The Frontier Becomes a Line Item
Anthropic positioned Sonnet 5 near Opus 4.8 at lower prices as California secured a 50% Claude discount. OpenAI’s reported path to halve inference costs and Google’s four-second image model pushed the same competition toward deployment economics.
WhatsApp rolls out username reservations globally, allowing users to claim a unique name before the privacy-focused feature launches later this year
Following years of anticipation and months of preparation, WhatsApp today began rolling out username reservations worldwide …
SCOTUS limits the law enforcement use of “geofence” warrants, saying people have “a reasonable expectation of privacy” in their cell-phone location data
Zack Whittaker Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai — The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday limited the law enforcement use of …
SCOTUS rules that Trump's 2025 firing of FTC Commissioner Rebecca Kelly Slaughter without cause was lawful, placing independence of several agencies in doubt
The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday further overturned a 91-year-old precedent that has prevented presidents from removing members of independent agencies at will.
Anthropic launches Claude Sonnet 5, saying it nears Opus 4.8 performance at lower prices and is substantially better than Sonnet 4.6 for agentic work
Claude Sonnet 5 is built to be the most agentic Sonnet model yet. It can make plans, use tools like browsers and terminals …
Australia's ACCC sues Amazon for allegedly introducing ads to Prime Video under unfair contract terms and forcing existing subscribers to pay more to avoid them
Amazon.com Inc. has been sued by Australia's consumer watchdog for introducing advertising to its Prime Video streaming service …
Source: Taiwanese authorities raided Super Micro's Taiwan office as part of a probe into the alleged smuggling of Nvidia chips to China; SMCI closed down 8.1%
Taiwan government agencies raided the offices of Super Micro Computer Inc. and several of its local affiliates …
Sources: hundreds of Meta contractors posed as minors to probe how competitor chatbots responded to prompts involving suicide, sex, and other high-risk subjects
Hundreds of contractors working on a project for Meta pretended to be kids—and then prompted rival chatbots like Gemini and ChatGPT to discuss high-risk subjects.
Google launches Nano Banana 2 Lite, a low cost text-to-image model that delivers outputs in four seconds, and rolls out Gemini Omni Flash to developers
We're making it easier to experiment and scale your ideas with Nano Banana 2 Lite, our fastest, most cost-efficient Gemini Image model …
Google says the Gemini app now offers personalized Nano Banana image generation, previously limited to Plus, Pro, and Ultra users, to eligible US users for free
Google announced on Monday that the Gemini app is now offering its personalized Nano Banana-powered image generation feature to a broader audience.
AI coding startup 8090 raised a $135M Series A led by Salesforce Ventures; founder Chamath Palihapitiya announces that he will lead the company as CEO
Chamath Palihapitiya, best known for his venture capital firm Social Capital and the All-In podcast, announced Monday that the AI coding startup he founded raised a sizable Series A.
Sources: a ransomware group stole Apple component and supplier lists, photos of iPhone 18 Pro models, and other files from Apple's Indian supplier Tata
Sensitive lists of components and suppliers, and photos of Apple's upcoming iPhone 18 Pro models are part of files posted on the dark web …
California strikes a deal with Anthropic to expand the use of Claude products across state agencies and local governments at a 50% discount
“A lot of departments are going to switch their usage to this contract, and that's very much our intent,” Chris Given, California's chief information officer …
Tidal adopts an AI policy that blocks wholly AI-generated music from earning royalties and removes AI-generated music that impersonates artists
TIDAL is introducing an AI policy that will automatically tag wholly AI-generated music in its app and block it from earning royalties.
Source: the Trump administration has talked with SpaceX about donating shares to Trump Accounts, which provide children with tax-advantaged savings accounts
THE SCOOP — The Trump administration has spoken with SpaceX about donating stock to the children's savings accounts known …
Nebex, a fintech startup aiming to act as a broker platform connecting US space tech suppliers, foreign governments, and investors, raised a $30M seed led by GV
Alphabet Inc.'s GV venture arm led a funding round to provide $30 million in seed money to a fledgling space fintech company founded …
Anthropic launches Claude Science, an AI workbench that uses existing Claude models like Opus 4.8 to integrate 60+ scientific databases and specialized toolkits
Anthropic introduced Claude Science on Tuesday, an AI workbench that gives scientists one environment to do computational research …
As OpenAI and Anthropic prepare to go public, San Francisco tech workers making six figures say they cannot compete with the new AI elite and may have to leave
As OpenAI and Anthropic prepare to go public, tech workers making six figures are grousing that they cannot compete with the new A.I. elite.
Visa, Mastercard, Stripe, BlackRock, Coinbase, and 140+ companies join Open Standard to launch Open USD, a stablecoin that shares earnings from its reserves
Quick Take — Payment giants, banks, tech firms and crypto companies are among Open Standard's launch members.
An Indonesian court sentences Gojek co-founder and ex-education minister Nadiem Makarim to 10 years in prison for power abuses over a Chromebook contract
The case against Nadiem Makarim, a co-founder of Gojek, has fueled concerns about judicial fairness in a nation where foreign investors were already growing wary.
Filing: President Trump reports $1.4B+ in income from his family's crypto ventures in 2025, including $500M+ from WLF and $635M from the sale of his $TRUMP coin
U.S. President Donald Trump reported more than $1.4 billion in income from his family's crypto ventures last year …
Waymo and Uber quietly ended their partnership in Phoenix in May; Uber says it is readying the launch of a separate autonomous vehicle partnership in the city
Waymo robotaxis are no longer available on Uber's ride-hail app in Phoenix, Arizona, ending a nearly three-year partnership in the city …
The US DOD appoints Marc Andreessen to its Defense Policy Board, a committee that gives strategic advice to the US defense secretary and other top officials
Billionaire venture capitalist Marc Andreessen, the one-time Democratic supporter who switched his allegiance to Donald Trump …
US political campaign managers and consultants are using AI to analyze voter data, create campaign materials, and more; survey: 87% of campaigners use AI daily
A.I.-generated images are the public face of this election overhaul. Behind the scenes, campaigns are using the technology …
A study of 22K US companies shows those spending most heavily on AI are adding workers faster than peers, but most gains are among tech companies and startups
Study of 22,000 US companies challenges fears that generative AI will trigger broad job losses
Google shuts down the Tenor API, affecting GIF pickers on platforms like Discord, WhatsApp, and Bluesky; Nikita Bier says X has migrated elsewhere
GIFs are a huge part of the modern web, with Tenor being one of the libraries that powers a variety of apps including Twitter/X. Google acquired Tenor …
AWS launches an internal organization for AI-focused forward-deployed engineers, backed by $1B in resources, following OpenAI and others in launching FDE teams
As companies struggle to integrate AI, they're increasingly ready to bring in outside help — and service providers are launching …
OpenAI teases a device it is launching in partnership with keyboard maker Work Louder on July 15, saying “Your favorite Codex shortcuts are getting an upgrade”
Omen AI, which provides real-time coolant health monitoring for data centers, raised a $31M Series A led by Nava Ventures, bringing its total funding to $41.5M
The AI-driven demand for compute power has data centers looking to squeeze more from every rack of GPUs. One consequence?
The UK CMA proposes requiring Apple and Google to relax UK developer payment “steering” rules, and Apple to open NFC; Google says it “already made the changes”
Britain's competition regulator on Tuesday proposed allowing app developers to steer users …
Rocket Lab plans to acquire Iridium for $8B and combine Rocket Lab's launch services with Iridium's satellite-based communications network to rival SpaceX
Five Chinese tech and advanced manufacturing companies launch Hong Kong listings, seeking to raise up to $5.6B, led by Apple supplier Luxshare's $3.15B offering
Five Chinese technology and advanced manufacturing companies launched Hong Kong listings on Tuesday to raise up to HK$44.1 billion …
Meituan open-sources LongCat-2.0, a 1.6T-parameter model that it says was trained on a 50K-chip cluster of domestic Chinese processors, without giving details
China's food delivery giant Meituan (3690.HK) said on Tuesday it had released and would open-source its next-generation LongCat …
Sources: Amazon is weighing using OpenAI's models alongside its own Nova models to cut costs, after Anthropic raised prices for its models in Amazon products
As Anthropic grows to become a leading AI model used by enterprises, it's been flexing its power with customers—including one of its most important early backers, Amazon.
Sources: TikTok settles a lawsuit before a second California trial over social media harm to minors for an undisclosed sum; Meta and Snap remain defendants
TikTok is finalizing a settlement related to a lawsuit claiming that the world's largest social media platforms are addictive to minors …
SCOTUS agrees to hear Apple's appeal of a 2025 contempt ruling in its Epic case after a district judge found Apple violated an order to make App Store changes
The U.S. Supreme Court agreed on Tuesday to hear Apple's (AAPL.O) bid to escape being found in contempt in its legal fight with …
How Spain's LaLiga uses nationwide IP blocking to combat illegal sports streams, impacting an estimated 550K+ domains, putting it in conflict with Cloudflare
From small businesses to government agencies, legitimate websites are getting caught in the crossfire of LaLiga's fight against illegal sports streams
Cybersecurity company Aikido Security acquires Root, which has raised about $37.6M and develops an AI platform for securing open-source components
Belgian cybersecurity company Aikido Security NV today announced that it has acquired Root.io Inc., a company that offers patching …
Schneider Electric agrees to buy industrial AI company Cognite in a $3.1B all-cash deal, and plans to combine Cognite with its industrial software company Aveva
Schneider Electric SE agreed to buy Cognite in a $3.1 billion transaction to expand its industrial data and AI software business.
