earth orbit (LEO) satellite-based navigation system designed to outperform GPS in accuracy. The company plans a 258-satellite constellation and will use the funding to scale satellite manufacturing at its California facility.

Open Source

Anthropic Launches OSS Scanner for Free AI Security Audits

Anthropic has launched OSS Scanner, a free AI-powered security audit tool for open-source projects. It uses Claude models to detect vulnerabilities, taking a similar approach to Google’s OSS-Fuzz but replacing fuzzers with large language models.

Maintainers can enroll by submitting a pull request to the enrollment repository. In early validation, 85 out of 97 critical or high-severity findings across 48 projects met the bar for coordinated vulnerability disclosure.

One caveat: audit results do not include human triage, so false positives are possible. The tool builds on Anthropic’s internal Project Glasswing, which surfaced over 29,000 candidate bugs across major software repositories.

OBS Studio 33.0 RC3: CEF 150 Upgrade and Plugin System Overhaul

OBS Studio 33.0 Release Candidate 3 shipped on October 20 as the final test build before the stable release.

The biggest change is a browser source engine upgrade from CEF 127 to CEF 150. The plugin loading system has also been completely reworked. Third-party plugins installed in legacy locations will receive a “Legacy” flag and will stop working entirely in OBS 34.0.

Additional changes include improved source snapping, NVENC hardware encoding support on ARM64, and dropped support for Ubuntu 24.04, FFmpeg 6.x/7.x, and Qt 6.4 through 6.9.

Gaming

Cyberpunk 2077 Update 2.5 “Edgerunners 2” Drops as Free Update

CD Projekt Red released Cyberpunk 2077 Update 2.5 on October 22 for PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X|S at no cost. The update coincides with the Netflix premiere of Cyberpunk: Edgerunners Season 2.

Key additions include the “Clampdown” prequel side quest, dual-wielding pistols via the Double Trouble perk in the Cool tree, and cyberware visual customization at five Glamdocs shops.

The update also introduces cross-platform mod support via mod.io, covering PC, Mac, PS5, and Xbox Series X|S. Achievements and trophies are disabled when playing with mods enabled. The Switch 2 version will receive the update at a later date.

PS5 Cloud Streaming Launches in South Korea on October 28

Sony’s PS5 cloud streaming service arrives in South Korea on October 28, available to PlayStation Plus Premium members. Existing Deluxe subscribers were automatically upgraded on October 21 at no extra charge.

Premium members can stream over 300 supported games from the Game Catalog, including titles like Crimson Desert, Ghost of Yotei, and GTA V. Eligible digital PS5 titles that users already own are also streamable.

The PlayStation Portal can now stream games independently without a PS5 console nearby, at up to 1080p 60fps with a recommended 13Mbps connection. PS4, PS3, and PS VR2 games are excluded from the service.

References

Meta Q3 2026 Earnings Analysis — 247 Wall St
Meta Platforms Form 10-Q FY2026 — SEC
Zoom proof of human badges World ID — Cointelegraph
Zoom debuts ID verification for AI agents — TechRadar
Testing company data breach affects millions of Calif. students — GovTech
California student data breach 2026 — LAist
TSMC rare-earth magnet inquiry — Global Economic
TSMC on China’s rare earth supply chain — Yahoo Finance
Legora funding round Series E — Sifted
Legal AI startup Legora raises $550 million — Bloomberg Law
Xona Space Systems Series C — raising.fi
Anthropic OSS Scanner — Cybersecurity News
OBS Studio 33.0 RC3 Released — Warp2Search
OBS Studio 33 Nears Release — Linuxiac
Cyberpunk 2077 Update 2.5 Patch Notes — Final Weapon
Cyberpunk 2077 big update — VGC
PS5 Cloud Streaming — PlayStation Blog
PS5 Cloud Streaming South Korea — CloudDosage
PS5 Cloud Streaming Korea Launch — InvenGlobal

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