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

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

🧑‍⚖️ Closing arguments wrap up in the Musk vs. Altman trial.
💻 OpenAI brings its Codex coding agent to iOS and Android.
🧠 Cerebras IPO creates two billionaires as AI chipmaker debuts.
📈 Cisco shares hit record high on strong AI demand and forecast.
🤝 Trump and Xi claim progress on U.S.-China relations after summit.

TECHNOLOGY

• Closing arguments wrap up in the Musk vs. Altman trial (TechCrunch)
  ^{_{More: CNBC, NY Times, Yahoo!}}

  • The first phase of the Musk v. Altman trial concluded Thursday, with jury deliberations starting Monday.

  • The nine-person jury's verdict will be advisory, with Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers making the final call.

  • Musk sued OpenAI in 2024, alleging the company abandoned its nonprofit mission for commercial gain.

• Instagram's new Instants feature sends disappearing DM photos (CNET)
  ^{_{More: TechCrunch, Yahoo!}}

  • Instagram's new Instants feature lets users send disappearing, unedited photos through direct messages.

  • Photos vanish after being opened and cannot be viewed after 24 hours of being sent.

  • Users can disable the feature if their inbox already feels too cluttered with activity.

• OpenAI brings its Codex coding agent to iOS & Android (Engadget)
  ^{_{More: TechCrunch, Business Insider, Axios}}

  • OpenAI has integrated Codex into the ChatGPT mobile app for iOS and Android users.

  • The update lets users monitor live environments, review outputs, and manage tasks remotely.

  • Anthropic launched a similar remote monitoring feature for Claude Code back in February.

BUSINESS

• Cerebras IPO creates two billionaires as the AI chipmaker debuts (CNBC)
  ^{_{More: Bloomberg, TechCrunch, Yahoo!}}

  • Cerebras' Nasdaq debut valued the AI chipmaker at $95B, up from a $23.1B private valuation.

  • Co-founders Andrew Feldman and Sean Lie became billionaires a decade after starting the company.

  • The blockbuster IPO signals growing investor appetite for AI chip companies beyond NVIDIA.

• Cisco shares hit a record high on strong AI demand & forecast (Reuters)
  ^{_{More: Yahoo!, TechCrunch}}

  • Cisco surged 17% to a record high, set for its biggest single-day gain since 2002.

  • The company raised its annual revenue forecast, fueled by strong AI-driven demand for data center gear.

  • Cisco announced nearly 4k job cuts as part of a $1B restructuring to redirect investment into AI.

• Stocks & bonds drop as surging oil prices stoke inflation fears (Bloomberg)
  ^{_{More: Reuters, Financial Post}}

  • Stocks tumbled and the two-year Treasury yield hit its highest level in 14 months on Friday.

  • Surging oil prices intensified inflation fears and raised doubts about the AI-fueled equity rally.

  • Asia-Pacific shares dropped 2.5%, with South Korea's Kospi plunging 6.7% amid broad market pressure.

MARKETS

WORLD

• Trump & Xi claim progress on U.S.-China relations after summit (Washington Post)
  ^{_{More: AP, WTOP, Yahoo!}}

  • Trump and Xi wrapped up three hours of talks in Beijing, claiming progress on stabilizing relations.

  • The two leaders met at Xi's official residence, Zhongnanhai, for their final day of summit talks.

  • Deep differences between the two nations persist, particularly on issues like Iran and Taiwan.

• Uber is expanding in India with two new engineering campuses (Tech in Asia)
  ^{_{More: TechCrunch, Yahoo!}}

  • Uber will open two engineering campuses in Bengaluru and Hyderabad by end of 2027.

  • The company plans to build its first local data center in India through a partnership with Adani Group.

  • Uber currently has 3.5k employees in India and is actively hiring for AI and infrastructure roles.

• Six hantavirus-hit cruise ship passengers arrive for Australian quarantine (AP)
  ^{_{More: CNA, NY Post}}

  • Six passengers from a hantavirus-affected cruise ship landed in Western Australia on Friday.

  • They were taken to the Bullsbrook quarantine facility near Perth for at least three weeks.

  • Australia's health minister said the country would implement one of the world's strongest quarantine responses.

FUTURISM

• Amazon is targeting 30-minute deliveries with a new ultrafast service (LA Times)
  ^{_{More: AOL, AP}}

  • Amazon is opening small fulfillment hubs across U.S. and foreign cities for 30-minute deliveries.

  • The service, called Amazon Now, launched in India last June and has since expanded globally.

  • Each mini-warehouse stocks around 3.5k products, from medicine and meat to pet food and cables.

• Honda unveils hybrid prototypes previewing the next Accord & RDX (The Verge)
  ^{_{More: Yahoo!, MotorTrend}}

  • Honda revealed two hybrid prototypes at its annual business update, hinting at next-gen models.

  • Both prototype vehicles are expected to launch within two years as part of Honda's broader plan.

  • Honda is shifting focus to hybrids after reporting its first annual loss since 1957.

• Meta launches a private 'incognito' mode for WhatsApp AI chats (Washington Post)
  ^{_{More: AP, MSN}}

  • Meta is rolling out an 'incognito' mode for private, temporary conversations with its AI chatbot.

  • Messages will be processed in a secure environment that even Meta cannot access or save.

  • The move addresses long-standing privacy concerns around how AI systems handle user conversation data.

• Launch your company's website site lightning fast with Framer*

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  • Reduce dependency: shift routine brand and marketing work out of product engineering queues.

  • Production-grade foundation: Run real marketing systems (CMS, SEO, performance optimization) with governance and collaboration.

CONTENT

• Tucker Carlson's interview style & the art of dodging questions (Sam Harris)

  • Sam and Jaron discuss current events, including the launch of the Making Sense Community platform.

  • Topics include Sam's Ben Shapiro conversation and the New York Times's embrace of Hasan Piker.

  • The episode also covers Zohran Mamdani, the misuse of 'genocide,' and AI-driven job displacement.

• Legalizing sports gambling in the U.S. has come at a steep cost (The Prof G Pod)

  • A 2018 Supreme Court decision unleashed a $150B sports gambling industry across the U.S.

  • Frictionless mobile betting is uniquely dangerous, and promised state tax revenues rarely materialize.

  • Gambling carries the highest suicide rate of any addiction, disproportionately affecting young men.

• AI image generation is experiencing a creative & technical renaissance (OpenAI)

  • ChatGPT users are now generating over 1.5B images per week since the Images 2.0 launch.

  • Improvements include better text rendering, photorealism, multilingual support, and character consistency.

  • Researchers say image generation models are evolving into more capable and versatile creative assistants.

EXTRAS

• Spotify will adopt Apple's HLS tech for video podcast distribution (MacRumors)
  ^{_{More: Engadget, TechCrunch, Tech Buzz}}

  • Spotify will support Apple's HLS video technology later this year across its creator platforms.

  • The move lets creators distribute video podcasts on both Spotify and Apple Podcasts without extra setup.

  • Monetization will carry over across platforms, so creators won't have to choose between reach and revenue.

• Hana Bank acquires a $670M stake in crypto exchange operator Dunamu (WSJ)
  ^{_{More: Bloomberg, Forbes}}

  • Hana Bank purchased 228M shares in Dunamu from Kakao Investment, valued at around $670M.

  • Dunamu operates Upbit, which is the largest cryptocurrency exchange in South Korea.

  • The deal marks a growing willingness among South Korean banks to embrace digital assets.

• Gautam Adani & nephew agree to pay $18M in SEC fraud settlement (BBC)
  ^{_{More: Reuters, CNBC}}

  • U.S. regulators settled civil fraud claims against Gautam and Sagar Adani for a combined $18M.

  • Gautam will pay a $6M penalty, while his nephew Sagar Adani will pay $12M.

  • The case stemmed from alleged bribery and fraud tied to solar energy contracts in India.

AND MORE

• AI is now beginning to design and build itself autonomously.

• Linux devs are fighting the new age-gated internet.

• Explore all the tools and more here to outperform the competition.*

• Lovable backs a startup bringing vibe coding to hardware development.

• A new robot-controlled phone is set to launch very soon.

• YouTube viewers watch 2B hours of Shorts on TVs every month.

• OpenClaw now offers improved compatibility with OpenAI models and Codex.

• A spyware investigator exposed Russian hackers targeting Signal accounts.