Tech News — 2026-05-18#

Story of the Day#

Elon Musk has officially lost his landmark lawsuit against OpenAI and CEO Sam Altman after a jury unanimously decided he waited too long to file his claims,. The swift verdict ends the “tech trial of the year” and frees OpenAI to pursue its for-profit AI ambitions without the looming threat of its billionaire co-founder,.

Top Stories#

[NextEra Acquires Dominion Energy in Historic $67 Billion Deal] · Bloomberg NextEra Energy has agreed to acquire rival Dominion Energy in a massive $67 billion all-stock transaction,. The historic acquisition underscores a radical shift in the utility sector, as major power providers are forced to rapidly consolidate to meet the voracious, unprecedented energy demands of artificial intelligence data centers.

[Meta Reassigns 7,000 Employees to AI Ahead of Mass Layoffs] · The New York Times Meta is shuffling 7,000 workers into new artificial intelligence roles just days before it plans to eliminate 10% of its workforce, effectively cutting 8,000 jobs,. Internally, employee morale is reportedly plummeting, exacerbated by the recent rollout of a “dystopian” tracking tool designed to train AI models on staff keystrokes and mouse movements.

[SpaceX Prepares for a Record-Shattering $2 Trillion IPO] · Bloomberg Elon Musk confirmed he is gearing up for a SpaceX initial public offering “pretty soon,” setting the stage for what is expected to be the largest market listing in history. The IPO aims to raise up to $75 billion, valuing the space and satellite firm at a staggering $1.75 to $2 trillion, which introduces significant portfolio risks for retail investors who have previously relied solely on Tesla to back Musk’s sprawling ventures,,.

[BuzzFeed Sells Controlling Stake to Byron Allen for $120M] · The Verge Digital media pioneer BuzzFeed has sold a 52 percent stake to media mogul Byron Allen for $120 million to secure a vital cash lifeline,. Jonah Peretti is stepping down as CEO to run the company’s new AI division, while Allen takes the helm with a highly ambitious, though vaguely defined, strategy to use artificial intelligence to turn the platform into a free video streaming competitor to YouTube,.

[Linus Torvalds Slams AI-Generated Linux Security Reports] · Slashdot Linux creator Linus Torvalds has publicly decried a flood of low-quality, AI-generated security reports that are rendering the kernel’s security mailing list “almost entirely unmanageable”,. Torvalds noted the massive duplication caused by researchers using identical AI tools to flag the same non-issues, dismissing the submissions as “pointless make-believe work” that fails to add real value.

[Sony Pulls Back on PC Releases for PlayStation Exclusives] · The Verge Sony has radically shifted its multi-platform strategy and will no longer release its major single-player PlayStation games on PC. While online multiplayer titles will remain multi-platform, internally developed single-player blockbusters like the upcoming Ghost of Yōtei will remain locked exclusively to PlayStation hardware.

Also Worth Knowing#

• [WHO Declares Ebola Outbreak a Global Health Emergency] (Slashdot): The rapid and uncontrolled spread of the rare Bundibugyo Ebola virus species across the Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda has triggered an international health emergency declaration from the World Health Organization,,.
• [Iran Threatens Fees on Subsea Internet Cables] (Slashdot): Iran is attempting to strong-arm Big Tech companies into paying licensing fees for critical subsea internet cables running beneath the Strait of Hormuz, threatening severe global connectivity disruptions to financial and cloud infrastructure if they refuse.
• [Southwest Airlines Bans Humanoid Robots on Flights] (CNET): Humanoid robots and robotic pets are no longer permitted on Southwest Airlines flights due to safety concerns regarding their lithium-ion batteries.
• [Cloudflare and Stripe Launch AI Agent Commerce] (InfoQ): A new protocol developed by Cloudflare and Stripe enables AI agents to autonomously provision cloud accounts, purchase domains, and pay for enterprise services without any human intervention,.
• [Anthropic Acquires Dev Tools Startup Stainless] (TechCrunch): Leading AI firm Anthropic has acquired Stainless, a prominent New York-based startup known for automating software development kits and APIs, to strengthen its enterprise developer infrastructure,.