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

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

⚖️ Elon Musk has lost his lawsuit against Sam Altman & OpenAI.
☁️ Google & Blackstone launch AI cloud venture to meet data center demand.
👥 Meta details May 20 restructuring & AI-focused layoffs in internal employee memo.
🤖 Standard Chartered to cut thousands of roles as AI adoption increases.
⛽ Vladimir Putin aims to unlock a gas pipeline project to China in talks with Xi Jinping.

TECHNOLOGY

• Elon Musk has lost his lawsuit against Sam Altman & OpenAI (TechCrunch)
  ^{_{More: MSN, BBC}}

  • Nine California jurors unanimously ruled Musk's lawsuit against Altman, Brockman, OpenAI, and Microsoft was filed too late.

  • Musk accused the defendants of 'stealing a charity' by creating a for-profit affiliate of the AI lab.

  • OpenAI's statute of limitations defense convinced jurors that any alleged harms occurred before the legal filing deadlines.

• Apple is expanding AI Writing Tools with a grammar checker in iOS 27 (MacRumors)
  ^{_{More: Bloomberg, The Verge, Yahoo!}}

  • Apple is testing expanded Writing Tools with 'Write With Siri' and 'Help Me Write' keyboard options.

  • A new Grammarly-style grammar checker will show suggested revisions in a translucent menu across Messages and Mail.

  • Users can accept or reject suggestions individually, approve all changes at once, or pause grammar checking entirely.

• Google & Blackstone launch AI cloud venture to meet data center demand (WSJ)
  ^{_{More: Reuters, Financial Times, Bloomberg}}

  • Blackstone is committing $5B equity to bring 500 megawatts of data center capacity online by 2027.

  • The U.S. venture will offer data center capacity and Google's TPU chips through a compute-as-a-service model.

  • Total investment could reach $25B with leverage, and Google veteran Benjamin Sloss will lead as CEO.

BUSINESS

• Meta details May 20 restructuring & AI-focused layoffs in internal employee memo (NY Times)
  ^{_{More: Reuters, The Verge}}

  • Meta is laying off 10% of staff on Wednesday and moving 7k employees to new AI workflow initiatives.

  • Chief People Officer Janelle Gale said many leaders will announce org changes with flatter, AI-native team structures.

  • Employee backlash is building, with a petition against mouse-tracking technology gathering over 1k signatures so far.

• Standard Chartered to cut thousands of roles as AI adoption increases (BBC)
  ^{_{More: Reuters, Straits Times, Yahoo!}}

  • Standard Chartered will cut more than 15%, or around 7,800 back-office roles, by 2030 amid rising AI adoption.

  • The UK-headquartered bank aims to move some affected workers to other roles within the business, the BBC understands.

  • Major back-office operations in India, China, Malaysia, and Poland could be affected as the firm scales automation and analytics.

• Supreme Court rejects drug manufacturers' appeals over Medicare price negotiations (AP)
  ^{_{More: PBS, CNN}}

  • The Supreme Court rejected appeals against negotiating Medicare drug prices with the federal government on Monday.

  • Justices left in place Philadelphia appeals court rulings that dismissed the drug manufacturers' claims without comment.

  • The 2022 Inflation Reduction Act created the program, requiring annual negotiations with first deals taking effect in 2026.

MARKETS

WORLD

• Trump's tough-talk foreign policy hits a wall with Iran over Hormuz (AP)
  ^{_{More: FOX4, Economic Times}}

  • Trump's threats, tough talk, and military action have failed to move Tehran from its long-established positions on negotiations.

  • The administration insists the U.S. has already won the war and that Iran is ready to reach an agreement.

  • Trump paused imminent attack plans Monday at the request of Gulf Arab states, citing 'serious negotiations' underway.

• Putin aims to unlock a gas pipeline project to China in Xi talks (Bloomberg)
  ^{_{More: Japan Times, Financial Times, Yahoo!}}

  • Putin arrives in Beijing Tuesday seeking to boost Russia's energy exports to China during his 25th visit.

  • Talks will focus on the long-delayed Power of Siberia 2 pipeline, designed to deliver 50B cubic meters annually.

  • Russia's economic troubles make a pipeline deal more likely, offering Moscow a way to offset lost European exports.

• UK unemployment rises & Germany kicks off Uniper privatization amid market jitters (CNBC)
  ^{_{More: Reuters, Bloomberg}}

  • European stocks are expected to open mixed Tuesday as traders assess Middle East developments and the geopolitical landscape.

  • Trump postponed a scheduled attack on Iran after requests from leaders of Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE.

  • Trump said a deal will be made that includes no nuclear weapons for Iran, acceptable to all parties.

