TikTok offices in Culver City, California (Mario Tama/Getty Images)

By some measures, TikTok has grown bigger than Facebook or Instagram in the US

Oracle’s potential TikTok takeover is a big deal to US competitors like Meta and Snap.

9/17/25 1:31PM

There’s more at stake with Oracle’s potential control of TikTok’s US operations than national security and geopolitical harmony. The fate of some of America’s biggest social media companies, like Meta, Snap, Reddit, and Pinterest, also hangs in the balance.

And judging by the latest data from Similarweb, reported exclusively by Sherwood News, TikTok is in some respects more popular among Americans — a very lucrative social media demographic — than its competitors.

Meta doesn’t break out user numbers anymore for its individual properties, and TikTok, a company owned by privately held ByteDance, last disclosed that it had 170 million monthly US users in March 2024, so Sherwood asked Similarweb, a digital market intelligence company, for more recent estimates.

Since TikTok briefly went dark and then was resurrected early this year, the platform has pulled ahead of Instagram and Facebook as far as app monthly active users (MAUs) in the US. In August, TikTok had 183 million monthly active users on iOS and Android, according to Similarweb, up 16% from a year ago. That’s more than Pinterest and Snapchat combined.

TikTok’s daily active users (DAUs) grew 19% year over year to 102 million, just shy of Facebook’s 107 million daily users — a testament to how ingrained the older social network has become for some Americans over the years. Facebook leads TikTok by a small margin on desktop and mobile web as well, but the audiences there are smaller than in the apps.

The details of the spin-off are still being hammered out and a lot could change. But what’s certain is that there’s plenty of potential value to be found in TikTok’s American user base for those who own it.

Jon Keegan4h

OpenAI shares how it will charge for ChatGPT ads

Last week, OpenAI announced that ads were going to be rolling out in ChatGPT in the coming weeks.

Now we have more details about what OpenAI is telling advertisers. According to a report from The Information, the company has reached out to “dozens” of advertisers, and will charge based on ad views.

Advertisers are still waiting for further details, but OpenAI is asking for less than $1 million each in ad spending while it tests out the new system, per the report.

Ads are supposed to begin in February, and will only appear for free ChatGPT and ChatGPT Go users.

OpenAI Lines Up Advertisers, Reveals Key Details Ahead of Ads Launch

Advertisers are still waiting for further details, but OpenAI is asking for less than $1 million each in ad spending while it tests out the new system, per the report.

Ads are supposed to begin in February, and will only appear for free ChatGPT and ChatGPT Go users.

Rani Molla4h

Apple is reportedly working on a wearable AI pin

Move over OpenAI, Apple is reportedly also developing a mysterious AI-powered wearable device: a pin that looks like a “thin, flat, circular disc with an aluminum-and-glass shell.”

The Information reports that the device is the size of an Apple AirTag and has two cameras, a speaker, three microphones, and wireless charging. It could be available by early 2027.

Apple, which has lagged its peers in AI and recently teamed up with Google to support its upcoming Siri revamp, is hoping to keep up with ChatGPT and Google, which, like Apple, has an AI smartphone. Meta and Google are both also pushing into smart AI glasses.

It’s not to be mistaken with OpenAI’s secretive wearable AI device, which is being made in conjunction with former Apple designer Jony Ive and expected to debut in late 2026. The latest rumors suggest the unnamed device, meant to eventually compete with smartphones, might be earbuds.

Apple Developing AI Wearable Pin

Jon Keegan

As public pushback against data centers grows, AI companies promise they’ll be good neighbors

Communities concerned with energy prices, pollution, and water usage are starting to push back on Big Tech’s AI data center building spree. The companies are trying to assure the public that they will pay their way.

Rani Molla9h

Morgan Stanley expects Tesla to have 1,000 Robotaxis by the end of 2026. Musk had predicted 1,500 by the end of 2025

Ahead of Tesla’s earnings report next week, Morgan Stanley has released a note estimating that the company will scale its Robotaxi fleet much more slowly than CEO Elon Musk has said. The firm thinks the automaker will have 1,000 vehicles in its Robotaxi service by the end of 2026 — 500 fewer than Musk estimated a few months ago Tesla would have by the end of 2025.

More key to Tesla’s success, however, will be removing the safety monitors from those rides, which Morgan Stanley says will be a “precursor to personal unsupervised FSD [Full Self-Driving] rollout.” Musk, of course, had also promised to remove safety drivers in Austin by the end of 2025, but driverless rides are still in the testing stage.

Rani Molla11h

Meta says it’s delivered new AI models internally this month and they’re “very good”

Meta’s last AI model release, Llama 4, was marred by delays and accusations of rigged benchmarks, but the company says the latest models built by its Superintelligence Labs team look promising. CTO Andrew Bosworth told reporters at the World Economic Forum that the team delivered new models internally in January and they’re “very good.”

Bosworth didn’t specify what the models are, though The Wall Street Journal has reported that Meta is working on a large language model and an AI image and video model code-named Avocado and Mango, respectively.