Good morning. You know that old saying about talking the talk and walking the walk?
As some of the largest corporations in the U.S. tout the efficiencies and opportunities of artificial intelligence, they’re quietly asking their legal departments to list AI as a disclosed risk in their financial filings. Three in four corporations listed in the S&P 500 have reportedly done so.
The concern doesn’t stop there, by the way: One in 10 of those companies also acknowledged in their filings that they may never see ROI on their AI spending. Beats M&A, I guess.
Today’s tech news below. —Andrew Nusca
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Crypto regulation bills stumble in U.S. Congress
Republicans were driving toward a fresh round of new crypto laws this week before a faction within the majority party in the U.S. House of Representatives suddenly derailed the proceedings.
But late Tuesday, U.S. President Trump said that he had made an unspecified deal with nearly all of the dozen Republican Congressional holdouts—who had voted with the entire Democratic caucus—to advance a package of legislation that includes three crypto measures.
Those measures—the CLARITY, GENIUS, and Anti CBDC Surveillance State acts—include regulatory frameworks for digital assets and stablecoin issuers as well as a ban on the Federal Reserve from issuing a so-called Central Bank Digital Currency.
More than one Republican representative who voted “no” expressed concern that the legislation didn’t sufficiently ban CBDCs.
Proponents say CBDCs are a more secure, efficient, and inclusive way to settle payments—for example, you wouldn’t need a money transfer operator (e.g. Western Union) to move funds across borders, and you would be able to do so near-instantaneously.
Critics say CBDCs would allow the federal government to infringe on individuals’ privacy to monitor financial transactions with a level of granularity it cannot with cash.
The House will formally vote on the bills today. —AN
Apple signs deal to buy rare-earth magnets from U.S. producer
Apple has announced a $500 million commitment to MP Materials, the only fully integrated rare-earth producer in the United States.
The multiyear deal, which includes a $200 million upfront payment, will see Apple source American-made neodymium magnets from MP’s new manufacturing lines in Fort Worth, Texas, and collaborate on a state-of-the-art recycling facility in Mountain Pass, California.
Neodymium magnets are the most widely used type of rare-earth magnet on the planet and are essential for Apple’s iPhones, Macs, and AirPods.
The agreement comes as the rare-earths market faces intensifying geopolitical headwinds.
China currently controls over 90% of global rare-earth magnet production and refining capacity, according to the New York Times, making it a critical chokepoint for the world’s technology supply chains.
In recent years, Beijing has demonstrated a willingness to leverage its dominance as a geopolitical tool, raising the specter of export restrictions or price shocks during periods of trade tension.
By investing heavily in domestic production and recycling, Apple is essentially pre-bunkering its supply chain—proactively securing access to critical components before the next global disruption.
The initiative dovetails with Apple’s sweeping $500 billion U.S. investment plan, which includes major outlays in semiconductors, AI infrastructure, and workforce development. —Dave Smith
Thinking Machines Lab raises $2 billion
What’s former OpenAI CTO Mira Murati up to lately? Now we know.
Thinking Machines Lab, the AI startup she founded after leaving OpenAI last fall, said Tuesday that it has raised some $2 billion from an array of top-flight tech investors including Andreessen Horowitz, Nvidia, Accel, ServiceNow, Cisco, AMD, and Jane Street.
The funding round values the product-less, revenue-less company at $12 billion.
To put that in perspective: That’s a stunning valuation for a firm that’s a mere five months old, yet half the value of Safe Superintelligence (SSI) founded by former OpenAI chief scientist Ilya Sutskever, one-fifth that of former OpenAI staffers Dario and Daniela Amodei’s Anthropic, and a fraction of OpenAI’s own category-leading $300 billion.
The majority of Thinking Machines Labs’ employees came from—you guessed it—OpenAI. (I think I’m picking up on a trend here.)
In a social media post, Murati said the company plans to share its first product “in the next couple of months.” She added that it would include “a significant open source component” and be useful to those developing custom AI models. —AN
More tech
—Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg: “The amount that is being spent to recruit [top AI talent] is still quite small compared to the overall investment.”
—Mistral releases Voxtral, its first open-source AI audio model family. (Think: Multilingual transcription.)
—Former U.S. Army soldier linked to telco hacks. Cameron John Wagenius pleads guilty to hacking more than 10 companies, including AT&T and Verizon.
—Google signs power deals with Brookfield. Two 20-year power purchase agreements for 670 (and up to 3,000) megawatts of hydroelectric power.
—OpenAI’s culture: “Ambitious,” “serious,” “secretive,” and “all in” on decisions made quickly, according to a former engineer.
—Microsoft reportedly uses China engineers to maintain U.S. government systems.
—Roblox debuts licensing platform with Netflix, Lionsgate, more. Get ready for Stranger Things, uh, things on the gaming platform.
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