The Bifurcation
For three years, every frontier AI release was cheaper than the one before it, and the global market for model inference behaved like a single commodity. On April 24, 2026, OpenAI launched GPT-5.5 at $5 per million input tokens — exactly double GPT-5.4's price six weeks earlier. The same day, DeepSeek released V4 Pro at $1.74 per million input tokens. The race to zero ended where every commodity race ends: at the moment buyers in different regions stop being treated as the same buyer.
The US DOJ arrests a soldier involved in the capture of Nicolás Maduro for allegedly making $400K+ on Polymarket by betting on Maduro's removal from office
The bet was allegedly placed by a commando involved in Nicolas Maduro's capture. — Katherine Faulders, Aaron Katersky, Peter Charalambous, and Alexander Mallin
OpenAI launches GPT-5.5, a model designed to handle more complex tasks with minimal guidance; the model will be used to power the startup's upcoming “super app”
OpenAI is introducing an artificial intelligence model that's intended to be better at completing work without much direction …
DeepSeek releases its new flagship models V4 Pro and V4 Flash in preview, saying V4 Pro trails the performance of state-of-the-art models by about 3 to 6 months
DeepSeek rolled out preview versions of a new flagship artificial intelligence model a year after upending Silicon Valley …
Microsoft announces its first voluntary retirement program, for staff whose years of employment and age add up to 70+; source: 7% of US employees are eligible
Microsoft will offer voluntary buyouts to some U.S. employee, a first for the 51-year-old software giant, as the tech industry grapples …
Meta plans to cut 10% of its employees, or ~8,000 jobs, on May 20 and won't fill 6,000 open roles, trying to boost efficiency and offset its heavy AI spending
Meta Platforms Inc. plans to cut 10% of workers, or roughly 8,000 employees, in an effort to boost efficiency and offset its heavy spending on artificial intelligence.
Intel reports Q1 revenue up 7% YoY to $13.58B, vs. $12.42B est., driven by CPU demand, and forecasts Q2 revenue and adjusted EPS above est.; INTC jumps 20%+
- Intel reported first-quarter earnings that beat Wall Street expectations … Intel reported first-quarter earnings Thursday …
President Trump threatens to “put a big tariff on the UK” if it does not drop its digital services tax, which he views as unfairly targeting US tech companies
President tells The Telegraph he will retaliate if Britain continues to ‘target’ major American companies such as Apple, Google and Meta
Xbox CEO Asha Sharma and Chief Content Officer Matt Booty detail their “return of Xbox” strategy, including daily active players as Xbox's “new north star”
Microsoft's new Xbox leader starts to talk strategy for the company's gaming business.
X launches its standalone messaging app XChat on the App Store, saying it supports end-to-end encryption and has no ads
XChat, the standalone messaging app from X, is now available. X's new iPhone and iPad app has officially arrived on the App Store. — XChat has officially launched on iPhone and iPad
Anthropic says Google is committing to invest $10B now in cash at a $350B valuation and will invest another $30B if Anthropic hits performance targets
Google will invest $10 billion in Anthropic PBC, with another $30 billion potentially to follow, strengthening the relationship between …
Maine's governor vetoes a bill that would have led to US' first state pause on data centers, citing its failure to exempt a project in a distressed mill town
Gov. Janet Mills said she rejected what would have been the nation's first moratorium on data centers because it failed to exempt a project in a distressed mill town.
Q&A with Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian on building infrastructure for AI agents, balancing internal needs and the demands of customers like Anthropic, and more
An interview with Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian about Google's cloud priorities, enterprise agent platform, and Google's integration advantage.
Sources: Cursor hit $2.7B in annualized sales in March, up ~14x from a year ago, and reported a nearly $900M loss in its past fiscal year on ~$770M in revenue
Weeks before Cursor agreed to a $60 billion potential takeover from SpaceX, the hot AI coding startup set out to raise billions of dollars.
