Welcome back to your daily memorandum talking tech, business, AI, markets, and more. 🗞️

In today’s edition, we are tackling the following:

👁️ Sam Altman’s eyeball-scanning identification tech expands to the UK.
🎮 Microsoft and Asus announce two Xbox Ally handhelds.
🤖 Meta is in talks for Scale AI investment that could top $ 10 B.
🛢️ Oil steady after weekly gain with US-China trade talks in focus.
🇺🇸 Trump wants to bring manufacturing jobs back to America.

TECHNOLOGY

• Sam Altman’s eyeball-scanning identification tech expands to the UK

  • Tools for Humanity, a startup co-founded by OpenAI’s Sam Altman, is launching its Orb devices, which scan eyes, in the UK.

  • Starting this week, people in London, Manchester, Birmingham, Cardiff, Belfast, and Glasgow will be able to scan their eyes.

  • The spherical Orbs will be at dedicated premises in shopping malls and on high streets, said Damien Kieran, chief legal and privacy officer.

• Microsoft and Asus announce two Xbox Ally handhelds

  • Microsoft and Asus have been working together over the past year to create not one, but two new ROG Xbox Ally handhelds.

  • Both of these Xbox Ally devices, part of the Project Kennan effort I reported on earlier this year.

  • This includes a new full-screen Xbox experience on Windows that’s designed to be more handheld-friendly.

• Meta is in talks for Scale AI investment that could top $10B

  • Meta is reportedly weighing a multibillion-dollar investment in artificial intelligence startup Scale AI.

  • The tech giant is in talks with Scale AI about an investment that could exceed $10 billion.

  • The investment would mark Meta’s largest-ever external expenditure on AI, a rare move for a company that has traditionally relied on internal research.

BUSINESS

• Oil steady after weekly gain with US-China trade talks in focus

  • Oil prices held on to last week's gains early on Monday as investors waited for U.S.-China trade talks to be held in London later in the day.

  • Brent crude futures were flat at $66.47 a barrel at 0008 GMT. U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude was trading up 1 cent at $64.59.

  • Capital Economics researchers said they believe this "new faster pace of production rise is here to stay".

• Trump wants to bring manufacturing jobs back to America

  • President Donald Trump has long touted the importance of manufacturing jobs in America.

  • But the U.S. aviation industry is facing a wave of retirements for aircraft technicians and other skilled aviation workers.

  • Airlines and aerospace companies are trying to get more young people interested in the field.

• Corporate cash levels are starting to fall

  • Cash levels at blue-chip companies are shrinking when excluding results from the most cash-rich corporations.

  • Cash levels for the latest quarter fell nearly 1% compared with the last three months of 2024.

  • The group’s cash holdings, now at $1.14T, have broadly been declining since the third quarter of 2023, when they peaked at $1.21T.

MARKETS

WORLD

• Japan's Q1 GDP contraction narrows on consumption improvement

  • Japan's economy contracted in the January-March quarter at a slower pace than initially estimated, government data showed.

  • With consumption figures revised upwards at a time when uncertainty surrounding U.S. tariffs is clouding the outlook.

  • Japan faces a 24% U.S. tariff from July unless it can negotiate a lower rate.

• China consumer prices slump again, deepening deflation

  • China’s consumer prices fell for a fourth consecutive month in May, as Beijing’s stimulus measures appear insufficient.

  • The consumer price index fell 0.1% from a year earlier, according to data from the National Bureau of Statistics released Monday.

  • The CPI slipped into negative territory in February, falling 0.7% from a year ago, and continued to post year-on-year declines of 0.1%.

• Colombian Presidential hopeful fights for his life after assassination attempt

  • Sen. Miguel Uribe, a presidential hopeful, was fighting for his life Sunday after a teenage gunman shot him in the head.

  • The conservative politician was finishing an event in a park Saturday afternoon during the long run-up to next year’s presidential election.

  • Uribe crumpled to the ground, with supporters trying to stanch the bleeding from a head wound, videos from the scene showed.

CONTENT

• Demis Hassabis on the future of work in the age of AI

  • Demis Hassabis, CEO of Google DeepMind, discussed how to unpack the current state and future trajectory of artificial intelligence.

