Tech News — 2026-05-13#

Story of the Day#

Anthropic is in early talks to raise an astronomical $30 billion in fresh financing, a staggering move that would push the AI startup’s valuation past the $900 billion mark. This massive capital injection—setting the stage for what would be its largest funding round yet—highlights the sheer scale of investment required to stay competitive in the frontier AI development race.

Top Stories#

Nvidia C.E.O. Jensen Huang Hitches Ride With Trump to China After Last-Minute Invite · The New York Times Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang made a last-minute addition to President Donald Trump’s delegation to Beijing, joining Air Force One for a high-stakes geopolitical summit with Xi Jinping. Huang has been aggressively pushing for greater leeway to sell his company’s processors in China, a market he has identified as a $50 billion opportunity. The visit thrusts artificial intelligence hardware directly into the center of the administration’s broader trade and security negotiations.

The Deployment Company, Back to the 70s, Apple and Intel · Stratechery Apple and Intel have reportedly reached a preliminary agreement for Intel to manufacture some of the silicon powering Apple’s massive device lineup. The deal, hammered out over the past year, comes as Apple struggles with severe capacity constraints at TSMC, which has increasingly dedicated its advanced chipmaking nodes to fulfilling insatiable demand for AI processors. If finalized, the partnership represents a massive strategic shift as Apple looks to diversify its supply chain and mitigate its geographic and competitive reliance on Taiwan.

Sam Altman Testifies That Elon Musk Wanted Control of OpenAI · Slashdot Taking the stand in Elon Musk’s lawsuit against his former company, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman testified that Musk previously attempted to merge the AI lab with Tesla or pass control of a potential for-profit entity down to his children. During a hostile cross-examination, Musk’s legal team attacked Altman’s trustworthiness, highlighting his personal venture investments in startups like Helion Energy and Cerebras that do business directly with OpenAI. OpenAI executives maintain that they rejected Musk’s hostile bids because they believed AGI development should not be under the absolute control of a single individual.

Anduril Valued at $61 Billion in Round Led by Thrive, Andreessen · Bloomberg Defense technology giant Anduril Industries has doubled its valuation to $61 billion following a massive $5 billion funding round led by Thrive Capital and Andreessen Horowitz. The maker of AI-backed autonomous weapons and surveillance systems, which generated $2.2 billion in revenue in 2025, plans to use the capital to aggressively scale manufacturing and physical infrastructure. The valuation surge sets expectations for a massive potential IPO next year.

Amazon made a version of Alexa just for shopping · Engadget Amazon is overhauling its core e-commerce experience by integrating an LLM-powered assistant, “Alexa for Shopping,” directly into its main search bar. Replacing its previous Rufus AI, the new assistant shifts the buying experience from basic keyword queries to conversational, agentic AI interactions, allowing users to ask complex questions like “What’s a good skincare routine for men?” and receive direct recommendations based on personal data.

A plan to make drugs in orbit is going commercial · MIT Technology Review Varda Space Industries has signed a deal with United Therapeutics to test crystallizing lung disease medications in the microgravity environment of low-Earth orbit. Because crystals form differently without the influence of gravity, pharmaceutical companies hope to discover new molecular structures that offer better stability or allow drugs to be administered via injection rather than an IV drip. The partnership represents a crucial milestone toward establishing a viable commercial pipeline for space-manufactured products.

Also Worth Knowing#

• Instagram debuts a new disappearing-photo app called Instants (Engadget): Meta is aggressively cloning features from Snapchat and BeReal with a new global rollout of ephemeral, uneditable photos that delete themselves after 24 hours.
• Arm, SoftBank Tried to Buy Cerebras in 11th Hour (Bloomberg): AI hardware startup Cerebras expects to price its upcoming IPO at $185 per share after recently rebuffing a late-stage acquisition attempt by Arm and SoftBank.
• WhatsApp Adds Meta AI Chats That Are Built to Be Fully Private (Wired): Meta introduced an end-to-end encrypted “Incognito Chat” for its AI assistant, assuring users that zero conversation logs will be saved on the company’s servers.
• Microsoft’s LinkedIn Is Cutting Jobs in Latest Industry Cull (Bloomberg): Both LinkedIn and Cisco announced 5% workforce reductions today as tech incumbents continue slashing headcount to fund costly artificial intelligence pivots.
• Elon Musk just can’t stop (potentially) violating the Clean Air Act (Engadget): Musk’s xAI is facing an escalating legal fight over air quality regulations after installing 19 unpermitted methane gas turbines to power its Colossus 2 data center.