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

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

👷 Jeff Bezos's Prometheus raises $12B to build an 'artificial general engineer'.
💬 Bluesky launches group chats as it shifts focus to community features.
🤑 SpaceX prices its shares at $135, making it the largest IPO ever.
🏦 The Trump administration appeals court order to remove his name from the Kennedy Center.
🌱 Microsoft taps Alt Carbon, signaling India's growing role in carbon removal.

TECHNOLOGY

• Jeff Bezos's Prometheus raises $12B to build an 'artificial general engineer' (TechCrunch)
  ^{_{More: CNBC, Axios, MSN}}

  • Prometheus, co-founded by Jeff Bezos and Vik Bajaj, raised $12B at a $41B valuation.

  • The round drew funds from Bezos, JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs, and BlackRock, following last year's $6.2B raise.

  • Prometheus is building an 'artificial general engineer' to automate engineering, with Bezos predicting labor scarcity, not job losses.

• Meta's Edits app is getting an AI assistant & a desktop version (Firstpost)
  ^{_{More: TNW, TechCrunch}}

  • Meta previewed new Edits features on Wednesday at an L.A. creator event, including an AI assistant and a desktop version.

  • The AI assistant uses Instagram data to analyze performance, brainstorm ideas, and suggest videos with trending audio.

  • By building AI into Edits, Meta aims to keep creators on Instagram and reduce reliance on ChatGPT.

• Bluesky launches group chats as it shifts focus to community features (TechCrunch)
  ^{_{More: Mashable, TNW}}

  • Bluesky launched group chats on Thursday, a feature aimed at competing more directly with Elon Musk's larger rival, X.

  • Arriving in version 1.124, it marks Bluesky's pivot toward communities rather than chasing a broad public audience.

  • The shift comes as growth slows; Bluesky has 44.8M users, compared with X's 600M monthly active users.

BUSINESS

• SpaceX prices its shares at $135, making it the largest IPO ever (NY Times)
  ^{_{More: CNBC, CNA, TechCrunch}}

  • SpaceX raised $75B by pricing 555.6M shares at $135 each, with the offering set to trade on Nasdaq on Friday.

  • The deal is the largest IPO in history, eclipsing Saudi Aramco's $24.9B debut in 2019.

  • Trading under the SPCX ticker, the offering drew four times the available shares and may make Musk a trillionaire.

• Four states challenge Nasdaq & FTSE Russell for fast-tracking SpaceX's mega IPO (Reuters)
  ^{_{More: AOL, Economic Times}}

  • Investment leaders from four large states pressed Nasdaq and FTSE Russell over rule changes favoring SpaceX's IPO.

  • The officials urged a pause on the changes, citing risks to investors from SpaceX's record $75B debut.

  • Concerns center on SpaceX's valuation, governance, and impact on passive funds tracking the affected indexes.

• Trump administration appeals court order to remove his name from Kennedy Center (Bloomberg)
  ^{_{More: CNN, CBS, Reuters}}

  • Trump's administration appealed Thursday a court order to strip his name from the Washington venue.

  • The order also blocked Trump's plan to close the Kennedy Center for a two-year renovation.

  • Judge Christopher Cooper ruled on May 29 that only Congress, which named the center, can change it.

MARKETS

WORLD

• Three red cards mar World Cup opener between Mexico & South Africa (AP)
  ^{_{More: NBC, BBC, WTOP}}

  • The World Cup opener saw three players sent off, a rarity not matched since a 2006 game.

  • South Africa's Sithole and Zwane were ejected, along with Mexico's César Montes, all shown straight red cards.

  • Mexico won 2-0 at the Azteca Stadium, the first World Cup opener ever with three red cards.

• Microsoft taps Alt Carbon, signaling India's growing role in carbon removal (Firstpost)
  ^{_{More: TechCrunch, CNBC, Yahoo!}}

  • Microsoft signed a three-year deal to buy nearly 37k metric tons of removal credits from India's Alt Carbon.

  • Alt Carbon will deliver the credits by 2029, marking Microsoft's first enhanced rock weathering deal in Asia.

  • Bengaluru-based Alt Carbon spreads crushed basalt on farmland to speed natural reactions that store carbon dioxide.

• South Korean court sentences ex-President Yoon to 30 years over drone incursion (Reuters)
  ^{_{More: CNN, Straits Times, The Guardian}}

  • A Seoul court sentenced former President Yoon Suk Yeol to 30 years on Friday over a military drone incursion.

  • The court found Yoon guilty of aiding the enemy and abuse of power in connection with the October 2024 incursion.

  • Yoon ordered drones over Pyongyang to manufacture a pretext for his failed December 2024 martial law declaration.

FUTURISM

• Humanoid robot maker EngineAI said to file for Hong Kong IPO (Bloomberg)
  ^{_{More: The Standard, Investing.com}}

  • Chinese robotics startup EngineAI has confidentially filed for a Hong Kong IPO, Bloomberg reported Friday.

  • Valued at over 10B yuan, the Shenzhen-based firm is in talks with CICC and Citi Securities.

  • Separately, smart-home appliance maker Dreame Technology is weighing a Hong Kong IPO as soon as next year.

• DoorDash's new AI chatbot lets you order with prompts & photos (LA Times)
  ^{_{More: TechCrunch, CNBC}}

  • DoorDash launched an AI chatbot on Thursday that lets users order food and groceries using text prompts and photos.

  • Called 'Ask DoorDash,' it lets users describe cravings, share recipe links, or build carts from photos.

  • The launch follows similar assistants from rivals Uber Eats and Instacart, as delivery apps race toward conversational shopping.

• Endurance Energy raises $54M to harness a massive untapped energy source (TechCrunch)
  ^{_{More: Yahoo!, Tech Buzz}}

  • SpaceX alum Andrew Redd founded Endurance Energy, raising a $54M Series A to harness deep-ocean geothermal energy.

  • Founders Fund led the round, with participation from Ascend, Construct Capital, Felicis Ventures, and several other investors.

  • Redd aims to tap terawatts of geothermal power as AI data centers and heavy industry drive surging demand.

• Cut through the hype. Roko’s Basilisk distills the day’s AI breakthroughs, market moves, and workable workflows into a five-minute brief*

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CONTENT

• Anne Applebaum & Fiona Hill on Ukraine, Iran wars & global power (The Prof G Pod)

  • In its 400th episode, Scott Galloway hosts Anne Applebaum and Fiona Hill to discuss the wars in Ukraine and Iran.

  • They examine whether Ukraine is reshaping modern warfare, how Putin's position has shifted, and what's next for Iran.

  • The conversation covers authoritarian regimes, the value of alliances, and why soft power may outweigh military strength.

• Gavin Baker, Andrew Fox & Clark Tang break down the SpaceX IPO (Bg2 Pod)

  • Brad Gerstner hosts Gavin Baker, Andrew Fox, and Clark Tang to assess how investors should approach SpaceX's IPO.

  • They unpack Starship reusability, Starlink, Elon's AI compute push, and whether SpaceX is becoming an 'AI hyperscaler.'

  • The group also debates the AI model race, NVIDIA versus ASICs, and whether markets underestimate surging AI demand.

• How Meesho became India's biggest shopping app for mass-market buyers (Y Combinator)

  • Vidit Aatrey co-founded Meesho, an e-commerce platform built for mass-market India with about 1M sellers.

  • Since launching in July 2021, it has become India's largest Android shopping app, handling 2.5B annual orders.

  • Aatrey told YC's Ankit Gupta how studying WhatsApp business groups in Bangalore inspired Meesho's social commerce model.

EXTRAS

• U.K. economy shrank 0.1% in April as Iran conflict weighed on growth (BBC)
  ^{_{More: CNBC, The Guardian}}

  • U.K. GDP fell 0.1% in April, figures showed Friday, as the war in Iran continued to hamper growth.

  • A 0.2% contraction in services drove the decline, partly offset by a 0.1% rise in construction output.

  • The April figure followed growth of 0.3% in March, 0.4% in February, and no growth in January.

• Chow Tai Fook's shares rise 15% as higher gold prices boost profits (CNBC)
  ^{_{More: Morningstar, Investing.com}}

  • Chow Tai Fook's shares surged 15% Friday after it posted record results for the year to March.

  • Profit attributable to shareholders rose more than 50% year-over-year to HK$9B, with operating profit up 27.8%.

  • Higher gold prices lifted margins, while growing demand for design-led products aided results amid China's K-shaped recovery.

• Deezer's new tool identifies AI music from Spotify, Apple Music & others (The Verge)
  ^{_{More: Business Insider, TechCrunch}}

  • Deezer launched a free online tool Thursday that scans playlists from various platforms to detect AI-generated tracks.

  • The detector supports 27 languages and works across 20 of the most popular streaming platforms.

  • Unlike Apple Music and Spotify, which tag AI tracks, Deezer removes them and now licenses its detection technology.

AND MORE

• DHL warns that shipping clean energy technology is becoming difficult.

• Equal AI raises $30M to screen phone calls for Indian users.

• Hire vetted LATAM engineers in as little as five days, and save up to 70% on salary costs.*

• Coinbase's new tool lets AI agents trade & buy premium research.

• Copper & mining stocks rally after Trump signals a possible Iran deal.

• Quantum Space's military SPAC aims to ride SpaceX's IPO momentum.

• A Chinese start-up's struggles reveal deeper flaws in Beijing's tech funding system.