The Second Model
The White House blocked Anthropic's Mythos from reaching 70 more organizations today — the first government containment action against a frontier AI model. The same day, GPT-5.5 was evaluated as the second model to independently reach Mythos's cyberattack capability. The containment window was three weeks.
Alphabet reports Q1 revenue up 22% YoY to $109.9B, above $107.2B est., and Google Cloud revenue up 63% YoY to $20B, above $18.05B est.; GOOG jumps 5%+
MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. - April 29, 2026 - Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG, GOOGL) today announced financial results for the quarter ended March 31, 2026.
Musk v. Altman: Elon Musk says he was a “fool” for backing OpenAI, accusing Altman and Brockman of manipulating him into donating tens of millions of dollars
Billionaire says OpenAI co-founder Sam Altman wasn't honest about nonprofit mission
Meta raises its 2026 capex to between $125B and $145B, above analysts' est. and marking a ~7.4% jump from its $115B-$135B forecast in January; META drops 10%+
Meta Shares Plunge as AI Investments Raise Spending Outlook — Video Player is loading. — Unmute — Current Time 0:00 Loaded: 12.32% Playback Rate
Apple reports Q2 revenue up 17% YoY to $111.18B, vs. $109.66B est., net income up 19% to $29.6B, and EPS up 22% to $2.01, above $1.95 est.
March quarter records for total company revenue, iPhone revenue, and EPS — Services revenue reaches new all-time high
Microsoft says Q3 Intelligent Cloud revenue was $34.68B, vs. $34.27B est., with Azure and other cloud services up 40% YoY; Microsoft 365 Copilot has 20M+ seats
Microsoft issued higher-than-expected capex guidance for 2026, with the software maker's quarterly earnings and revenue topping estimates.
Amazon reports Q1 revenue up 17% YoY to $181.5B, net income up 77% YoY to $30.3B, operating income up 30% YoY to $23.9B, and a $20B+ revenue run rate from chips
Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) today announced financial results for its first quarter ended March 31, 2026.
Musk v. Altman: when asked whether xAI has distilled OpenAI models, Elon Musk says the claim is “partly” true
While answering questions under oath, Musk argued it's standard practice for AI labs to use their competitors' models. — While testifying on Thursday …
Samsung reports Q1 revenue up 69% YoY to ~$90.2B, above ~$89.4B est., and operating profit up 756% to ~$38.5B, above ~$37.2B est., driven by AI memory demand
Samsung Electronics reported an over eightfold increase in first-quarter operating profits on Thursday, hitting a new record …
Sony confirms some digital PS4 and PS5 games require owners to do a one-time online license check “to confirm the game's license”, likely to combat refund scams
The problem appears to be affecting both PS4 and PS5 games purchased after March 2026. — A new quirk has begun affecting …
The US Senate unanimously passed a rule barring senators from trading on prediction markets like Kalshi and Polymarket, amid rising concern over insider trading
The U.S. Senate on Thursday unanimously passed a rule barring senators from trading on prediction markets effective immediately.
Musk v. Altman: when asked whether xAI has ever distilled tech from OpenAI, Elon Musk says the claim is “partly” true
On his third day of testimony, Elon Musk is being cross-examined by lawyers from OpenAI and Microsoft. His answers on the stand grew testy on Wednesday.
Sources: Anthropic has begun weighing a new funding round that would value it a $900B+, after previously resisting investor proposals at an $800B+ valuation
Barrage of Big Tech Earnings Beat Estimates to Mixed Reaction — Video Player is loading. — Unmute — Current Time 0:00 Loaded: 5.55% Playback Rate
Meta quietly rolled out USDC stablecoin payouts on Solana and Polygon for select creators in Colombia and the Philippines, per a Facebook support page
Meta has reentered the stablecoin market. Four years after pulling the plug on an earlier attempt, the tech giant has quietly rolled …
OpenAI says its models, starting with GPT-5.1, “increasingly mentioned goblins, gremlins, and other creatures”, leading to prompt instructions to mitigate it
Starting with GPT-5.1, our models began developing a strange habit: they increasingly mentioned goblins, gremlins, and other creatures in their metaphors.
Qualcomm reports Q2 revenue down 3% YoY to $10.6B and says a new top hyperscaler client is on track to begin using its components later in 2026; QCOM jumps 5%+
Qualcomm Inc. rallied in late trading after the company said it was making headway in the lucrative data center market and predicted …
Visa says its stablecoin settlement pilot supports nine networks, including Base, Polygon, Canton Network, Arc, and Tempo, and has hit a $7B annualized run rate
The payments giant added support for Stripe's Tempo, Circle's Arc, Coinbase's Base, Polygon and Canton Network as stablecoins gain traction in global money movement.
