The Bill
On March 12, Atlassian cut 1,600 jobs to fund AI. Oracle added $500M to its restructuring charges, citing AI coding efficiencies. Salesforce's bond investors demanded a premium for AI disruption risk. Two weeks after Benioff dismissed the "SaaS-pocalypse," three markets sent the bill.
Google launches Ask Maps, a Gemini-powered conversational Google Maps feature that lets users ask “complex, real-world questions”, available in the US and India
'Where's the closest public bathroom that's not completely disgusting' is going to get asked a lot in my household.
Anthropic says Claude can now generate custom charts, diagrams, and other visualizations directly in a conversation, available to all users in beta
Claude will automatically generate interactive visuals based on your conversation, or you can ask it directly, too.
Microsoft launches Copilot Health, which integrates medical records, biometric data from wearables, and lab test results to give personalized advice, in the US
A new feature within the Copilot app will offer personalized healthcare advice and make it easy to upload test results, fitness data and more
Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen will step down after a successor is named; he became CEO in 2007 and will remain as chair of the board; ADBE drops 6%+ after hours
Adobe said CEO Shantanu Narayen will step down as CEO after a successor has been named, and remain as chair of the design software company's board.
Emil Michael says Anthropic's Claude models would “pollute” the DOD's supply chain because they have “a different policy preference” that is baked in
not on CNBC after the fact.Zvi Mowshowitz /@thezvi:@deanwball The quotes are crazy. We also get 'You can't rip out the system overnight' (but we're still worried they might rip out the system overnigh...
A US DOJ-led international law enforcement operation disrupted SocksEscort, a residential proxy network used to exploit residential routers worldwide
Cops from eight countries this week disrupted SocksEscort, a residential proxy service used by criminals to compromise hundreds of thousands …
Microsoft says EVP of Experiences and Devices, Rajesh Jha, plans to retire on July 1 after 35+ years at Microsoft and promotes four of his direct reports to EVP
The leaders of Windows and Office are now getting promoted and report directly to Satya Nadella.
Tinder unveils updates designed to reinvigorate its product, bolster safety, and harness AI, including an Events tab and a virtual speed dating test in LA
Tinder held its inaugural product keynote on Thursday, unveiling an ambitious slate of updates designed to reinvigorate its product, bolster safety, and harness AI.
Sources: India plans to unveil a ~$10.8B fund aimed at bolstering domestic chipmaking, including subsidizing chip design projects and manufacturing equipment
India plans to unveil a more than 1 trillion rupee ($10.8 billion) fund aimed at bolstering domestic chipmaking …
xAI hires senior Cursor leaders Andrew Milich and Jason Ginsberg; Elon Musk said he expects xAI to catch up with rivals in coding by “the middle of this year”
Elon Musk's xAI is hiring two senior Cursor leaders as part of an effort to catch up with AI rivals in coding …
Nuro says it has begun testing its self-driving tech on public roads in Tokyo, marking the US-based startup's first international autonomous vehicle deployment
U.S.-based startup Nuro said on Wednesday its self-driving vehicles are now operating on public roads in Tokyo with safety operators present …
Bumble jumps 30%+ after reporting Q4 revenue above estimates and unveils an AI-driven app overhaul to lure back users; BMBL is down 90% since its 2021 IPO
Bumble (BMBL.O) shares jumped more than 40% in early trading on Thursday after the company posted upbeat fourth-quarter revenue …
Sources: Amazon plans to move its Prime Day sale from July to late June; the shift affects its financial reporting, with event sales coming in Q2 rather than Q3
Amazon.com Inc. is moving up its annual Prime Day sale to June from July, according to people familiar with the matter …
European video game age ratings body PEGI plans to add four new categories in June to tackle elements of addictive design in games, including loot boxes
Loot boxes and in-game purchases targeted. — Follow EA Sports FC 27 — Video game age-ratings are about to change in Europe.
