Techmeme River
Donnerstag, 21. Mai 2026
11:30
Note: the White House postpones a planned ceremony this afternoon for Trump to sign a new EO on AI and cybersecurity; major tech CEOs were invited to attend
Axios
11:10
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
Reuters
10:40
Waymo suspends operations in Atlanta and San Antonio as its robotaxis struggle with flooded roads and says it has yet to develop a “final remedy” for flooding
TechCrunch
10:15
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
Bloomberg
09:15
Sources: Anthropic is in talks to rent servers powered by Microsoft-designed chips; source: Anthropic has steadily increased its Azure usage since November 2025
The Information
08:25
Anthropic, Blackstone, and Hellman & Friedman's unnamed enterprise services JV buys Fractional AI, its first deal; sources say Fractional ends its OpenAI deal
Bloomberg
08:00
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
Tom's Hardware
07:45
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
BleepingComputer
07:25
Netflix and iHeartMedia say Charlamagne tha God's The Breakfast Club will stream live on Netflix on weekdays from June 1, the service's first daily live show
Wall Street Journal
07:15
Bluesky and Clemson University researchers detail a novel Russian influence campaign that hijacked influential Bluesky accounts to spread pro-Kremlin propaganda
New York Times
07:05
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
Wall Street Journal
06:50
Taiwan is seeking to detain three people for forging documents to export Super Micro servers with Nvidia chips to China, Hong Kong, and Macau, breaking US rules
Bloomberg
06:35
Higgsfield AI premieres Hell Grind, a 95-minute fully AI-generated film, at Cannes and says it took two weeks and cost $500K to make, of which $400K was on AI
Wall Street Journal
06:25
SpaceX S-1: Valor Equity Partners founder Antonio Gracias, a longtime Elon Musk ally, controls a 7.3% stake in SpaceX, the second-largest holder after Musk
Bloomberg
06:05
Jeff Bezos dismisses AI job fears, defends billionaires against “vilification”, proposes eliminating income taxes for low earners, and praises President Trump
CNBC
05:50
Analysis: Samsung is set to distribute ~$26.6B to its 78,000 chip employees, or a ~$340K bonus to each, in early 2027 as part of a last-minute labor union deal
Bloomberg
05:35
Sources: Manus' co-founders are in talks to raise $1B+ to buy back the Chinese-founded startup, after Beijing ordered Meta to unwind its $2B Manus acquisition
Bloomberg
04:51
AMD pledges to invest $10B+ in Taiwan's chip industry to make advanced chip packaging for AI, and says TSMC will ramp up production of its next-gen Venice chips
Wall Street Journal
02:30
Arizona State University study: waste heat from Phoenix-area data centers raised downwind neighborhoods' air temperatures by up to 4°F above upwind temperatures
Tech Xplore
02:10
Paris-based Pivot, which develops AI tools for procurement and financial workflows, raised a $40M Series B co-led by Forestay Capital and Notion Capital
Tech.eu
02:05
Bengaluru-based Scapia, which offers travel-focused co-branded credit cards and an app, raised $63M led by GC, a source says at a $500M+ post-money valuation
TechCrunch
01:10
X resolved a three-year dispute with Australia's eSafety regulator after a court upheld a fine against the company for inadequate disclosures on combating CSAM
Reuters
00:35
Commure, which offers AI, revenue cycle management, and workflow automation tools for healthcare providers, raised $70M led by GC at a $7B post-money valuation
Fierce Healthcare
00:01
Ofcom says Meta, Snap, and Roblox have agreed to adopt stronger anti-grooming measures, while TikTok and YouTube “failed to commit to any significant changes”
Ofcom
Mittwoch, 20. Mai 2026
23:40
AMD says its Mac Mini-sized Ryzen AI Halo PC starts at $3,999 with Ryzen AI Max 300 chips, for preorder in June, and unveils Ryzen AI Max 400 chips coming in Q3
Engadget
23:25
Cohere releases Command A+, a sparse MoE open model built for agentic tasks, with 218B total and 25B active parameters, its first under the Apache 2.0 license
VentureBeat
22:10
Jensen Huang says that Nvidia has “largely conceded” China's AI chip market to Huawei and should “expect nothing” regarding approvals to sell chips in China
CNBC
21:40
Filing: SpaceX set aside $530M for potential litigation losses, including lawsuits involving Grok's Spicy and Unhinged modes, which “present heightened risks”
Wired
21:10
SpaceX S-1: Starlink subscribers grew 105% YoY to 10.3M in Q1 2026; SpaceX's “Connectivity” business, which is primarily driven by Starlink, made $11.3B in 2025
PCMag
20:25
Sources: the Pentagon is launching a task force to study how to safely deploy leading AI tools with hacking capabilities across Cyber Command and NSA missions
Politico
19:50
SpaceX S-1: xAI plans to buy another $2.8B worth of turbines for its data centers, including a $2B deal for mobile gas turbines, the type NAACP is suing it for