How US schools' overreliance on YouTube for educational content encourages students to get sucked into an infinite scroll of videos on school-issued devices
Parents find their kids captive to the video streaming site on their school-issued devices; for one, it was 13,000 YouTube videos in three months
Google is rolling out Gemini to cars that have Google built in, replacing Google Assistant, starting with English in the US
The current Google Assistant is being replaced with a smarter, more conversational upgrade. … Google is preparing to update vehicles that have Google built-in with its Gemini AI assistant.
Sources: PayPal is separating Venmo into its own standalone unit and is looking to recruit a digital banking executive to run the new Venmo segment
PayPal CEO Enrique Lores has this week told managers that he is reorganizing the firm's reporting lines to separate Venmo …
Digital advertising is booming for Google and Meta, helped by AI tools used for creating ads, translating copy, targeting, bidding, measuring results, and more
For years, DribbleUp, a sports equipment company, spent its own time and resources figuring out whom it should advertise its basketballs and soccer balls to on Facebook.
Analysis: Meta, Alphabet, Microsoft, and Amazon's capex combined hit a record $130B in Q1, and it is set to reach $725B in 2026, up 77% from $410B in 2025
Meta stock drops on capex increase while Alphabet's cloud business grows faster than rivals Amazon and Microsoft
Sources: SoftBank plans to create AI and robotics company Roze in the US for building data centers, and may list it as early as 2026 at an up to $100B valuation
Masayoshi Son plots IPO for business named Roze as soon as this year — SoftBank is planning to create and list an AI …
Sources: the White House opposes Anthropic's plan to expand access to Mythos to ~70 additional companies and organizations because of concerns about security
Relationship is still complicated despite efforts from both sides to de-escalate — The White House opposes a plan from Anthropic …
eBay reports Q1 revenue up 19% YoY to $3.09B, above $3.04B est., net income up 2% to $512M, GMV up 18% to $22.2B, and forecasts Q2 revenue above estimates
The company logged a profit of $512 million, or $1.12 a share — EBay recorded higher profit and revenue in its latest quarter as gross merchandise volume climbed.
The US FDA launches a pilot using AI and cloud computing that gives it a “direct data feed” to real-time clinical trial data, aiming to speed up drug approval
The first-of-its-kind pilot could lead to speedier regulatory approval of medical drugs and devices and potentially reduce …
Letters: the US House Homeland Security Committee and House China Select Committee probe Airbnb and Cursor maker Anysphere over their use of Chinese AI models
THE SCOOP — Two Republican-led House committees are probing Airbnb and Anysphere, maker of AI coding platform Cursor …
Meta sells $25B of investment-grade bonds after investors placed $96B in orders; Meta sold $30B of corporate bonds in October 2025
Investors placed about $96 billion of orders for Meta Platforms Inc.'s bond sale, according to people with knowledge of the transaction …
Cybersecurity analysis: GPT-5.5 reaches a similar level of performance as Mythos Preview and is the second model to solve a multi-step cyberattack simulation
In April, our evaluation of Anthropic's Claude Mythos Preview found that it represented a step up in cyber performance …
The US Senate Judiciary Committee endorses a child safety bill requiring AI companies to implement age verification, bar AI companions for minors, and more
A powerful Senate committee backed legislation to require OpenAI, Meta Platforms Inc. and other artificial intelligence companies …
Filing: Meta says it might be forced to withdraw its apps from New Mexico if a judge orders it to adopt the state's proposed safety features
Mark Zuckerberg's Meta is threatening a total shutdown of Facebook and Instagram in New Mexico if a state judge orders the company to adopt new safety features …
Netflix rolls out a vertical video feed in its own Clips tab in Australia, Canada, India, Malaysia, Pakistan, the Philippines, South Africa, the UK, and the US
The new ‘Clips’ tab shows, you guessed it, Netflix clips. … Netflix is starting to roll out a big revamp of its mobile app …
Motorola unveils its 2026 foldables lineup, including its first book-style model, which costs $1,900; prices for clamshell models have gone up by up to $200
Spotify rolls out a Verified by Spotify badge to identify human artists; criteria include artist presence on and off platform and consistent listener activity
As AI-generated artists and tracks flood music streaming platforms, Spotify is rolling out a new “Verified by Spotify” …
Microsoft reports Q3 revenue up 18% YoY to $82.9B, net income up 23% YoY to $31.8B, and says its AI business, up 123% YoY, passed a $37B annual revenue run rate
Microsoft Cloud and AI Strength Fuels Third Quarter Results — REDMOND, Wash. — April 29, 2026 — Microsoft Corp. today announced …
Reddit reports Q1 revenue up 69% YoY to $663M, vs. $611M est., DAUq up 17% to 126.8M, vs. 125.9M est., and forecasts Q2 revenue above estimates
Reddit reported better-than-expected profit and revenue in its first-quarter earnings report on Thursday, and also issued an optimistic forecast.
Meta reports Q1 revenue up 33% YoY to $56.31B, net income up 61% YoY to $26.77B, and says “scrutiny on youth-related issues” may “result in a material loss”
Google says the Gemini app can now generate files; supported formats include PDF, Microsoft Word and Excel, Google Docs and Sheets, plain text, and Markdown
Iran's internet blackout, which costs an estimated $80M per day in economic damage, is dividing its military and civilian government, which opposes the measure
Iran's record internet blackout is emerging as a key dividing line between the country's powerful security apparatus and its civilian government …
Atlassian reports Q3 revenue up 32% YoY to $1.79B, vs. $1.69B est., and raises its annual revenue forecast; TEAM jumps 17%+ after hours
Atlassian (TEAM.O) raised its annual revenue forecast on Thursday, betting that its investments in artificial-intelligence features and a push …
Amazon reports Q1 ad revenue up 24% YoY to $17.24B, above $16.87B est., and subscription services revenue up 15% YoY to $13.43B
and so is its capital spendingBMI:Amazon Ads revenue rises 24% to $17.2 bn in Q1; Jassy sees AI expanding advertiser baseReuters:Amazon tops cloud expectations on strong AI demand, shares riseYahoo Fi...
Sources: Meta HR chief Janelle Gale told employees she can't rule out further layoffs; Zuckerberg said AI automation is not the driving factor behind them
- Meta previously announced it will cut 10% of its staff next month. — Meta's HR chief told staff in a meeting that she can't promise further layoffs won't happen.
Roblox reports Q1 bookings up 43% YoY to $1.7B, vs. $1.73B est., and DAUs up 35% to 132M, below analysts' estimates of 143.8M; RBLX drops 16%+ after hours
Roblox Corp. reported first-quarter users that fell short of analysts' expectations after implementing safety features restricting how kids …
Roku reports Q1 revenue up 22% YoY to $1.25B, ad revenue up 27% to $613M, subscription revenue up 30%, raises 2026 profit guidance; ROKU jumps 8%+ after hours
Roku beat Wall Street earnings forecasts for the first quarter of 2026 and raised its full-year profit guidance as the company continues …
Uber partners with Expedia to launch a hotel booking integration in its app in the US, and plans to add Expedia's Vrbo brand later in 2026
Meta introduces Meta Ads AI connectors in open beta, letting advertisers use their preferred third-party AI tools to create, manage, and analyze campaigns
In a break from its walled garden approach, Meta is opening its ad ecosystem to third-party AI tools.
Cloudflare says AI agents can now create Cloudflare accounts, start paid subscriptions, register domains, and deploy apps on behalf of users
Coding agents are great at building software. But to deploy to production they need three things from the cloud they want to host their app — an account, a way to pay, and an API token.
North Korea-linked hackers stole ~$577M across the Drift Protocol and KelpDAO hacks in April, accounting for 76% of total crypto hack losses so far in 2026
Key takeaways — North Korean hackers, from two distinct groups, stole approximately USD 577 million in 2026 YTD …
Anthropic's Claude Security, formerly Claude Code Security, is in public beta for Enterprise users; the Opus 4.7-powered tool can scan code for vulnerabilities
Anthropic has published Claude Security today for Claude Enterprise customers globally, according to company materials shared with The Implicator.
Apple Q2: iPhone up 22% YoY to $56.99B, vs. $57.21B est., Mac up 6% to $8.4B, iPad up 8% to $6.91B, and Wearables, Home, and Accessories up 5% to $7.9B
Apple reported earnings and revenue for its fiscal second quarter that topped analysts' estimates, driven by growth in the company's services business.
Twilio reports Q1 revenue up 20% YoY to $1.41B, vs. $1.34B est., and forecasts Q2 revenue above estimates; TWLO jumps 17%+ after hours
Twilio (TWLO) stock popped after the communications software maker reported first-quarter earnings and revenue that topped consensus estimates.
