The Meter Switched Off
On May 28, Amazon shut down the AI-usage leaderboard it had spent eighteen months building, conceding that "use AI" was never the goal. The same day, Anthropic shipped a model whose marquee feature is admitting when it doesn't know — and a $965B valuation that made it the most valuable AI company on earth. For eighteen months the industry's organizing belief was that more AI usage meant more value. Both companies repudiated it in the same news cycle.
Valve hikes the Steam Deck OLED's prices due to “rising memory and storage costs”: from $549 to $789 for the 512GB model and from $649 to $949 for the 1TB model
The 1TB OLED model got a $300 price increase, and now costs $949. … Valve has significantly increased the price …
US prosecutors charge Google engineer Michele Spagnuolo with using inside information to make ~$1.2M via Polymarket bets on Google's Year in Search 2025 results
Michele Spagnuolo allegedly placed bets on what users were searching for. — In this Dec. 19, 2023, file photo …
Meta rolls out Plus plans for Instagram, Facebook, and WhatsApp globally, and tests $7.99/month and $19.99/month Meta AI plans, and a $49.99/month creator plan
Meta is doubling down on its subscription offerings. On Wednesday, the social networking giant announced it's now rolling …
The US DOD announces a ~$9.7B, five-year deal with Dell to provide Microsoft 365, advanced cloud subscriptions, and on-premises licensing to the US military
The Department of Defense on Wednesday announced a five-year, roughly $9.7 billion deal with Dell to provide a suite of software to the U.S. military.
The UK's GCHQ head says the UK and allies have a “narrowing window” to counter cyber threats from China and Russia, as Russia intensifies “daily” hybrid warfare
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Last.fm says it is now an independent company again, 19 years after being acquired by CBS, and plans to keep its current team and continue the service as normal
Don't worry: It will keep your profiles and scrobbles. — Last.fm is an independent company again, it has announced on its forum …
Anthropic launches Opus 4.8, saying it's “more likely to flag uncertainties about its work and less likely to make unsupported claims”, at the same price as 4.7
On Thursday, Anthropic released Opus 4.8, the newest version of its most advanced publicly available model.
SoFi makes SoFiUSD, its US dollar-pegged stablecoin on Ethereum and Solana, available for its 14.7M members to buy, sell, hold, and convert within the SoFi app
Quick Take — SoFi said its U.S. dollar-pegged stablecoin is now available for members to buy, sell, hold, and convert within the SoFi app.
Illinois Legislature passes SB 315, a bill requiring annual independent third-party safety audits of leading AI companies; OpenAI and Anthropic backed the bill
The measure, SB 315, goes beyond legislation from California and New York regulating America's largest AI companies.
Illustrations based on sources detail Apple's Siri overhaul, like a new UI and chatbot-style app, and major iOS 27 changes, ahead of the WWDC keynote on June 8
The iPhone maker looks to stage a comeback in digital assistants and artificial intelligence. — Apple Inc.'s much-anticipated …
Snowflake reports Q1 revenue up 33% YoY to $1.39B, vs. $1.32B est., and commits to spending $6B on AWS, including to buy chips, over five years; SNOW jumps 30%+
Amazon said Wednesday that its cloud division has landed a $6 billion spending commitment from Snowflake, which includes the use …
Memo: Meta plans to embed engineers and product managers inside large corporate customers as part of a new Enterprise Solutions unit to help deploy its AI tools
Meta Platforms plans to place engineers and product managers inside large corporate customers as part of a new unit …
YouTube makes its AI content labels more prominent on desktop and mobile, and will apply them automatically if it detects “significant photorealistic AI use”
Is that YouTube video clip you're watching real or was it made with AI? — YouTube wants to make it easier for viewers …
The CFTC moves to vacate a $5M settlement with Gemini, reversing a Biden-era enforcement action, following a lobbying campaign by the Winklevoss twins
A $5 million settlement at the end of the Biden administration was at the center of a lobbying campaign by the billionaire brothers
Qualcomm unveils the Snapdragon C, an entry-level ARM-based SoC for Windows 11 devices starting from $300 and shipping in 2026, taking aim at the MacBook Neo
Qualcomm has unveiled its new entry-level ARM-based SoC for Windows 11 devices that will begin shipping later this year on devices that cost as low as $300.