TechCrunch
19:20
SpaceX S-1: xAI had a $6.4B operating loss on $3.2B in revenue in 2025; Grok and X had 550M MAUs combined as of March 2026, and 117M used Grok's AI features
TechCrunch
17:55
SpaceX S-1: Anthropic is paying SpaceX $1.25B per month through May 2029 under their compute deal; Anthropic says it is expanding the deal to include Colossus 2
Axios
17:25
Filing: SpaceX reports 2025 revenue up 33% YoY to $18.7B, a loss of $4.9B, down from a $791M profit in 2024, and $20.7B in capital expenditures, up from $11.2B
New York Times
17:10
Nvidia reports Q1 net income up 211% YoY to $58.3B, above $42.9B est., and raises its Q2 revenue forecast to $91B; Jensen Huang says “demand has gone parabolic”
Wall Street Journal
17:05
Investor disclosures: Anthropic says it expects to generate $10.9B in revenue in Q2, up 127% from $4.8B in Q1, and turn a $559M operating profit, its first ever
Wall Street Journal
16:56
SpaceX files publicly for its IPO, choosing Nasdaq to make its debut under the symbol SPCX; Elon Musk's shares give him 85.1% of the voting power in the company
Bloomberg
16:27
Nvidia reports Q1 revenue up 85% YoY to $81.62B, above $78.86B est., Data Center revenue up 92% YoY to $75.2B, and announces an $80B share repurchase program
Nvidia Newsroom
16:05
OpenAI says an internal general-purpose reasoning model has disproved the Erdős unit distance conjecture, a central problem in discrete geometry posed in 1946
OpenAI
14:30
Granta and the Commonwealth Foundation say they can't determine yet if AI was used to write a prize-winning short story after critics pointed to signs of AI use
The Guardian
13:55
Google says it is testing new ad formats in search results and AI Mode, including Conversational Discovery ads, Highlighted Answers, and AI-powered Shopping ads
Search Engine Land
13:30
Airbnb says it is adding luggage storage, airport pickups, car rentals, grocery delivery, and thousands of boutique and independent hotels to its platform
Wall Street Journal
12:26
Sources: OpenAI is preparing to file confidentially for an IPO as early as May 22 and has a goal to be ready to go public as early as September
Wall Street Journal
12:20
Ubisoft reports a record €1.30B operating loss for the year to March 2026 and expects sales in 2026-27 will fall by ~8% to 9%; UBI closed down 6.58% on May 20
Reuters
12:15
Internal memo: Xbox hires game industry analyst Matthew Ball as chief strategy officer, and names Scott Van Vliet, who led Azure AI infrastructure, as Xbox CTO
The Verge
12:10
Internal memo: Mark Zuckerberg told employees that Meta does not expect more company-wide layoffs in 2026, after a 10% layoff and a report of more cuts coming
Reuters
11:50
An interview with Match Group CEO Spencer Rascoff about his plans for Tinder, including a redesign, AI features, live events, and group dating to win over Gen Z
Bloomberg
11:25
OpenAI's Chris Lehane says he is pursuing “reverse federalism”, lobbying blue states to pass AI safety laws and create a de facto US standard, as DC dithers
Politico
11:15
Stability AI releases Stable Audio 3.0, a family of audio models trained on licensed data, and says its top model can generate music more than six minutes long
TechCrunch
10:45
NanoClaw creator NanoCo raised a $12M seed led by Valley Capital and says it is booking enterprise customers; co-founders say they rejected a $20M buyout offer
TechCrunch
10:35
Variational, which has built a protocol for decentralized derivatives trading aimed at gathering liquidity from traditional markets, raised a $50M Series A
Fortune
10:30
Samsung Electronics and its South Korean labor union reach a preliminary pay deal; the union says it has suspended a general strike and put the deal to a vote
Reuters
10:15
Mercury, which provides banking services to startups, raised a $200M Series D led by TCV at a $5.2B valuation, up from $3.5B in March 2025
CNBC
10:10
Socket, which helps companies safeguard open-source code against hackers, raised $60M led by Thrive Capital at a $1B valuation
Bloomberg
10:00
Apple says the App Store prevented over $2.2B in potentially fraudulent transactions in 2025, rejected over 2M problematic app submissions, and more
9to5Mac
09:30
Exa, which offers a search engine that is designed for AI agents, raised $250M led by a16z at a $2.2B valuation, up from $700M in September 2025
Bloomberg
09:25
Internal memo: Intuit is laying off ~17% of its workforce, or ~3,000 employees worldwide, to streamline operations and sharpen its focus on key bets, like AI
Reuters
09:01
Owl & Co. report: the podcast industry generated $9.2B in sales globally in 2025, up 23% YoY, with 73% of the growth in the US coming from video-related revenue
Bloomberg
08:35
Circle cofounder Sean Neville's Catena Labs, which lets users set financial guardrails for AI agents, raised a $30M Series A and applies for a US bank charter
Fortune
08:10
Prelude, which helps companies with digital onboarding, raised a $20M Series A led by podcaster Harry Stebbings' 20VC, bringing its total funding to $27M
Tech.eu
07:50
Cloud provider Railway says Google Cloud suspended its account without cause, resulting in an outage; in 2024, GCP deleted an Australian pension fund's account
The Register
07:30
S. “Soma” Somasegar, who led Microsoft's Developer Division for 12 years as part of his 27-year tenure at the company before leaving in 2015, has died at age 59
GeekWire
07:10
London-based Primer, which helps e-commerce merchants connect and manage multiple payment providers, raised a $100M Series C led by Sofina
Sifted
06:50
Kickstarter retracts its stricter rules on mature content after creator backlash, and says it adopted the tougher rules because of its payment processor Stripe
Engadget
06:10
Russia's Sberbank says it hopes to use Chinese chips to power its flagship GigaChat AI model, as sanctions continue to block the country's access to hardware
Reuters
06:01
Sam Altman says OpenAI offered to invest $2M in tokens in each startup in the current YC batch; a source says the offer is in exchange for equity via a SAFE
The Information
05:40
Document and sources: China banned Nvidia's RTX 5090D V2 chip, aimed at gamers and animators, while Jensen Huang was visiting China with Donald Trump last week
Financial Times
05:00
GitHub confirms ~3,800 internal repositories were breached after one of its employees installed a malicious VS Code extension; TeamPCP claims responsibility
BleepingComputer
02:35
An analysis based on OpenAI's and Anthropic's current valuations suggests ~$370B of philanthropic assets tied to the two AI companies could soon become liquid
Nan's Substack
02:25
Q&A with Harvey CEO Winston Weinberg on launching the legal AI startup in 2022, how AI could shake up law firms' business models, legal AI competition, and more
Financial Times
02:15
Two research papers describe how Google's Co-Scientist and nonprofit FutureHouse's AI tools can succeed at drug retargeting by developing and testing hypotheses
Ars Technica
02:00
Three precedent-setting court rulings in China have said that employers replacing workers with AI is voluntary cost-cutting that does not justify mass layoffs
New York Times
01:45
Sources: Nvidia's business development group, not its VC arm NVentures, has led much of its ~$90B dealmaking push across 145+ companies over the past 16 months
Financial Times
01:35
Sources: an attack exploiting a previously unknown vulnerability in Huawei router software caused a three-hour nationwide telecoms outage in Luxembourg in 2025
The Record
01:30
Vietnam introduces Decree 142 to implement its AI law, requiring that companies classify AI models by risk level, label deepfakes, and more
Nikkei Asia
01:25
Filing and sources: private equity firm Hg spun out €500M in assets from its €19B software group Visma, whose London IPO remains shelved amid the SaaSpocalypse
Financial Times
01:20
SkyeChip becomes the first Malaysian chip design company to IPO on the Bursa Malaysia exchange, surging 300%+; the company was valued at ~$397M at its IPO price
Nikkei Asia
01:15
Alibaba's chipmaking unit T-Head unveils the Zhenwu M890 for AI training and inference, saying it is well-suited for agentic tasks, and plans annual upgrades
Bloomberg
01:10
Singapore announces a National AI Partnership with Google and an MoU with OpenAI, which will set up an AI lab and commit $234M+ to the city-state's AI ecosystem
CNBC
00:50
Samsung Electronics rejects a labor union-accepted mediation proposal, raising the prospect of a workers' strike; a general work stoppage will proceed on May 21
Bloomberg
00:00
Berlin-based bunch, an AI-native platform for managers and institutional investors to manage the entire fund lifecycle, raised a €30.1M Series B led by Portage
EU-Startups
Dienstag, 19. Mai 2026
22:50
GitHub says it's investigating “unauthorized access” to its internal repositories, and there's no proof of customer data outside its repositories being impacted
@github
22:25
Q&A with Google SVP James Manyika on AI's ability to automate tasks versus occupations, his optimism about the labor market despite AI-driven layoffs, and more
Platformer
22:00
Sources: a draft White House EO would create a “voluntary framework” for AI companies to give government agencies early access to models before public release
Axios
21:40
The Take It Down Act, a US law forcing social networks to remove nonconsensual intimate images within 48 hours of reporting or face fines, took effect on May 19
The Verge
21:10
Gemini 3.5 Flash costs $1.50 per 1M input tokens and $9 per 1M output tokens, 3x the price of Gemini 3 Flash Preview and 6x the price of Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite
Simon Willison's Weblog
20:35
Boston-based CircuitHub, which manufactures circuit boards based on customers' requirements, raised a $28M Series A led by Plural
Axios
19:50