Apple shipped 71.6% of all smartphones with satellite connectivity in 2025; smartphones with satellite connectivity to reach 46% of global shipments by 2030
Alphabet reports YouTube's Q1 ad revenue rose 10.7% YoY to $9.88B, vs. $9.99B est., and Google's ad revenue reached $77.25B, up from $66.89B in Q1 2025
While OpenAI Is SweatingJess Barnes /Cord Cutters News:YouTube Ad Revenue Increased by 11% in Q1 2026Kayla Cobb /The Wrap:YouTube Ads Rise by 11% as Alphabet Revenue for Q1 Surpasses $109 BillionMatth...
Sources: Apple plans a new Siri camera mode in iOS 27 by moving Visual Intelligence, currently tied to the Camera Control button, into the camera app
Musk v. Altman: internal 2017 emails show Musk sought majority voting control over OpenAI co-founders, withheld promised funding, and tried to poach researchers
Instagram is expanding its recommendation restrictions beyond Reels to photos and carousels, targeting accounts that post unoriginal content like tweet roundups
The internet is full of copycat, stolen, reposted, and low-effort content — and Meta, at least publicly, has said it is working to cut off some of the reach.
Alphabet raises its 2026 capital expenditure guidance range to $180B to $190B, up from $175B to $185B, and expects capex to “significantly increase” in 2027
Jennifer Elias /CNBC:
Microsoft reports Q3 Xbox hardware revenue fell 33% YoY and Xbox content and services revenue, which includes Game Pass, dropped 5% YoY
“Not surprising at all”Fraser Gilbert /Pure Xbox:Microsoft Issues Xbox Email Addresses As Part Of ‘Strengthening The Xbox Identity’
Meta reports Q1 family DAP up 4% YoY but down 20M QoQ to 3.56B, vs. 3.62B est., due to internet disruptions in Iran and a WhatsApp access restriction in Russia
Jonathan Vanian /CNBC:
Standard Intelligence, which is developing computer use AI models, raised $75M led by Sequoia and Spark at a $500M post-money valuation
Pedestrians in downtown San Francisco are used to seeing Waymos navigating the streets. But two months ago, people in the South Park neighborhood saw something new …
X says it has begun a “phased rollout” of its rebuilt ad platform, which it says will have more modern “retrieval and ranking systems” powered by AI
Elon Musk's X is still trying to woo back advertisers — this time with a rebuilt, AI-powered ads platform that started to rollout on Thursday.
A look at Eka, which trains its robotic claw on a “vision-force-action model” incorporating realistic joints, motors, and physics principles into its simulation
Leaked audio: San Francisco and Austin first responders told the NHTSA that Waymo robotaxis are “backsliding” and committing more traffic violations than before
Netomi, which builds AI for enterprise customer service, raised $110M led by Accenture Ventures and signs a deal to bring its platform to Accenture clients
Netomi, the San Francisco-based startup building AI systems for enterprise customer service, said Thursday that it has raised $110 million …
Sources: KKR has secured $10B+ to launch Helix Digital Infrastructure, a company led by ex-AWS CEO Adam Selipsky that will develop and operate AI infrastructure
KKR & Co. has secured more than $10 billion to launch a company that will develop and operate artificial intelligence infrastructure …
Hyundai unveils Pleos Connect, a next-generation infotainment system with Gleo AI voice assistant, debuting in May on the new Grandeur sedan in South Korea
Sergey Brin-backed Building a Better California says two ballot countermeasures to the proposed wealth tax are on track to qualify for the November ballot
JuliaHub, which aims to use agentic coding tools to design complex products such as cars and airplanes, raised a $65M Series B led by Dorilton Capital
Former Snowflake CEO Bob Muglia, a longtime Microsoft server boss, is backing JuliaHub, a startup that sees a role for AI agents designing complex products …
GoTo reports Q1 net income of ~$15M, its first ever, a major milestone after job cuts and unit disposals helped Indonesia's largest internet company cut costs
Musk v. Altman: the judge told Musk's lawyer she did not want talk of AI's existential threat seeping into the trial, focusing instead on OpenAI's founding
OpenAI's lawyer piped up and both him and Musk's counsel started raising their voices until the judge said they all need to shut up nothing like being dressed down as an adultRat King /@mikeisaac:judg...
Anthropic unveils BioMysteryBench to test Claude's bioinformatics skills against human experts, and says Mythos solved ~30% of 23 questions that stumped experts
Study: long-shot Polymarket bets on military action, defined as $2,500+ wagers at odds of 35% or less, have a ~52% average win rate, vs. 25% for political bets
High rate of winning wagers likely to add to concerns that sensitive information can leak on prediction markets
Casa, which uses lidar scanners and AI to catalog homes and manage proactive maintenance alongside human workers, raised $27M, including a $20M Series A
Casa, a company founded by former Uber executives, says it uses artificial intelligence and a stable of handymen to take care of members' homes.