Meta's Oversight Board says Meta agreed to increase its funding by $13M, ensuring that it will be funded through 2028, reversing a planned decrease in funding
Meta has agreed to increase funding to its external Oversight Board by $13 million, Platformer has learned …
Samsung's Securities, SDS, and Card units say they will acquire a 4% stake in Dunamu, which operates South Korea's largest crypto exchange, for ~$446M in cash
Samsung Securities, Samsung SDS and Samsung Card said Thursday they will jointly acquire a 4 percent stake in Dunamu …
Dell reports Q1 revenue up 88% YoY to $43.84B, vs. $35.43B est., and forecasts FY 2027 revenue above estimates; DELL jumps 38%+ after hours
Dell reported its fastest pace of revenue growth for any period since its return to the public market more than seven years ago, and topped analysts' estimates for sales and profit.
Filing: Amazon will acquire Apple's 20% stake in Globalstar as part of its acquisition of the satellite provider and create a subsidiary to conduct the merger
Amazon has revealed that it's taking over Apple's 20% stake in Globalstar as part of its $11.6 billion acquisition of the satellite communications provider.
Tel Aviv-based web development company Wix cuts ~20% of its workforce, citing the “fast evolution of AI capabilities” and currency exchange rate difficulties
Israel-based web development company Wix is slashing roughly 20% of its workforce, CEO Avishai Abrahami announced …
Sources: Uber increases its Delivery Hero stake to nearly 37% by acquiring Aspex Management's 14.6% share at a €12B valuation, after a takeover offer last week
Share purchase from Aspex Management steps up US ride-hailing group's pursuit of German food delivery company
The US CFTC files alongside Gemini to nullify Gemini's $5M January 2025 settlement, arguing that the agency's current management wouldn't have pursued the case
The regulator went back to analyze the 2022 case and decided that it wouldn't have been pursued under current management and practices.
Anthropic and OpenAI seem to have finally found product-market fit with coding agents, which are quickly becoming daily drivers for very well-paid professionals
Anthropic are strongly rumored to be about to have their first profitable quarter. Stories are circulating of companies surprised …
Internal speech: JD.com founder Liu Qiangdong vows to protect the company's 900,000 employees from AI and automation, saying it will “do everything possible”
JD.com Inc. founder Liu Qiangdong vowed to prevent the e-commerce firm's 900,000-strong workforce from losing their jobs to automation …
The European Commission fines Temu €200M under the DSA for allegedly failing to adequately stop the sale of illegal products; further penalties could follow
Chinese online retailer Temu has been fined €200 million ($232 million) on Thursday for not doing enough to stop the sale …
Surging AI demand causes shortages and price increases across the entire optical supply chain, from lasers and substrates to optical fibers and connectors
TAIPEI — Having already driven massive shortages in memory chips and CPUs, the global artificial intelligence boom is now disrupting …
Salesforce reports Q1 revenue up 13% YoY to $11.13B, vs. $11.05B est., Agentforce annual recurring revenue up 205% to $1.2B, and forecasts Q2 revenue below est.
Salesforce reported stronger-than-expected quarterly results on Wednesday, but the cloud software vendor issued full-year guidance …
Oura unveils the Oura Ring 5, with a 40% smaller form factor, improved sensing, and repositioned LEDs, shipping from June 4 for $399, up from the Ring 4's $349
Oura Health Oy, the popular smart ring maker seeking to go public this year, unveiled a significantly thinner and lighter new model along with new wellness features.
Swiggy CEO Sriharsha Majety says the quick commerce company will avoid India's spending war, as Amazon and Flipkart shrink delivery times and expand discounts
Swiggy Ltd., one of India's top quick commerce firms, plans to restrain spending and focus on profitability while deeper-pocketed rivals Flipkart …
YouTube launches new Premium podcast features, including an AI-powered recommendation tool, an “Auto speed” setting, and a new on-the-go listening mode
YouTube announced on Thursday it's introducing new podcast features for Premium users, including an AI-powered recommendation tool …
YouTube adds a “custom feed” to its home page that lets users prompt it to create a constantly refreshing feed, available to signed-in US users with history on
YouTube isn't exactly replacing the traditional search bar, but it is supplementing it with a way to watch a “custom feed” of videos based on your nuanced prompts.
Global AI hardware demand is easing China's concerns over a stronger yuan hurting exports, as AI hardware exports surge and chip equipment imports rise
The global AI investment boom is powering a new wave of Chinese exports and making Beijing more comfortable with a stronger yuan.