Ottawa-based Dominion Dynamics, which is building software, sensors, and drones to autonomously monitor the Arctic, raised a CA$139M Series A led by Georgian
Six months after closing a major seed round, Ottawa-based defence tech company Dominion Dynamics has secured $139 million CAD …
Cybersecurity company Aikido Security acquires Root, which has raised about $31M and develops an AI platform for securing open-source components
The Belgian company expands its AI security push and will open a new development center in Israel following the deal.
Almost 1,700 UK investors sue Binance and Changpeng Zhao for at least £150M, alleging Binance sold them risky derivative products without regulatory approval
Almost 1,700 British investors are suing Binance and founder Changpeng Zhao for at least £150 million ($200 million) …
Filing: Strategy paused its bitcoin acquisitions last week, instead topping up its USD reserve to $2.55B and announcing a $1B digital credit buyback program
Dubai- and London-based 1001, which uses AI to improve aviation, port, and energy infrastructure efficiency in the Gulf, raised $30M led by Lux Capital
The UK FCA unveils the updated version of its crypto regulatory framework, after softening proposed rules that critics said risked holding the UK back
MDOTM, which makes AI software for asset and wealth managers, raised $27M led by Expedition Growth Capital, bringing its total funding to $36.5M
MDOTM, which makes AI software for asset and wealth managers, raised $27 million in growth equity, CEO Tommaso Migliore tells Axios exclusively.
The DOD seeks to recruit engineers experienced in frontier AI, machine learning and automation, and data systems, to embed them “down to the unit level”
The Trump administration announced plans to recruit engineers to fill “high-impact technical roles” at the Defense Department …
Sources: Mark Zuckerberg met with Kalshi CEO Tarek Mansour about a possible takeover last year, before directing Meta employees to build a prediction market app
Before Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg directed employees to build a standalone prediction market app, he proposed buying Kalshi …
Q&A with Grindr CEO George Arison on turning Grindr into an “AI-native company”, “impos[ing]” AI on staff, facing “opposition”, using AI as a CEO, and more
George Arison, the gay dating app's chief executive, is aiming for all code to be eventually written …
Hotels, tour operators, and travel agencies rush to launch proprietary online tools and loyalty schemes to fend off future competition from AI travel agents
Chatbots could help to find, filter and book customers' destinations — Hotels, tour operators and travel agencies are rushing …
Filings: Microsoft's Ireland hub generated $47B in pretax profits for FY 2025, or 38.1% of its global total; new EU rules require country-by-country reporting
Country-by-country EU reporting requirement forces companies to offer additional public tax details
AI and vibe coding fuel a surge in game releases; ATTN Economy says 181K mobile games launched in six months to May, up 118% on iOS and 73% on Android YoY
More instinctive technology is accelerating production amid concerns it risks losing gamers' trust
AI inference startup Etched raised $800M from investors including Jane Street and a TSMC-linked venture firm, and says it has signed sales contracts worth $1B
Nvidia rival says it has raised $800 million and has $1 billion in contracts. — AI chip startup Etched said it has raised $800 million …
Digital Realty says it plans to acquire a majority stake in three fully leased Northern Virginia data centers from Blackstone-managed funds in a $7.8B deal
AI leaderboard provider Arena says it hit $100M in annualized run-rate revenue eight months after launching AI Evaluations, which offers performance analytics
AI may help transform air traffic control by processing vast amounts of data, spotting collision risks early, and easing staff shortages as air travel grows
The technology has potential to assist controllers with an increasing flight load but many are wary
Source: OpenAI engineers earlier this month told some colleagues they had figured out a way to more than halve the cost of inference
We closely track efforts by Anthropic, Google and OpenAI to get access to more server chips to run their models. But we don't talk enough about the work …
Sources: Chinese smartphone makers like Xiaomi, Oppo, and Vivo told suppliers they will again cut 2026 shipment targets, with Xiaomi cutting 30% to ~95M units
Sources: AI video startup Higgsfield is in talks to raise $300M to $500M at a $5B pre-money valuation, more than 4x its valuation in a January 2026 round
Straiker, which develops tech for securing enterprise AI agents, raised a $64M Series A, bringing its total funding to $85M
Internal documents: Meta is placing strict limits on how engineers in its applied AI division can use Claude Code and Codex, fearing inadvertent distillation
As a new law bars DOD from working with companies whose lobbyists also represent blacklisted entities, DC lobbying firms drop companies like Alibaba and Tencent
Quantifind, whose AI products help banks combat financial crimes such as money laundering, raised $200M led by Summit Partners
Changpeng Zhao says Binance's MiCA application in Greece was fully compliant and close to approval by at least one EU regulator, but “other forces” opposed it
Baz releases Baz Planner, which uses four specialized AI agents to analyze code at the planning stage, and extends its seed funding by $9M to $17M
Claude Sonnet 5 costs $2 per 1M input tokens and $10 per 1M output tokens through August 31, after which prices rise to $3 and $15, respectively
Zac Hall /9to5Mac:Forums:r/ClaudeAIForums:r/ClaudeAI:Introducing Claude Sonnet 5, our most agentic Sonnet yet.