Tech News — 2026-07-01#

Story of the Day#

The era of physical video game ownership is officially coming to a close, as Sony announced it will halt production of all PlayStation game discs by January 2028,. This milestone shift toward an all-digital future is a massive blow to game preservationists and independent retailers, raising stark questions about what happens to consumers when digital storefronts eventually shut down.

Top Stories#

US government lifts export ban on Anthropic’s flagship AI models · Slashdot After weeks of closed-door negotiations, the Trump administration has lifted export controls that sidelined Anthropic’s Claude Fable 5 and Mythos 5 models. The restriction reversal comes with strings attached, requiring Anthropic to proactively detect security risks and share information about malicious activity with the government. The rapid back-and-forth highlights the erratic state of US AI policy as officials struggle to balance national security with the intense pressure to keep pace with Asian AI competitors.

Meta is building its own cloud infrastructure business to take on AWS · Bloomberg Meta is setting up a new vector of competition against Amazon, Microsoft, and Google by developing a cloud infrastructure business to lease out its excess AI computing power and models. The move could help Mark Zuckerberg recoup some of the massive capital expenditures poured into Meta’s data centers, which includes a pledge to invest $600 billion in the US by 2028.

Getty Images scraps $3.7 billion Shutterstock merger · The Verge Despite receiving unconditional antitrust clearance in the US, Getty is terminating its massive merger agreement with Shutterstock due to heavy pushback from UK regulators. The UK Competition and Markets Authority demanded Shutterstock offload its global editorial business to proceed, establishing conditions that Getty deemed unacceptable and “not required to accept”.

T-Mobile races to migrate 300,000 VMs off VMware amid legal battle · Slashdot In a stark warning to enterprise customers about Broadcom’s aggressive post-acquisition playbook, T-Mobile is actively migrating its massive 303,000-core VMware environment to another platform. The telecom giant is simultaneously fighting Broadcom in court to maintain extended support for its perpetual licenses, claiming a forced move to expensive subscription models violates previous agreements.

The DOT paves the way for the return of commercial supersonic flights · Slashdot The FAA plans to replace its 1973 ban on civilian supersonic flight over US land with a new noise-based standard by mid-2027. This regulatory shift clears a major hurdle for aerospace startups like Boom Supersonic and Spike Aerospace to finally operate next-generation, quieter passenger jets across the continent.

The Vera Rubin Telescope begins its 10-year cosmic survey · Slashdot Armed with the world’s largest digital camera, the Vera C. Rubin Observatory has officially commenced the Legacy Survey of Space and Time. By imaging the entire southern sky every few nights for a decade, astronomers expect the massive incoming dataset to revolutionize our understanding of dark matter, cosmic phenomena, and galaxy formation.

Also Worth Knowing#

• Cloudflare pushes AI companies to pay for publisher content (TechCrunch): Cloudflare will block AI bots on ad-supported pages by default and is rolling out a Pay-Per-Use model to directly compensate publishers.
• Elon Musk denies reports of a SpaceX AI phone prototype (The Verge): Despite Wall Street Journal reports that SpaceX showed investors a handset prototype running an xAI operating system, Musk dismissed the rumors as “utterly false”.
• NASA wants to send a spare Mars rover to the Moon (Slashdot): NASA is considering refurbishing PROMISE, a nuclear-powered engineering testbed originally built for Mars missions, to explore the lunar south pole for its Artemis moon base initiative.
• Italian SaaS rollup Bending Spoons surges 40% in IPO (Bloomberg): The firm, which acquires and revamps struggling tech brands like Evernote, raised $1.68 billion, turning its college-friend founders into billionaires,.
• Volvo’s EX30 Cross Country won’t make it to the US (Ars Technica): Geopolitical trade tensions and tariffs have killed Volvo’s plans to import its highly anticipated, highly efficient $35,000 compact EV to the American market.