The day in tech.

The US Department of Homeland Security ordered federal agencies to remove DeepSeek products on Monday due to data transfer risks. Agencies have 60 days to request exceptions. NowSecure identified unencrypted data transmissions in the app. The law passed in December 2025, and China considers export restrictions on 23 AI technologies.

On October 20, 2026, a Google Cloud outage in europe-west2 disrupted Revolut, causing card payments and ATM withdrawals to fail. The incident began Monday at 23:08 PDT and impacted 36 products, affecting over 80 million personal users across the UK, Ireland, France, Spain, Romania, and Germany. Banks Halifax, HSBC, and Lloyds also faced issues.

Elon Musk announced a potential Tesla and SpaceX merger on Tuesday, causing shares to rise 8%. The combined companies are worth around $3.5 trillion. SpaceX Q3 revenue reached $14.58 billion, up 161 percent year over year. Merger requires 50 percent of all outstanding shares. Tesla 2025 board declassification attempt failed with 39.4 percent support.

Salesforce agreed Tuesday to acquire Braze for $5.66 billion in enterprise value. Holders receive $47.50 cash per share, a 58% premium over the $30.04 Monday closing price. The transaction targets completion during fiscal 2028, pending regulatory clearances and a shareholder vote.

Elon Musk endorses a possible Tesla and SpaceX merger during a Q3 earnings call, citing SpaceX AI revenue of $7.6 billion. Analysts predict a 95% deal chance by December 2026, requiring 50% shareholder approval. The combined entity would hold 30,221 Bitcoin, and SpaceX acquired social media platform X in February.

SpaceX reported $14.6 billion in third-quarter revenue, a 161% year-over-year increase beating the $12.72 billion estimate. The company's 'Super Intelligence' segment, including Grok and 1.7 GW of compute, now accounts for 52% of income, though operating losses remain large while Starship development continues.

Chinese-speaking criminals deployed autonomous AI agents to breach over 1,200 company websites, successfully compromising more than 100 organizations including Deere and SharkNinja. The attacks, costing roughly $50 per successful hack, targeted online shops and utilized exposed open-source tool panels. Researchers found the operations began around October 2, with successful break-ins taking under 23 hours on average.

Meta Platforms chief global affairs officer Joel Kaplan retires in 2027 after 15 years. He stays through midterms for transition involving Dina Powell McCormick and C.J. Mahoney. Meta recently agreed to pay up to $16.68B to settle a youth safety case.

Otter.ai secured $320 million in non-equity financing from General Catalyst's Customer Value Fund to expand its enterprise business. The company serves 40 million users and previously raised $50 million total. It aims to triple its sales and marketing budget to double its enterprise business over the next year.

SpaceX reported third-quarter 2026 earnings of $4.4 billion, reversing a prior year loss. Revenue hit $14.58 billion against $13 billion expectations, with AI revenue reaching $7.56 billion. Total backlog stood at $63 billion as of Sept. 30.