|
|
|
May 06, 2026
|
|
|
|
|
Supported by
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Happy Wednesday! Elon Musk’s voting control of SpaceX rises to 84%. Meta Platforms is building an AI agent internally known as "Hatch" and a new AI shopping tool. Apple is looking to diversify chip manufacturing with Intel and Samsung.
|
|
|
|
Elon Musk’s voting control of SpaceX jumped to 83.8% from 80% this year over the period when the space firm acquired xAI, according to newly available regulatory filings. Musk’s growing voting control at SpaceX, revealed in documents the company filed with the Federal Communications Commission, reveal how the xAI changed Musk’s stake in the combined firm ahead of its planned initial public offering. SpaceX acquired xAI on Feb. 2 in a deal that valued the AI firm at $250 billion and the space firm at $1 trillion. Musk’s equity stake also grew to 42.5% from 41.5%
over the same period, the FCC documents show. The filings reflect changes in SpaceX’s ownership between January 30 and May 1 of this year. When SpaceX goes through with an initial public offering planned for this summer, the company plans to adopt a dual-class share structure giving Musk super-voting Class B shares in which each share is worth 10 votes, The Information has reported.
|
|
|
|
Meta Platforms is building a consumer version of the AI agent OpenClaw and a new agentic shopping tool, The Information reported on Tuesday. The company is training the OpenClaw-inspired agent, internally called “Hatch,” with the goal of internal testing by the end of June, one of the people said. The aim is for Hatch, the name of which might change once it is launched, to be able to perform a range of tasks for people. As part of its training work, for example, Meta has built “sandboxed” web environments where the agent can be tested on simulations of
real websites such as DoorDash, Etsy, Reddit, Yelp, and Outlook, the person said. Meta plans to integrate the separate agentic shopping tool into its Instagram service, with and is targeting a launch before the fourth quarter of this year, another person familiar with the efforts said.
|
|
|
|
Apple is in talks with Intel and Samsung to manufacture processors for its devices, a move that would diversify its supply chain beyond longtime chip partner Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., Bloomberg reported. TSMC is by far the leader in the most advanced semiconductor fabrication capabilities, which Apple has long relied on for its chip advantage over device rivals. But TSMC’s operations are primarily located in Taiwan, which is at risk of a China invasion that could potentially disrupt the flow of chips. AI chip demand has also
taken up an increasing portion of TSMC’s chipmaking capacity. In Apple’s second-quarter earnings last week, the company said limited chip supply was holding back growth for its latest iPhones and Mac computers. The impact was especially severe for the Mac Mini and Mac Studio, puck-shaped computers without an external monitor or keyboard that have become popular among AI developers. The report sent Intel’s shares up 14% on Tuesday. The U.S. chip vendor has been hunting for external customers for its chip fabrication business as part of an attempted revival under new CEO Lip-Bu Tan. Intel previously sold processors to Apple for Mac and cellular modems for the iPhone for a few years, until Apple turned to internal chip designs.
|
|
|
|
AI server chip maker Advanced Micro Devices said Tuesday that its revenue growth would accelerate eight percentage points to 46% in the current quarter, after rising 38% to $10.3 billion in the first quarter. Shares rose 16% in after-hours trading. Sales of AMD’s AI graphics processing units are boosting its growth as cloud providers and developers such as Meta and Microsoft agree to purchase its flagship product, hoping to reduce their reliance on more-expensive chips from Nvidia. AMD is preparing to ship an AI rack system, including central processing units, that aims to compete with racks Nvidia sells. CEO Lisa Su said GPU sales forecasts for next year were higher than AMD anticipated and that sales of CPUs for data centers were growing faster than expected, reaching 70% growth in the current quarter. She said the total addressable market for AMD’s CPUs had doubled
to $120 billion by 2030 compared to her prior TAM estimate six months ago. Nvidia is nearly seven times bigger than AMD in revenue and is growing its revenue about 30 percentage points faster than AMD (while also experiencing accelerating sales), underscoring the gap in performance. Still, AMD shares have been on a tear as investors bet on a market that’s large enough to accommodate numerous AI server chip designers. Before the post-earnings bump, AMD shares were up nearly 60% this year and up more than three and half times in the past 12 months, giving it a nearly $580 billion market capitalization. Nvidia shares are up about 4% this year.
|
|
|
|
On Tuesday, a small agency within the U.S. Department of Commerce announced new agreements with Google, Microsoft and xAI that will allow the federal government to conduct national security testing on frontier AI models before they’re released to the public. The office, the Center for AI Standards and Innovation, said in a press release that the new partnerships will allow the government to assess potential risks, as well as the models’ capabilities. CAISI previously announced similar agreements with Anthropic and OpenAI in August 2024. The office—which was previously known as AI Safety Institute until the Trump administration renamed it—said that it has completed more than 40 such evaluations. “These expanded industry collaborations help us scale our work in the public interest at a critical moment,” said CAISI Director Chris Fall in a statement. The announcement comes a day after reports that the White House is weighing measures to establish guardrails and review processes for new AI models, including a
potential executive order that would establish a working group of industry executives and government officials.
|
|
|
|
| |
