HBM Scarcity Gets a Balance Sheet
SK Hynix’s $26.5B Nasdaq debut and South Korea’s $590B chip complex put public equity and industrial policy behind the same bet on HBM scarcity. The bottleneck is now setting capital allocation.
The Device in the Interview Room
In roughly 31 months, Tang Tan’s reported Apple exit became io, OpenAI’s device effort and an Apple lawsuit. The hardware race reached court before it reached shelves.
Apple sues OpenAI, alleging that ex-Apple employees stole “Apple's trade secrets for the benefit of OpenAI”, and says OpenAI never responded to its concerns
Apple has filed a lawsuit against OpenAI today, accusing the company of trade secret theft.
SK Hynix closed up 12.76% at $168.01 in its first day of trading on Nasdaq, after raising $26.5B in the largest ever US market debut by a foreign company
SK Hynix rose 13% in its first day of trading on Nasdaq, closing at $168.01, as U.S. investors jumped at the opportunity to get a stake …
In preliminary findings, the EU Commission said Facebook's and Instagram's “addictive design” violates the DSA, telling Meta to make changes or risk hefty fines
European Union authorities said the company's use of “addictive design” violated a digital safety law.
Meta says it will discontinue a feature that allowed users to generate images in Meta AI using public Instagram accounts, following days of criticism
Meta said it will discontinue an AI feature that allowed users to generate images using public Instagram accounts following days of criticism …
SK Hynix raises $26.5B in the largest ever US market debut by a foreign company, selling 177.9M ADRs for $149 each; the sale was more than 7x oversubscribed
SK Hynix Inc. raised $26.5 billion in its American depositary receipt offering, as the South Korean memory chipmaker powered through volatility …
The Department of Commerce loosens export controls to the UAE, letting G42 and US companies like Apple, Meta, and xAI export AI chips to UAE without a license
The U.S. Department of Commerce loosened export controls on the United Arab Emirates on Friday, making it easier to export military items …
SK Hynix CEO Kwak Noh-Jung says the memory industry is heading for its worst-ever supply shortage in 2027 and demand will outstrip supply beyond 2030
SK Hynix (000660.KS) Chief Executive Kwak Noh-jung said the global memory industry is heading for its worst-ever supply shortage in 2027 …
Circle says it received US regulator approval to start a national digital-currency trust bank, allowing it to offer institutional custody services
Circle Internet Group Inc. received approval to start a national digital-currency trust bank to support its stablecoin business …
CISA says weak security controls around the use of public GitHub repos allowed a contractor to accidentally leak private cloud access keys and other credentials
The agency's blog post came as lawmakers pressed the agency for answers. — Weak security controls around the use …
Micron raises its US capex commitment to $250B through 2035, adding $50B for New York, Idaho, Virginia, and other projects, and invests $500M in GlobalWafers
Micron Technology Inc. plans to increase its spending on new plants in the US to $250 billion to help meet unprecedented demand …
Source: Greg Brockman will continue to oversee OpenAI's products as the company doesn't plan to hire anyone to replace Fidji Simo after she stepped down
There's a new second-in-command at OpenAI. — Greg Brockman, the company's president, is officially responsible for OpenAI's …
OpenAI and Google are selling their advanced AI models to Singapore-based subsidiaries of Alibaba, Baidu, and Tencent, exposing a gap in the US' AI controls
US groups have been supplying AI services to Singapore-based subsidiaries of Alibaba, Baidu and Tencent.
Bluesky interim CEO Toni Schneider becomes the company's permanent CEO, four months after succeeding Jay Graber
In March, Bluesky's longtime CEO, Jay Graber, stepped down from that role to become its chief innovation officer. Graber was immediately succeeded by Toni Schneider …
Like the Claude app it imitates, the new ChatGPT “Super App”, which merges Codex with ChatGPT, is a tangle of toggles and strange UI decisions
OpenAI's head of safety, Johannes Heidecke, is leaving as OpenAI integrates its research and safety teams; Mia Glaese will become VP of research and safety
Johannes Heidecke's departure comes as OpenAI tries to further integrate its research and safety teams.
Anthropic debuts a “reflection” dashboard in beta for Free, Pro, and Max users with memory turned on, to track their Claude activity over 1, 3, 6, or 12 months
Today we're introducing, in beta, a new way to reflect on and refine how you use Claude.
Analysis: Alphabet, Amazon, Meta, Microsoft, and Oracle, the top spenders on new US data centers, collectively added ~$350B in debt over the past five years
The largest builders of artificial intelligence data centers have doubled their debt load in the last five years …
Meta releases Muse Spark 1.1, capable of more advanced coding and a “step-change” from the first generation, available to US developers via a public API preview
GPT-5.6 Sol costs $5 per 1M input tokens and $30 per 1M output tokens, GPT-5.6 Terra costs $2.50 and $15, and GPT-5.6 Luna costs $1 and $6
and bigger departureJason Hiner /The Deep View:GPT-5.6 opens ChatGPT's agentic era with a bangMartin Peers /The Information:Meta Finds a New Way to Spend a Fortune on AI
Thinking Machines says its mission is to build AI that people and organizations can shape and make their own, and that “extends human will and judgment”
The mission of Thinking Machines is to build AI that extends human will and judgment. — Artificial intelligence …
Sources: Netflix executives are increasingly worried about declining engagement and are exploring adding live TV and bundling streaming services like Peacock
Phia, a shopping app co-founded by Phoebe Gates that has raised $43.5M, appears to be using fake clicks or “cookie stuffing” to claim affiliate commissions
OpenAI merges its Codex and ChatGPT desktop apps for macOS and Windows under an upgraded ChatGPT desktop app, letting users switch between Chat, Codex, and Work
OpenAI held its second livestream this week today at 10 am PT. The video teased that the company was “introducing the next chapter for ChatGPT” today.
OpenAI and Google sold AI services to Singapore-based subsidiaries of Alibaba, Baidu, and Tencent, reigniting calls for tighter US regulation of AI models
US groups have been supplying AI services to Singapore-based subsidiaries of Alibaba, Baidu and Tencent.
OpenAI broadly releases GPT-5.6, and launches ChatGPT Work, an AI agent that can gather context across apps and files to create documents, on macOS and Windows
Apple alleges that Tang Tan, OpenAI's chief hardware officer and a former Apple VP, has directed Apple staffers interviewing at OpenAI to share Apple secrets
Apple on Friday sued OpenAI in federal court in Northern California, alleging trade secret theft, saying that the artificial intelligence lab took …
A US NLRB judge rules that Atlassian had illegally fired an employee in 2023 for pushing back against manager layoffs, and orders reinstatement and compensation
A federal labor law judge determined last week that the software maker Atlassian had illegally fired an employee who questioned company policy changes.Forums:Hacker NewsForums:Hacker News:Software Eng...
The EU Parliament advances a bill letting tech companies scan for CSAM, reviving a proposal rejected in March, with an exemption for E2EE services like WhatsApp
Apple claims OpenAI recruited 400+ ex-Apple employees, including an iPhone engineer who allegedly downloaded confidential hardware files before joining OpenAI
Apple Inc. sued OpenAI for trade secret theft, accusing the artificial intelligence startup and its hardware chief of engaging …
Xreal launches $299 A01 Plus AR glasses, weighing just 62 grams and featuring 1080p micro OLED panels with a 120Hz refresh rate and a 50-degree field of view
Privacy advocates, CAA, and SAG-AFTRA slam Meta's Muse Image, which let users create AI images using the likenesses of people with public Instagram accounts
Meta's move to allow user to create AI images using the likenesses of people with public Instagram accounts is drawing criticism from several camps …
Meta launches a Meta Model API, which Mark Zuckerberg says will have “aggressive and attractive” pricing at ~25% of the cost of OpenAI's and Anthropic's models
MKBHD Explains How to Opt OutMartin Peers /The Information:Meta Finds a New Way to Spend a Fortune on AIColleen Cabili /Quartz:Meta is taking on Anthropic and OpenAI in the AI coding marketEmily Watso...
China drops a numerical target for urban job creation in its five-year plan, the first such omission since the 1990s, amid volatility fueled by AI displacement
China dropped a numerical target for urban job creation over the next five years for the first time in decades …
Filing: college social app Fizz accuses Maveron's Jerry Lu of giving confidential info to rival Sidechat after he met with Fizz as a potential investor in 2022
A years-long lawsuit between the college-focused social app Fizz and rival Sidechat over unfair competition practices has taken an interesting turn.
How television, the internet, smartphones, social media, and now generative AI are accelerating a decline in people reading longer works like books
OpenAI discontinues ChatGPT Atlas, its desktop browser, in favor of its new ChatGPT desktop app, and says that August 9 is “the targeted date for deprecation”
Following the wind down of Sora, both shutdowns are good reminders that even if AI makes execution “free”, strategy still matters. — https://9to5mac.com/...Forums:r/antiai:The ChatGPT browser is alr...
Fidji Simo, OpenAI's CEO of AGI Deployment, says she will step down and become a part-time adviser after her medical condition worsened; Simo joined in August
and exposes the fragile hold women still have on powerMarc Vartabedian /New York Post:Sam Altman's right-hand woman at OpenAI steps down due to chronic illness ahead of IPOCris Tolomia /Quartz:Fidji S...
Carlyle agrees to sell US data center power and infrastructure platform Copia to EQT; sources: the deal values Copia at $2.6B, a more than 5x return for Carlyle
Bun's creator says he rewrote Bun from Zig to Rust using a Claude Fable 5 prerelease version in 11 days, noting it would've taken three engineers “about a year”
Apple says OpenAI leadership “normalized” misconduct and OpenAI's hardware business is “rotten to its core by its illegal reliance” on stolen trade secrets
Apple filed a lawsuit Friday against OpenAI over allegations of trade secret theft and breach of contract.