AWS revenue rose 28% YoY in Q1 to $37.6B, vs. $36.64B est., its fastest growth in 15 quarters, as capital expenditure rose to $44.2B, up from $25B in Q1 2025
Massachusetts-based brain implant company Axoft raised a $55M Series A and says it tested its device in a Shanghai patient, with plans for more trials in China
Meta reports Reality Labs Q1 revenue of $402M, vs. $488.8M est., and a $4.03B operating loss, vs. $4.82B est.; Reality Labs has $80B+ in losses since late 2020
Jonathan Vanian /CNBC:
Bitcoin miner MARA Holdings agrees to acquire Ohio gas plant operator Long Ridge Energy & Power for $1.5B including debt, to power its AI data center expansion
European software companies, including SAP, Capgemini, Nemetschek, Hexagon, and Dassault, report better-than-expected earnings despite AI fears and the Iran war
Norway-founded humanoid robotics startup 1X opens a new 58,000-square-foot factory in Hayward, California, where it aims to build 100K robots by the end of 2027
1X Technologies AS, the Norway-founded robotics startup backed by OpenAI, has opened a new 58,000-square-foot factory in Hayward …
OpenAI says it has signed contracts for 10GW of US AI compute capacity, securing 3GW+ added in the past 90 days, hitting a goal it once aimed to reach by 2029
Apple reports Q2 revenue from Services, which includes the App Store, Apple TV, Apple Music, and more, grew 16.3% YoY to $30.98B, beating estimates of $30.4B
Todd Spangler /Variety:NEW
Serverless inference platform Featherless.ai raised a $20M Series A co-led by AMD Ventures and Airbus Ventures; the startup supports over 30,000 open models
The serverless inference platform provides a neutral layer for enterprise AI, enabling access to 30,000+ open models while reducing reliance …
Sources: strong AI demand in China nearly doubles prices for Nvidia's B300 servers to ~$1M each, as a crackdown on chip smuggling dries up black market supply
SenseTime releases SenseNova-U1, an open-source image model that it says can “read” images without translating them to text, reducing computing power needs
Alphabet's stock climbed 10% on Thursday and 34% in April, its best month since 2004; Meta's stock plunged 8.5% on Thursday, its steepest drop since October
Annie Palmer /CNBC:
SpaceX draft IPO filing: from 2023 to 2025, Starlink's individual subscribers rose from 2.3M to 8.9M, revenue grew from $3.9B to $11.4B, and ARPU fell 18%
Sources: London-based DAZN agrees to acquire ViewLift, which builds tech for streaming services for 15 professional US sports teams and others, for ~$100M
Memo: Google told employees that it “proudly” works with the US military and will continue to do so, amid opposition from some staff over US DOD contracts
How Kosovo's tech industry, driven by local companies like business outsource provider SPEEEX, is helping cut youth unemployment and changing Pristina's skyline
Google says paid subscriptions reached 350M in Q1, up 25M QoQ, driven by YouTube and Google One, while Gemini Enterprise paid MAUs grew 40% QoQ
and AI is a big reason
Sources: the NSA has been testing Anthropic's Mythos model to find vulnerabilities in Microsoft products and widely used software from other companies
Jake Bleiberg /Bloomberg:
Tim Cook says iPhone sales, which slightly missed Q2 estimates, were held back by chip supply constraints, as “demand was off the charts”
Apple (AAPL.O) on Thursday reported results that beat Wall Street estimates, with customers showing eagerness to buy a new MacBook model driven …
Sources: US officials are preparing a wide-ranging AI policy memo that outlines rules for national security agencies, including avoiding relying on one vendor
Bloomberg:NEW
Analysts: TikTok Shop generated $4.9B in US sales during Q1 2026, doubling its volume from the previous year; Q1 consumer spending on the platform rose 46% YoY
Polymarket partners with Chainalysis to deploy a detection model to “surface patterns consistent with insider knowledge in prediction markets” and other tools
Bloomberg:NEW
Samsung, SK Hynix, and Micron earnings show increased DRAM prices, not shipments, indicating a focus on revenue over helping clients get the products they need
Tim Culpan /Culpium:
Sources: the EU is drafting a revised Chips Act II, set for late May, that would grant it power to invest directly in large, cross-border manufacturing projects
Samsung projects that the memory shortage will worsen in 2027 as customers are already placing orders for next year, leading to a wider supply gap than in 2026
Kim Jaewon /Nikkei Asia: