The Shareholder
On May 22, the administration that tore down AI rules refused to review a single model before release — and bought a stake in nine companies building the next computer. The state stopped being a regulator. It became a shareholder.
The White House postpones a planned Thursday ceremony for Trump to sign a new EO on AI and cybersecurity; Trump says “I didn't like certain aspects of it”
The White House has cancelled its planned ceremony for President Trump to sign a new executive order on AI and cybersecurity, per a note seen by Axios.
Sources: Sony's Bungie plans significant layoffs as it ends development on its online game Destiny 2 with no new projects lined up; Destiny 2 launched in 2017
The Sony subsidiary will focus on ‘Marathon’ rather than jumping directly to ‘Destiny 3’ — Sony Group Corp.'s Bungie unit …
The US Commerce Department plans to award $2B in grants to nine quantum computing companies and will take equity stakes; IBM is set to get $1B of the package
Trump administration hopes to spur ‘a new era of American innovation,’ Commerce's Lutnick says — WASHINGTON—The Trump administration …
Spotify closed up 13% on Thursday after announcing new features and 2030 guidance, forecasting a compound annual growth rate in the mid-teens
Spotify shares jumped 15% on Thursday after the music streaming platform laid out guidance for 2030 and reached an artificial intelligence deal …
Google's AI Overviews are failing to provide search summaries for specific command-style terms including “disregard”, “ignore”, and “skip”
With certain terms, AI Overviews are drawing a blank. … Google's AI Overviews are running into an interesting problem right now.
Gavin Newsom signs an EO mandating state agencies work with the AI industry and others to study subsidies for companies that don't replace workers with AI
Gov. Gavin Newsom issued an executive order to explore an overhaul of labor policies to deal with potential mass job displacement from artificial intelligence.
Socket: TeamPCP, the gang claiming GitHub's repositories breach, also executed 20 “waves” of supply chain attacks recently, compromising 500+ pieces of software
GitHub is just the latest victim of TeamPCP, a gang that has carried out a spree of software supply chain attacks that has impacted hundreds of organizations.
Take-Two reports Q4 bookings flat YoY at $1.58B, forecasts FY 2027 bookings below est., reiterates GTA VI's November 19 launch date
Take-Two Interactive (TTWO.O) forecast annual bookings below Wall Street expectations on Thursday, but reiterated …
Meta joins TikTok, Snap, and YouTube in settling with a Kentucky school district to avoid a trial over claims the platforms were designed to addict kids
Meta, TikTok, Snap and YouTube reached deal to avoid first of more than 1,200 consolidated lawsuits by school districts
Sources: OpenAI generated ~$5.7B in revenue in Q1, ~$1B more than Anthropic; its adjusted operating income margin was -122%, and ChatGPT user growth stalled
OpenAI generated about $5.7 billion in revenue in the first quarter, nearly $1 billion more than archrival Anthropic generated in the same period …
Adobe, Canva, and CapCut announce Gemini integrations to let users access the companies' image and video editing tools within the Gemini app
Adobe, Canva, and CapCut all plan to connect to Gemini in the near future. Each aims to bring their editing capabilities directly to where people are making creative decisions with AI.
Texas AG Ken Paxton sues Meta, accusing WhatsApp of marketing its services as secure but failing to “deliver on those promises” by accessing encrypted messages
WhatsApp is able to access user's encrypted messages, Texas said in a lawsuit that accuses Meta founder Mark Zuckerberg …
Workday reports Q1 revenue up 13% YoY to $2.54B vs. $2.52B est., and lifts its full-year forecast, saying its AI strategy is working; WDAY jumps 9%+
Workday shares surged as much as 14% in extended trading on Thursday after the finance and human resources software maker reported results …
London Mayor Sadiq Khan blocks the Met police's £50M Palantir deal to automate intelligence analysis, citing a “clear and serious breach” of procurement rules
Exclusive: Scotland Yard criticises London mayor's decision as disappointing and warns it could hit policing
Zoom reports Q1 revenue up 5.5% YoY to $1.24B, vs. $1.22B est., AI Companion paid users up 184%, forecasts FY 2027 revenue above est.; ZM jumps 15%+
Zoom Communications Inc. projected stronger-than-anticipated sales growth, suggesting that customers are adopting its expanded suite of office products.
Waymo suspends freeway rides and pauses its Atlanta operations, as it updates software to improve performance around construction zones and flooded roadways
Alphabet's (GOOGL.O) Waymo said on Thursday it has suspended its robotaxi service on freeways in the United States and paused …
Internal Binance reports and sources reveal Iran moved billions through Binance to fund entities like the IRGC, with some transactions as recent as this month
Transactions on world's largest crypto exchange took place despite repeated red flags; Binance says it has ‘zero-tolerance for illicit activity’
US and Canadian authorities arrest 23-year-old Jacob Butler, known online as “Dort”, for allegedly operating the Kimwolf DDoS botnet, which infected ~2M devices
U.S. and Canadian authorities arrested and charged a Canadian man with operating the KimWolf distributed denial-of-service …
Meta releases Forum, a Reddit-like standalone app for Facebook Groups, with a feed showing Group conversations and an AI-powered “Ask” feature, on iOS
It's a new dedicated app for Facebook Groups. — Meta has launched a new app called Forum without fanfare or even an official announcement.
The US Ambassador to Canada accuses Canada of imposing trade barriers by requiring that US streamers contribute 15% of Canadian revenue to local programming
Remarks from U.S. Ambassador Pete Hoekstra add to harshly critical statements from lobby groups representing Hollywood and tech companies
Sources: DeepSeek execs told potential investors in its ongoing $10B round that it will prioritize groundbreaking AI research over short-term commercialization
DeepSeek's senior management has told potential investors in its ongoing 70 billion yuan ($10 billion) funding round that the startup …
Sources: the SEC has delayed the release of a plan for an “innovation exemption” that would allow crypto firms to trade tokenized versions of US stocks
The Securities and Exchange Commission is delaying a plan to provide broad exemptions for US crypto firms to trade tokenized assets linked …
Spotify partners with Live Nation to launch Reserved, a new feature that sets aside tickets for the most dedicated fans, starting with Premium users in the US
With Reserved, eligible Spotify Premium fans …
Republican House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer says he requested information from Kalshi and Polymarket on their efforts to prevent insider trading
Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., chair of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, announced Friday on CNBC's “Squawk Box” …
Sources: Starbucks shut down an AI program for automating inventory counts, nine months after deploying it, after it frequently miscounted and mislabeled items
Starbucks (SBUX.O) terminated an AI program workers used for automating certain inventory counts this week …
GitHub links the breach of 3,800 internal repositories to the TanStack npm supply-chain attack, saying hackers used a malicious Nx Console VS Code extension
what else are we undercounting in the npm andDaniel Lockyer /@daniellockyer:Nooooo pleaseeeee Daily security incidents across the entire tech world right now 🫠Jeff Cross /@jeffbcross:@akses_0x00 @NxDe...
President Emmanuel Macron says France will invest an additional €1B for quantum computing research and a further €550M in state funding for semiconductors
Bruyères-le-Châtel (France) (AFP) - France will pump one billion euros of new funding into quantum computing …
Spotify and UMG plan to let Premium users create AI covers and remixes using music from participating UMG artists as a paid add-on, without giving a launch date
Jem Aswad /Variety:
Activision shareholders reach a $250M settlement over allegations that Microsoft and Activision underpaid them during Microsoft's 2023 acquisition of Activision
Shareholders of Activision Blizzard reached a $250 million settlement over allegations that Microsoft and former executives of the maker of the …
Sources: WH approved a $9B request to acquire advanced AI chips for spy agencies; Anthropic is finalizing a classified contract for NSA to keep using its tools
The C.I.A. and N.S.A. cannot fully deploy the latest models on their classified systems because of a shortage of cutting-edge chips.
ElevenLabs, which aims to build an all-in-one AI voice app, licensed 200K human-voiced audiobooks from major publishers, available in ElevenReader for $11/mo.
ElevenLabs is taking on Spotify and Audible in a looming battle over becoming the go-to platform for audiobooks — Welcome back to Soundbite.
Qualcomm stock closed up 11.6% on Friday and is now up 75% in the past month, as the company increasingly becomes a key player in AI devices
Qualcomm shares surged 12% on Friday and are now up 75% in the past month, as the chipmaker's increasingly central position in the physical AI boom becomes more apparent to Wall Street.
Flipper unveils the Flipper One, a pocketable open Arm Linux computer with similar performance to a Raspberry Pi 5, and welcomes feedback to get it market-ready
Apple plans to broadcast an MLS game on Saturday shot entirely on 15 iPhone 17 Pros, the first major live sports event to be captured using only smartphones
Meta, Broadcom, Applied Materials, GlobalFoundries, and Synopsys launch a $125M “Semiconductor Hub” at UCLA to advance AI chip research and more
Broadcom, Meta, Applied Materials, GlobalFoundries and Synopsys are joining forces to launch a $125 million “Semiconductor Hub” at the UCLA Samueli School of Engineering.
Memo: Yusuf Mehdi, a 35-year Microsoft veteran who has been its consumer chief marketing officer since 2023, will leave the company after the next fiscal year
Yusuf Mehdi, one of Microsoft's best-known and longest-serving business leaders, whose tenure has spanned 35 years from Windows 3.1 to Copilot …
Bluesky and Clemson University researchers detail a novel Russian influence campaign that hijacked influential Bluesky accounts to spread pro-Kremlin propaganda
Google rolls out a Google Wallet redesign, including “dynamic quick access” for favorites, a “View more” floating action button, and more
How the global memory chip crunch, driven by AI demand, is hurting China's car industry, squeezing automakers already hit by a price war and razor-thin margins
HONG KONG — The global memory chip crunch has spilled over from PCs and smartphones to China's car industry …
Memo: Yusuf Mehdi, a 35-year Microsoft veteran who has been its commercial chief marketing officer since 2023, will leave the company after the next fiscal year
Yusuf Mehdi, a 35-year Microsoft veteran who has been its commercial chief marketing officer since 2023, will leave the company …
Source: smart ring maker Oura filed confidentially for a US IPO, set for later in 2026; SF- and Finland-based Oura had an $11B valuation in September 2025
Lenovo reports Q4 revenue up 27% YoY to $21.6B, above $18.7B est., net profit up 479% to $521M, above $271M est., as the PC maker pushes into AI server markets
Sources: Trump delayed signing the AI EO because “he just hates regulation”; there were questions about the EO giving the Treasury Department a leading role
Everything seemed set for a photo op of tech and AI CEOs who would surround President Trump Thursday as he signed …
Shares of quantum computing companies surged Thursday after the US government announced grants with equity stakes: D-Wave closed up 33%, Rigetti 30%, IBM 12%
Now Trump's $1 Billion Quantum Bet Is Proving Him RightAna Swanson /New York Times:U.S. Plans to Invest $2 Billion and Take Stake in Quantum FirmsKeshav Verma /Bitcoinist.com:Not Bitcoin: US Governmen...
Spotify Labs launches Studio, a NotebookLM-like desktop app to generate private, AI-powered podcasts, in research preview across 20+ markets
here's how it worksMarcus Schuler /Implicator.ai:Spotify's Next Product Is Private Audio. The Library Is the Lock-In.Stevie Bonifield /The Verge:Spotify Studio's AI agent creates a daily podcast just ...
Sources and documents detail Satya Nadella's effort to revamp Microsoft's senior leadership, creating a startup-style operating model to compete in the AI race
CEO Satya Nadella just dismantled the senior leadership structure that has run Microsoft for decades.
Zero2IPO Research: Chinese AI startups raised $16.2B in Q1 2026, up 185% YoY, led by top AI labs including Moonshot, Z.ai, and MiniMax
Funding for China's artificial-intelligence-related start-ups jumped nearly threefold year on year in the first quarter, as investors poured capital …
AMD CEO Lisa Su projects the CPU market will grow over 35% annually through 2031, up from 3% to 4% historically, driven by AI inference and agentic AI demand
Italian police dismantle a piracy network that streamed paid content from Netflix and others via an app called Cinemagoal with annual subscriptions of €40-€130
Driverless car startup Bliq.ai says it has received approval for fully driverless road operations in Estonia, the first authorization of its kind in the EU
The authorisation is the first of its kind in the EU, allowing its remotely supervised autonomous vehicles to operate on public roads without a driver behind the wheel.
Farther Finance, which is building an AI-enabled wealth management platform for financial advisors, raised a $150M Series D at a $1B+ post-money valuation
Farther Finance, which is building an AI-enabled wealth management firm for financial advisors, raised $150 million in Series D funding led …
Sources: the EU will propose temporarily lifting sanctions, imposed in April, on a major Chinese semiconductor supplier after automakers warned of shortages
Crypto exchange Blockchain.com confidentially files for a US IPO; the UK-based company founded in 2011 was once valued at $14B
Federal records: Grok was utilized in only 3 of 400+ publicly identified federal AI use cases in 2025, behind 234 for ChatGPT, 33 for Gemini, 26 for Claude
Sources: David Sacks told President Trump that federal reviews of AI models before release would slow down innovation and hurt the US in its AI race with China
But during a conversation with Trump, Sacks told the president that companies were already cooperating, and that having …
Hark, founded by Figure AI CEO Brett Adcock to build AI-powered devices, raised a $700M+ Series A led by Parkway Venture at a $6B post-money valuation
Sources: Nintendo asked partners and suppliers to assemble ~20M Switch 2 consoles by March 2027, ~20% above the 16.5M public sales outlook issued in early May
Spotify says it has 1M+ subscriptions to Audiobook+, which is on track for $100M in ARR, and unveils an ElevenLabs-powered audiobook self-publishing tool
Ivan Mehta /TechCrunch:
Sources: Anthropic is in talks to rent servers powered by Microsoft-designed chips; source: Anthropic has steadily increased its Azure usage since November 2025
Reddit stock fell 5%+ on Friday after Meta launched a standalone app for online forums, called Forum; Reddit's stock is now down almost 40% this year
Reddit shares fell about 6% on Friday on concern that a new app from Meta called Forum could create an alternative avenue for internet users …
Sources: Trump postponed AI EO signing after talking to David Sacks and others, and told staff the EO is not moving forward after calls with Musk and Zuckerberg
Industry leaders warned in last-minute calls to the president that the proposed safety vetting system could inhibit development of the pivotal technology.