Sources: JPMorgan and other banks struggled to spread the risk of billions in loans they made to build data centers leased to Oracle in Texas and Wisconsin
The AI boom has hit a funding snag, compounding power constraints and a growing public backlash against data centers
Thrive is taking a stake in the San Francisco Giants via a new venture that will invest in franchises and cultural institutions that can't be replicated by AI
It's the first investment from the firm's new strategy focused on long-term investments in franchises and cultural institutions that can't be replicated by AI
Sources: the WH pushed out the head of the Center for AI Standards and Innovation, Collin Burns, a former Anthropic researcher, after just four days on the job
The Department of Commerce had picked Anthropic researcher Collin Burns to lead the Center for AI Standards and Innovation. — Summary
Nvidia stock jumps 4.3% to close at a record for the first time since Oct., pushing Nvidia's market cap past $5T, as a rally in Intel pushed chipmakers higher
Nvidia shares closed at a record on Friday for the first time since October, pushing the company's market cap past $5 trillion …
As part of the Cohere-Aleph Alpha deal, Aleph Alpha backer Schwarz Group plans to invest $600M in Cohere's Series E, which a source says is set to close in 2026
Canadian AI lab Cohere announced on Friday that it planned to acquire German AI company Aleph Alpha, as it eyed major expansion in Europe.
The Wire by Acutus, an AI-generated site with articles attacking AI industry critics, appears to be funded by the OpenAI-backed super PAC Leading The Future
The reporters at this news site are AI bots. OpenAI's super PAC appears to be funding it.
Meta and Amazon reach a multibillion-dollar, multiyear deal for Meta to rent hundreds of thousands of Amazon's Graviton chips for its AI inference needs
Amazon.com Inc. and Meta Platforms Inc. have struck a multibillion-dollar deal for the social-media giant to rent hundreds of thousands of Amazon's general-purpose chips for its AI efforts.
Sources: India is piloting ~10 schemes to test whether its CBDC, the e-rupee, can deliver welfare payments more efficiently, as it looks to boost e-rupee usage
In the western Indian village of Phulenagar, Samadhan Sonawane set up a drip irrigation system on his small onion farm using …LinkedIn:Jaspreet KalraLinkedIn:Jaspreet Kalra:The question around CBDCs i...
OpenAI says “GPT-5.5 matches GPT-5.4 per-token latency in real-world serving”, performs “at a much higher level of intelligence”, and is more capable for Codex
A new class of intelligence for real work — We're releasing GPT-5.5, our smartest and most intuitive to use model yet …
Meta announces a deal to use “tens of millions” of Amazon's Graviton chips to help deliver its next generation of AI models, amid a shortage of Nvidia chips
Meta on Friday announced a deal to use Amazon-designed chips to help deliver its next generation of AI models.
Sources: AI coding startup Cognition is in early talks to raise hundreds of millions of dollars at a $25B valuation, up from $10.2B announced in September 2025
Cognition AI Inc. is in early talks to raise a new round of funding that would more than double its valuation to $25 billion …
Canada-based Cohere and Germany-based Aleph Alpha agree to a merger valuing the combination at ~$20B, to work on sovereign AI; both governments support the deal
Canadian and German start-ups to focus on ‘sovereign’ AI systems independent of US and China — Canadian AI start-up Cohere …
Diplomatic cable: US State Department has ordered a global push to bring attention to what it says are efforts by Chinese companies to steal IP from US AI labs
The U.S. State Department has ordered a global push to bring attention to what it says are widespread efforts by Chinese companies …
Norway plans to ban children from using social media until they turn 16; the government says it will introduce a bill in parliament by the end of 2026
Norway said on Friday it would present a bill in parliament by year-end to ban children from using social media until they turn 16 …
S-1 filing: SpaceX warns that investigations into Grok creating and disseminating sexually abusive AI imagery may cause SpaceX to lose access to certain markets
The multiple investigations into xAI's creation and dissemination of sexually abusive imagery may lead the company to lose access to certain markets …
Intel stock closes up 23.6%, its best performance since October 1987, as Intel shows signs of renewed growth amid the AI boom; the stock is up 124% YTD
Intel shares soared 24% on Friday, their best performance since October 1987, as investors cheered signs of renewed growth due to mounting artificial intelligence demand.