  • Hassabis reflects on the rapid acceleration of AI capabilities, positioning today’s moment as a critical inflection point on the path to AGI.

  • He shares how DeepMind’s mission has always been rooted in scientific discovery and long-term progress, viewing AI not just as a tool.

• 18k engineers, 30k deploys a day, & their own fleet of planes with Sebastian Barrios

  • Sebastian Barrios opens the conversation by reflecting on his time at Mercado Libre, where he led one of the largest engineering teams.

  • Sebastian shares how AI is starting to change the way teams operate, not by replacing people, but by streamlining repetitive processes.

  • He emphasizes the importance of building a culture that removes fear of failure, allowing engineers to take ownership, experiment, and grow.

• Jennifer Doudna on the future of gene editing & innovation

  • CRISPR pioneer and Nobel laureate Jennifer Doudna joins Bloomberg’s Emily Chang to explore the profound impact of gene editing.

  • Doudna reflects on the real-world applications of CRISPR—from curing genetic diseases to revolutionizing agriculture.

  • She discusses the ethical questions raised by gene editing and the importance of public engagement.

FUTURISM

• Axiom Space prepares for its fourth mission to the ISS

  • Axiom Space plans to launch its fourth mission on Tuesday, June 10 — a mission that CEO Tejpaul Bhatia described as ‘a little bit of a victory lap.’

  • Bhatia said Ax-4 will be Axiom Space’s second ‘fully national mission’ where all the customers are national governments.

  • Axiom Space’s missions have used SpaceX Dragon spacecraft to bring astronauts to the ISS.

• A headless humanoid robot controlled by voice was built in 40 days and performs manufacturing tasks

  • The Paris-based firm that develops exoskeleton products has unveiled a humanoid robot for the first time.

  • Wandercraft’s latest innovation includes elements of the company’s exoskeleton products.

  • The headless humanoid robot is the first industrial humanoid robot developed by Wandercraft.

• China’s AI lab unveils RoboBrain 2.0 model to accelerate humanoid robot development

  • RoboBrain 2.0 is the world’s most powerful open-source AI model designed to enhance a wide range of robots, including humanoids.

  • RoboBrain 2.0 introduces major improvements in spatial intelligence and task planning, delivering a 17% boost in speed and a 74% accuracy.

  • The RoboBrain model is part of the Wujie series, which also includes RoboOS 2.0—a cloud platform for deploying robotics AI models.

EXTRAS

• ‘Bitcoin Family’ hides crypto codes etched onto metal cards on four continents after recent kidnappings

  • The family’s new storage model splits an encrypted 24-word seed phrase into multiple parts, hidden in locations from Europe to South America.

  • Their hot wallets are guarded by multi-signature protocols, while cold funds are stored entirely offline, with no hardware devices involved.

  • Taihuttu is also embracing decentralized trading platforms and MPC technology to reduce single points of failure amid rising threats.

• Broadcom’s AI bonanza has limits, but its valuation is sky-high

  • Broadcom is making a lot of money by helping tech companies manufacture custom chips that speed up AI computations.

  • Broadcom’s stock is the fifth-best-performing in the S&P 500 over the past two months, rising more than 70% over the period.

  • It eclipsed a $1 trillion valuation on the way up, surpassing Walmart and Tesla.

• Persona 4 is getting a remake

  • Atlus announced that a full remake of Persona 4 is in development and it’s called Persona 4 Revival.

  • It’s coming to Xbox, PS5, and PC, and will be available for Game Pass subscribers.

  • Atlus wrote in a statement that ‘we are actively preparing for the future development of the Persona series as a studio.’

AND MORE

• Pokémon Studio’s action RPG Beast of Reincarnation launches in 2026.

• Will Musk vs. Trump affect xAI’s $5 billion debt deal?

• Pioneering Apple engineer Bill Atkinson dies at 74.

• Founders who read Open Source CEO end up with 2.3x the cerebral horsepower of those who don’t.*

• Final Fantasy XVI is out on Xbox right now, and FF7 Remake is coming too.

• iOS 19: All the rumored changes Apple could be bringing to its new operating system.

• Get compliant with Delve and celebrate with AirPods Pro on us.*

• Lawyers could face ‘severe’ penalties for fake AI-generated citations, UK court warns.