US medtech giant Stryker confirms a global outage due to a cyberattack; Iran-linked group Handala says the hack is retaliation for a strike on a school in Iran
The U.S. medtech company experiences a global outage, with some staff devices remotely wiped — Medical technology giant Stryker …
Sunday, which is building autonomous home robots, raised a $165M Series B led by Coatue at a valuation of $1.15B, and aims to begin testing in homes this year
Sunday Inc. has raised $165 million to build a dream robot for any household: a friendly looking machine capable of performing tasks …
Apple's MacBook Neo validates a vision that began 15 years ago with a demo of Windows on ARM, which is held back by Microsoft's commitment to x86 compatibility
I'm completely blown away by Mac Neo. It made me think a lot about what we tried to accomplish with Windows 8 more than a dozen years ago.
The US SEC and the US CFTC enter an MOU to coordinate and collaborate where their work overlaps, including by building a combined crypto oversight framework
The two agencies sealed their memorandum of understanding to link the parts of their work that overlap, and coordinated crypto oversight is among the top goals.
Google Research launches Groundsource, a geo-tagged time series dataset created by using Gemini to extract 2.6M flood events from 5M historical news articles
Flash floods are among the deadliest weather events in the world, killing more than 5,000 people each year. They're also among the most difficult to predict.
Sources: Greenoaks founder Neil Mehta is pitching an endowment-type fund to Silicon Valley billionaires to influence CA politics, aiming to raise $100M to $500M
Silicon Valley billionaires have been seething over the threat of more taxes and regulations at home.Forums:r/politicsForums:r/politics:Ultrawealthy Consider $500 Million Fund to Influence California ...
Sources: Meta has paused the Persian Gulf section of its 2Africa subsea cable project as the war in the Middle East freezes activity in the region
Meta Platforms Inc. has paused part of a massive effort to expand internet service across Africa as the war in the Middle East freezes activity in the region.
Apple updates iOS and iPadOS for older devices, including the iPhone 6s, iPad Air 2, and iPod touch (7th gen), to address the Coruna exploit disclosed last week
A few days ago, Google and iVerify published details on Coruna, an exploit that chained multiple vulnerabilities to target iPhones running older iOS versions.
Swarm Aero, which is developing large swarming drones capable of carrying missiles and cargo, raised a $35M Series A, following a $22M seed in 2023
Swarm Aero raised $35 million and plans to more than double its headcount by the end of the year. — The big picture: The California startup …
Mastercard unveils a Crypto Partner Program with 85+ companies, including Binance, PayPal, and Ripple, to link blockchain tech with its payments infrastructure
More than 85 partners will work with Mastercard to connect on-chain payments with banks, merchants and global commerce as part of the payment giant's recent crypto program.
How Amazon pushes employees to integrate AI across their workloads despite their concerns that the company's “half-baked” tools are creating more work for all
Corporate employees said Amazon's race to roll out AI is leading to surveillance, slop and ‘more work for everyone’.
PayPay shares jump 19% in their Nasdaq debut after the company's $879.8M US IPO, the biggest listing by a Japanese company on a US stock exchange in a decade
Shares of PayPay Corp. jumped 19% in its trading debut Thursday after the digital payments firm's $879.8 million US IPO …
A small cottage industry offering OpenClaw installation services and preconfigured hardware emerges in China as the tool becomes the country's latest tech craze
Feng Qingyang had always hoped to launch his own company, but he never thought this would be how—or that the day would come this fast.
Michael Dell says “I don't think a company can dictate to a sovereign government what it does with its tools”, responding to a question on the Anthropic feud
Dell Technologies Inc. Chief Executive Officer Michael Dell said that a company doing business with the government …
Ukraine's defense minister says Ukraine is opening up access to its battlefield data for its allies to train AI models
Ukraine is opening up access to its battlefield data for its allies to train drone AI software, the defence minister said on Thursday, as Kyiv seeks to harness the experience …
Sources: xAI's AI agent project Macrohard has stalled as Tesla ramps up its own AI agent project Digital Optimus; Elon Musk says it is a joint xAI-Tesla project
Follow Grace Kay … - XAI's Macrohard project has stalled amid leadership changes and a data project pause.
Gumloop, which helps companies deploy reliable AI agents that handle complex, multi-step tasks, raised a $50M Series B led by Benchmark
When Max Brodeur-Urbas co-founded Gumloop in mid-2023, his vision was to help non-technical employees automate repetitive tasks using AI.