Singapore is increasingly seen as neutral ground for AI companies that are hoping to operate and hire talent without the headache of US or Chinese regulations
Singapore is transforming from East-West gateway to neutral ground for the AI sector, with Chinese startups hoping …Forums:r/singaporeForums:r/singapore:Singapore emerging as neutral ground as AI firm...
Instagram launches Instants, an app for sharing disappearing photos, in Italy and Spain, after rolling out an Instants feature in its main app in some regions
Sam Altman apologizes to a Canadian town for not alerting police to the activity of a mass shooting suspect when her ChatGPT account was suspended
Sam Altman said AI company will work more closely with governments to prevent future tragedies — OpenAI Chief Executive Sam Altman apologized …
The DOJ joins xAI in its legal challenge to a new Colorado law that seeks to prevent discrimination by AI tools in employment and other areas
The Trump administration is joining Elon Musk's artificial intelligence company xAI in its legal challenge to Colorado's new state law that seeks …
Staffing experts say India's IT sector is seeing a rise in replacement hiring as companies adapt to Gen Z staff leaving jobs faster than previous generations
India's IT sector is experiencing a surge in replacement hiring. Gen Z professionals are leaving jobs at a faster rate, prompting companies to revise their strategies.
Tracxn: global edtech funding fell from $16.7B in 2021 to $2.6B in 2025, while the number of startups launched dropped from 7,178 in 2021 to just 645 in 2025
Venture capital is moving away from K-12 edtech worldwide as investors prioritize AI tools and workforce training with clearer returns.
ComfyUI, which gives creators granular control over image, video, and audio outputs from diffusion models, raised $30M at a $500M valuation
ComfyUI, a startup that helps creators control image, video, and audio outputs from diffusion models with a node-based workflow …
Helsinki-based Verda, formerly Datacrunch, which aims to become Europe's first AI cloud hyperscaler, raised €100M in debt and equity
The Finnish cloud provider, formerly known as Datacrunch, says its success comes from being vertically integrated — Helsinki-headquartered Verda …
Brazil's Finance Minister Dario Durigan says the country has blocked prediction market platforms and tightened derivatives rules to curb “bet-like” products
Brazil has blocked prediction market platforms and tightened derivatives rules to curb “bet-like” products …
Anthropic says it has fixed three recent Claude Code quality issues: reduced default reasoning, a caching bug, and a system prompt change to reduce verbosity
Sources: AI startups are struggling to access Nvidia GPUs as Microsoft and other cloud providers divert supply to internal teams and large customers like OpenAI
AI startups are struggling to access Nvidia graphics processing units as Microsoft and other cloud providers divert GPU stockpiles …LinkedIn:Aaron Holmes.
Sources: in recent weeks, China told tech companies, like ByteDance and Moonshot AI, to reject US capital without state approval, after Meta's Manus acquisition
Chinese regulators plan to restrict technology firms including some of the country's highest-profile AI pioneers …
At a town hall, Asha Sharma said Microsoft is returning to using Xbox for its gaming division, instead of Microsoft Gaming, as “Xbox needs to be our identity”
www.theverge.com/report/91748... [image]Tom Warren /@tomwarren.co.uk:scoop: Microsoft is bringing Xbox back and scrapping Microsoft Gaming. During an internal all-hands today, Microsoft's new Xbox C...
Source: Meta has a system in India to “automatically restrict content, at scale” to meet local law, massively expanding the country's censorship powers
India is now part of a small group of countries where content takedown notices are complied with immediately …
Sources: Stanford University professor James Zou aims to raise ~$100M at a ~$1B valuation for Human Intelligence, which aims to use AI to study physiology
Stanford University professor James Zou is raising money at a roughly $1 billion valuation to build artificial intelligence models …
WhatsApp partners with PayU to roll out prepaid mobile recharges in India; it remains a marginal payments player in India despite launching payments in 2020
EY survey of 18,000 people across 23 countries: ~49% of consumers have used AI over the past six months to support their savings and investment decisions
Gen Z and millennials the most likely groups to consult chatbots on money matters — Nearly half of global consumers are turning …
SAP reports Q1 revenue up 6% YoY to €9.56B, vs. €9.53B est., non-IFRS operating profit up 17% YoY to €2.87B, and cloud revenue up 19% YoY to €5.96B
The AI boom has pushed the market cap of Shenzhen-listed Zhongji Innolight, a leading optical communications device maker, close to ~$146B, a record high
Chinese optical stocks are attracting growing investor interest on expectations that rising demand for optical components critical …
India's central bank cancels Paytm Payments Bank's banking license, after imposing business curbs over non-compliance with rules in January 2024
Spotify celebrates its 20th anniversary with a first-ever list of its 20 most streamed artists, albums, songs, podcasts, and audiobooks
Memo: White House says it has info indicating “foreign entities, principally based in China” are engaged in “industrial scale distillation” of American AI tech
China's top market regulator says it is launching a six-month crackdown on the country's online ad sector, targeting malpractices including the misuse of AI
Market watchdog flags AI abuse and traffic-driven tactics as it launches first campaign to overhaul online advertisingSee also Mediagazer
Alibaba says its Qwen AI model will be integrated into select car models from BYD, Volkswagen, and others, letting users buy food and tickets via voice commands
BEIJING — Chinese tech giant Alibaba said Friday that its Qwen artificial intelligence model will be integrated into vehicles …
DeepSeek V4 Pro costs $1.74/1M input and $3.48/1M output tokens while V4 Flash costs $0.14/1M input and $0.28/1M output tokens, both the cheapest in their class
Chinese AI lab DeepSeek's last model release was V3.2 (and V3.2 Speciale) last December. They just dropped the first of their …
Series, founded by two seniors at Yale to build an AI-powered social network on iMessage, raised a $5.1M pre-seed from Reddit CEO Steve Huffman and others
Series, a social networking app, announced that it raised a $5.1 million pre-seed round, with investors including Venmo co-founder …
GPT-5.5 is rolling out to Plus, Pro, Business, and Enterprise users in ChatGPT and Codex, and GPT-5.5 Pro to Pro, Business, and Enterprise users in ChatGPT
DeepSeek V4 Pro has 1.6T parameters, DeepSeek's largest model by that metric, and V4 Flash has 284B parameters; both models have a context window of 1M tokens
South China Morning Post:
Huawei plans to spend up to ~$11.7B over five years to boost compute for training and testing autonomous cars, with ~$2.64B for autonomous driving R&D in 2026
GPT-5.5 is priced at $5/1M input tokens and $30/1M output tokens, double GPT-5.4's pricing; GPT-5.5 Pro costs $30/1M input tokens and $180/1M output tokens
Carl Franzen /VentureBeat:
OpenAI says GPT-5.5's improvements are strongest in agentic coding, computer use, and early scientific research, which require reasoning across longer contexts
Madison Mills /Axios:
Joint statement: Apple, Amazon, and others push back on stricter emissions reporting rules proposed by climate body Greenhouse Gas Protocol to cut greenwashing
Music publishers including UMG, Warner Music, and Sony drop a copyright lawsuit against Verizon after a SCOTUS decision limiting ISP liability in Cox's lawsuit
Huawei says its Ascend supernode based on the Ascend 950 AI chips will fully support DeepSeek V4, as DeepSeek launches a preview of its V4 model
Shenzhen-based Pudu Robotics, which makes commercial service robots, raised ~$150M, bringing its total funding to $300M+, and says its valuation exceeds $1.5B
Anthropic's valuation has hit $1T on Forge Global, a leading private marketplace exchange, surpassing OpenAI's valuation on the platform of $880B
France's forecasting office refers suspected weather sensor tampering at Paris airport to police, after detecting unusual readings alongside Polymarket betting
Step 1: get into Polymarket betting on the daily maximum temperature in Paris …Georg Zoeller:Example number 999 of why prediction markets need to be banned (like in Singapore). “Probing” usually amou...
Texas Instruments' stock rose 19% on April 23, its best day since 2000, after upbeat Q2 guidance driven by high demand for analog chips used in AI data centers
Internal memo: Amazon is replacing white-collar job titles at its Ring and Blink units with the designation “builder”, and “builder leaders” for managers
A look at Microsoft's recent wave of executive departures, as it struggles to retain talent and changes its annual rewards and performance programs in response
Tom Warren /The Verge: