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May 16, 2026, 5:35 PM
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memeorandum
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| Deedy / @deedydas: |
SF vibes are frenetic over the huge divide in outcomes and career uncertainty for software engineers; over 5 years ~10K people in AI attained retirement wealth — The vibes in SF feel pretty frenetic right now. The divide in outcomes is the worst I've ever seen. Over the last 5yrs, a group of ~10k people - employees at Anthropic, OpenAI, xAI, Nvidia, Meta TBD, founders - have hit retirement wealth of well above $20M (back of the envelope
More: TechCrunch and The Decoder
| Terrence O'Brien / The Verge: |
In an experiment that let Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini, and Grok run radio stations, Claude tried to incite a revolution and Gemini cheerfully detailed tragic events — Claude tried to incite a revolution, Gemini cheerfully detailed horrific tragedies, and poor Grok was just confused.
More: Andon Labs, Andon Labs on YouTube, and Business Insider
X: @emollick, @andonlabs, @kelseytuoc, @andonlabs, @andonlabs, @andonlabs, @andonlabs, and @andonlabs. LinkedIn: The Verge. Bluesky: @terrenceobrien. Forums: r/ClaudeAI
| Matthew Boesler / Bloomberg: |
US Bureau of Labor Statistics data: employment in 18 AI-exposed occupations fell 0.2% between May 2024 and May 2025, while the broader US labor market rose 0.8% — Several US occupations expected to be impacted by artificial intelligence saw heavy job losses for a second year in 2025 … | Bloomberg: |
Vietnam's government, which once saw video games as a social risk, named gaming as one of its key cultural industries in 2025 and now promotes them at expos — Communist officials who long viewed video games as a social risk now see them as key to a knowledge-driven economy.| Mike Lee / Politico: |
Hill County, which faced eight new data centers, passed what may be Texas' first county-wide ban on them, for one year; the state trails only VA in data centers — Opposition to data centers is spreading in regions led by both Democrats and Republicans, as politicians try to balance economic development … | Bloomberg: |
ASML will partner with Tata Electronics to help it bring an $11B 300mm chip factory online in Gujarat, expanding India's ability to produce chips domestically — ASML Holding NV entered into a partnership agreement with Tata Electronics Private Limited aimed at ramping up India's goal …
More: The Tech Portal, Crypto Briefing, Reuters, The Economic Times, and The Hindu
| Zinnia Lee / Forbes: |
Shenzhen-listed RoboTechnik, which claims to be the largest silicon photonics tool maker and whose stock is up 340% over the past year, files for a HK listing — RoboTechnik Intelligent Technology's Shenzhen-listed shares soared 340% over the past year, propelling founder Dai Jun's net worth to $2.4 billion.| Kwanwoo Jun / Wall Street Journal: |
South Korea's Hana Bank agrees to acquire a 6.55% stake in Dunamu, which runs South Korea's largest crypto exchange Upbit, for $672.5M from Kakao — The deal would make Hana Bank the fourth largest shareholder in Dunamu — Hana Bank will buy a roughly $670 million stake … | Anirban Sen / Reuters: |
Sources: Kalshi has probed and flagged 400+ suspicious trades YTD, more than 2x the number it investigated in all of 2025; Polymarket has seen a similar uptick — Top prediction market platforms Kalshi and Polymarket have witnessed a surge in suspicious trades this year … | Bloomberg: |
Filings: YouTube, Snap, and TikTok reach agreements to settle a lawsuit, set for trial in June, over claims social media addiction disrupted kids' learning — Snap Inc., Google's YouTube and ByteDance Ltd.'s TikTok reached agreements to settle the first lawsuit headed to trial over claims … | Krisztian Sandor / CoinDesk: |
LA-based Fasset, which offers stablecoin-powered banking and cross-border payments services across Asia, Africa, and the Middle East, raised a $51M Series B — The Shariah-compliant digital bank is part of a growing wave of fintech startups building banking and payments services on top of blockchain and stablecoin rails.
More: Crowdfund Insider, Fasset, crypto.news, TNGlobal, DealStreetAsia, FinTech Global, PYMNTS, and FinTech Global. LinkedIn: Daniel Ahmed
| Mike Isaac / New York Times: |
Sources: OpenAI acquired Weights.gg, which offered AI tools to create clones of people's voices, earlier this year; PitchBook: Weights.gg had raised roughly $4M — The acquisition, Weights.gg, was a sort of social network for creating and sharing artificial intelligence algorithms.
More: The Hans India, Hackread, Techstrong.ai, The Decoder, Livemint, and Implicator.ai. X: @mikeisaac
| John Ainger / Bloomberg: |
Power prices on the largest electric grid in the US, operated by PJM, jumped 76% YoY to an average of $136.53/MWh in Q1 due to rampant demand from data centers — Power prices on the largest electric grid in the US jumped 76% in the first quarter due to rampant demand from data centers … | Ivan Mehta / TechCrunch: |
OpenAI debuts personal finance tools for US ChatGPT Pro users, partnering with Plaid to give access to 12K+ financial institutions to analyze spending and more — On Friday, OpenAI launched a new set of personal finance tools in preview for ChatGPT Pro subscribers in the U.S. …
More: OpenAI, The Verge, Gizmodo, The Next Web, MacRumors, Benzinga, Thurrott, The Indian Express, PCMag, The Mac Observer, Moneycontrol, Blockonomi, Neowin, Times of India, Digit, Livemint, TestingCatalog AI News, This Week in Fintech, GSMArena.com, Engadget, Implicator.ai, PYMNTS, Mashable, Digital Trends, Yahoo Finance, Decrypt, Paste, WeRSM, The Tech Portal, and Crypto Briefing
X: @fidjissimo, @chatgptapp, @deryatr_, @omooretweets, @mcuban, @pitdesi, @sporadica, @racheltobac, @pareen, @zachperret, @gdb, @katiemiller, @glindaupland, @iterintellectus, and @frankdegods
LinkedIn: Tatsuto Fujii, Brad Auerbach, and Stephanie Daub Struck
Bluesky: @seosavvyagent.com, @numb.comfortab.ly, and @stevenjcbuckley
Mastodon: @arichtman@eigenmagic.net, @carnage4life@mas.to, @reiayanami@aus.social, and @counternotions@mastodon …
Forums: r/technology, r/Boldin, r/OpenAI, r/Schwab, r/technology, r/antiai, r/skeptic, r/ArtificialInteligence, r/BetterOffline, r/privacy, and r/technology
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