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

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

📊 Palantir delivers record revenue and raises 2026 guidance well above estimates.
🧠 Cerebras targets a $3.5B Nasdaq IPO at a $26.6B valuation.
📌 Pinterest jumps 16% after a strong Q1 beat and upbeat Q2 outlook.
🛡️ Pentagon orders 5,000 US troops withdrawn from Germany amid Merz feud.
🏆 Reuters wins Pulitzer beat reporting prize for Meta AI chatbot investigation.

TECHNOLOGY

• AI chipmaker Cerebras targets $3.5B raise in IPO (CNBC) 

  _{^{More: Bloomberg, Yahoo Finance, Renaissance Capital}} 

  • Cerebras filed to sell 28 million shares at $115 to $125, valuing the company at up to $26.6B.

  • The wafer-scale chip designer plans to trade on Nasdaq under ticker CBRS, anchored by a $20B OpenAI deal.

  • CEO Andrew Feldman is not selling shares and would retain a stake worth roughly $1.28B post-listing.

• Pixel 11 leak reveals new camera hardware, Tensor G6 details, more specs (9to5Google) 

  ^{_{More: Android Authority, Android Police, The Verge}} 

  • A leak details Tensor G6 specs, new ARM C1 cores, a MediaTek modem, and revised camera sensors.

  • Google appears to drop the built-in temperature sensor on Pro models in favor of a "Pixel Glow" camera bar feature.

  • RAM appears trimmed across the lineup, suggesting a quiet adjustment driven by the ongoing memory shortage.

• Pentagon tech chief says Anthropic is still blacklisted, but Mythos is a separate issue (CNBC) 

  _{^{More: The Register, Defense News, Reason}} 

  • Defense Department CTO Emil Michael said Anthropic remains a supply chain risk despite agency interest in its Mythos cyber model.

  • Some federal agencies are evaluating Mythos to harden networks against vulnerabilities that the model can both find and patch.

  • Anthropic continues to litigate the blacklist designation in the federal courts in San Francisco and Washington.

BUSINESS

• Palantir Issues Strong Revenue Outlook for 2026, Shares Gain (Bloomberg) 

  ^{_{More: CNBC, Yahoo Finance, Motley Fool}} 

  • First-quarter revenue rose 85% to $1.63B, the fastest growth Palantir has reported since its 2020 listing.

  • Adjusted earnings of 33 cents topped the 28-cent consensus, while net income roughly quadrupled to $870.5M.

  • Management raised full-year 2026 guidance to $7.65B-$7.66B, well above the $7.27B Wall Street estimate.

• Pinterest jumps on strong results, above-expectation Q2 sales forecast (Seeking Alpha) 

  ^{_{More: Stocktwits, Investing.com, FinancialContent}} 

  • Pinterest reported $1.01B in revenue, up 18%, beating consensus and lifting shares about 16% after hours.

  • Monthly active users climbed 11% to 631 million as AI-powered ad tools deepened advertiser engagement.

  • Second-quarter revenue guidance of $1.13B to $1.15B came in above the $1.12B Wall Street estimate.

• Ford Reports First-Quarter 2026 Financial Results (Business Wire)

  _{^{More: DBusiness, CBT News, yourNEWS}} 

  • Ford reported Q1 revenue of $43.3B, up 6%, and adjusted EBIT of $3.5B, including a $1.3B tariff benefit.

  • Adjusted EPS of 66 cents blew past the 19-cent estimate, sending shares more than 6% higher after hours.

  • The automaker raised its full-year adjusted EBIT range to $8.5B-$10.5B, narrowing losses in its Model e EV unit.

MARKETS

WORLD

• Trump threatens more cuts after the US announced withdrawal of 5,000 troops from Germany (CNN) 

  ^{_{More: NPR, Washington Post, Al Jazeera}} 

  • The Pentagon ordered roughly 5,000 of the approximately 36,500 US troops withdrawn from Germany over 6 to 12 months.

  • The decision followed Chancellor Friedrich Merz saying the United States had been "humiliated" by Iran's leadership.

  • President Trump said further cuts could come and singled out Italy and Spain as unhelpful in the Iran conflict.

• U.S. military helps merchant ships transit Strait of Hormuz amid Iranian missile threat (NPR) 

  _{^{More: CNN, PBS NewsHour, Al Jazeera}} 

  • Two merchant ships transited the Strait of Hormuz under US escort as the United Arab Emirates intercepted Iranian missiles.

  • Brent crude futures jumped almost 6% to $114.44 a barrel, with US gas prices hitting $4.46 a gallon.

  • Iran's foreign ministry said it is reviewing Washington's response to its 14-point peace proposal mediated by Pakistan.

• Israeli air strikes on Lebanon kill 41 people in 24-hours (Al Jazeera)

  ^{_{More: Reuters, Associated Press, BBC}} 

  • Lebanon's health ministry reported 41 deaths in 24 hours from Israeli strikes across the south despite an extended ceasefire.

  • The overall toll since March 2 reached 2,659 dead and 8,183 wounded, the ministry said in a Saturday update.

  • Hezbollah has continued drone and rocket attacks on Israeli positions, while Beirut has urged renewed talks in Washington.

FUTURISM

• Starship Flight 12 Targets Mid-May with New V3 Vehicle (Basenor)

  _{^{More: New Space Economy, RocketLaunch.Live, Nextspaceflight}} 

  • SpaceX is targeting May 12 for Starship Flight 12, the first integrated test of the V3 architecture.

  • The 408-foot stack uses Raptor 3 engines and is designed to lift more than 100 tons to low Earth orbit.

  • The mission will also be the first launch from Orbital Launch Pad 2 at Starbase, Texas.

• ShengShu Technology raises $293M for multimodal "world model" AI (Tech Startups) 

  _{^{More: Bloomberg, Reuters, TechCrunch}} 

  • Beijing-based ShengShu raised about $293M led by Alibaba Cloud to build a multimodal "general world model."

  • The model is intended to process video, audio, and text to simulate real-world physical environments.

  • The round positions ShengShu among China's most aggressive entrants in the global world-model race.

• Tsavorite raises $5M seed to build energy-efficient AI chips (Tech Startups) 

  _{^{More: TechCrunch, VentureBeat, The Information}} 

  • The India-US startup is designing an "Omni Processing Unit" that combines a CPU, GPU, and memory on a single chip.

  • The architecture targets large language models and aims to cut inference energy consumption by over 90%.

  • Tsavorite says it has booked more than $100M in preorders ahead of full silicon production.

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CONTENT

• The new AI growth playbook for 2026: How Lovable hit $200M ARR in one year | Elena Verna (Head of Growth) (Lenny's Podcast) 

  • Elena Verna returns for a fourth appearance to detail how Lovable reached $200M ARR with only 100 employees in a year.

  • She argues that 60% to 70% of traditional growth tactics no longer apply to AI-native products and explains why.

  • Verna explains why giving the product away for free has become Lovable's most powerful acquisition strategy today.

• The biggest tax loophole in America (The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway) 

  • Scott Galloway breaks down what he calls the largest tax loophole in America and why crowds outperform experts.

  • He addresses listener questions about whether to take a pay cut to do work that feels more meaningful in the long term.

  • Galloway closes with practical career advice on positioning, leverage, and resisting comparison traps in tech.

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

  • The hosts dig into reports that OpenAI missed key revenue and user targets while Codex gains on Claude.

  • They unpack week one of the Musk vs. Altman trial, hyperscaler capex, and what an AI cybersecurity boom looks like.

  • The episode closes with a debate on retatrutide, peptide therapies going mainstream, and a Supreme Court anecdote.

EXTRAS

• Reuters Wins Beat Reporting Pulitzer for Meta Investigations (US News)

  ^{_{More: NPR, Axios, Poynter}} 

  • Reuters reporters Jeff Horwitz and Engen Tham won the beat reporting Pulitzer for exposing harms caused by Meta AI chatbots.

  • Their work documented internal Meta guidelines that permitted AI chatbots to engage in sensual conversations with children.

  • The reporting prompted regulatory probes worldwide and forced Meta to revise its AI chatbot policies.

• Trump executive order creates new way to save for retirement (CNBC)

  ^{_{More: White House, Reuters, Yahoo Finance}} 

  • The order directs the creation of TrumpIRA.gov, where workers without 401(k) access can compare and enroll in private IRAs.

  • Eligible low- and moderate-income workers could receive a federal matching contribution of up to $1,000 a year.

  • About 56 million Americans currently lack access to an employer-sponsored retirement plan, according to Pew research.

AND MORE

• The Pulitzer Prize Board awarded the Washington Post a national reporting prize for chronicling Trump's federal overhaul.

• NATO is "working to understand" Washington's plan to draw down thousands of US troops across Europe.

• A federal appeals court blocked mail distribution of Mifepristone, restricting access to the abortion pill nationwide.

• Roko’s Basilisk skips the buzz words and cuts straight to what moves markets, products, and careers.*

• The IMF concluded its Article IV review of Andorra, projecting growth to slow to 2.1% in 2026.

• The Trump administration is reopening talks with Anthropic regarding its breakthrough in the Mythos cybersecurity model.

• KKR raised over $10B to launch Helix Digital Infrastructure, a new AI data center platform.

• A United Airlines passenger jet struck a light pole on landing approach at Newark Liberty International Airport on Sunday.

• Reporters Without Borders said press freedom hit a 25-year low in its 2026 World Press Freedom Index.