Google unveils Continue On, a new feature in Android 17 that will let users move tasks between Android devices, similar to Apple's Handoff feature
9to5Google
19:35
Google adds Street View integration to Project Genie, its interactive world builder, and expands Genie from the US to adult Google AI Ultra subscribers globally
Engadget
19:30
Trump signs an EO calling on regulators and the Fed to review policies that could support fintech growth, including expanding fintech access to payment accounts
Reuters
19:10
On-demand manufacturing startup SendCutSend raised $110M co-led by Sequoia, Paradigm, and Stripe co-founders Patrick and John Collison, valuing it at $1B
Wall Street Journal
19:05
Google updates Flow and Flow Music with Gemini Omni Flash support, mobile apps, the ability to create custom tools like a video resizer or shaders, and more
CNET
19:00
Discord says voice and video calls outside of stage channels are now end-to-end encrypted by default, after launching its encryption protocol in September 2024
PC Gamer
18:55
Google debuts Gemini for Science, a set of experimental tools that help researchers generate hypotheses, conduct testing, and understand scientific literature
Engadget
18:40
Sources detail growing concerns inside SoftBank over Masayoshi Son's $60B+ bet on OpenAI, which some fear concentrates too much capital into a single company
Bloomberg
18:25
Sources: Zyphra, which trains and runs inference for its open-weight models on AMD hardware, is raising a $500M Series B at a valuation of at least $5B
Forbes
18:20
Threat actors published 600+ malicious versions to npm as part of the Shai-Hulud supply chain campaign; most of the affected packages are in the @antv ecosystem
BleepingComputer
18:15
Sources: SpaceX expects to proceed with its acquisition of Cursor 30 days after its public trading debut, which is expected to occur on June 12
Bloomberg
17:55
Roblox authorizes its first share buyback program, aiming to repurchase up to $3B of its stock, including $1B over the next year; RBLX is down ~45% YTD
Bloomberg
17:45
Analog Devices agrees to buy Empower Semiconductor, which makes chips used to regulate voltage, for $1.5B in cash
Wall Street Journal
17:20
Google adds a conversational search feature to YouTube, initially for Premium users, and integrates Gemini Omni into YouTube Shorts Remix and the Create app
Android Central
16:55
OpenAI introduces Guaranteed Capacity, which lets customers get discounted access to OpenAI's compute using one- to three-year commitments based on spend levels
OpenAI
16:35
Meta begins laying off 8,000 employees, or 10% of its staff, in a push to become an AI-first company; another 7,000 workers will be reassigned to AI initiatives
New York Times
16:10
Minnesota Governor Tim Walz signs the US' first law banning prediction market sites from operating in the state; the CFTC sues Minnesota to try to block the law
NPR
16:05
Sources: Google DeepMind has reached a ~$100M deal to hire 20+ researchers from Contextual AI, including CEO Douwe Kiela, and license its technology
Bloomberg
16:00
Google unveils Pics, an AI image editor in Workspace that lets users edit specific elements and modify text, rolling out this summer to AI Pro and Ultra users
Engadget
15:45
Ocean, which uses AI agents to detect email attacks, raised a $20M Series A led by Lightspeed, following an $8M seed in 2024
CTech
15:30
Sundar Pichai announced at Google I/O that Gemini 3.5 Pro will launch next month; attendees groaned at the model coming out later than they expected
Business Insider
14:55
Hands-on with Google and Samsung's Android XR smart glasses, with Warby Parker and Gentle Monster frames, and with Xreal's Project Aura, all coming this fall
Wired
14:45
Google unveils Universal Cart, a shopping assistant that works “across merchants”, built on its open-standard Universal Commerce Protocol, rolling out in the US
TechCrunch
14:40
At a hearing, two of three judges of a federal appeals court appeared skeptical of Anthropic's bid to block the DOD from designating it a supply-chain risk
Bloomberg
14:35
Demis Hassabis says companies looking to replace developers with AI may be due to a “lack of imagination and a lack of understanding” of the future
Wired
14:30
Google's web-based AI Studio now lets users build native Android apps; Google says the apps are for personal use only for now and publishing is on the roadmap
TechCrunch
14:25
Google introduces Antigravity 2.0, featuring an updated desktop app that lets users orchestrate agents, an Antigravity CLI tool, and an SDK for custom workflows
TechCrunch
14:21
Google says the Gemini app has 900M+ MAUs across 230 countries, up from 400M at I/O 2025, and launches Neural Expressive, a new design language for Gemini
The Keyword
14:12
OpenAI adds support for Google's SynthID watermarks in AI images, and previews a public portal that lets users verify if an image was generated by its models
The Verge
14:12
