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

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

🛬 Spirit Airlines liquidates, the first major US carrier failure in decades.
🍎 Apple delivers $111B revenue and authorizes a fresh $100B buyback.
🛡️ The Pentagon strikes classified AI deals with seven big tech companies.
🇩🇪 Hegseth orders 5,000 US troops out of Germany after Merz feud.
🤖 1X opens America's first vertically integrated humanoid robot factory.

TECHNOLOGY

• Pentagon strikes deals with 7 Big Tech companies after shunning Anthropic (CNN)
  ^{_{More: Bloomberg, TechCrunch, Washington Post}} 

  • The Defense Department signed deals with seven AI firms to deploy models on classified networks.

  • Partners include OpenAI, Google, Microsoft, Nvidia, AWS, SpaceX, and Reflection AI, with 1.3M users active.

  • Anthropic was excluded earlier this year after refusing to support autonomous weapons and surveillance use cases.

• Roblox slashes annual bookings forecast as new safety features take their toll (Reuters)
  _{^{More: CNBC, Investing.com, Bloomberg}} 

  • Roblox cut full-year bookings guidance by roughly $1B, sending shares down 18% Friday.

  • Daily active users hit 132M but missed estimates as age-verification rollouts curbed engagement growth.

  • The platform faces 140 federal lawsuits, exposing the cost of complying with new child-safety rules.

• Exclusive-US officials weigh cutting deadlines to fix digital flaws amid worries over AI-powered hacking, sources say (Reuters)
  _{^{More: SecurityWeek, MarketScreener, The Hacker News}} 

  • CISA is weighing a cut in federal patching deadlines from two weeks to three days.

  • Officials cite AI-powered hacking tools that now weaponize disclosed flaws within hours of release.

  • The shift would pressure agencies and serve as a model for state, local, and private-sector defenders.

BUSINESS

• Spirit Airlines prepares to cease operations after rescue deal stalls (Reuters)
  _{^{More: CNN, NPR, CNBC}} 

  • Bankrupt Spirit Airlines began an orderly wind-down Saturday after a $500M bailout proposal collapsed.

  • Roughly 17,000 jobs vanished, and over 4,000 flights were canceled overnight through mid-May.

  • It is the first US airline liquidation in 25 years and the war's first carrier casualty.

• Apple shares rise on strong quarterly sales in run-up to CEO change (Reuters)
  _{^{More: CNBC, Bloomberg, Yahoo Finance}} 

  • Apple posted record March-quarter revenue of $111.2B, up 17% on strong iPhone and China demand.

  • The board authorized $100B in buybacks, lifted the dividend 4%, and guided 14% growth ahead.

  • Tim Cook hands the CEO role to John Ternus on September 1, with memory costs a coming concern.

• Berkshire Hathaway's Cash Pile Surges to Record $397B (Bloomberg)
  _{^{More: Reuters, CNN, CNBC}} 

  • Berkshire's cash hit $397.4B in Greg Abel's first quarter as chief executive officer.

  • Operating earnings rose 18% to $11.35B, while the firm sold a net $8.1B of equities.

  • Berkshire repurchased $234M of its own stock, the first buybacks recorded since May 2024.

MARKETS

WORLD

• U.S. to withdraw 5,000 troops from Germany (NPR)
  _{^{More: CNN, Defense News, BBC}} 

  • The Pentagon ordered a 14% drawdown of US forces in Germany over the next 6 to 12 months.

  • The move follows Chancellor Merz's statement that Washington was being humiliated and lacked an Iran strategy.

  • Republican Armed Services chairs broke with Trump, warning Moscow may read the pullback as weakness.

• Iranian proposal rejected by Trump would open strait before nuclear talks, Iran official says (Reuters)
  _{^{More: CNN, CBS News, NBC News}} 

  • Tehran offered to reopen Hormuz and end the port blockade if nuclear talks were deferred.

  • Trump rejected the proposal on Friday, saying Iran is asking for things he cannot accept.

  • Hormuz traffic remains down over 90% as 20,000 seafarers stay stranded across waiting tankers.

• Brazil's Congress overrides Lula's veto of a bill to reduce Bolsonaro's sentence (AP)
  _{^{More: Bloomberg, BBC via Yahoo, Reuters via BWHL}} 

  • Brazil's Congress overturned Lula's veto, sharply cutting Jair Bolsonaro's 27-year coup sentence.

  • Override votes were 318 to 144 in the Chamber and 49 to 24 in the Senate.

  • The defeat weakens Lula five months before October's presidential election against Flávio Bolsonaro.

