OpenAI dropped its Microsoft exclusivity, Gulf data center investments froze after Iranian strikes, and Maryland became the first US state to ban algorithmic pricing.
🤖 AI
Microsoft and OpenAI reworked their partnership
Azure lost exclusive access to OpenAI models, and the partnership was extended to 2032 with a fixed revenue-share cap. Key change: the clause that let OpenAI restrict Microsoft's access to its technology after reaching AGI is gone. AWS has already launched Bedrock Managed Agents on OpenAI models.
DeepSeek cut V4-Pro prices by 75%
The open model turned out to be comparable to GPT-5.4 and Claude Opus 4.7 at roughly 1/6 the cost. Meanwhile, the US accused Chinese labs, including DeepSeek, of stealing IP from American companies.
NVIDIA introduced Nemotron 3 Nano Omni
The multimodal model on a hybrid Mamba-Transformer architecture topped MMlongbench-Doc and VoiceBench — covering documents, audio, and video in long context.
Sanctioned SenseTime released SenseNova U1
Cut off from top-tier chips, the Chinese company bet on open source — the model works directly with pixels, no VAE, optimized for domestic hardware.
💻 Software
GitHub moved Copilot to usage-based billing
Starting June 1, all plans get a monthly AI-credit limit and switch to usage-based billing. The company essentially admitted it could no longer cover inference costs for power users with a flat subscription.
OpenAI open-sourced Symphony
The spec for orchestrating coding agents turns an issue tracker into a control panel — tasks are broken into isolated autonomous runs, developers get a Proof-of-Work receipt, and work one level up from the code.
Replit launched Slides
The new presentation tool promised to "embarrass every deck made before AI" — slide decks assembled from a prompt, same as sites in Replit.
⚙️ Robotics and hardware
Strikes on AWS data centers froze Gulf investment
Pure DC (part of Oaktree) paused all projects in the region: after March drone strikes on Amazon facilities in the UAE and Bahrain, the military damage to infrastructure turned out to be uninsurable.
Figure AI started serial production of humanoids
The new BotQ factory is turning out one robot per hour — 12,000 units a year, with a target of 100,000 over four years.
Memory could account for 45% of iPhone component costs by 2027
Per JPMorgan calculations, memory's share of iPhone components could jump from 10% to 45% — AI-driven demand for DRAM and NAND has heated up the market, and Apple is for the first time having to compete for supply.
NVIDIA B200 spot-market price jumped 114% in six weeks
Rental rates spiked to $4.95/hour amid GPT-5.5 training and other new model launches.
💰 Business
OpenAI missed revenue and user targets
CFO Sarah Friar was worried the company might not be able to cover $600B+ in compute obligations. A Q4 2026 IPO is now in question.
Elon Musk vs. Sam Altman: trial begins
Jury selection started April 27. Musk is seeking Altman's removal and up to $134B in damages for the OpenAI nonprofit.
DeepMind's David Silver raised a record $1.1B seed
The former reinforcement learning lead closed the largest seed round in history for Ineffable Intelligence — a superintelligence startup.
Maryland became the first US state to ban "surveillance pricing"
Governor Wes Moore signed a law stripping grocery chains and delivery services of the right to personalize prices based on customer data. It takes effect October 1.