Big Tech
Meta acquires robotics AI startup as it makes the push into humanoid machines
Meta bought Assured Robot Intelligence (ARI) and says the team will bolster its work on AI for robot control and self-learning.
Topic
Intel
Coverage of Intel, its foundry strategy, and AI-era CPU/GPU competition.
47 stories · Updated 2026-05-02
More on Intel
Chips
Intel stock more than doubles in April as AI-era CPU demand and turnaround hopes build
CNBC says Intel shares rose 114% in April — the best month in the chipmaker’s Nasdaq history — as investors rallied behind a turnaround story and growing AI-driven demand for CPUs and data-center capacity.
AI
Microsoft and OpenAI revise partnership to end exclusivity and allow OpenAI to use rival clouds
The revised deal drops Microsoft’s exclusive right to sell OpenAI models, while keeping Azure as OpenAI’s primary cloud partner and extending Microsoft’s license on OpenAI IP.
Chips
Tesla says it plans to build AI chips on Intel’s not-yet-finished 14A process
Musk framed the Terafab effort as a supply-security move as demand for AI silicon tightens.
Startups
DeepMind's David Silver just raised $1.1B to build an AI that learns without human data
Former DeepMind reinforcement learning leader David Silver’s new lab says it wants to build a 'superlearner' that acquires skills without human datasets.
Chips
Nvidia shares hit a record, briefly pushing its market cap past $5 trillion
The rally underscores how central Nvidia’s GPUs remain to AI infrastructure spending across Big Tech.
Big Tech
Apple Names Hardware Chief John Ternus as Next CEO, Signaling a Device-First AI Strategy
Ternus, a 25-year Apple veteran who helped build the Apple Watch, AirPods, and Vision Pro, is expected to push AI-powered devices rather than competing directly with frontier model labs.
Big Tech
Meta to Cut 8,000 Jobs — About 10% of Its Workforce — as AI Spending Surges
The layoffs, effective May 20, will eliminate roughly 10% of Meta's global headcount alongside 6,000 open roles, as the company funnels billions into AI infrastructure.
AI
DeepSeek Previews V4, Its Biggest Open-Weight Model Yet, at Prices That Undercut the Field
The Chinese AI lab's V4 Pro model tops 1.6 trillion parameters, claims near-parity with frontier models on reasoning, and costs a fraction of GPT-5.5 or Claude Opus.
Chips
SpaceX Plans to Manufacture Its Own GPUs at New Semiconductor Fab, S-1 Filing Reveals
Excerpts from the company's confidentially filed $1.75 trillion IPO registration list in-house GPU production as a major capital expenditure, alongside the Terafab chip venture Elon Musk is developing with Tesla and xAI using Intel's 14A process node.
Big Tech
Microsoft Offers Voluntary Buyouts to 8,750 U.S. Employees, a First in Its 51-Year History
Workers whose combined age and years of service at Microsoft total 70 or more are eligible for the early retirement package, which covers up to 7% of the company's domestic workforce.
Chips
Intel Reports 7% Revenue Gain as AI Demand Fuels Biggest Beat in Years
First-quarter revenue of $13.6 billion topped Wall Street estimates by more than $1 billion, driven by a 22% jump in the Data Center and AI segment, sending shares up more than 20%.
AI
Anthropic Publishes Postmortem After Claude Code Quality Degraded for Weeks Without Detection
Three separate engineering changes between March and April caused Claude Code users to experience forgetfulness, repetition, and reduced coding intelligence — issues that persisted for weeks before all were resolved on April 20.
Policy
OpenAI Briefs Federal Agencies and Five Eyes Allies on New Cyber AI Model
The company held a Washington event for roughly 50 cyber defense practitioners and is extending access to its GPT-5.4-Cyber model through a tiered program designed to keep advanced tools out of adversarial hands.
Big Tech
Amazon Plans to Invest Up to $25 Billion More in Anthropic
The deal includes a $5 billion upfront commitment plus $20 billion tied to milestones, and requires Anthropic to spend $100 billion on AWS over the next decade.
Chips
AMD Signs Letter of Intent With French Government to Power National AI Strategy and Exascale Supercomputer
The multi-year collaboration, signed in Paris on April 16, deepens AMD's role in Alice Recoque — France's planned first exascale supercomputer — and extends to AI research, education, and startup support across the country.
Analysis
AI Traffic to US Retailers Surged 393% in Q1 2026 and Now Converts Better Than Human Shoppers
Adobe Analytics data from over one trillion retail site visits shows AI-driven shoppers convert 42 percent better and spend 37 percent more per visit than organic traffic, a complete reversal from a year ago.
Big Tech
Snap Cuts 1,000 Jobs and 300 Open Roles, Citing AI-Enabled Efficiency and Activist Investor Pressure
The 16 percent reduction in Snap's global workforce is expected to save more than $500 million annually by the second half of 2026, as AI now generates more than 65 percent of new code at the company.
Chips
ASML Shares Slide Despite Raised 2026 Forecast as Investors Weigh China Export Risk
The chip equipment giant lifted its annual revenue outlook to €36–40 billion on strong AI demand, but investors sold shares on concern that new US restrictions could cut Chinese orders, which currently account for about 20 percent of ASML's sales.
Policy
Google.org Expands Digital Futures Fund to $35 Million to Study AI's Impact on Work, Security, and Governance
The $15 million addition brings in a new cohort of think tanks including American Compass, CSIS, the Urban Institute, and Chile's CENIA to examine AI's effects on labor markets, infrastructure, and democratic institutions.
AI
Meta AI app rockets from No. 57 to No. 5 in the U.S. App Store after Muse Spark launch, with downloads up 87% in a day
The surge in installs suggests Muse Spark may have revived consumer interest in Meta's AI product, which has lagged well behind ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini.
Chips
Intel secures multiyear Google commitment to use Xeon chips and customize Intel's infrastructure processors in data centers
The partnership gives Intel a crucial validation of its data center chip roadmap at a moment when the company is fighting to stay relevant against Nvidia and custom silicon.
AI
Meta launches Muse Spark, its first AI model from Superintelligence Labs, in a major reboot of its AI strategy
Built from scratch by the team Zuckerberg assembled after being disappointed by Llama 4, Muse Spark benchmarks favorably against models from OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google in early evaluations.
Policy
OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google join forces through Frontier Model Forum to combat AI model theft by Chinese rivals
The three competing AI labs are sharing intelligence to detect adversarial distillation — a practice where foreign actors extract proprietary capabilities from frontier models without authorization.
AI
Microsoft releases three in-house AI models — MAI-Transcribe-1, MAI-Voice-1, and MAI-Image-2 — in its clearest challenge yet to OpenAI
The MAI Superintelligence team's first commercial model releases beat competitors on key benchmarks while undercutting OpenAI and Google on price.
AI
Google's March AI recap: Search Live goes global, Gemini gets personal memory, and a new audio model debuts
Google's monthly roundup confirms a Gemini platform that is becoming more deeply personalized, more globally accessible, and more competitive with real-time audio rivals like GPT-4o voice.
AI
Google's March Gemini Drop brings AI memory portability, Lyria 3 Pro, and global Search Live
Google's monthly Gemini update lets users import chat history from rival AI apps and introduces a new audio model fast enough to sustain real-time conversation in over 200 countries.
Big Tech
Apple opens Siri to rival AI assistants in sweeping chatbot-agnostic pivot
The iPhone maker will let ChatGPT, Gemini, and other third-party models plug directly into Siri, reframing Apple as an AI platform rather than a single-model gatekeeper.
AI
OpenAI shuts down Sora just months after signing Disney deal, pivoting video compute to robotics
The surprise closure of OpenAI's consumer-facing video generator underscores the unsustainable cost of running generative video at scale while the company prepares for a potential IPO.
Policy
White House Releases National AI Policy Framework, Seeks to Preempt State Laws
The Trump administration's six-part legislative blueprint calls on Congress to block state-level AI regulations, limit AI developer liability, and establish uniform federal standards to prevent a regulatory patchwork.
Policy
White House AI Plan Calls for Blocking State AI Laws, Streamlining Data Center Permitting
The Trump administration's framework urges Congress to preempt state AI regulations in California, Colorado, and New York and standardize the permitting process for the data centers that power AI systems.
Policy
Trump's Four-Page AI Framework Pushes Federal Control but Faces Uphill Battle in Congress
Axios analysis finds the White House AI proposal offers Congress a set of broad priorities rather than a legislative agenda, and may struggle to gain traction even among Republicans.
Policy
Bloomberg: White House AI Framework Builds on December Executive Order, Offers Skeptical Congress a Starting Point
The blueprint expands on Trump's December AI executive order with new provisions on child safety, data center energy permitting, and censorship protections, but faces a Congress where even Republicans hold divergent views on AI governance.
Big Tech
Alibaba Launches Wukong Enterprise AI Agent Platform with Slack and Teams Integration Plans
The Chinese tech giant's new agentic business tool, currently in invitation-only testing, can autonomously handle document editing, meeting transcriptions, and research tasks across a unified interface.
Chips
Nvidia Launches Space Computing Initiative, Targets Orbital AI Data Centers
Jensen Huang declared that space computing "has arrived" as Nvidia announced chip platforms for orbital deployments in partnership with Axiom Space, Starcloud, and Planet.
Analysis
Morgan Stanley: A Transformative AI Leap Is Coming in 2026 — and Most of the World Is Not Ready
The investment bank warns that compute scaling laws are holding firm, and the accumulation of AI infrastructure at US labs is about to produce capability gains that will reshape the economy.
Analysis
At Morgan Stanley's TMT Conference, Sam Altman and Jensen Huang Warned AI Will 'Shock' Investors
Executives from leading AI labs told attendees that a non-linear capability leap is coming by mid-2026, while a Morgan Stanley survey found AI already caused a 4% average net workforce reduction globally.
Analysis
Atlassian's AI Layoffs Follow Block's Playbook, Signaling a Broader Tech Industry Pattern
As AI attribution becomes a common rationale for restructurings at once-high-growth software companies, analysts are debating whether the cuts reflect genuine automation gains or financial pressures wearing an AI label.
Startups
Yann LeCun's AMI Labs Raises $1.03 Billion to Build AI That Understands the Physical World
The Turing Award winner's new startup, backed by Nvidia, Samsung, and Bezos Expeditions, is betting that world models will surpass large language models for real-world applications.
Big Tech
Oracle Plans Thousands of Layoffs as AI Data Center Expansion Strains Cash Flow
The job reductions will affect divisions across the company and may begin this month, with some cuts targeting roles Oracle expects AI to make redundant.
Big Tech
Apple Launches $599 MacBook Neo, Its Most Affordable Laptop Ever, Powered by iPhone Chip
The MacBook Neo uses Apple's A18 Pro mobile processor — a first for any Mac — targeting Chromebook and Windows users with a breakthrough entry price.
Big Tech
MWC 2026 Opens in Barcelona with AI-Native Hardware and Robot Phone Concepts
Mobile World Congress kicked off with device makers showcasing on-device AI chips, foldables, and a functional robot phone with an autonomous tracking camera.
Policy
OpenAI Amends Pentagon Deal After Weekend Backlash, Adds Anti-Surveillance Protections
After announcing its DoD partnership on Friday, OpenAI revised the agreement to explicitly bar use of its AI for mass surveillance of American citizens.
AI
ChatGPT Uninstalls Surge 295% After Pentagon Deal as Claude Downloads Soar
App data showed a dramatic consumer backlash against OpenAI's DoD partnership, with Claude briefly surpassing ChatGPT as the top U.S. App Store download.
Analysis
Inside the Trillion-Dollar Race to Build AI Infrastructure: $700 Billion in 2026 Spending, Stargate Construction Underway
A comprehensive analysis of AI infrastructure commitments finds hyperscalers planning nearly $700 billion in 2026 data center spending, with Stargate construction underway in Texas and Oracle locking in $300 billion in compute contracts.
Startups
OpenAI Raises $110 Billion From Amazon, Nvidia, and SoftBank at a $730 Billion Valuation
OpenAI's record-shattering funding round, led by a $50 billion Amazon commitment, is the largest private financing in history and cements deep infrastructure partnerships running on Amazon's cloud and Nvidia's Vera Rubin chips.
Big Tech
Block CEO Jack Dorsey Cuts 40% of Workforce Citing AI Efficiency, Sending Stock Surging 20%
Jack Dorsey announced Block will slash more than 4,000 jobs — nearly halving its headcount — citing AI-driven automation, and predicted most companies will make comparable structural changes within a year.