Google teases Android Halo, which makes an AI agent's status visible via “subtle communication” at the top of the phone screen, coming later this year
9to5Google
14:10
Google says it is expanding access to CodeMender, an “AI agent for code security” it debuted in October, by inviting select groups of experts to test the API
The Verge
14:05
Google launches Gemini Omni, a multimodal model it says can “create anything from any input”, starting with video generation, for Google AI Plus, Pro, and Ultra
VentureBeat
14:02
Google announces Gemini Spark, a “24/7 personal AI agent” powered by Gemini 3.5 that integrates with Google Workspace apps, including Gmail, Docs, and Slides
Engadget
14:00
Google adds a $100/month AI Ultra plan aimed at developers, tech workers, and creative pros, and cuts its top Ultra subscription from $250/month to $200/month
ZDNET
13:55
Google overhauls its search box, letting users input longer queries, including with photos and videos, and automate searches with Gemini 3.5 Flash-based agents
New York Times
13:51
Google rolls out Gemini 3.5 Flash, its “strongest agentic and coding model yet”, for tackling long-horizon agentic tasks, in the Gemini app and Search's AI Mode
The Keyword
13:36
Sundar Pichai says Google is now processing 3.2 quadrillion tokens per month, up from 480T tokens per month a year ago and 9.7T tokens per month two years ago
Axios
13:25
Google unveils conversational features for Gmail, Docs, and Keep, letting users ask natural language questions, rolling out to AI Pro and Ultra subs this summer
Engadget
13:10
Spotify launches a “Verified by Spotify” badge for podcasts to help “authenticate creator identity”, after releasing it for music in April
Engadget
13:00
A recording of the Google I/O 2026 keynote
Google on YouTube
12:55
A live blog of the Google I/O 2026 keynote, where the company is set to announce the “latest AI breakthroughs and updates” in Gemini, Android, and more
9to5Google
12:30
Roku launches a creator hub with licensed creator content and programming from partners like Peacock and HBO Max, alongside new FAST channels from top creators
The Hollywood Reporter
12:15
Andrej Karpathy joins Anthropic to help launch a team focused on using Claude to accelerate pretraining research; he helped found OpenAI and worked at Tesla
Axios
11:55
Sources: Apple Chief Hardware Officer Johny Srouji is reorganizing hardware development to integrate silicon teams with product creation and speed up their work
Bloomberg
11:45
Polymarket partners with Nasdaq to launch markets tied to private company milestones, including IPO timing, valuations, earnings, and secondary market activity
The Block
11:40
NYSE owner Intercontinental Exchange partners with financial infrastructure company Ornn to launch USD-denominated futures contracts for computing power
Bloomberg
11:30
Relay, which builds banking and money management software for small businesses, raised $50M; it previously raised ~$51.5M, including a $32.2M Series B in 2024
Axios
11:20
Yahoo Finance launches AlphaSpace, a customizable research dashboard with an AI assistant, for subscribers of its $479.40/year or $39.95/month Gold plan
Fortune
11:10
Personal update: I've joined Anthropic. I think the next few years at the frontier of LLMs will be especially formative. I am very excited to join the team here and get back to R&D. I remain deeply passionate about education and plan to resume my work on it in time.
@karpathy
10:56
Plex says the price for the Lifetime tier of its Plex Pass plan will increase from $249.99 to $749.99 in July
9to5Mac
10:40
Radar, which helps retailers like American Eagle manage inventory and cut back on theft and lost merchandise, raised a $170M Series B at a $1B+ valuation
CNBC
10:00
Viktor, which is developing an AI agent that operates like a virtual coworker embedded inside Slack or Microsoft Teams, raised a $75M Series A led by Accel
Fortune
09:35
Microsoft says it plans to bring Snapdragon X2 chips to the new Surface Pro and Laptop later in 2026; sources say the delay is due to component availability
Windows Central
09:30
Microsoft unveils Intel-based business laptops: a 13" Surface Pro for $1,950+, a 13.8" or 15" Surface Laptop for $1,950+, and a 13" Surface Laptop for $1,300+
Microsoft Devices Blog
09:15
Unframe, which customizes AI apps for enterprises via pre-built modular components, raised a $50M Series B led by Highland Europe, for $100M in total funding
Axios
08:25
Epic says Fortnite has returned to Apple's App Store globally, after its US relaunch in 2025, signaling confidence in a favorable outcome in an ongoing lawsuit
Reuters
08:15
Apple unveils Apple Intelligence-powered accessibility features, subtitles generated on device, a Vision Pro feature for controlling power wheelchairs, and more
MacStories
07:45
CertiK: physical attacks on crypto holders rose 75% YoY to 72 confirmed cases and $41M in known losses in 2025; Coinbase spent ~$7.6M to protect Brian Armstrong
Bloomberg
07:30
