Debby Wu / Bloomberg:
TSMC reports Q1 revenue up 35% YoY to ~$35.6B, above est., suggesting global chip demand remained intact during the first weeks of the war in the Middle East  —  Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. reported a 35% increase in quarterly revenue, suggesting global AI chip demand remained intact during …

Maxwell Zeff / Wired:
OpenAI backs an Illinois bill shielding AI labs from liability even for “critical harms,” like 100+ deaths or $1B+ damage, if safety reports were published  —  The ChatGPT-maker testified in favor of an Illinois bill that would limit when AI labs can be held liable—even in cases where their products cause “critical harm.”

Financial Times:
Sources: Alibaba appointed Cloud CTO Zhou Jingren to lead its AI unit after a pivot from open source to monetizable “MaaS” models led to Qwen exec departures  —  Move may affect a global developer community that relies on Qwen models from the Chinese company

Anna Tong / Forbes:
AfterQuery, which sells coding and finance training data to AI labs, says it raised a $30M Series A at a $300M valuation, and has hit a $100M+ annual run rate  —  AfterQuery, which raised $30 million several months ago, competes with data labeling companies like Mercor to sell training data …

Seth Joseph / Forbes:
Luminai, an AI-native platform for automating administrative healthcare workflows, raised a $38M Series B led by Peak XV, bringing its total funding to $60M  —  Cleveland, Ohio, USA - June 17, 2017: Daytime view of Cleveland Clinic main campus entrance reflecting pool near University Circle

Joe Rossignol / MacRumors:
Apple is closing its Towson, Maryland store, the first US location where retail employees unionized; the union says it is “outraged” and exploring legal options  —  Apple today announced it will be permanently closing three retail stores in the U.S. in June, including Apple Trumbull in Trumbull …

Bloomberg:
Sources: US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Fed Chair Jerome Powell warned bank CEOs about Anthropic's Mythos model's risks at an urgent meeting Tuesday  —  Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell summoned Wall Street leaders to an urgent meeting on concerns …

Bloomberg:
Alibaba led a ~$293M funding round for ShengShu, just two months after the creator of the Vidu AI video generator raised ~$88M  —  Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.'s cloud division led a 2 billion yuan ($293 million) funding round for ShengShu Technology, bolstering the war chest of a young contender in China's crowded AI video contest.

Cory Weinberg / The Information:
Sources: SpaceX lost just under $5B last year while generating more than $18.5B in revenue; the loss figure includes xAI  —  SpaceX lost just under $5 billion last year while generating more than $18.5 billion in revenue, two people familiar with the figures said.

Reuters:
Sources: Anthropic is weighing the possibility of designing its own chips, but it has yet to commit to a design or put together a dedicated team for the project  —  Artificial intelligence lab Anthropic is exploring the possibility of designing its own chips, three sources said …

Maxwell Zeff / Wired:
How Black Forest Labs, a 70-person startup based in Germany, became a top competitor in AI image generation; sources: it recently declined to partner with xAI  —  Black Forest Labs has long punched above its weight in the AI image generation space.  Its next move?  Powering physical AI.

Financial Times:
xAI has filed a lawsuit challenging Colorado's landmark AI anti-discrimination law, set to take effect in the summer, saying it violates free speech protections  —  Elon Musk's AI lab claims the regulations violate free speech protections  —  Elon Musk's xAI has filed a lawsuit challenging …

Shirin Ghaffary / Bloomberg:
An OpenAI note to investors after Anthropic announced Mythos says OpenAI's early push to increase computing resources gives it a key advantage over Anthropic  —  OpenAI told investors this week that its early push to dramatically increase computing resources gives it a key advantage …