• Sources: DeepSeek told investors it is suspending its second funding round after remarks attributed to Liang Wenfeng on US-China AI competition went viral (Pei Li/Bloomberg)
• Sources: OpenAI and Anthropic quietly lobby Washington regulators to restrict open-source AI models, even as Sam Altman publicly says he supports open source AI (New York Times)
• SK Group Chair Chey Tae Won says Anthropic has asked SK Hynix for supplies to make its own chips, calling it remarkable that an AI developer has chip ambitions (Ian King/Bloomberg)
• As student protests spread across India, Narendra Modi turns to Reels, swapping his trademark cinematic videos for self-recorded messages aimed at Gen Z (Akriti Sharma/Bloomberg)
• A profile of Hangzhou-based Unitree, which shipped 5,500 humanoid robots in 2025, accounting for 25%+ of the global market, as it prepares for a Shanghai IPO (Charlie Campbell/Time)
• Samsung announces a $200B+ contract to make chips for Broadcom through 2030, focusing on its 2nm and below process technologies for Broadcom's products (Hooyeon Kim/Bloomberg)
• A profile of Yang Zhilin, founder of Moonshot AI, which faced early doubts over revenue and model capabilities before its Kimi K3 delivered a "DeepSeek moment" (Financial Times)
• Candid Health, which develops tech and AI agents to automate medical billing and claims processing workflows, raised a $120M Series D led by Sixth Street Growth (Lily Mae Lazarus/Fortune)
• Verizon CEO Dan Schulman says Verizon will provide dark-fiber connectivity for Google's data centers in a $1B+ deal, with more such deals in the pipeline (Jaspreet Singh/Reuters)
• Meshy, whose AI-powered tech lets users generate 3D assets from text and image prompts, raised a ~$400M Series B at a $1.5B valuation (Abhinaya Prabhu/Tech Funding News)
• Analysis: US tech companies have cut ~140K jobs YTD, or more than 33% of announced US layoffs in 2026, with ~50K cuts from Amazon, Oracle, Meta, and Microsoft (Financial Times)
• Progress Software agrees to acquire Domo's AI and data platform business for $400M; Domo will remain publicly listed and change its name after the deal closes (Larry Dignan/Constellation Research)
• Neocloud Fluidstack, which has partnered with Anthropic, announces that it raised an $830M Series A led by Situational Awareness at a $7.5B valuation in January (Maria Deutscher/SiliconANGLE)
• Sources: CXMT expelled Huawei-linked SiCarrier staff from its R&D zone amid a pricing dispute, as Chinese memory makers flex their newfound clout to hike prices (Reuters)
• Sources: Apple has pitched Trump on using Chinese memory chips in its products sold outside the US; Micron warned such a plan could destroy the US chip industry (Wall Street Journal)
| • Cricut Explore 5 vs. Siser Romeo: Choosing the Right Smart Cutting Machine (2026)
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• The OpenAI Models That Hacked Hugging Face Were ‘Active on the Internet’ for Days
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• Contagious Cancer Found in North American Catfish
• How Many Electrolytes Should You Be Taking, and Can You Have Too Many?
• One of NASA’s Most Important Deep Space Observatories Hit by Spanish Wildfires
• Chinese Companies Are Selling Vapes With Chemicals Potentially More Potent Than Nicotine
• The 2026 El Niño Is on Track to Be the Strongest on Record
• China-US AI Race Escalates, OpenAI Models Break Free, and Why You Should Check Your Car Alarm
• Silicon Valley Is Completely Divided Over Chinese AI
• Best Window Air Conditioners of 2026: Midea, Zafro, GE
• BenQ TK705STi 4K Projector Review: A Midrange Pick for Gamers
• What Is Entropy, Really?
• Some of Our Favorite Brain-Boosting Toys for Kids of All Ages
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• Satellite Images Reveal How Suspected Scam Compounds Appear Out of Nowhere
• Kagi Brings Back Old-School Search, One Human-Made Website at a Time
• Trump Endorsed the MyPillow Guy as Minnesota Governor. The State GOP Isn’t Buying It
• European Researchers Say Big Tech Is Blocking Access to Their Data
• An FDA Panel Just Endorsed These Unproven Peptides
• Meta’s New Feel-Good AI Ad Uses a Song About the World Ending
• For Taylor Swift, Madison Square Garden’s Controversial Cameras Briefly Went Dark
• The EU Fines Google $1 Billion for Prioritizing Its Own Services in Search
• 22 Back-to-School College Dorm Room Essentials (2026)
• The Best Vacuum for Pet Hair—We Tested Many to Find Which Ones Work Best (2026)
• The Best MagSafe Wallets for Your Everyday Carry (2026)
• The Trump Administration Wants to Change Public Engagement Rules for Polluters
• America’s Hot Hybrid Summer
• 10 Best Meal Delivery Services, Tested by an Ex-Restaurant Critic
• People Are Getting Off to Porn About ICE Raids
• Google Turns a Selfie Video Into Your Account’s Spare Key
• Banning Social Media for Kids Is a Bad Idea
• My Week of Transparent Living With Apple’s ‘More Clear’ Liquid Glass Setting
• Remember Jibo? Its Successor Is a Wearable That Turns Your Life Into AI Slop
• ‘The Child Is Terrified’: Measles Doctors Speak Out
• Why Lettuce Is Always Making People Sick
• The White House Is Trying to Figure Out What to Do About Chinese AI
• Top Red-Light Therapy Deals at Nordstrom’s Anniversary Sale (2026)
• ‘The Odyssey’ Is Inspiring Unprecedented Levels of Cope
• China’s Open AI Models Are Challenging Silicon Valley’s Playbook
• Dyson V10 Konical Review (2026): Affordable and Solid
• Which New Samsung Foldable Phone Should You Buy? Fold8 Ultra, Fold8, or Flip8?
• Why Samsung Gave Its Next Folding Phone a New Shape
• The 13 Best Fans for Getting Through Sweaty Days (2026)
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• States Want ICE Agents to Show Their Faces. The Trump Administration Is Blocking Them
| • Qualcomm is reportedly planning to raise processor prices by the end of the summer
• How to get more storage on your Android without using a microSD Card
• The downsides of switching from Android to iPhone
• How to program your Roku remote to voice control your non-Roku TV
• YouTube adds new tools to make creating thumbnails easier
• OpenAI's rogue agent went on a hacking spree that lasted days, Reuters says
• Dinos with swords, making music with gnomes and other new indie games worth checking out
• Amazon accused of poaching HBO employees in Warner Bros. lawsuit
• Roku is increasing prices across its hardware range
• Meta has pulled out of a renewable energy initiative as it relies more on natural gas for data centers
• SpaceX's 13th Starship flight test launches with Starlink's next-gen satellites
• Trump threatens EU with new tariffs in response to Google fine
• Paramount agrees to delay Warner Bros. merger into 2027
• Midjourney is buying horoscope app Co-Star, which users will surely be thrilled about
• Prime Video's Blade Runner 2099 now has a trailer and release date of November 25
• IMAX vs IMAX 70mm: The difference between these two cinema formats
• Boox teases the incredibly tiny Picco ereader
• PlayStation Network experienced a massive outage
• Anthropic says Opus 5 can nearly match its top-performing model for half the price
• Avatar: Seven Havens finally has a trailer and a release date of October 9
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