Letter: US Central Command says it received “threat reports concerning adversary exploitation of commercial location data” to target US personnel in war zones
U.S. forces deployed to war zones have been targeted using commercially available location data …
IBM plans to invest more than $10B in quantum computing over five years as it aims to build the first large-scale, error-free quantum computer by 2029
IBM (IBM.N) said on Thursday it plans to invest more than $10 billion in quantum computing over five years as it aims to build by 2029 …
UK researchers gain access to Google's Willow quantum chip, which it says solves a problem in five minutes that would take supercomputers 10 septillion years
Scientists from King's College London have become the first UK academic research team to gain access to Google's cutting-edge …
Anthropic raised a $65B Series H at a $965B post-money valuation, overtaking OpenAI's $852B valuation, and says its revenue run rate crossed $47B this month
Anthropic raised $65 billion in new fund-raising that put its value at $900 billion, ahead of OpenAI's last valuation of $730 billion …
HP reports Q2 revenue up 9% YoY to $14.4B, above $14B est., Personal Systems revenue up 13% YoY to $10.2B, and forecasts Q3 adjusted EPS above estimates
HP Inc. gave a profit forecast for the current quarter that signaled the company continues to contend with a dramatic increase in memory chip prices.
Intel unveils its first dedicated handheld gaming chips, the Arc G3 and Arc G3 Extreme, featuring Xe3 GPU cores, arriving first in the Acer Predator Atlas 8
The Acer Predator Atlas 8 will be one of the first to use it — and there's reportedly an MSI too.
Okta reports Q1 revenue up 11% YoY to $765M, vs. $752M est., says the agentic AI build-out is spiking demand for its identity tools; OKTA jumps 7%+ after hours
Okta beat Wall Street's fiscal first-quarter estimates after the bell on Thursday as demand for identity security tools spikes …
Elon Musk says Anthropic's Colossus deal is “a 180 day lease with 90 day notice”; SpaceX's S-1 said Anthropic “agreed to pay a monthly fee through May 2029”
Earlier this month, xAI signed a major compute deal with Anthropic, pledging billions of dollars a month …
Robinhood launches a feature that lets users connect AI agents to a dedicated account and virtual Gold Card to automate stock trades and credit card purchases
The Trade Desk's market cap is down ~70% from its December 2024 peak, as it contends with frustrated agency partners and competition from Google and Amazon
The company lost about 70% of its value as Amazon gained ground and relationships with top ad agencies soured
London- and SF-based Orbital Industries, which uses its Orb model to design advanced materials and then sell them directly, raised a $50M Series B led by Plural
Orbital Industries, a startup using AI to design advanced materials, has raised a $50 million Series B funding round led by the venture capital firm Plural.
The European Commission opens a full review of JD.com's €2.2B acquisition of Germany-based electronics retailer Ceconomy under its Foreign Subsidies Regulation
Chinese e-commerce firm JD.com Inc.'s offer to acquire Germany's Ceconomy AG has been hit by an in-depth probe by European Union watchdogs …
IBM and Red Hat commit $5B to establish a new open-source software model, dubbed Project Lightwell, and will deploy 20,000 engineers globally, supported by AI
Project Lightwell will deploy a global force of 20,000 engineers, supported by advanced artificial intelligence
Waymo unveils Ojai, a vehicle designed in partnership with Zeekr for robotaxi use, initially for select riders in San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Phoenix
Alphabet Inc.'s Waymo unit will deploy a new autonomous vehicle designed specifically for robotaxi use, offering public rides in California and Arizona without human supervision.
Dealroom: London overtakes Paris to reclaim its position as Europe's leading tech hub, and now ranks fourth globally; London startups raised $17.7B in 2025
London has reclaimed its position as Europe's leading technology centre, overtaking Paris thanks to increased investment …
As the US AI boom drains venture capital from Africa, startups on the continent are pivoting to domestic funding sources, like pension funds and local VC firms
African startups are rewriting their funding playbook as the global artificial intelligence boom pulls venture capital toward the US …
Source: the Shanghai Futures Exchange is in the early stages of designing futures contracts for AI tokens; US exchanges are set to launch GPU compute futures
China is designing a futures market for AI tokens, sources familiar with the matter said, as the country potentially takes …
Sources: Airwallex raised new funding led by Lee Fixel's Addition at a ~$12B valuation, up from $8B late last year, and hit $1.5B in ARR, up from $1B in October
Payments firm Airwallex has raised new funding at around a $12 billion valuation led by Lee Fixel's Addition, Axios has learned.
