CNBeta — 2026-06-08#

Top Story#

According to a cnbeta report on SpaceX’s record-breaking IPO, the aerospace giant is targeting a historic $1.77 trillion valuation while strictly blocking investors from mainland China and Hong Kong. This exclusion is driven by US ITAR regulations and increasing cross-border securities scrutiny, highlighting the widening decoupling in the aerospace and defense tech sectors. The IPO also breaks Wall Street traditions by setting a fixed $135 share price and allowing an unusually large 30% retail allocation.

Tech & AI#

A cnbeta report on the US Department of Defense reveals that major Chinese tech firms including Alibaba, Baidu, BYD, and robotics company Unitree have been added to the 1260H list of entities allegedly supporting the Chinese military. This move is expected to tighten investment restrictions and export controls on China’s leading AI and EV players.

In the AI foundation model race, DeepSeek V4 and Google’s Gemini 3.5 Flash tied for first place in a test answering the 2026 Shanghai Gaokao essay prompt, outperforming models from ByteDance, Alibaba, and OpenAI.

Meanwhile, the cost of next-generation AI infrastructure is skyrocketing, with a Bernstein analysis of Nvidia’s Vera Rubin NVL72 rack estimating the total system cost could reach $9.1 million due to HBM4 memory prices surging to $53 per GB. To manage the immense heat generated by these nearly 1000W chips, Nvidia and AMD are pushing HBM suppliers like SK Hynix and Samsung to integrate direct cooling channels within the memory stacks.

Elsewhere, the massive OpenAI “Stargate” data center project in Texas is facing severe cost overruns, with the cost of building a 1-gigawatt facility now estimated at $19.2 billion due to labor shortages and grid stability issues. Despite these infrastructure hurdles, OpenAI has officially filed for a US IPO on the heels of its rival Anthropic, aiming to capitalize on its $110 billion valuation.

Consumer & Devices#

Apple’s WWDC 2026 marked a historic transition, serving as Tim Cook’s final keynote as CEO before handing the reins to hardware chief John Ternus later this year. The event highlighted the debut of iOS 27 and macOS 27 Golden Gate, with the latter officially ending all support for Intel-based Macs.

A major focus was the introduction of a highly personalized Siri AI, which now features a standalone app and deep system integration powered by a new Apple Intelligence architecture that integrates Google’s Gemini models for advanced reasoning. However, Apple confirmed that Siri AI will not launch in the EU or China this year due to ongoing regulatory hurdles and compliance negotiations.

In the semiconductor manufacturing space, TSMC’s chairman confirmed the purchase of a $400 million High-NA EUV lithography machine, but stated it is strictly for R&D and will not be used for mass production yet due to prohibitive costs.

Looking ahead to future iPhones, the iPhone 18 Pro Max is expected to feature a battery exceeding 5000mAh, with the US version reaching up to 5200mAh by fully eliminating the physical SIM card slot to free up internal space.

Gaming#

During a visit to South Korea, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang gifted T1’s Faker a dual-signed RTX 5090 after jokingly calling the esports legend’s current RTX 4070 an “antique”.

On the Nintendo front, the company was fined €35 million in France for misleading consumers over the widespread Joy-Con drift issue. Despite the controversy, fans have reason to celebrate as rumors suggest a new Wario mainline action-adventure game is in development, ending an 18-year hiatus for the franchise.

Science & Space#

In a controversial medical breakthrough, biotechnology startup Bexorg has successfully revived 700 dead human brains to test experimental drugs for neurodegenerative diseases like Parkinson’s, bypassing the failure rates of animal testing but raising massive ethical questions.

As NASA prepares for prolonged lunar missions, researchers have developed a new ABM simulation system for astronaut teams, demonstrating that behavioral risks, interpersonal conflicts, and morale drops can be just as catastrophic as technical failures in space.

Also Noted#

• China’s tungsten exports to Japan have dropped to zero — causing massive price hikes and panic in Japan’s precision manufacturing and defense sectors.
• Alphabet has ordered 3 million custom AI chips from Intel — aiming to diversify its supply chain away from TSMC’s constrained capacity.
• AMD’s Radeon RDNA 5 gaming GPUs are reportedly delayed until late 2027 or 2028 — as the supply chain overwhelmingly prioritizes AI hardware production over consumer graphics.
• Google released a major update to NotebookLM — upgrading to Gemini 3.5 and introducing transparent reasoning steps to show how it extracts information.
• Tesla has aggressively slashed prices in Japan — bringing the Model 3’s effective price down to roughly $18,000 (134,000 RMB) after subsidies to penetrate the conservative market.