Unfettered
Defense Secretary Hegseth gave Anthropic until Friday to provide "unfettered" Claude access — or face the Defense Production Act. The company built to put limits on AI is being compelled to remove them.
Sources: DOD told Anthropic it will invoke the Defense Production Act or label Anthropic a “supply chain risk”, if not given unfettered Claude access by Friday
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth gave Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei until Friday evening to give the military unfettered access …
Apple says it plans to move some Mac mini production to Houston from Asia later in 2026, as part of its efforts to invest $600B in the US over four years
The company will move some production of the desktop computer to Foxconn facility in Texas — Apple will move some production …
A look at Apple's efforts to reshore the US chip supply chain, as the company commits to buying 100M+ chips from TSMC Arizona in 2026, amid US-China tensions
The iPhone maker wants more supply based in U.S., which remains years behind Asia Share Resize 5 Listen (2 min) You may also like Checkbox Embed code copied …
Meta agrees to acquire up to 6GW of AMD Instinct GPUs in a deal valued at $100B+ that could see Meta own up to 10% of AMD; Meta plans to deploy 1GW in 2026
The deal could result in Meta owning as much as 10% of AMD's stock as the chip maker seeks to challenge Nvidia
IBM shares closed down 13.15% after Anthropic outlined in a blog post how Claude Code can automate the exploration and analysis phases of COBOL modernization
International Business Machines stock is getting slammed Monday, becoming the latest perceived victim of rapidly developing AI technology …
How Silicon Valley has long ignored China's looming Taiwan invasion and its chip supply impact; US officials warned Apple, AMD, and Qualcomm about China's plans
Federal officials have for years tried to wean Silicon Valley from its dependence on Taiwan, an island democracy roughly the size …
Anthropic says DeepSeek, MiniMax, and Moonshot violated its ToS by prompting Claude a combined 16M+ times and using distillation to train their own products
The allegations mirror those of OpenAI, which told House lawmakers that DeepSeek used ‘distillation’ to improve models
Software stocks like AppLovin and CrowdStrike extended their weeks-long selloff; several of the biggest decliners were discussed in Citrini Research's post
The weeks-long selloff in software stocks deepened Monday amid general unease about the threat posed by AI. — Software-makers AppLovin, CrowdStrike …
Sources: MacBook Pros with touch screens, due this fall, will have a Dynamic Island and a refreshed, dynamic UI optimized for touch or point-and-click input
Apple Inc.'s long-awaited foray into touch-screen laptops will bring major changes to the Mac interface, including the addition …
Sources: Stripe, which is privately held, has expressed preliminary interest in a potential acquisition of PayPal or its assets; PYPL jumps 6.7%
Payment processing firm Stripe Inc. is considering an acquisition of all or parts of PayPal Holdings Inc., according to people familiar with the matter.
DOJ files reveal how Jeffrey Epstein ingratiated himself with top Microsoft executives, aiding his return to society after his release from prison in 2009
For more than two decades, the convicted sex offender developed a network at the tech giant, making him privy to succession discussions and other business.
Discord says it won't roll out age verification globally next month as previously announced, delaying the change until H2 after it adds verification options
Now it will hold off on expansion until it adds more verification options, vendor transparency, and other changes.
Discord says it “ran a limited test of Persona in the UK” to verify user ages and “that test has since concluded”, distancing itself from Persona amid backlash
The messaging platform says its ‘limited test’ of Persona in the UK has come to an end.
YouTube updates its $7.99-per-month Premium Lite subscription to let users download videos for offline access and play videos in the background
YouTube is expanding its more affordable, $7.99 per month Premium Lite subscription service with new features, including the ability to download videos …
Anthropic launches Claude Cowork agent tools for investment banking, HR, design, and more, including a specialized financial plugin developed alongside FactSet
Anthropic PBC is expanding the reach of its Claude chatbot into new sectors, weeks after the startup sparked a market meltdown …
Stripe hits a $159B valuation after an employee share sale to investors like Thrive, Coatue, and a16z, a 70% jump from its $92B valuation in February 2025
Deal will allow payments company to stay private for longer — Stripe's valuation has soared by more than 70 per cent to $159bn …
A US judge sentences ex-L3Harris exec Peter Williams to over 7 years in prison, after he pleaded guilty in 2025 to theft of trade secrets and selling exploits
Additionally, the U.S. Treasury sanctioned the Russian zero-day brokerage that Peter Williams sold the exploits to. — Learn more.
Waymo opens its robotaxi service to “select riders” in Dallas, Houston, San Antonio, and Orlando, expanding its operations to 10 US cities
Alphabet-owned Waymo on Tuesday opened its robotaxi service to some public passengers in Dallas, Houston, San Antonio and Orlando, the company announced.
The UK ICO fines Reddit £14.47M for unlawfully using children's personal information; Reddit began verifying user ages in July 2025 to comply with the UK OSA
Reddit has been fined £14.47m by the UK's data watchdog for unlawfully using children's personal information.
CrowdStrike says the average breakout time for attackers moving from intrusion to other network systems fell to 29 minutes in 2025, a 65% YoY increase in speed
Apple will block users in Australia, Brazil, and Singapore from downloading apps rated 18+ without age assurance and rolls out new age assurance tools for devs
Apple is rolling out new age assurance tools for developers in regions including Brazil, Australia, Singapore, and parts of the US …
The US Treasury sanctions Russian zero-day broker Operation Zero, its founder Sergey Zelenyuk, and others for acquiring and reselling stolen US defense exploits
The U.S. government announced on Tuesday sanctions against two companies that acquire and resell zero-day exploits …
Google says AI music generation platform ProducerAI is joining Labs and will be powered by a Lyria 3 preview version; ProducerAI was developed alongside artists
ProducerAI will use Google's Lyria 3 AI model to help users generate sounds, workshop lyrics, remix songs, and more.
Russian media: Russia opens an investigation into Telegram founder Pavel Durov for “abetting terrorist activities”, as it promotes its state-run rival Max app
Software stocks rebound as Anthropic announces partnerships integrating its AI tools with enterprise apps, including Slack, Intuit, Docusign, and FactSet
Annie Palmer /CNBC:NEW
ASML researchers unveil a breakthrough in EUV light source power, increasing output from 600W to 1,000W, a jump that could yield 50% more chips by 2030
Researchers at ASML Holding say they have found a way to boost the power of the light source in a key chip making machine to turn …
An Evercore ISI economist criticizes Citrini's AI report, calling its assumptions “extreme and improbable”, but says it's a thought-provoking exercise
Most of the sell-side has remained hilariously silent at a mere Substacker seemingly shaking markets, even though the anguish and frustration is almost palpable.
Anthropic updates its Responsible Scaling Policy, including separating the safety commitments it'll make unilaterally and its recommendations for the industry
Sources: Meta aims to enter the stablecoin space in H2, with plans to integrate a vendor to administer stablecoin-backed payments and implement a new wallet
The Facebook owner's stablecoin integration involves planning a third party vendor to help administer stablecoin-based payments …
Sources: CoreWeave is seeking an ~$8.5B loan from banks, backed by a contract Meta signed last year to pay CoreWeave up to $14.2B for its services
CoreWeave Inc. is looking to raise about $8.5 billion from banks including Morgan Stanley and Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc. to help finance …
Samsung's $2,899 Galaxy Z TriFold works well as a smartphone, especially for entertainment, but falls short as a tablet and laptop, marred by unpredictability
The company's experimental new phone can fill in for larger-screen devices, but isn't close to replacing them.
David Luan, the head of Amazon's AGI lab, is leaving the company less than two years after he joined through an acqui-hire deal of his startup Adept
The head of Amazon's artificial general intelligence lab is leaving the company less than two years after joining through a so-called acqui-hire deal of his startup Adept.
Beverly Hills-based Subject, whose streaming-style, on-demand platform provides digital curriculum and learning insights for grades 6-12, raised $28M
Subject, a Beverly Hills-based AI education platform, raised a $28 million venture round led by Vistara Growth, CEO Michael Vilardo tells Axios Pro exclusively.
Profound, which tracks how AI models recommend brands across millions of prompts, raised a $96M Series C at a $1B valuation, bringing its total funding to $155M
Profound, an 18-month-old startup betting that the future of marketing will be shaped not by Google links but by AI answers, is now a unicorn.
Letter AI, whose sales software provides personalized, deal-specific guidance, raised a $40M Series B, four months after a $10.6M Series A
- Letter AI has raised $40 million and is now valued in the hundreds of millions. — The sales software startup uses AI to deliver real-time, deal-specific guidance.
A California judge dismisses a lawsuit from xAI that accused OpenAI of stealing its trade secrets, with permission for xAI to refile the case at a later date
SambaNova, which says its SN50 AI chip runs 5x faster than its rivals and will be deployed by SoftBank, raised a $350M Series E led by Vista Equity and Cambium
Artificial intelligence chip startup SambaNova Systems Inc. raised $350 million in a new funding round and said that customers …
Slang AI, which develops voice-based software for the hospitality industry that answers inbound calls, manages reservations, and more, raised a $36M Series B
Slang AI, a New York-based AI platform for the hospitality industry, raised a $36 million Series B led by U.S. Venture Partners, CEO Alex Sambvani tells Axios exclusively.
Aalyria, a Google spinoff whose software allows routing of traffic across diverse satellite platforms in low earth orbit, raised $100M at a $1.3B valuation
Kraken launches what it claims are the first regulated perpetual futures contracts based on tokenized stocks, available to non-US users and trading 24/7
Uber launches Uber Autonomous Solutions, offering services like insurance, roadside assistance, and “AV mission control” tools, and will offer fleet financing
Nimble, whose AI agents structure real-time web data into tables that can be queried like a database, raised a $47M Series B, bringing its total funding to $75M
Anthropic-backed super PAC Public First Action begins running ads urging AI regulations in New Jersey; the PAC raised nearly $50M and now aims to raise $75M
Stefano Ermon's Inception releases Mercury 2, a diffusion AI model designed to field questions from users significantly faster and more cheaply than its rivals
Stefano Ermon helped pioneer technology that's used by popular artificial intelligence services to generate images and videos.
Internal memo: Lightricks, creator of photo editing app Facetune, is splitting its consumer app unit from its GenAI unit LTX to better capture the growth in AI
Roku reported an $88.4M profit in 2025, after a $498M loss in 2022, a $709.6M loss in 2023, and a $129.4M loss in 2024, boosted by new ad deals and cost cutting
Investments in digital ads help propel the streaming video platform to its first year in the black since 2021
Shein founder Xu Yangtian made a rare public appearance in Guangdong, pledging to invest ~$1.45B into the province's supply chains in the next three years
Xu Yangtian says help from Communist Party and regional province was vital to fast-fashion retailer
Some AI startups are boosting their valuations by raising capital in back-to-back or multitiered deals, raising questions about how much they are really worth
Anthropic details the AI Fluency Index, tracking 11 behaviors that represent human-AI collaboration and measure how people collaborate with AI
ADT agrees to acquire Origin Wireless for $170M to integrate advanced AI motion classification into its popular home security suite starting in 2027
Security company ADT Inc. has bought AI startup Origin Wireless Inc. for $170 million in a deal that will allow it to upgrade …
Amazon plans to invest $12B in new data centers in Louisiana and says it worked with the local utility “to ensure we pay 100% of the costs” tied to the campus
MatX, an AI chip startup founded by two alumni of Google's chip business, raised $500M+ led by Jane Street and Situational Awareness to compete with Nvidia
MatX, an AI chip startup founded by two alumni of Google's semiconductor business, has raised more than $500 million in a new funding round …
Finnish quantum computing company IQM plans to go public via a SPAC merger with New Jersey-based Real Asset Acquisition in a deal set to value it at $1.8B
Ubicquia, which provides software to utilities, cities, and companies to manage energy infrastructure like transformers, raised a $106M Series D
Basis, which builds AI agents to help accounting firms with tasks like tax returns, raised $100M led by Accel at a $1.15B valuation, for $138M in total funding
AI-for-accounting startup Basis has surged to unicorn status with a new funding round as advances in artificial intelligence rattle the financial services markets.
Bengaluru-based Xflow, which facilitates B2B cross-border payments, raised a $16.6M Series A led by GC at an $85M valuation, bringing its total raised to $32M+
Sources: Trump's “Board of Peace” is exploring a USD-pegged stablecoin for Gaza; a source says it will not be a “Gaza Coin” or a new Palestinian currency
Dutch startup Axelera AI, which builds power-efficient AI inference chips, raised $250M+ led by Innovation Industries, with investment from BlackRock and others
Dutch chipmaker Axelera AI raised more than $250 million from investors including BlackRock Inc. to make power-efficient semiconductors …
Sources: PayPal is attracting takeover interest after a stock slide over the past year wiped out almost half of its market value; PYPL closed up 5.76%
PayPal Holdings Inc., the digital payments pioneer, is attracting takeover interest from potential buyers after a stock slide wiped …
Samsung plans to add Perplexity to Galaxy AI on the upcoming S26 series; users can launch the Perplexity agent by saying “Hey Plex” or with a physical button
European military officials worry “tech sovereignty” ideas may have serious consequences for European security, given their reliance on US software and networks
European top brass sceptical about politicians' push to decouple from US tech companies
How Binance staffers found $1B was sent to sanctioned Iranian entities via the exchange, which dismantled their probe and suspended them after Trump pardoned CZ
Weeks after Trump pardoned Binance's founder, the company dismantled probe and suspended the investigators; Binance denied inquiry ended or staff fired for the concerns
A look at the challenges some AI developers face in building models to extract trillions of high-quality tokens from PDFs, which are hard to parse, for training
Last November, the House Oversight Committee had just released 20,000 pages of documents from the estate of Jeffrey Epstein …
Sources: Anthropic has lined up $5B to $6B for an employee share sale at a ~$350B valuation; outside investors, not Anthropic, will buy up the insider shares
Sources: AI chipmaker Cerebras confidentially files for a US IPO after withdrawing a previous IPO last year, and a listing could take place as soon as April
OpenAI launches Frontier Alliances, entering into multiyear deals with Accenture, BCG, Capgemini, and McKinsey to help deploy its enterprise platform Frontier
Sources: some Xbox staffers say they are relieved that Sarah Bond is leaving, after she led a pivot away from the console with the “Xbox everywhere” strategy
Court docs: the IRS seeks $16B in back taxes and penalties from Meta, arguing it failed to report ~$54B in overseas profits; in December 2025, Meta sued the IRS
Tesla sues California's DMV to reverse a ruling that found Tesla violated the law by falsely promoting its Autopilot and Full Self-Driving systems
Tesla is suing California's Department of Motor Vehicles to reverse a ruling that found the automaker violated the law by falsely promoting its cars' self-driving capabilities.
A Trump administration official says DeepSeek's new model, expected next week, was trained on Nvidia Blackwell chips, in a potential US export control violation
A DOD official says xAI has agreed to let the military use Grok in classified systems and agreed to the “all lawful use” standard, which Anthropic has refused
But the Pentagon is threatening Anthropic in a dispute over safeguards and may soon need a replacement.
Uber agrees to acquire SpotHero for an undisclosed sum, to offer parking reservation for events and at venues and airports; SpotHero was last valued at $290M
Uber said it's acquiring SpotHero, a company that provides a parking reservation app for crowded downtowns, sporting events and concerts.
The UK plans to update the Media Act 2024 to bring streaming platforms with 500K+ users under “enhanced” Ofcom regulation, giving it power to investigate them
Streaming platforms in the U.K. are set to come under “enhanced regulation” from media regulator Ofcom …
Anthropic introduces “persona selection model”, a theory to explain AI's human-like behavior, and details how AI personas form in pre-training and post-training
AI assistants like Claude can seem surprisingly human. They express joy after solving tricky coding tasks.
A court-appointed administrator winding down Terraform Labs sues Jane Street, alleging it engaged in insider trading to profit from and hasten Terraform's fall
The court-appointed administrator of Do Kwon's Terraform Labs alleged that Jane Street used nonpublic information from Terraform insiders to trade
Filings: some Meta execs warned in 2019 that adding E2E encryption to Facebook and Instagram messaging would hinder the ability to flag CSAM to law enforcement
Meta (META.O) executives proceeded with a plan to encrypt the messaging services connected to its Facebook and Instagram apps …
Imagining an AI-driven “2028 Global Intelligence Crisis”: as white-collar layoffs grow, the human-centric consumer economy withers and the social fabric frays
A Thought Exercise in Financial History, from the Future — Preface — What if our AI bullishness continues to be right …
Sources: US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth summons Dario Amodei to the Pentagon on Tuesday morning for what is likely to be a tense meeting over Claude usage
AI can't kill humans without a man in the loop, and no mass surveillance of Americans — are 100% consistent with our military's values and pre-existing rules, and with the views of most people across ...
Source: Anthropic has no intention of easing Claude usage restrictions for military purposes, following Dario Amodei's meeting with Pete Hegseth
David Jeans /Reuters: