Supply Chain Risk
The DOD designated Anthropic a supply chain risk for reserving the right to refuse military orders. The same day, Ramp data showed Anthropic capturing 73% of new enterprise AI spending. The market and the government looked at the same capability and reached opposite verdicts.
Google, iVerify, and Lookout researchers discover DarkSword, a hacking tool used by Russia-sponsored and other hackers to target iOS 18 via Ukrainian websites
A powerful iPhone-hacking technique known as DarkSword has been discovered in use by Russian hackers.
Filing: the US DOD said it designated Anthropic a supply chain risk over concerns the AI company could disable its tech if the Pentagon crossed its “red lines”
In response to Anthropic's lawsuit, the government said it lawfully penalized the company for trying to limit …
Facebook launches Creator Fast Track, offering big Instagram, TikTok and YouTube creators guaranteed monthly pay and boosted reach to post on Facebook
Meta on Wednesday launched a new program aimed at luring top creators from TikTok and YouTube to Facebook, offering guaranteed pay and boosted reach.
Director Coerte Voorhees says he is using AI to feature Val Kilmer in “a significant part” in an indie film, with the cooperation of the late actor's estate
Five years prior to his death in 2025, Val Kilmer was cast as Father Fintan, a Catholic priest and Native American spiritualist, in “As Deep as the Grave.”
During a Senate hearing, FBI Director Kash Patel says FBI does purchase “commercially available information” that can be used to track people's location history
The U.S. Supreme Court has required law enforcement agencies to obtain a warrant for getting people's location data …
Samsung says it is considering a shift toward multiyear memory chip contracts, a much longer timeframe that may help stabilize supply and ease shortage concerns
Charles Bennett and Gilles Brassard, who pioneered quantum information theory, win the ACM A.M. Turing Award; the pair developed the BB84 cryptography protocol
Charles Bennett and Gilles Brassard pioneered quantum information theory. Now they've been awarded the highest honor in computer science.
Ramp data: Anthropic is capturing ~73% of all spending among companies buying AI tools for the first time, up from a 50/50 split with OpenAI in January
Madison Mills /Axios:NEW
Samsung and AMD sign a preliminary deal for Samsung to supply its next-gen HBM4 for AMD's MI455X accelerators, used in data centers, and DDR5 for AMD's Helios
Samsung Electronics Co. agreed to supply and collaborate with Advanced Micro Devices Inc. on next-generation AI memory and computing technologies.
Meta confirms a critical security incident after an internal rogue AI agent's actions led to the exposure of sensitive data to employees without authorization
A rogue AI agent recently triggered a major security alert at Meta Platforms, by taking action without approval that led …
Stripe and Paradigm-backed blockchain startup Tempo launch the Machine Payments Protocol, which uses Tempo's new blockchain to handle AI agents' transactions
The fintech giant Stripe along with Tempo, a blockchain startup incubated by the payments company as well as the venture firm Paradigm …
Meta makes its Meta Lab NYC pop-up on Fifth Avenue a permanent flagship location after signing a 10-year lease; it opened its first flagship store in LA in 2025
The tech company has signed a decade-long lease for its Meta Lab town house on Fifth Avenue.
The UK government withdraws a proposal to let AI companies train on copyrighted works unless creators opt out, after backlash from artists like Dua Lipa
The UK government has backtracked on its position on copyright and AI, stating it must take time to “get this right”.
Sources: Kraken has paused its IPO plans, amid the downturn in crypto markets since October, and may revisit a listing when market conditions improve
Kraken's parent company filed a draft S-1 registration statement with the SEC in November regarding the proposed initial public offering of its common stock.
Sources: Apple stops vibe coding apps from pushing updates, citing rules on running code; Replit thinks Apple may approve opening AI-generated apps in a browser
Apple has quietly prevented AI vibe coding apps such as Replit and Vibecode, which help people create games and other applications …
Chengdu's government says Tim Cook attended Apple's 50th anniversary event in the city; Chinese state media called for Apple to fix its “monopolistic” App Store
Apple Inc. Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook showed up at a company event in China on Wednesday after the company lowered …
Sources: several tech companies, including OpenAI, are encouraging the DOD behind the scenes to back away from designating Anthropic a “supply chain risk”
Mike Isaac /New York Times:NEW
Compute startup Andromeda raised new funding from Paradigm at a $1.5B valuation, bringing Paradigm's total to $60M; it passed a $100M revenue run rate in 2025
Once a service spun up by AI investors Nat Friedman and Daniel Gross, Andromeda has now raised $60M from Paradigm to stand alone.
Investigation: the US FedRAMP authorized Microsoft service GCC High to handle sensitive government data in 2024, despite years of concerns about its security
Zero Trust: Inside Microsoft's Cybersecurity Failures — Reporting Highlights — “Cloud First”: To move federal agencies to the cloud …Forums:r/cybersecurityandr/technologyForums:r/cybersecurity:Can ...
Source: Beijing has approved many Chinese companies to buy H200 chips from Nvidia; a Chinese embassy spokesperson said they are “not aware of the specifics”
Chinese authorities have granted approval for multiple Chinese companies to purchase H200 AI chips from Nvidia, according to a person familiar with the situation.
A Stanford study of 391K+ messages across nearly 5,000 chats: AI chatbots affirmed user messages in nearly 66% of replies, often validating delusional thinking
Sources: Nvidia is preparing to sell a version of its Groq chips to the Chinese market; a source says it's expected to be available in May and is not downgraded
Beautiful.ai, which makes AI tools to design presentation slides, raised $45M in non-dilutive financing from GC's Customer Value Fund and says it is profitable
Beautiful.ai, a presentation software startup, has taken a $45 million non-dilutive financing from General Catalyst's Customer Value Fund …
Micron reports Q2 revenue up 196% YoY to $23.9B, vs. $19.7B est., expects 2026 capex to exceed $25B, vs. $22.4B est., and forecasts Q3 revenue above estimates
Micron Technology Inc. warned that it will need to spend heavily on production to meet burgeoning demand, overshadowing …
Democratic voters in Illinois rejected most candidates supported by the crypto and AI industries, marking an unexpected defeat after industry PACs spent $18M+
Democratic voters in Illinois this week rejected most candidates supported by the crypto and artificial intelligence industries …
Paraform, which connects tech companies with specialized recruiters, raised a $40M Series B led by Scale VP
Paraform, a platform that connects tech companies with specialized recruiters, raised a $40 million Series B, CEO John Kim tells Axios exclusively.
Advanced Navigation, which makes AI-assisted hardware to let ships and aircraft navigate even when GPS is jammed, raised a $110M Series C at a $1B+ valuation
Advanced Navigation builds artificial intelligence-assisted hardware that provides accurate location data
Sources: Microsoft is weighing legal action against Amazon and OpenAI over whether AWS can offer OpenAI Frontier without breaching OpenAI's Microsoft agreement
How AI's post-training process suppresses the creativity and whimsicality seen in earlier models, like GPT-2, leading to poor writing from many top AI models
Why can't language models write well? — In a certain, strange way, generative AI peaked with OpenAI's GPT-2 seven years ago.
A US judge rules Apple can remove apps “with or without cause”, a loss for Musi, a streaming app Apple removed from the App Store that played music from YouTube
Musi, a free music streaming app that had tens of millions of iPhone downloads and garnered plenty of controversy …
Sources: Polymarket is looking to hire a chief risk officer following a CFTC demand; the company has expanded its legal team in recent months
Prediction markets platform Polymarket is looking to hire a chief risk officer as it works to expand its regulated business in the US, according to people familiar with the matter.
Sources: Coinbase and Zerohash are among the companies vying to issue Cloudflare's stablecoin, set to launch this year to support payments for the “agentic web”
Crypto exchange Coinbase is moving fast to build the infrastructure that allows AI agents to make payments …
Xbow, which uses AI to probe apps for security vulnerabilities, raised $120M led by DFJ Growth and Northzone at a $1B+ valuation, and reports 100+ clients
Xbow, a startup that builds AI software to probe applications for security vulnerabilities, has raised a new round of funding that values …
Deezer reports a net income of €9M in 2025, its first profit since its 2007 founding, while revenue fell 1.4% YoY to €534M
Industry under threat from fraudsters uploading and repeatedly playing tracks created by AI to extract royalties — French streaming service Deezer …
Israeli startup Raven, which offers runtime monitoring and intervention in attacks as they unfold inside applications, raised a $20M seed
The Israeli startup aims to secure applications at runtime as threats accelerate. — Cybersecurity startup Raven has raised $20 million …
RunSybil, whose AI agent runs continuous autonomous penetration testing on live apps to find and document vulnerabilities, raised $40M led by Khosla Ventures
RunSybil, an AI cybersecurity startup that uses AI agents to automatically hack company software to find security weaknesses …
Israeli startup Tenzai says its AI hacking agent beat 99% of 125K participants at six competitions, using tailored OpenAI and Anthropic models and costing $5K
An Israeli startup let its AI loose in advanced cyber games. It did better than 125,000 humans.
Jensen Huang dismisses social media criticism of DLSS 5 at GTC 2026, asserting that claims that the generative AI tech homogenizes games are “completely wrong”
The CEO says artistic control remains with developers. … At a press Q&A with Tom's Hardware at GTC 2026 …
Sources: Fluidstack withdraws from a €10B, 1GW AI data center project in Bosquel, France, and a Mistral-tied project south of Paris, as it pivots toward the US
Cloud-computing startup Fluidstack Ltd. has pulled out of a high-profile €10 billion ($11.5 billion) …
The EU unveils EU Inc., a single bloc-wide proposal that lets companies incorporate in 48 hours, to help European startups compete with US and Chinese rivals
The European Union has unveiled a red-tape-cutting plan dubbed “EU Inc.” to boost the emergence of companies that could compete on the world stage with US and Chinese rivals.
An Argentine court ruled Polymarket lacked approval to operate and directed ISPs and app stores to restrict it; Polymarket is now unavailable in 30+ countries
The US goods trade deficit hit a record $1.2T in 2025, driven by a 60%+ rise in imports of computers and chips to $450B+ since President Trump's inauguration
Candex, which helps large companies pay small, one-time, or irregular vendors, raised a $40M Series C, bringing its total funding to more than $120M
Q&A with GV's Tom Hulme on the AI investment cycle, London's and Europe's opportunities, Q.ai and Nothing investments, AI social norms, sovereign AI, and more
The head of the European office of Alphabet's VC arm talks about the AI investment cycle and predicts a comeback for Google Glass-style smart glasses
Turquoise Health, which offers a healthcare pricing and payments platform, raised a $40M Series C led by Oak HC/FT, bringing its total funding to $95.3M
NetBlocks and Kentik: Iran further restricted what little internet connectivity remained to curb VPNs, possibly to forestall protests during Festival of Fire
World launches AgentKit, a software development tool that enables sites to verify that a real human is behind the purchasing decisions of AI shopping agents
Investigation: Jeffrey Epstein spent $800K+ on a campaign to manipulate Google search results and sanitize his Wikipedia page, after his 2009 release from jail
You.com appoints Saahil Jain as its CTO after co-founder Bryan McCann left for Anthropic; You.com, which began in consumer search, is targeting enterprises more
AI startup You.com, valued at $1.5 billion after a funding round in September, is changing its senior leadership as it focuses on helping businesses adopt AI.
Intel unveils the Core Ultra 200HX Plus CPUs for high-end gaming laptops, offering an Intel Binary Optimization Tool to improve native performance in some games
Tencent reports Q4 revenue up 13% YoY to ~$28.3B, vs. ~$28.2B est., its fifth quarter of double-digit growth, driven by gaming and ads, as it bets on agentic AI
Tencent Holdings Ltd. posted a 13% rise in quarterly revenue, underscoring solid momentum in its core gaming and advertising units while it ramps up a bet on agentic AI.
Sources: a JPMorgan-led bank group halted a $5.3B debt deal for Qualtrics, whose existing $1.5B loan trades at 86 cents on the dollar, on weak investor interest
A group of banks led by JPMorgan Chase & Co. halted a $5.3 billion debt deal for software firm Qualtrics International Inc …
At an all-hands, Andy Jassy said he expects AI to help AWS reach $600B in annual sales by 2036, double his prior estimate; AWS had revenue of $128.7B in 2025
PayPal expands access to its PYUSD stablecoin from the US and the UK to 70 countries in total, including Colombia, Panama, Peru, Singapore, Uganda, and Malawi
A mystery 1T-parameter AI model called Hunter Alpha, which appeared on OpenRouter on March 11, sparks speculation that DeepSeek is quietly testing its V4 model
A powerful artificial intelligence model that appeared anonymously on a developer platform last week has sparked speculation …
Robinhood Ventures Fund I discloses its first investments since it started trading: $14.6M of Stripe shares and $20M of ElevenLabs' preferred stock in March
The closed-end fund aims to give everyday investors exposure to private firms before they go public. — What to know:
Alibaba raises prices for its T-Head AI computing chips, including the Zhenwu 810E, by 5% to 34%, and its Cloud Parallel File Storage by 30%, after demand soars
Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. is raising prices for its AI computing and storage products by as much as 34% …
Banks start offloading $18B of debt tied to EA's $55B buyout; sources say EA told potential investors that AI may eventually let gaming companies cut engineers
Mastercard agrees to acquire London-based stablecoin payments infra startup BVNK for up to $1.8B, including $300M in contingent payments, set to close in 2026
A US appeals court puts on hold a judge's earlier ruling that had blocked Perplexity from using its agentic AI shopping tool to shop on Amazon's marketplace
A U.S. appeals court has put a California judge's ruling on hold that had blocked Perplexity AI from using its artificial-intelligence-powered …
Founders are increasingly leasing multimillion-dollar mansions in San Francisco's wealthy neighborhoods as corporate HQs and hacker houses, amid the AI boom
When Zach Dive completed his stint at the startup accelerator Y Combinator last summer, he began thinking about where to put his company's first office.
Amazon begins three-hour deliveries in ~2K US cities and towns and one-hour deliveries in hundreds of those areas, after 2025 pilots; 90K+ products are eligible
Mistral announces Mistral Forge, which aims to help enterprises build custom models trained on their own data using Mistral's wide library of open-weight models
Most enterprise AI projects fail not because companies lack the technology, but because the models they're using don't understand their business.
The UK FCA says Meta repeatedly failed to stop illegal ads for high-risk financial products running on its platforms in the UK, despite committing to block them
U.S. tech giant Meta (META.O) has repeatedly failed to stop illegal ads for high-risk financial products running on its platforms in Britain …
Arizona sues Kalshi for allegedly operating an illegal gambling business and unlawfully letting users bet on elections; Kalshi faces a similar lawsuit in Nevada
It's also facing a similar lawsuit in Nevada. — Kalshi has been sued by Arizona's attorney general for operating …
Chartbeat: over two years, search traffic fell 60% for publishers with 1,000 to 10K daily page views, 47% for those with 10K-100K, and 22% for those with 100K+
Smaller web publishers, with 1,000-10,000 daily page views, are experiencing the most precipitous traffic declines in the AI era …
Sources: China is penalizing people tied to Meta's $2B Manus acquisition, including by apparently restricting Manus executives from leaving China for Singapore
Some companies are tracking employees' AI token use, tallying the costs to see whose AI strategies should be amplified and what wastefulness should be squashed
Companies that now regularly use artificial intelligence are starting to track their workers' use of tokens, AI's unit of measurement
The Linux Foundation says Anthropic, Amazon, Google, Microsoft, and OpenAI gave $12.5M in grants to help FOSS maintainers handle AI-generated security findings
Google expands Personal Intelligence, which lets Gemini tailor its responses by connecting to Gmail and other Google services, from paid users to all US users
Google announced on Tuesday that it's expanding Personal Intelligence, its feature that allows its AI assistant to tailor …
Nvidia says game developers “have artistic control over DLSS 5's effects”, following backlash alleging that the AI rendering tech alters the source material
OpenAI launches GPT-5.4 mini and nano, aimed at agents, coding, and multi-modal workflows; GPT-5.4 mini approaches GPT-5.4-level pass rates at a much lower cost
ZDNET's key takeaways — GPT-5.4 mini runs more than twice as fast as GPT-5 mini. — New models aim at agents, coding, and multi-modal workflows.
AI drone software company Swarmer closed up 520% in its Nasdaq debut, valuing it at $380M+; its tech has been used in 100K+ missions in Ukraine since April 2024
Swarmer Inc. shares skyrocketed as much as 700% on Tuesday, making the artificial intelligence drone software company's debut …
Sources: Amazon, long the USPS' biggest customer, plans to cut packages it ships via the service by at least two-thirds this fall, when its contract expires
The e-commerce giant wants to reduce its postal volume by at least two-thirds by this fall — Amazon.com is planning …
Meta says Quest headset users will lose access to Meta Horizon Worlds from June 15; virtual world access will still be available via the Meta Horizon mobile app
Meta Platforms Inc. said that users of its Quest headsets will lose access to Horizon Worlds, a virtual destination where cartoon versions of people …
Microsoft says former Snap executive Jacob Andreou will lead Copilot for commercial and consumers; Mustafa Suleyman will focus on building new AI models
Microsoft said Tuesday that it's bringing together the engineering groups for its commercial and consumer Copilot assistants, which have yet to gain broad adoption.
The SEC and CFTC issue guidance on which digital assets are securities, carving out stablecoins, digital collectives, and digital commodities as non-securities
The Securities and Exchange Commission issued a long-awaited “token taxonomy” on Tuesday, a key step forward laying out which types …
Brian Lynch, Apple's top engineering director in charge of home devices since 2022, leaves for Oura, a setback for a unit already contending with product delays
Apple Inc.'s top hardware engineering executive overseeing home devices is leaving for smart ring maker Oura Health Oy …
Jensen Huang says Nvidia is in the process of restarting manufacturing of its H200 chips for shipments to China and it has received orders from “many customers”
Ina Fried /Axios:
Source: the Pentagon is discussing plans to set up secure environments for AI companies to train military-specific versions of their models on classified data
James O'Donnell /MIT Technology Review: