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How Microsoft, Meta, xAI Get AI Training Data From Their Employees
Applied AI

How Microsoft, Meta, xAI Get AI Training Data From Their Employees

By Aaron Holmes and Jyoti Mann · May 19, 2026 10:30am PDT
Microsoft’s GitHub Copilot may have lost much of its early lead in the AI coding race to rivals like Anthropic and Cursor, but Microsoft thinks it has an advantage over those companies: roughly 100,000 software engineers who work for Microsoft. As we reported Monday, Microsoft leaders think they can develop coding models using the wealth of... Microsoft’s GitHub Copilot may have lost much of its early lead in the AI coding race to rivals...
Art by Mike Sullivan
AI Agenda

Is the Gap Widening Between Anthropic and Open-Source Models?

By Stephanie Palazzolo · May 19, 2026 7:00am PDT · 1 comment
Some developers have told me that the rising costs of frontier AI models from Anthropic and other firms could prompt them to shift to cheaper open-source AI. After all, when companies as sophisticated as Uber are accidentally blowing through their entire year’s AI budget in a matter of months, it makes sense to cut back by using a less capable... Some developers have told me that the rising costs of frontier AI models from Anthropic and other...
Krishna Rangasayee. Photo By Shauna Clinton/ Getty Images
AI Agenda

Edge Inference Chip Startup SiMa.ai Raising at $1.4 Billion Valuation

By Stephanie Palazzolo and Anissa Gardizy · May 18, 2026 7:00am PDT
Nvidia might be on a tear, but some investors are still convinced that there’s demand for another kind of specialized chips. And they’re putting their money where their mouth is. For example: San Jose, Calif.-based SiMa.ai, which develops chips that work on devices such as drones or cameras, is in talks with investors to raise more than... Nvidia might be on a tear, but some investors are still convinced that there’s demand for another...
Art via Mike Sullivan
Microsoft Executives Sound the Alarm Over GitHub’s Eroding AI Lead
By Aaron Holmes · May 18, 2026 6:00am PDT
Art via Mike Sullivan
Exclusive

Microsoft Executives Sound the Alarm Over GitHub’s Eroding AI Lead

By Aaron Holmes · May 18, 2026 6:00am PDT
No part of Microsoft better illustrates its predicament in AI than GitHub. The AI boom has boosted usage and revenue of the code repository as well as GitHub Copilot, an AI coding assistant. But GitHub has struggled to respond to new AI coding competitors that have since overtaken it. And the service has suffered from frequent and major outages,... No part of Microsoft better illustrates its predicament in AI than GitHub. The AI boom has...
Elon Musk attends a state banquet at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on May 14. Brendan Smialowski/AFP/Getty.
The Briefing

SpaceX Launch, Google I/O Headline a Big News Week in Tech

By Martin Peers · May 17, 2026 3:00pm PDT
This should be an action-packed week in tech news, what with Nvidia’s first-quarter earnings, Google’s annual I/O developer conference and Meta Platforms’ scheduled layoffs of 8,000 employees. But it is Elon Musk who has the biggest week coming up.For one thing, the first test launch of SpaceX’s Starship in seven months is scheduled for Tuesday.... This should be an action-packed week in tech news, what with Nvidia’s first-quarter earnings,...
Sunday Insights

Anthropic and OpenAI’s Share of AI Startup Revenues Rises to 89%

By Amir Efrati and Stephanie Palazzolo · May 17, 2026 7:00am PDT · 4 comments
Anthropic and OpenAI are widening the revenue gap between themselves and the rest of the AI startup field. A group of 34 leading startups in that sector, including Anthropic and OpenAI, is generating nearly $80 billion in annualized revenue, or $6.6 billion per month, from selling AI applications or access to the models that power such apps,... Anthropic and OpenAI are widening the revenue gap between themselves and the rest of the AI...
Art: Mike Sullivan
The Weekend

San Francisco’s Robo-Fight Club, General Catalyst’s Divisive Virality

By Julia Hornstein and Abram Brown · May 16, 2026 8:00am PDT
Welcome, Weekenders! In this newsletter:• The Big Read: Why Trump officials and VCs love a nuclear power startup’s brute-force approach• Biotech: The case of the disappearing embryo startups • Plus, Recommendations—our weekly pop culture picks: “Are We Doomed?” “Steve Jobs in Exile” and “Lord of the Flies” The legal slugfest between Elon... Welcome, Weekenders! In this newsletter:• The Big Read: Why Trump officials and VCs love a...
Michael Nagle/Bloomberg via Getty Images.
Cerebras IPO Stock Pop; Apple-OpenAI Drama
By Martin Peers · May 14, 2026 5:00pm PDT
Michael Nagle/Bloomberg via Getty Images.
The Briefing

Cerebras IPO Stock Pop; Apple-OpenAI Drama

By Martin Peers · May 14, 2026 5:00pm PDT
This was quite the day. OpenAI is jumping up and down about its unhappiness with Apple (it’s doubtful Tim Cook is shaking in his boots). Big telecom threw down the gauntlet to Elon Musk and Amazon (not that they should worry). We get to both news items lower down. But first…the AI trade on Wall Street is booming, as demonstrated by today's... This was quite the day. OpenAI is jumping up and down about its unhappiness with Apple (it’s...
Apple's Craig Federighi announces a ChatGPT integration on Apple devices at the company's developer conference in 2024. Screenshot via YouTube

OpenAI’s Apple Partnership Sours

By Aaron Tilley · May 14, 2026 12:39pm PDT · 2 comments
OpenAI appears to be headed into conflict with another big name partner, Apple. The AI startup is considering legal action against Apple over breach of contract related to the ChatGPT integration deal it announced with Apple two years ago, said an OpenAI employee familiar with the matter. The AI company has been trying to improve its... OpenAI appears to be headed into conflict with another big name partner, Apple. The AI startup is...
Art by Clark Miller.
Applied AI

Why Anthropic Costs Are Unpredictable

By Laura Bratton · May 14, 2026 12:08pm PDT · 3 comments
Anthropic customers are already feeling pinched by the company’s AI price hikes, Aaron and I reported Wednesday. Making matters harder, Anthropic customers like PagerDuty and ServiceNow—which says it already blew through its full-year budget for Anthropic AI tools—can’t predict what they’ll pay this year.One reason Anthropic costs are tough to... Anthropic customers are already feeling pinched by the company’s AI price hikes, Aaron and I...
The BYD Denza Z9GT, on display at the Beijing Auto Show, with a silicon carbon anode. Photo: Adek Berry/AFP/Getty
The Electric

The Electric: China Steals a Manufacturing March on Another American-Made Technology

By Steve LeVine · May 14, 2026 9:00am PDT · 1 comment
For 15 years, Gene Berdichevsky, CEO of silicon carbon battery developer Sila Nanotechnologies, has been working to commercialize a battery that would charge much faster and power electric vehicles much further than conventional batteries. In September, Berdichevsky, a Tesla veteran, finally began test production at his first commercial plant,... For 15 years, Gene Berdichevsky, CEO of silicon carbon battery developer Sila Nanotechnologies,...
Photo via Getty Images
AGI Is the Elephant in the Musk v. OpenAI Courtroom
By Rocket Drew · May 14, 2026 7:00am PDT
Photo via Getty Images
AI Agenda

AGI Is the Elephant in the Musk v. OpenAI Courtroom

By Rocket Drew · May 14, 2026 7:00am PDT
Lawyers for Elon Musk and OpenAI are set today to deliver closing arguments in their trial, which centers on Musk’s allegations that OpenAI breached a charitable trust, in part by violating its charitable mission. The two sides disagree on almost everything in the case, but one phrase is likely to be mentioned in both speeches: artificial... Lawyers for Elon Musk and OpenAI are set today to deliver closing arguments in their trial, which...
Amazon HQ in Seattle. Getty Images.
The Briefing

Amazon’s AI Shopping Overhaul

By Martin Peers · May 13, 2026 5:00pm PDT · 1 comment
Remember Bard? It was the original name of Google’s AI chatbot, but the Gemini brand long ago replaced it. Just as you’ve likely forgotten that history, you’re not likely to remember Rufus in 12 months’ time, either. Rufus, the name of Amazon’s AI-powered shopping chatbot, got tossed on Wednesday and replaced with Amazon’s well-established Alexa... Remember Bard? It was the original name of Google’s AI chatbot, but the Gemini brand long ago...
Art by Mike Sulivan
Exclusive

Apple Explores Ways to Welcome AI Agents in the App Store

By Aaron Tilley · May 13, 2026 10:17am PDT
Apple is exploring ways to better incorporate AI agents into its App Store so it can benefit from the tech industry’s hottest trend while ensuring that the software in its store continues to play by its rules, according to people briefed on the matter. So far, the widespread embrace of agentic AI for software creation has put Apple on the... Apple is exploring ways to better incorporate AI agents into its App Store so it can benefit from...