FUTURISM

• South Korea's LetinAR is building the optics behind AI smart glasses (TechCrunch)
  ^{_{More: CryptoRank, MEXC}}

  • LetinAR has spent a decade developing optical technology for AI glasses, including a motorcycle helmet display launching in Europe.

  • Big Tech is racing in: Meta, Google, Apple, Samsung, Huawei, Alibaba, and Xiaomi are all building smart glasses.

  • Global AI glasses shipments hit 8.7M units in 2025, up 300%, and could cross 15M this year.

• Drive-thru chatbots are just the start of fast food's AI takeover (The Verge)
  ^{_{More: Tech Buzz}}

  • McDonald's quietly launched AI drive-thru chatbots at 10 Chicago locations in 2021, sparking an industry-wide race.

  • The tech came from Apprente, a voice AI startup McDonald's acquired in 2019 for quick-service restaurants.

  • McDonald's later partnered with IBM to refine the system and handle real-world drive-thru complexities at scale.

• SandboxAQ brings drug discovery models to Claude, no computing PhD required (TechCrunch)
  ^{_{More: Tech Buzz, MEXC}}

  • SandboxAQ partnered with Anthropic to integrate scientific AI models into Claude through a conversational interface for researchers.

  • The Alphabet spinout believes drug discovery's real bottleneck is the interface, not the underlying AI models themselves.

  • Founded five years ago with Eric Schmidt as chairman, SandboxAQ has raised over $950M across multiple business lines.

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

  • Get one sharp deep dive, fast Quick Hits, and a witty pro tip, plus links that actually matter.

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CONTENT

• Harvard lecturer Mark Roberge on how to use data to scale startups perfectly (The Startup Podcast)

  • Mark Roberge, who scaled HubSpot from $0 to $100M ARR, shares his data-driven framework for objectively measuring scale readiness.

  • He argues customer retention is the only honest measure of product-market fit, and most founders are flying blind without it.

  • Roberge teaches how to build a Leading Indicator of Retention in week one, using Slack and HubSpot as examples.

• How to resist the attention economy with Bill Burnett & Dave Evans (The Prof G Pod)

  • Scott Galloway is joined by Stanford educators Bill Burnett and Dave Evans in a special two-part Office Hours series.

  • The discussion helps listeners fight the attention economy, build better habits, and live more intentionally in daily life.

  • Topics covered include burnout, productivity and discipline, and building an intentional life through deliberate choices and routines.

• Turning Peter Thiel's $100k into a $10M angel portfolio with Josh Browder (20VC)

  • Josh Browder turned his $100k Thiel Fellowship grant into a $10M angel portfolio, backing unicorns like Owner.com and Yuzu Health.

  • New investments move into Browder's Four Seasons Residence for company-building training, only leaving once they raise a seed round.

  • Browder is also founder and CEO of DoNotPay, a now-profitable company that raised $22M from Marc Andreessen and others.

EXTRAS

• OSHA is probing a worker's death at SpaceX's Starbase site in Texas (TechCrunch)
  ^{_{More: WSJ, Yahoo!}}

  • A worker died at SpaceX's Starbase launch site in South Texas around 4:17 AM on May 15.

  • OSHA has opened an investigation but won't release details until the probe concludes, which could take months.

  • SpaceX, Starbase city officials, and local Brownsville police and fire departments did not respond to requests for comment.

• Lululemon takes battle with Chip Wilson public, calls founder 'misguided' & 'outdated' (CNBC)
  ^{_{More: Reuters, WSJ}}

  • Lululemon issued its first major public response to founder Chip Wilson in a letter defending its strategy to shareholders.

  • The company urged shareholders to vote for its three board nominees, calling them 'vastly superior' to Wilson's picks.

  • Wilson criticized Lululemon for 'deprioritizing creative excellence' and called for more proven, creative leaders in the boardroom.

• A new Swatch model triggers chaos in a case of 'drop culture' frenzy (AP)
  ^{_{More: ABC, Boston Herald, WBTW}}

  • Tear gas in Paris, fistfights in Milan, and all-night queues worldwide erupted over Swatch's latest pocket watch launch.

  • The Royal Pop, a collaboration with Audemars Piguet, retails around $400 but resells for thousands on resale platforms.

  • Swatch said there's no shortage of the 'bioceramic' timekeeper, urging customers to calm down amid global frenzy.

AND MORE

• Apple's Siri revamp could include an auto-deleting chats feature for users.

• Takeda engaged in an antitrust scheme to delay a generic constipation drug.

• Thousands of AI roles at frontier companies, matched to your profile and sent straight to you. Stop scrolling.*

• Investors see no let-up in bond market strain as pressures mount.

• Amazon's new Alexa+ powered feature can generate full podcast episodes.

• Stellantis to push U.S. revival, brands & Chinese deals to investors.

• NYC Health + Hospitals says hackers stole medical data of 1.8M people.