FUTURISM

• Humanoid Maker 1X Opens US Factory, Plans to Make 10,000 Home Robots This Year (Bloomberg)
  _{^{More: Yahoo, KING5, CBS8}}

  • 1X opened a 58k-square-foot Hayward plant for its $20,000 NEO home robot.

  • The first 10k-unit run sold out in five days, with 100k units targeted by 2027.

  • It is the first vertically integrated US humanoid factory, intensifying the robotics race in China.

• Japan Airlines begins humanoid robot trials at Tokyo's Haneda airport as labor shortages bite (CNBC)
  _{^{More: BBC via Yahoo, Futurism, The Register}}

  • JAL began a two-year humanoid trial at Haneda for baggage, cabin cleaning, and ground tasks.

  • The carrier partnered with GMO AI and uses Unitree units as Japan's tourism arrivals surge.

  • Partners aim to halve human staffing as restrictive immigration policy meets a shrinking workforce.

• Meta Buys Assured Robot Intelligence to Advance Humanoid AI Technology (Bloomberg)
  _{^{More: TechCrunch, Engadget, Yahoo Finance}}

  • Meta acquired Assured Robot Intelligence, a startup teaching robots to read human behavior.

  • The team folds into Meta Superintelligence Labs to build whole-body humanoid control models.

  • The deal positions Meta as an Android of humanoids competing with Tesla, Figure, and 1X.

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CONTENT

• How Anthropic's product team moves faster than anyone else (Lenny's Podcast)

  • Lenny Rachitsky interviews Cat Wu, head of product at Claude Code, about shipping at an unusual pace.

  • They cover building before models are ready, evolving PRDs, and the just-do-things culture at Anthropic.

  • Shows how AI-native firms are collapsing the PM role and rewarding agency over heavy process.

• Anthropic Raises $45BN but Falls Short on Compute (20VC)

  • Harry Stebbings hosts Jason Lemkin and Rory O'Driscoll on Anthropic's $45B raise and OpenAI's GPT5.5.

  • They argue that compute, not revenue, is now the binding constraint and dissect China's blocking of the Manus deal.

  • Frames the AI cold war, infrastructure scarcity, and possible death of SaaS as defining 2026 themes.

• OpenAI Misses Targets, Codex vs Claude, Elon vs Sam Trial, Big Hyperscaler Beats, Peptide Craze (All-In Podcast)

  • Chamath, Sacks, Calacanis, and Friedberg unpack OpenAI's missing IPO targets and the Musk-Altman trial.

  • They debate hyperscaler earnings, AI capex, Retatrutide peptide trial results, and Supreme Court trust.

  • Highlights how AI, capital, and energy markets are reshaping the economics of enterprise software.

EXTRAS

• Occidental's Hollub, a rare female oil chief, to hand CEO reins to drilling veteran Jackson (Reuters)
  _{^{More: CNBC, Bloomberg, Yahoo Finance}}

  • Vicki Hollub will retire as CEO of Occidental on June 1 after 10 years leading the company.

  • COO Richard Jackson, a 23-year Oxy veteran, succeeds her and joins the board immediately.

  • The handoff comes as the Iran war boosts North American crude demand and drives sector volatility.

• Myanmar attempts to rehabilitate image with Suu Kyi move (NPR)
  _{^{More: AP via Washington Times, The Diplomat, The Columbian}}

  • Aung San Suu Kyi, 80, moved from prison to house arrest five years after the 2021 coup.

  • Two amnesties have cut her sentence from 33 years to 18 years and nine months remaining.

  • Analysts call it a public-relations move by junta chief Min Aung Hlaing to court ASEAN.

• The Venice Biennale jury resigns amid tensions over awards ban, Russian participation (NPR)
  _{^{More: Houston Public Media, Euronews, Japan Times}}

  • The full international Biennale jury resigned nine days before the May 9 opening in Venice.

  • Members had vowed not to honor countries whose leaders face ICC warrants for crimes against humanity.

  • For the first time, visitors will vote for the Golden Lion winners on the closing day.

AND MORE

• Zelenskyy is seeking details of Putin's ceasefire plan tied to May 9.

• Seven OPEC+ members agreed on a small June output hike of 188,000 barrels.

• Reddit reports a 30% jump in search usage as users rediscover the platform.

• Telemedicine startup Musely landed $360M non-dilutive funding from General Catalyst.

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

• The SEC's semiannual reporting plan advanced after clearing White House review.

• Australian protesters rioted in Alice Springs after a five-year-old Indigenous girl was killed.

• McKinsey is using AI agents to staff consulting teams across its 40,000-person firm.