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May 21, 2026, 6:00 PM
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Wall Street Journal:
The US Commerce Department plans to award $2B in grants to nine quantum computing companies and will take equity stakes; IBM is set to get $1B of the package  —  Trump administration hopes to spur ‘a new era of American innovation,’ Commerce's Lutnick says  —  WASHINGTON—The Trump administration …
Jem Aswad / Variety:
Spotify and UMG plan to let Premium users create AI covers and remixes using music from participating UMG artists as a paid add-on, without giving a launch date  —  Spotify and Universal Music Group have announced a major recorded-music and music-publishing licensing agreements …
Ethan Millman / The Hollywood Reporter:
Spotify partners with Live Nation to launch Reserved, a new feature that sets aside tickets for the most dedicated fans, starting with Premium users in the US  —  The streaming service will use streams and shares to determine an artist's most dedicated fans and set aside pairs of tickets …
Ivan Mehta / TechCrunch:
Spotify Labs launches Studio, a NotebookLM-like desktop app to generate private, AI-powered podcasts, in research preview across 20+ markets  —  One of the common features for companies to build in the age of AI is to connect services like email, calendar, documents, and notes to create a daily brief in text or audio format.
Ashley Gold / Axios:
The White House postpones a planned Thursday ceremony for Trump to sign a new EO on AI and cybersecurity; Trump says “I didn't like certain aspects of it”  —  The White House has cancelled its planned ceremony for President Trump to sign a new executive order on AI and cybersecurity, per a note seen by Axios.
Sergiu Gatlan / BleepingComputer:
GitHub links the breach of 3,800 internal repositories to the TanStack npm supply-chain attack, saying hackers used a malicious Nx Console VS Code extension  —  GitHub says the hackers who breached 3,800 internal repositories gained access via a malicious version of the Nx Console VS Code extension …
Sean O'Kane / TechCrunch:
Waymo suspends operations in Atlanta and San Antonio as its robotaxis struggle with flooded roads and says it has yet to develop a “final remedy” for flooding  —  Waymo has now paused service in two cities because its robotaxis are struggling to deal with heavy rain and flooded roads …
Robert Booth / The Guardian:
London Mayor Sadiq Khan blocks the Met police's £50M Palantir deal to automate intelligence analysis, citing a “clear and serious breach” of procurement rules  —  Exclusive: Scotland Yard criticises London mayor's decision as disappointing and warns it could hit policing
Logan Hitchcock / Decrypt:
Crypto exchange Blockchain.com confidentially files for a US IPO; the UK-based company founded in 2011 was once valued at $14B  —  Long-running crypto exchange Blockchain.com has confidentially filed to take its business public via the U.S. markets.  —  In brief
Mark Tyson / Tom's Hardware:
Flipper unveils the Flipper One, a pocketable open Arm Linux computer with similar performance to a Raspberry Pi 5, and welcomes feedback to get it market-ready  —  But the devs admit there's still a lot of work to be done to get the Flipper One market-ready, and they are looking for contributors.
Todd Spangler / Variety:
Apple plans to broadcast an MLS game on Saturday shot entirely on 15 iPhone 17 Pros, the first major live sports event to be captured using only smartphones  —  Apple has frequently touted the use of professional-grade iPhones by filmmakers to make shorts, commercials and even feature-length movies.
Steven Lee Myers / New York Times:
Bluesky and Clemson University researchers detail a novel Russian influence campaign that hijacked influential Bluesky accounts to spread pro-Kremlin propaganda  —  The company said it was fighting Russian efforts to hijack real users' accounts to post fake content, an apparently novel tactic.
Waylon Cunningham / Reuters:
Sources: Starbucks shut down an AI program for automating inventory counts, nine months after deploying it, after it frequently miscounted and mislabeled items  —  Starbucks (SBUX.O) terminated an AI program workers used for automating certain inventory counts this week …
More: Engadget
Erin Mulvaney / Wall Street Journal:
Meta joins TikTok, Snap, and YouTube in settling with a Kentucky school district to avoid a trial over claims the platforms were designed to addict kids  —  Meta, TikTok, Snap and YouTube reached deal to avoid first of more than 1,200 consolidated lawsuits by school districts
Ofcom:
Ofcom says Meta, Snap, and Roblox have agreed to adopt stronger anti-grooming measures, while TikTok and YouTube “failed to commit to any significant changes”
Cecilia Kang / New York Times:
Gavin Newsom signs an EO mandating state agencies work with the AI industry and others to study subsidies for companies that don't replace workers with AI  —  Gov. Gavin Newsom issued an executive order to explore an overhaul of labor policies to deal with potential mass job displacement from artificial intelligence.
Bloomberg:
Analysis: Samsung is set to distribute ~$26.6B to its 78,000 chip employees, or a ~$340K bonus to each, in early 2027 as part of a last-minute labor union deal  —  Samsung Electronics Co. could distribute about 40 trillion won ($26.6 billion) to chip employees as a bonus for this year …
CNBC:
Jeff Bezos dismisses AI job fears, defends billionaires against “vilification”, proposes eliminating income taxes for low earners, and praises President Trump  —  VIDEO 54:38  —  Watch CNBC's full interview with Amazon founder Jeff Bezos  —  Ultrabillionaire Jeff Bezos …
Mark Gurman / Bloomberg:
Source: smart ring maker Oura filed confidentially for a US IPO, set for later in 2026; SF- and Finland-based Oura had an $11B valuation in September 2025  —  Smart Ring Maker Oura Files Confidentially for IPO  —  Video Player is loading.  —  Unmute  —  Current Time 0:00 Loaded: 0.00% Playback Rate
Samantha Subin / CNBC:
Spotify closes up 13% after announcing new features and 2030 guidance, forecasting a compound annual growth rate in the mid-teens and gross margins of 35%-40%  —  Spotify shares jumped 15% on Thursday after the music streaming platform laid out guidance for 2030 and reached an artificial intelligence deal …
Sherry Qin / Wall Street Journal:
AMD pledges to invest $10B+ in Taiwan's chip industry to make advanced chip packaging for AI, and says TSMC will ramp up production of its next-gen Venice chips  —  The company is investing more to meet growing demand for artificial-intelligence infrastructure
Rachel Metz / Bloomberg:
Source: Cursor reached $3B in annualized revenue in late April and now has 3,000+ customers paying at least $100K each for its software on an annualized basis  —  Cursor's annualized revenue hit $3 billion in late April, according to a person familiar with the matter, indicating growing demand …
Zaheer Kachwala / Reuters:
Take-Two reports Q4 bookings flat YoY at $1.58B, forecasts FY 2027 bookings below est., reiterates GTA VI's November 19 launch date; TTWO jumps 6%+ after hours  —  Take-Two Interactive (TTWO.O) forecast annual bookings below Wall Street expectations on Thursday, but reiterated …

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This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 6:00 PM ET, May 21, 2026.

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From Mediagazer

Connor Hart / Wall Street Journal:
Hasbro launches Sixth Wall, an AI studio working with ElevenLabs and voice actors to create and license AI-native versions of its characters and franchises

Tyler Falk / Current:
NPR is overhauling its dues model so that fees are based on news stations' broadcast reach rather than donor revenues and projects dues will fall 15% to 18%

Amos Barshad / Columbia Journalism Review:
Some right-wing news influencers are using Meta's Ray-Ban sunglasses as a recording tool that unwilling subjects may not be aware of, leading to tension

More News

Anne Steele / Wall Street Journal:
Netflix and iHeartMedia say Charlamagne tha God's The Breakfast Club will stream live on Netflix on weekdays from June 1, the service's first daily live show

Earlier Picks

Bloomberg:
SpaceX S-1: Valor Equity founder Antonio Gracias, a longtime Elon Musk ally, controls a 4% stake in SpaceX, the second-largest disclosed holder after Musk
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