Taiwanese tech companies have completed a record $14.5B of debt deals so far in 2026, as they race to secure financing to meet soaring demand for AI capacity
Taiwanese tech firms have completed a record $14.5 billion of debt deals so far this year, as they race to secure financing …
Filing: CNN sues Perplexity in New York for allegedly unlawfully copying and distributing CNN content, after failing to agree on terms with Perplexity in 2025
CNN is suing Perplexity, accusing the AI company of unlawfully copying and distributing CNN's content.
Kuaishou reports Q1 revenue up 3.4% YoY to ~$5B and Kling AI revenue up 300%+ YoY to ~$96M; Kling reached a ~$500M annualized revenue run rate in March 2026
AI unit has annual recurring revenue run rate of roughly US$500 million, Kuaishou says — Chinese short-video company Kuaishou …
London-based Geordie AI, which builds a security and governance platform for AI agents, raised a $30M Series A led by Balderton at an estimated $180M valuation
Geordie AI, a London-based startup which provides a security and governance platform for AI agents, has raised a $30 million Series A round led by Balderton Capital.
Starlette, an open-source Python framework underpinning FastAPI, has a vulnerability called BadHost that can allow hackers to bypass authorization
Chip design software maker Synopsys reaches a deal with Elliott, giving one board seat to the activist investor's Jesse Cohn, after roughly two months of talks
Chip design software maker Synopsys (SNPS.O) has reached an agreement with activist investor Elliott Investment Management …
California AG Rob Bonta sues 23andMe, alleging it failed to protect sensitive user data in a 2023 breach that affected ~7M people across the US
California's attorney general sued the genetic testing company formerly known as 23andMe on Thursday, alleging it failed to protect sensitive user data …
Roku launches its first major homescreen overhaul in over a decade, including a large “marquee” ad spot to tout apps or shows, in a bid to drive more engagement
Mistral says it is accelerating superintelligence development to ensure Europe's independence from US tech giants, and signs deals to supply Airbus and BMW
French company's CEO says its—and Europe's—biggest obstacle to tech independence is the scale of investment necessary
A record ~$6.2B spent on data centers in Australia, almost double QoQ, drove Q1 investment growth and helped an economy strained by energy costs and high rates
Sources: Amazon has shut down an internal leaderboard that tracked employees' use of AI tools after workers tried to boost their scores with needless tasks
Senior executive Dave Treadwell tells staff 'don't use AI just for the sake of using AI' as costs riseForums:r/businessForums:r/business:Exclusive: Amazon scraps AI leaderboard to stop workers chasing...
Amazon MGM Studios announces the GenAI Creators' Fund, greenlights three AI animated series for Prime Video, and launches an AI production platform with AWS
AWS has used Resilient Network Graphs, a quasi-random networking architecture with a flat mesh design, since late 2025 and says it accelerates information flows
The tech giant says a breakthrough in data-center networking has dramatically accelerated the flow of information through its massive cloud infrastructure.
AI coding startup Cognition AI raised more than $1B at a $26B valuation, and says its revenue run rate has increased to $492M from $37M in May 2025
Amazon says it is making the “architecture, starter code, and learnings” from Alexa for Shopping available to third-party retailers, starting with Kate Spade
The Steam Deck's huge price hike, from $399 in 2022 to $789 today, is the end of an era for gaming handhelds, coming amid RAMageddon, tariffs, and the Iran war
Sean Hollister /The Verge:NEW
Snowflake stock closed up 36% on Thursday, its best day ever, after the company boosted guidance and announced an AI compute deal with Amazon
Software stocks popped on Thursday after Snowflake said it plans to spend $6 billion on compute from Amazon and topped earnings estimates on artificial intelligence momentum.
Doc: the EU is preparing emergency powers to intervene in Europe's chip supply chains during shortages, including by forcing chipmakers to override contracts
Chipmakers could be forced to override existing contracts under draft law — The EU is preparing sweeping emergency powers …
Saris, which builds AI agents to automate back-office work for banks and credit unions, raised a $28.8M Series A led by 8VC
Saris, which builds AI agents to automate back-office work for banks and credit unions, raised $28.8 million in Series A funding, CEO Danial Jameel tells Axios Pro exclusively.
ElevenLabs launches Music v2, which can switch genres mid-track and handle complex vocal compositions, built on licensed data and cleared for commercial use
Autodesk agrees to buy MaintainX, a company focused on maintenance tools, in an all-cash deal that values MaintainX at $3.6B
Engineering software maker Autodesk Inc. has agreed to buy MaintainX, a firm focused on maintenance tools. — The all-cash deal will value MaintainX at $3.6 billion, Autodesk said in a statement Thur...