OpenAI's win against Elon Musk leaves it free to continue its IPO plans, but it still faces many issues, like rising competition and dozens of other lawsuits
New York Times
07:20
Modular data center maker Armada raised a $230M Series B co-led by Overmatch, 8090 Industries, and BlackRock at a $2B valuation, and plans a new Arizona factory
CNBC
07:15
Chinese flash memory chipmaker YMTC says it started a prelisting tutoring process with two local brokers, marking the first formal step toward an IPO
Bloomberg
06:40
KPMG partners with Anthropic to embed Claude into its tax and advisory platforms; KPMG's tax and legal services unit saw revenue grow ~8% YoY to $9.3B in 2025
Wall Street Journal
06:30
Sources: Chinese AI startup Moonshot told investors it would revamp its corporate structure to pave the way for a Hong Kong IPO and comply with Beijing's rules
Bloomberg
06:15
Standard Chartered plans to cut nearly 8,000 back-office positions by 2030, a 15%+ reduction in support functions in hubs like Bengaluru, amid growing AI usage
Financial Times
06:00
Elon Musk's OpenAI loss is set to speed up the AI juggernaut amid rising opposition; the case offered a rare glimpse into tech's workings, ending with a whimper
New York Times
05:40
Monzo reports FY 2026 revenue up 39% YoY to £1.7B, pretax profit up 44% YoY to £87.3M, users up 3M to 15M+, and deposits up 55% to £25.7B, as it expands lending
Bloomberg
04:05
Milan-based legal AI company Lexroom raised a €42.9M Series B led by Left Lane, after raising a €16M Series A in September 2025, taking total funding to €62.7M
EU-Startups
03:50
Mistral acquires Austria-based Emmi AI for an undisclosed sum to boost its industrial offerings in Europe; Emmi raised €15M in Austria's largest round in 2025
Reuters
02:00
NYC Health + Hospitals says hackers accessed its network from November 2025 to February 2026, stealing 1.8M+ people's data, medical records, and fingerprints
TechCrunch
01:25
Sources: Demis Hassabis was an angel investor in Anthropic; PitchBook and Dealroom say ex-DeepMind researchers founded 12+ companies since 2021, raising $14B+
Financial Times
01:05
Sources: Intel asks its leading PC partners, including those in the US, China, and Taiwan, to use more 18A CPUs, citing better supply than chips on older nodes
Nikkei Asia
Montag, 18. Mai 2026
23:40
An overview of macro tech trends: a capex explosion, unprecedented chip demand growth, supply chain bottlenecks, model commoditization, AI automation, and more
Benedict Evans
21:40
Sources: Analog Devices, one of the largest analog chipmakers, is in talks to buy Empower, which makes chips used to regulate voltage, for $1.5B in cash
Bloomberg
20:55
Vitalik Buterin says AI-assisted “formal verification” could help secure blockchain networks, smart contracts, and cryptographic systems against software flaws
Decrypt
20:15
Blackstone announces a joint venture with Google to create a US company that will offer customers Google TPU access, and makes a $5B initial equity commitment
Wall Street Journal
19:45
A deep dive into Meta's Hyperion data center campus in Louisiana, expected to reach 5 GW of compute capacity; source: Meta plans to spend $200B+ on the project
Bloomberg
19:20
Procurement records: the FBI seeks a vendor that can provide access to automated license plate readers nationwide; Flock and Motorola are among the few options
404 Media
18:50
A CISA contractor maintained a now-offline GitHub repo that exposed credentials to AWS GovCloud accounts and CISA systems; CISA is investigating the situation
Krebs on Security
18:15
In a town hall, PlayStation studio business CEO Hermen Hulst told staff that the company's narrative single-player games will now be PlayStation exclusives
@jasonschreier.bsky.social
18:10
Internal memo: Meta reassigns 7,000 workers to four new units focused on building AI tools, as it prepares to cut 10% of its staff, or ~8,000 jobs, on May 20
New York Times
18:05
Sources: AI chip designer Tenstorrent is drawing early takeover interest, including from Intel and Qualcomm, and could be valued at $5B+ in a potential deal
Bloomberg
17:45
Anthropic says last week it began letting Mythos users responsibly share cybersecurity threats with others who face similar vulnerabilities, changing its stance
Wall Street Journal
17:30
Musk v. Altman: Elon Musk says the judge and jury “never actually ruled on the merits of the case, just on a calendar technicality” and he will file an appeal
@elonmusk
17:00
Akamai is seeking to raise $2.6B in a convertible bond offering, and plans to use $350M of the offering to buy back its common stock from buyers of the bonds
Bloomberg
16:40
Cloudflare tests Mythos against 50+ of its repositories, highlights its ability to chain bugs into one exploit, and details its vulnerability discovery harness
Cloudflare
16:05
Anthropic acquires NYC-based Stainless, which generates SDKs from APIs, and plans to wind down its hosted products, after reportedly discussing a $300M+ deal
TechCrunch
14:55
X quietly limits users who don't pay for verification to 50 original posts and 200 replies per day, down from 2,400 posts per day, angering some longtime users
Engadget
14:50
Uber ups its stake in Berlin-based Delivery Hero from 7% in April to 19.5% and says it “has no intent to acquire 30% or more” of Delivery Hero's voting rights
Bloomberg
14:25
Seagate closed down 6.87% on May 18, leading a group-wide sell-off after CEO Dave Mosley's comments raised concerns it won't be able to meet demand fueled by AI
CNBC
14:05
Sigma, which sells a cloud-native analytics platform that sits on top of data warehouses, raised an $80M Series E led by Princeville Capital at a $3B valuation
The Next Web
13:40
Musk v. Altman: the jury unanimously rejects Elon Musk's claims against OpenAI and Sam Altman, as he filed them outside of a three-year statute of limitations
CNBC
13:25
Cursor releases Composer 2.5, built on Kimi K2.5, and says it is better at sustained work on long-running tasks and follows complex instructions more reliably
Cursor
12:40
NextEra's $67B deal for Dominion, the largest utility acquisition in US history, signals an era of utility consolidation to accommodate AI-driven power demand
Bloomberg
12:35
Sony is hiking PlayStation Plus subscriptions' one-month and three-month starting prices in “select regions”, due to “ongoing market conditions”, from May 20
The Verge
12:15
Nasdaq-listed Bitcoin Depot, North America's largest bitcoin ATM operator, files for bankruptcy, blaming states' “increasingly stringent compliance obligations”
CoinDesk
11:50
Internal chats: in March, xAI offered employees $420 in exchange for completed tax filings as training data for Grok, but the bonuses haven't been paid out
Bloomberg
11:35
Amazon's Alexa+ now produces AI-generated “podcasts” on various topics in the US, featuring chats between two AI “co-hosts”, using content from media outlets
Variety
10:05
Arkham: Iran's largest crypto exchange, Nobitex, processed $2.3B+ since 2023 via Tron and BNB Chain, including $23M+ since the Iran war started in February
Reuters
09:35
Iranian media: Iran launches “Hormuz Safe”, a Bitcoin-backed insurance service for shipping companies transiting the Strait of Hormuz; ~1,500 ships are trapped
Bloomberg
09:30
The Vatican says Anthropic co-founder Christopher Olah will join Pope Leo on May 25 to launch the pope's first encyclical, setting out his views on the AI age
Bloomberg
09:25
Decart, which offers real-time generative video and GPU optimization tech, raised $300M at a ~$4B valuation, up from $3.1B after raising $153M in August 2025
Wall Street Journal
09:15
Strategy acquired 24,869 bitcoin for ~$2.01B at an $80,985 average price from May 11 to May 17, taking its holdings to 843,738 BTC, or 4%+ of the total supply
The Block
09:00
Sources: competition for Google's TPUs among its employees and researchers intensified as it prioritizes cloud customers and flagship AI products over research
Bloomberg
08:35
Dust, which helps enterprises design and deploy specialized AI agents that work alongside humans, raised a $40M Series B led by Abstract and Sequoia
Axios
07:55
Steve Bannon and 60+ Trump allies sign a Humans First-led letter urging Trump to mandate government testing and approval of powerful AI models before release
Axios
07:00
How gambling companies like FanDuel and DraftKings, as well as Meta and a16z's founders, are pouring millions into state-level election campaigns via super PACs
Bloomberg
06:40
Eric Schmidt faced loud boos during his University of Arizona commencement speech while discussing “rational” fears over the impact of AI and automation on jobs
Business Insider
06:20
Baidu reports Q1 revenue down 1.1% YoY to ~$4.7B, above ~$4.5B est., and net income down 55% YoY to ~$506.6M, above ~$462.5M est., amid a slow AI payoff
Wall Street Journal
06:10
A college senior at Stanford describes how AI has changed classes: cheating using AI “has become omnipresent” with students “fudging just about everything”
New York Times
05:55
How Amazon, which took a measured tone on AI, went from an AI also-ran to a real contender, thanks to $200B in spending, a bet on custom chips, and savvy deals
Wall Street Journal
05:45
Polymarket and Kalshi continue to operate in India despite an April 25 government advisory, addressed to VPN providers, labeling prediction markets as “illegal”
Bloomberg
04:55
After EV maker Fisker's collapse, ~4,000 car owners formed a nonprofit to keep their cars working by reverse-engineering software and building open-source tools
Electrek
04:40
In his weekly Linux kernel post, Linus Torvalds says “AI tools are great” but duplicate bug reports have made the security list “almost entirely unmanageable”
The Register
04:25
A look at the new class of jobs created by AI companies: AI storytellers, forward deployed engineers, AI accelerators, AI philosophers, AI gig workers, and more
Business Insider
04:00
Companies running bug bounty programs are adding more stringent background checks and building AI agents to triage a flood of low-quality, AI-generated reports
Financial Times
02:15
Security researcher Peter G. Neumann, who criticized the industry's lax attitudes toward computer security and digital privacy, died on May 17 at the age of 93
New York Times
02:05
Microsoft says it's retiring Teams' Together Mode, debuted in 2020, and plans to simplify meeting layouts and focus on video quality, stability, and performance
The Verge
01:40
Pwn2Own Berlin 2026: participants earned a total of $1,298,250 for 47 vulnerabilities, with successful exploits of AI products like Codex, Cursor, and LM Studio
SecurityWeek
01:10
Sources: Anthropic agrees to brief the Financial Stability Board on global financial system vulnerabilities found by Mythos, after a request by the FSB's Chair
Financial Times
01:00
Samsung's shares closed up 3.88% after the company resumed talks with its union and a court partially granted an injunction against illegal union actions
Bloomberg
00:35
Chinese chipmaker CXMT reports Q1 revenue up 719% YoY to ~$7.5B, net profit up 1,688% to $3.6B, and says Omdia ranks it No. 4 in DRAM with a 7.67% global share
Nikkei Asia
Sonntag, 17. Mai 2026
23:45
Sources: US authorities in recent months have issued multiple information requests to Kalshi and Polymarket, many tied to wagers on events in Iran and Venezuela
Wall Street Journal
23:05
Quebec-based telecom software startup Gaiia raised a CA$54.8M Series B led by JMI Equity, bringing its total funding to ~CA$90M from backers including YC
BetaKit
22:05
A look at Apple's ongoing strategy of repurposing binned chips for cheaper devices; sources: Apple ordered more A18 Pros for the MacBook Neo amid its popularity
Wall Street Journal
21:40
New York City-based GovWell, which uses AI to streamline government processes like permitting and licensing, raised a $25M Series A led by Insight Partners
Axios
20:35
AI sales automation startup Monaco raised a $50M Series B led by Benchmark, bringing its total funding to $85M after raising a $25M Series A in February 2026
Business Insider
18:45
Ciridae, which is developing AI to streamline back-office operations for real-economy businesses, raised a $20M seed led by Accel, with a16z participating
Fortune
17:45
Source: Shein is acquiring SF-based DTC clothing retailer Everlane, which was founded on sustainability and “radical transparency” principles, in a $100M deal
Puck
16:35
Analysis: 34 top AI startups are generating nearly $80B in annualized revenue, up 112% from six months ago, with Anthropic and OpenAI currently capturing ~89%
The Information
14:35
Grafana says “an unauthorized party” accessed its GitHub environment and demanded a ransom “to prevent the release of our codebase”; Grafana refused to pay
The Hacker News
13:50
Analysis: the mass adoption of smartphones and social media may be a primary driver of declining birthrates globally, in part by reducing in-person socializing
Financial Times
12:50
Publicis agrees to acquire LiveRamp, which allows companies to share and build new data sets and models that can power agentic frameworks, for $2.2B in cash
Adweek
12:35
Sources: DayOne, a spinoff of China's largest data center operator, GDS, plans a dual IPO in Singapore and New York, seeking to raise $5B at a ~$20B valuation
Financial Times
10:50
Sources: Apple's revamped Siri may launch in beta, and will have an option to auto-delete chats; Apple plans to add Suggested Genmoji to iOS 27 and iPadOS 27
Bloomberg
08:00
Developers say Chinese AI labs lead US rivals in video generation, as ByteDance and Kuaishou train models on vast short-form video libraries from their own apps
Financial Times
02:00
Experts: Stuxnet-linked Fast16 malware, designed to subvert nuclear weapons testing simulations, was likely part of a campaign to slow Iran's nuclear ambitions
ZERO DAY
00:55
Milan-based Webidoo, which develops an operational layer designed to help SMBs access AI tools, raised $25M led by IXC3 for North American expansion
EU-Startups
Samstag, 16. Mai 2026
23:25
OpenAI partners with Malta's AI for All initiative to give citizens a free year of ChatGPT Plus if they complete a University of Malta AI literacy course
Cointelegraph
22:00
Nectar Social, which offers an agentic OS for marketers, raised a $30M Series A led by Menlo Ventures, with GV and True Ventures among investors
TechCrunch
16:30
Hill County, which faced eight new data centers, passed what may be Texas' first county-wide ban on them, for one year; the state trails only VA in data centers
Politico
14:45
SF vibes are frenetic over the huge divide in outcomes and career uncertainty for software engineers; over 5 years ~10K people in AI attained retirement wealth
@deedydas
14:00
ASML will partner with Tata Electronics to help it bring an $11B 300mm chip factory online in Gujarat, expanding India's ability to produce chips domestically
Bloomberg