Amazon announces new personality styles for Alexa+, including an adult-only “Sassy” option, which it says won't get into areas like explicit sexual content
Amazon's AI assistant Alexa+ is getting another new personality. On Thursday, the company announced it's expanding …
Sources: after Google's $32B deal, each of Wiz's four co-founders is set to get $2B+ in post-tax cash; Index is set to net $4B, Sequoia ~$3B, and Insight $2.7B
Two years after rejecting a $23 billion offer, Israel-based Wiz secured the largest acquisition in Google's history …
Paris-based Waiv, which uses AI to enable more precise testing of cancer, raised $33M after spinning out of AI diagnostics and drug discovery platform Owkin
IDS and ADRN study: 11 African governments spent $2B+ on Chinese-built surveillance tech that recognizes faces and monitors movements; Nigeria spent $470M
BackOps, which makes automation tools for supply chain operations, raised a $26M Series A led by Theory Ventures
BackOps, which makes automation tools for supply chain operations, raised a $26 million Series A round, CEO Sean McCarthy tells Axios exclusively.
Qdrant, which develops an open-source vector search engine for production AI systems, raised a $50M Series B led by AVP
Qdrant develops a vector search engine designed for production AI systems, enabling teams to configure retrieval, ranking, and filtering to support scalable applications such as semantic search and AI...
Tel Aviv-based Bold, which uses AI agents to secure enterprise devices like laptops from cyberattacks, emerges from stealth with $40M in funding
Disney+ is rolling out Verts, its new short-form video feed, to US users on its mobile app, featuring clips from movies and TV shows on Disney+
Disney+ is starting to roll out Verts, its new short-form video feed, to U.S. users on its mobile app. First announced in January …
Stockholm-based AI coding startup Lovable reaches $400M in ARR, up from $300M in January; rival Cursor hit $2B in annualized revenue in February, per a source
Swedish startup Lovable has hit $400 million in annual recurring revenue, as companies and users flock to artificial intelligence tools …
Oro Labs, which uses AI to streamline corporate procurement, raised a $100M Series C led by Goldman Sachs Growth Equity and Brighton Park Capital
Oro Labs, a Silicon Valley startup that uses artificial intelligence to automate companies' procurement processes, has raised $100 million in new venture capital funding.
Crypto accounting startup Cryptio raised a $45M Series B led by BlackFin Capital Partners and Sentinel Global and reports having 450+ clients, including Circle
Microsoft and Meta each committed nearly $50B in additional data center leases in their most recent quarters, pushing major cloud companies' total to $700B+
Microsoft Corp. and Meta Platforms Inc. each committed nearly $50 billion in additional data center leases in their most recent quarters …
Israeli startup Onyx Security, which helps secure and manage AI agents' operational risks, raised a $35M Series A led by Conviction, after a $5M seed in 2024
The Israeli startup develops a platform to secure and manage AI systems as they become integral to business operations.
Canva launches Magic Layers, an AI tool that turns a flat bitmap image into a fully editable Canva project by extracting text and objects into individual layers
Axiom Math, which uses AI and the Lean language to verify code in much the same way that mathematicians prove math problems, raised $200M at a $1.6B valuation
In January, a team of researchers at Carnegie Mellon University published a study analyzing the use of artificial intelligence technologies …
Israeli-Dutch startup Wonderful AI, which offers AI agents that can handle customer conversations across voice, chat, and more, raised $150M at a $2B valuation
Israeli startup Wonderful has raised $150 million in funding that will accelerate its deployment of artificial intelligence-powered customer support agents.
Sources: Alibaba-backed PixVerse, which develops AI video generation tools, raised a $300M Series C led by CDH; the company says the round values it at $1B+
PixVerse has raised $300 million in fresh funding, people familiar with the matter said, elevating the startup backed …
Source: Microsoft is in advanced talks to lease hundreds of megawatts of data center capacity in Abilene, Texas, after Oracle abandoned its expansion deal there
Microsoft is in advanced talks to lease hundreds of megawatts of data center capacity at a closely watched artificial intelligence campus in Abilene …
WordPress debuts my.WordPress.net, which lets users run WordPress entirely in the browser to set up a private workspace not accessible from the public internet
Microsoft is pushing for more Africans to adopt its AI tools as it competes with DeepSeek: training 3M people, partnering with telecom MTN to sell 365, and more
Microsoft Corp. is making a push for more Africans to adopt its artificial-intelligence tools as the US tech giant competes …
Superhuman faces a proposed class action lawsuit from Julia Angwin, founder of The Markup, alleging Grammarly's Expert Review tool involved “misappropriation”
Chinese brain-computer interface startup Gestala raised $21.6M co-led by Guosheng Capital and Dalton Venture at a $100M to $200M valuation, per CEO Phoenix Peng
Elon Musk's Neuralink and OpenAI-backed Merge Labs are pushing forward with brain-computer interface (BCI) technology in the U.S. Meanwhile …
Sources: India is drafting new smartphone manufacturing incentives linking subsidies to exports and greater use of local components, benefiting Apple and others
Bernstein: 42% of China's 20K+ humanoid robot shipments in 2025 were for education and R&D; data collection and human-robot interaction services were 19% each
Network of training farms aims to supply data needed to put ‘brains’ into machines — At a new 12,000 square metre facility in Wuhan …
Uber partners with Nissan and Wayve to offer robotaxi services in Japan, its first AV partnership in the country, with a Tokyo pilot program set for late 2026
Source: Anthropic is in talks with Blackstone and other PE firms to form a JV selling consulting services for integrating Claude into portfolio companies
Sources: Netflix will pay as much as $600M for InterPositive, Ben Affleck's AI moviemaking company, including bonuses for meeting certain performance targets
Netflix Inc. will pay as much as $600 million for InterPositive, the AI moviemaking company founded by Ben Affleck …
Chicago-based restaurant software startup Chowbus raised an $81M Series E led by Prysm Capital and Left Lane Capital; it focuses primarily on Asian restaurants
Chowbus, an operating system for independent Asian restaurants, raised an $81m Series E, CEO Linxin Wen tells Axios exclusively.
Online DTC luxury brand Quince raised a $500M Series E led by Iconiq at a $10.1B valuation; it recently launched in Canada and its revenue topped $1B in 2025
Binance.US names Stephen Gregory as CEO, replacing Norman Reed; Gregory was previously CEO of Currency.com and held compliance roles at Gemini and CEX.IO
The appointment of Stephen Gregory comes as U.S. crypto exchanges intensify competition and broaden offerings beyond digital assets.
IDC: Motorola holds ~50% of the foldable market in the US and 55% in Latin America, ahead of Samsung and Google, but ~13% in Europe, for a global ~14% share
TikTok partners with Apple to let Apple Music subscribers play full songs without leaving the TikTok app, and use a Listening Party feature, in the coming weeks
FCC Chair Brendan Carr criticizes the slow pace of Amazon's satellite launches, after Amazon raised concerns about SpaceX's plan to launch up to 1M satellites
The chairman of the Federal Communications Commission dismissed criticism from Amazon.com (AMZN.O) of Elon Musk's SpaceX plan …
Valve says 5,863 games made $100K+ on Steam in 2025, up from ~3,000 titles that earned $100K+ in 2020, and Steam passed 42M peak concurrent users in February
The PC platform also passed 42 million peak concurrent users a few weeks ago. — Valve has revealed that 5,863 games released on Steam earned over $100,000 in 2025.
Anthropic says Claude for Excel and Claude for PowerPoint now share full context across open files, and skills are available inside Excel and PowerPoint add-ins
Rivian CEO RJ Scaringe's Mind Robotics, which is building AI-powered factory robots, raised $500M led by Accel and a16z, source says at a $2B valuation
SEC filing: Oracle sets aside $500M more for restructuring, taking its FY total to $2.1B, as it prepares to cut jobs and hails efficiencies from AI coding tools
Database group set aside an additional $500mn for restructuring costs — Oracle has stepped up preparations to cut jobs …
The UK ICO and Ofcom asked social media platforms to implement “highly effective age checks” to bar under-13 accounts, similar to tools required for adult sites
WhatsApp adds parent-managed accounts for users under the age of 13 and says the accounts will not get access to features like Meta AI, Channels, or Status
Amazon's Zoox partners with Uber to offer its robotaxis on the Uber app, starting in Las Vegas in summer 2026 and in LA by mid-2027; Zoox needs US approval
Meta unveils four new chips, the MTIA 300, MTIA 400, MTIA 450, and MTIA 500, set to launch by the end of 2027; the MTIA 300 is in production for content ranking
Meta Platforms Inc. plans to deploy four new generations of its in-house artificial intelligence chips by the end of 2027 …
Sources: Ripple kicks off a share buyback at a $50B valuation to repurchase up to $750M in shares from investors and employees in a tender offer through April
Ripple has kicked off a share buyback that would value the company at $50 billion, cementing it as one of the most valuable digital-asset firms …
Amsterdam-based Nebius says Nvidia plans to invest $2B in the startup as it plans to build AI data centers and deploy 5GW+ of Nvidia systems by the end of 2030
Microsoft says the next Xbox, Project Helix, will have a custom AMD chip, and it will begin sending out “alpha versions” of Project Helix to developers in 2027
Microsoft announced new details about the console at the GDC Festival of Gaming.
Google spins off GFiber, formerly Google Fiber, forming an independent provider with investment firm Stonepeak's Astound; Google will retain a minority stake
Choose CNBC as your preferred source on Google and never miss a moment from the most trusted name in business news. — CNBC Councils
Sources: the US DOJ is investigating Iran's use of Binance to evade sanctions, focusing on money flowing to networks backing terror groups like Yemen's Houthis
Sources: Cursor is in early talks to raise billions at a post-money valuation of up to $60B, up from $29.3B in November 2025; one source puts the round at $5B
Very early discussions involve a $5 billion raise at a valuation of up to $60 billion — Can a company be declared both passé and the next big thing?
Revolut says it has secured a full banking license from UK regulators after a four-year wait, allowing the company to expand lending to its 13M UK customers
Permit is crucial to growth strategy of Europe's most valuable fintech — Revolut has secured a full banking licence from UK regulators …
Amazon raised €14.5B in its euro bond market debut, the biggest ever corporate deal in the currency, following a dollar offering on Tuesday that raised $37B
Nvidia debuts Nemotron 3 Super, a 120B-parameter hybrid MoE open-weight model; filing: Nvidia plans to spend $26B over the next five years to build open models
The move could position the AI infrastructure powerhouse to quickly compete with OpenAI, Anthropic, and DeepSeek.
Atlassian is cutting 10% of its workforce, or ~1,600 jobs, to fund investments in AI and enterprise sales; filing: the cuts will incur $225M to $236M in charges
Atlassian said on Wednesday that it's eliminating 10% of its workforce, or about 1,600 jobs, as the company restructures following …
Sources: Apple's foldable iPhone will feature iPad-like layouts and side-by-side apps on its iPad mini-sized inner display and a small iPhone-sized outer screen
Apple Inc.'s forthcoming foldable iPhone will include updates to the iOS operating system that enable iPad-like layouts and side …
Replit raised a $400M Series D led by Georgian Partners at a $9B valuation and says it is on track to hit $1B in annual recurring revenue by the end of 2026
Amjad Masad's Replit allows users to build apps together like they're doodling on a white board. It also made the Jordanian immigrant a billionaire along the way.
Perplexity announces Personal Computer, an OpenClaw-like AI agent initially only for macOS, and an enterprise version of its cloud-based Perplexity Computer
- “Personal Computer” runs locally on a dedicated device. — “Perplexity Computer,” which was announced a few weeks ago, operates in the cloud.
Sources: investors demanded steep concessions in Salesforce's $25B bond deal to fund a share buyback; it sold debt at a significant premium in borrowing costs
Software group sold debt at significant premium in borrowing costs in sign of Wall Street jitters over AI disruption
Microsoft says that Windows 11 Xbox mode, a controller-first, full-screen gaming interface, will begin rolling out in April and work across all PC form factors
Prepares major gaming advancements that lay foundations for the next XboxRyan Whitwam /Ars Technica:Google Play Games for PC is getting more premium titles and cross-buy with AndroidTelecompaper:Micro...