Swedish chip optical component maker Sivers, whose stock is up ~1,700% YTD, giving it a ~$2.5B market cap, has become one of the country's most-shorted stocks
A small Swedish semiconductor firm that's soared about 1,700% this year has become one of the country's most-shorted stocks.
Sources: Australia-founded Airwallex, which Keith Rabois accused of being a “Chinese backdoor”, is relocating some staff out of China as it plans a US expansion
Australia-founded Airwallex is pursuing US expansion amid intensifying rivalry between Washington and Beijing
Visa makes an undisclosed investment in Replit; the two will explore how developers on Replit can use Visa Intelligent Commerce and the Trusted Agent Protocol
Visa has announced an undisclosed investment in AI coding platform Replit. The two companies are also exploring …
Companies are using AI at their global capability centers in India to bring more creative work in-house, cutting turnaround times and reliance on ad agencies
Global companies are using AI at their Indian hubs to bring more creative work in-house, cutting turnaround time and their reliance …
OpenAI Foundation says it is committing an initial $250M for grants, partnerships, and direct work aimed at helping workers and economies navigate AI disruption
Reactor, which says its AI platform can generate video in real-time with near-zero latency, emerges from stealth with a $59M Series A led by Lightspeed
Existing generative AI models are built on batch processing: You give the system instructions; it runs computations; then spits back the results.
As Google plans to build a $15B AI data center hub in Visakhapatnam, India, locals and rights groups are raising concerns over “extremely high” water stress
Developing-world nations are offering billions of dollars in incentives for U.S. data centers, but locals say the cost is too high
Analysis: the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index, which tracks the 30 top US-listed chipmakers, is up ~75% YTD and on track for its biggest annual gain since 1999
Anthropic adds dynamic workflows to Claude Code, enabling hundreds of subagents to run in parallel for complex engineering tasks such as framework migrations
Same Huge PriceMiles Deutscher /Blockchain.News:Anthropic: Claude Dynamic Workflows Deploy SubagentsMadeleine Streets /InformationWeek:From ‘the usual’ to the unfamiliar: Why employees resist enterpri...
OpenAI announces partnerships to combat election misinformation, offering cybersecurity products to state officials and backing legislation to curb deepfakes
Sources: the Pentagon is pursuing funding deals with US drone companies, potentially with equity stakes, to increase domestic production and lower unit costs
Corgi, which uses AI to provide insurance for startups, raised a $106M Series B1 at a $2.6B valuation, up from $1.3B on May 6, for a total funding of $378M
Insurance tech Corgi on Thursday announced a $106 million Series B1 raise, valuing the company at $2.6 billion …
Mark Zuckerberg tells shareholders that a Meta cloud computing business is “definitely on the table” if Meta overspends on data centers and has excess capacity
Jonathan Vanian /CNBC:
Opendoor co-Founder Eric Wu's NavigateAI, which is building an expert AI coach for construction workers, raised a $25M seed led by Elad Gil at a $225M valuation
Fonoa, which helps enterprises manage indirect tax compliance, raised a $110M Series C led by Headline and acquired PwC's Indirect Tax Edge platform
Fonoa, which helps enterprises manage indirect tax compliance, raised $110 million in Series C funding and acquired PwC's Indirect Tax Edge platform …
Source: Groq is raising up to $650M from existing investors; the AI chipmaker earlier signed a $20B Nvidia licensing deal that saw much of its senior team leave
Groq is raising up to $650 million from existing investors, after the AI chipmaker previously signed a $20 billion licensing deal …
Sources: ByteDance is developing its own CPUs to support its growing AI infrastructure needs, as chip price hikes and supply shortages constrain expansion plans
Chinese technology giant ByteDance is developing its own central processing units (CPUs) to support its growing AI infrastructure needs …
NYC-based Pace, whose AI agents automate back-office operations for insurance companies, raised a $46M series B led by Thrive and Sequoia at a $375M valuation
Anthropic says it expects Mythos-class models to be available to all customers “in the coming weeks” following the development of stronger safeguards
Anthropic released Claude Opus 4.8 Thursday, an upgrade to its flagship AI model with better coding and knowledge work skills, all for the same price as its prior version.
Sources: at WWDC, Apple is likely to showcase how 15 years of designing chips gives it an advantage in running AI locally, and will use a distilled Gemini model
Aaron Tilley /The Information: