The Brutalist Report

Techmeme

• Sources: Anthropic is in talks to raise between $30B and $50B in a funding round that would value it at up to $950B (Mike Isaac/New York Times) [63d]
• Princeton faculty votes to require proctoring in all in-person exams starting this summer, reversing an 1893 policy amid concerns about AI-fueled cheating (Douglas Belkin/Wall Street Journal) [63d]
• Google DeepMind details a Gemini-powered mouse pointer that understands what it is pointing at, allowing users to perform tasks without using text-heavy prompts (Google DeepMind) [63d]
• Vancouver-based quantum computing startup Photonic raised an additional $70M after a $130M raise announced in January, giving it a $2B post-money valuation (Josh Scott/BetaKit) [63d]
• Foxconn says some of its North American factories suffered a cyberattack in recent days; ransomware group Nitrogen claims it stole 8TB of data (Lily Hay Newman/Wired) [63d]
• Source: Anthropic is in advanced talks to acquire New York-based Stainless, which helps developers generate SDKs from APIs, for at least $300M (The Information) [63d]
• Sources: Anthropic is in early talks to raise at least $30B at a $900B+ valuation; the round is expected to close as soon as the end of this month (Bloomberg) [63d]
• Qualcomm closed down 11.46% on Tuesday as chip stocks pull back from record AI-driven rally; Intel closed down 6.82%, Sandisk dropped 6%, and Micron 3.61% (Samantha Subin/CNBC) [63d]
• Samsung and its South Korean labor union fail to reach a pay deal; the union has said workers will strike for 18 days from May 21 if its demands are not met (Reuters) [63d]
• Meta schedules its annual Connect event for September 23-24 and says the event will focus on "the latest in VR, wearables, metaverse, and AI" (Ben Lang/Road to VR) [63d]
• Meta offers to give rival AI chatbots free access to WhatsApp for a month while it discusses commitments with EU antitrust regulators to address their concerns (Foo Yun Chee/Reuters) [63d]
• CME Group and Silicon Data announce a futures market for computing capacity, with contracts based on daily GPU benchmarks for on-demand rental rates (Tobias Burns/CNBC) [63d]
• Sources: Apple plans to make the Camera app fully customizable in iOS 27, along with noticeable design changes across Siri, Safari, Weather, and more (Mark Gurman/Bloomberg) [63d]
• Musk v. Altman: Altman faced an intense cross-examination from Musk's attorney, who asked "are you completely trustworthy?"; Altman replied "I believe so" (Business Insider) [63d]
• The US FCC approves EchoStar's sale of approximately 65MHz of spectrum to SpaceX and 50MHz to AT&T (Christian Martinez/Reuters) [63d]
• Google says it is hiring a team of "forward deployed engineers", a source says in the hundreds, to help customers use its business-focused AI products (Erin Woo/The Information) [63d]
• Musk v. Altman: Altman testified that in 2017 Musk demanded complete control of a proposed OpenAI for-profit arm, musing that he would pass it to his children (Bloomberg) [63d]
• Anthropic names eight unauthorized secondary market sellers of its shares, including Hiive and Forge Global, warning that any share transactions there are void (Yazhou Sun/Bloomberg) [63d]
• Google launches Intrusion Logging, an Android feature developed in partnership with Amnesty International and others, on Android 16 Pixel devices for now (Tim Starks/CyberScoop) [63d]
• Google unveils a "full bleed" Android Auto design that fills unconventionally shaped screens like in the BMW Neue Klasse, plans to add YouTube video streaming (Andrew J. Hawkins/The Verge) [63d]
• Google unveils Android security features, including protection from spoofed banking calls, default theft protection, and biometric protection for Mark as lost (Adamya Sharma/Android Authority) [63d]
• Google announces Pause Point, an Android 17 feature that forces a mandatory 10-second pause before opening any app a user has labeled as a distraction (Sarah Perez/TechCrunch) [63d]
• Anthropic announces 12 Claude plugins for the legal sector, including a "commercial counsel" tool for reviewing vendor agreements and a bar exam study tool (Rachel Metz/Bloomberg) [63d]
• Google says it has worked with Meta and Apple to add creator-focused video-editing tools to Android 17, expand AirDrop connectivity, and more (Prakhar Khanna/ZDNET) [63d]
• Google announces Gemini Intelligence, a brand that bundles existing and new Gemini features, including task automation and Create My Widget (Allison Johnson/The Verge) [63d]
• Google announces a new laptop lineup called Googlebook, with a unified OS that merges ChromeOS and Android, a "Glow bar" rainbow LED design element, and more (Kyle Kucharski/ZDNET) [63d]
• Threads is testing a Meta AI integration similar to X's Grok, letting users mention Meta AI in a post or a reply to get more context, in five countries (Aisha Malik/TechCrunch) [63d]
• Nonprofit RSL Media announces the Human Consent Standard, an AI licensing framework for use of people's work or likeness, backed by George Clooney and others (Emma Roth/The Verge) [63d]
• Sources: Google is in talks with SpaceX and other companies for a rocket launch deal, as Google expands its own efforts to put orbital data centers in space (Wall Street Journal) [63d]
• Isomorphic Labs, an AI-powered drug discovery spinoff from Google DeepMind, raised $2.1B led by Thrive, after raising $600M in its first round in March 2025 (Pritam Biswas/Reuters) [63d]
• The US DOD says it is deploying Mythos to find and patch vulnerabilities across the US government even as it plans a transition away from Anthropic (Reuters) [63d]
• Exaforce, which uses AI agents to detect and thwart cyberattacks, raised a $125M Series B at a $725M valuation, bringing its total funding to $200M (Marina Temkin/TechCrunch) [63d]
• Sources: Wispr AI, the developer of the voice dictation tool Wispr Flow, is in talks to raise ~$260M in a round that could more than double its valuation to $2B (Bloomberg) [63d]
• SAP launches its new Autonomous Enterprise software suite, integrating data, cloud, AI, and automation features to streamline business processes (Mauro Orru/Wall Street Journal) [63d]
• PayPal agrees to forgo ~$30M in transaction fees to end a DOJ probe into allegations that the company adopted unlawful preferences for minority-owned businesses (Sadie Gurman/Wall Street Journal) [63d]
• London-based blockchain analytics company Elliptic raised $120M led by One Peak Partners at a $670M valuation; the platform screens 1B+ transactions per week (Anna Irrera/Bloomberg) [63d]
• OpenAI stands to hold ~$2.6B in combined CoreWeave and Cerebras stock that it acquired by committing to buy cloud services and chips, and to lend Cerebras money (Cory Weinberg/The Information) [63d]
• Microsoft says it is investigating a Mistral AI PyPI package v2.4.6 compromise; the attack is likely part of the Mini Shai-Hulud supply chain attack (Etiido Uko/Tom's Hardware) [63d]
• SAP invests in German workflow automation platform n8n at a $5.2B valuation, up from $2.5B after an October 2025 equity raise, and agrees to embed n8n's tools (Yazhou Sun/Bloomberg) [64d]
• Spotify celebrates its 20th anniversary with a Wrapped-like experience that features "never-before-shared data" going back to when users first joined Spotify (Jess Weatherbed/The Verge) [64d]
• Delivery Hero says founder Niklas Östberg plans to step down as CEO by March 2027, as the German food delivery group faces mounting activist investor pressure (Financial Times) [64d]
• AI voice startup Vapi raised a $50M Series B led by Peak XV, a source says at a $500M post-money valuation, after Amazon chose Vapi to handle 100% of Ring calls (Jagmeet Singh/TechCrunch) [64d]