Tech News — 2026-07-17#

Story of the Day#

Beijing-based startup Moonshot AI unveiled Kimi K3, a massive open-weight model that beats top-tier offerings like Anthropic’s Fable 5 and OpenAI’s GPT-5.6 Sol in coding benchmarks while costing 40% less. The surprise breakthrough sent global AI and semiconductor stocks tumbling as investors rethink the US competitive edge and question whether the industry’s enormous spending spree is sustainable.

Top Stories#

Apple Sends Legal Letters To Dozens of OpenAI Employees · Slashdot Apple is escalating its trade secrets lawsuit against OpenAI by issuing preservation letters to around 40 former employees now working at the AI firm. The litigation alleges a coordinated effort by OpenAI to poach key hardware engineers and misappropriate proprietary designs. With OpenAI reportedly considering an IPO, this aggressively timed legal maneuver could significantly disrupt the company’s public offering plans.

Meta In Talks To Lease Computing Power To Anthropic In Potential $10 Billion Deal · Slashdot Meta is in early discussions to lease computing power from its vast data centers to Anthropic in an arrangement potentially worth $10 billion over two years. The deal would create a massive new cloud computing revenue stream for Meta. It also underscores the severe infrastructure constraints facing frontier AI developers as they scramble to secure enough chips to train and run their models.

Billing Software Error Sends Billion-Dollar AWS Estimates · Slashdot A bug in Amazon Web Services’ Cost Explorer system caused customers to receive heart-stopping billing estimates, with some accounts showing inaccurate fees in the billions or trillions of dollars. Amazon identified a unit pricing computation issue and halted updates, reassuring panicked users that the staggering figures did not reflect their actual usage or charges.

Astronomers Find an Atmosphere On a Nearby Earth-Like Planet · Slashdot Researchers have directly detected helium escaping from LHS 1140 b, a rocky exoplanet located 48 light-years away in its star’s habitable zone. This marks the first confirmed atmosphere on a rocky, Earth-like planet outside our solar system. The discovery significantly boosts the odds that the world could harbor liquid water, making it a prime candidate in the search for extraterrestrial life.

Truth Social To Sell Wall Street Firms the ‘Fastest’ Access To Trump’s Post · Slashdot Trump Media is launching a licensed data feed dubbed “Truth API” to give algorithmic trading firms the fastest possible access to Donald Trump’s market-moving posts. Launching August 1st, the API directly monetizes the president’s statements for high-speed traders. The move raises immediate concerns over profound conflicts of interest, given the Trump family’s massive shareholder stake in the platform.

San Francisco orders Apple, Google to remove nudify apps from app stores · Ars Technica San Francisco’s City Attorney David Chiu sent cease-and-desist letters to Apple and Google demanding the immediate removal of 13 deepfake pornography apps from their digital storefronts. The city claims both tech giants are profiting off tools explicitly used to non-consensually target women and girls, which violates California state laws.

Also Worth Knowing#

• FBI Arrests Man Accused of Using Steam Games To Drain Victims’ Crypto Wallets · Slashdot: A 21-year-old was arrested for allegedly infecting 8,000 devices via malware-laden Steam games to steal over $220,000 in cryptocurrency.
• EU Orders Google to Open Android to AI Rivals and to Share Search Data · CNET: European regulators are leveraging the Digital Markets Act to force Google to share search data and open Android devices to third-party AI bots.
• SpaceX scrubs Starship launch after some of its engines didn’t start · Ars Technica: SpaceX halted the latest test flight of its Super Heavy booster at T-0 due to a Raptor engine ignition failure.
• Apple Music is getting a price hike · The Verge: Apple Music increased its US individual plan to $11.99 per month, citing rising licensing costs, with similar hikes hitting the UK and Europe.
• Taco Bell iceberg lettuce identified as source of cyclosporiasis in 5 states · Ars Technica: A massive multi-state outbreak of a diarrhea-causing parasite was traced back to Taylor Farms iceberg lettuce served at Taco Bell.