In response to Apple's trade secret theft lawsuit, OpenAI says “we have no interest in other companies' trade secrets”
Marcus Mendes /9to5Mac:
Coinbase's chief legal officer, Paul Grewal, is stepping down after six years; VP of legal Molly Abraham will take his role with the title of general counsel
Apple alleges that a former Apple engineer kept a work-issued Apple laptop and exploited a bug to access Apple's cloud file storage while employed by OpenAI
and alleges that's just the tip of the icebergAndrew E. Freedman /Tom's Hardware:Apple sues OpenAI over alleged theft of trade secrets — claims company mentored incoming employees on bringing confiden...
Munich-based QuantumDiamonds, which uses quantum sensors to detect chip defects, raised €91M, including €76M under the European Chips Act
Federal Reserve Chair Kevin Warsh names Marc Andreessen and Xbox CEO Asha Sharma to lead a task force on the economic impact of new technologies, including AI
1X says its humanoid robot Neo's five-fingered hands have tendon-style actuators that give them 25 degrees of freedom of movement; human hands usually have 27
An RIAA-led coalition representing labels and artists proposes two tags for AI content: one for entirely AI-generated songs and another for “AI-assisted” tracks
The UK designates Microsoft, Google, Amazon, and Oracle as critical third-party financial sector suppliers, bringing them under direct regulatory oversight
A US court sentences a former ransomware negotiator to 70 months in prison for colluding with BlackCat to extort $75.3M from five of his employer's clients
A look at Meta Superintelligence Labs' growth in the past year, including a top-tier RL environment and compute ramp that could catch up to Anthropic and OpenAI
Interpol and law enforcement agencies arrest 5,811 suspects and seize $293M in an operation combating social engineering scams and fraud across 97 countries
MiniMax is looking to raise as much as $2B by selling 35.6M shares at ~$34 each and offering ~$830M in zero-coupon convertible bonds due in 2027
and is committing 4% of his personal equity over 4 years to reward long-term employees. He's also dedicating 1% of his equity to the [image]Hasan /@ubermenscchh:MiniMax has just closed a $2B funding r...
Apple claims OpenAI recruited 400+ ex-Apple employees, including an iPhone engineer who allegedly downloaded confidential hardware files before joining OpenAI
Mark Gurman /Bloomberg:
Memo: Meta plans to start manufacturing its in-house AI chip, codenamed Iris, from September, as part of its plan to boost its computing power to 14GW in 2027
Memo: MiniMax CEO Junjie Yan tells employees he will forgo his salary until MiniMax achieves AGI and promises to allocate personal shares to employee incentives
Carlyle agrees to sell US data center power and infrastructure platform Copia to EQT; sources: the deal values Copia at $2.6B, a more than 5x return for Carlyle
Mercor acquires Deeptune, which builds reinforcement learning environments for AI agents, three months after CEO Brendan Foody backed Deeptune's $43M Series A
Meta prices Muse Spark 1.1 at $1.25/1M input tokens and $4.25/1M output tokens; Alexandr Wang says improving coding and agentic performance was a key focus
Ina Fried /Axios:
Polymarket is seeking CFTC and NFA approval to offer margin trading in the US, which would let users bet on events with less capital upfront and attract traders
PrismML says it ran a 27B-parameter Qwen 3.6 model on an iPhone 17 Pro, bigger than any prior on-device model; sources: Apple talked with PrismML about its tech
Databento, which sells financial data feeds, raised a $97M Series B led by NEA, taking its total funding to $127M, and says it is “profitable every month”
European startups raised $24B in Q2, up 66% YoY and the strongest quarter in four years; UK startups raised $10.4B, above Germany's $3.2B, and France's $2.4B
Google says it will automatically add a disclosure to ads made with its generative AI advertising tools, expanding the disclosure beyond election ads to all ads
Oxylabs, which develops web data scraping infrastructure, received a $130M investment at a $3.6B valuation from Warburg Pincus, its first outside investment
SAP will make it easier for customers to switch to rival service providers or end contracts, averting a possible EU antitrust fine after a September 2025 probe
Kraken Technology, which designs and builds autonomous maritime platforms, such as uncrewed subsurface vessels, raised a $175M Series B at a $1B valuation
India scraps import duties on some parts used to make devices like phones until March 31, 2029, removing 7.5% and 5% levies, which might help Apple and Xiaomi
Taiwan's leading DRAM maker Nanya Technology expects its capex to exceed ~$6.2B in 2027, up ~4x YoY, and reports unaudited Q2 revenue of ~$2.6B, up 684% YoY
Ollama, which helps developers run open-weight AI models locally, raised a $65M Series B led by Theory Venture, following a $15M Series A led by Benchmark
Interviews with employees and insiders reveal how CXMT is amassing tech, funding, and state support to challenge top memory chipmakers and build local suppliers
Sources: AI contractor marketplace Mercor is discussing raising new funds at a ~$20B valuation, after raising a $350M Series C at a $10B valuation in October
PitchBook: US venture funding hit $412.7B in H1 2026, up 30% on all of 2025, with AI startup funding accounting for 86%, or $355.9B; Q2 saw seven $1B+ rounds
In its lawsuit, Apple chronicles in vivid detail how its former employees that went to work for OpenAI allegedly violated their confidentiality agreements
Aaron Tilley /The Information: