Good morning. On this day in 2012, SpaceX launched a commercial space capsule called Dragon into orbit for the second time.
I know, I know. Right now you’re thinking, “Really Nusca? Reaching a bit for these, aren’t we?”
Stay with me. The capsule, packed with cargo, was headed to link up with the International Space Station. In successfully doing so, it made history as the first commercial spacecraft to visit the ISS.
Today we’re sending a lot more than cargo into low Earth orbit and the ISS itself is slated for commercial replacement. As Ferris Bueller once said: Life moves pretty fast. —Andrew Nusca
P.S. I made a mistake in yesterday’s item about Google’s new “AI mode,” which said that you needed a premium subscription to access it. That is technically true for most people right now, and has been since March—but not for long. The company has begun rolling out the capability to all U.S. search users, and you’ll see it appear in your web browser or Google app “over the coming weeks.”
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A little ditty about Jony & Sam
OpenAI on Wednesday announced its largest acquisition to date, agreeing to purchase “io,” the AI device startup co-founded by legendary Apple designer Jony Ive, in an almost $6.5 billion deal.
The goal: Develop a new generation of AI-powered devices by 2026.
The move thrusts OpenAI into the hardware business and pairs the CEO of the most valuable privately held AI company with the longtime creative mind of the tech titan that today sits at No. 3 on the Fortune 500 (but admittedly has some AI challenges to sort out).
The all-stock deal adds about 55 io engineers and designers to OpenAI’s roughly 5,000 headcount.
Ive and his creative collective LoveFrom will technically remain independent, but take over design for all of OpenAI, including software.
Ive started LoveFrom six years ago, after he left Apple. He started working with Altman two years ago, OpenAI says. He then co-founded io last year with Apple creative vets Scott Cannon, Evans Hankey, and Tang Tan.
The startup is backed by Laurene Powell Jobs’ Emerson Collective as well as Maverick Ventures, Sutter Hill Ventures, SV Angel, and Thrive Capital.
The deal is expected to close this summer, pending regulatory approval. —AN
Bitcoin reaches a new all-time high
Bitcoin’s back, baby.
The price of the cryptocurrency reached a new all-time high on Wednesday, rising to, at the time of writing, $111,746.
The previous record, $110,700, came in January following the inauguration of President Trump, who loudly advocated for crypto deregulation on the campaign trail.
The new record also caps a massive reversal from last month, when the price of Bitcoin fell to nearly $76,000 as a Trump-led global trade war got underway. Bitcoin’s recovery since then, a 45% gain, dwarfs broader market gains of about 30%.
Why now? Analysts point to several reasons.
Confident retail and institutional investors this month plowed billions into ETFs that track the price of Bitcoin. Corporations and large investment firms have also increased their Bitcoin holdings.
Meanwhile the U.S. Senate advanced a bill (the “GENIUS Act”) to create a regulatory framework for issuers of stablecoins—digital tokens pegged to fiat currencies like the U.S. dollar—giving the entire category added certainty.
Analysts believe Bitcoin will rise to as much as $120,000…but in the end, you were always going to HODL, right? —AN
Nvidia CEO: U.S. AI chip export controls ‘a failure’
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang on Wednesday bluntly criticized U.S. export controls on AI chips to China, calling them “a failure” that has backfired on American technology companies like his.
Speaking at the Computex technology show in Taipei, Huang said the restrictions—issued during the Biden administration—were based on “fundamentally flawed” assumptions that have ultimately accelerated the rise of Chinese competitors.
“Four years ago, Nvidia had 95% market share in China. Today, it is only 50%,” Huang said. “The rest is Chinese technology. They have a lot of local technology they would use if they didn’t have Nvidia.”
Chinese companies “are very determined, and export controls gave them the spirit, and government support accelerated their development,” he added.
The U.S. government’s ban on Nvidia’s export of its H20 chip, which was specifically designed for the Chinese market, forced the company to take a $5.5 billion writedown. Nvidia is reportedly working on a new version of the chip to satisfy export controls; it’s expected in July.
Huang is hardly the only semiconductor CEO to speak out against U.S. chip restrictions.
Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon joined peers back in 2023 in warning the White House that chip restrictions would harm the sector. And earlier this month, AMD CEO Lisa Su called for “balance” between national security interests and the “widest possible adoption” of U.S. technology. —AN
More tech
—Amazon debuts AI shopping experts. The audio feature summarizes details, reviews, and more.
—Telegram rakes in money. Last year, the messaging app totaled $1.4 billion in revenue and $540 million in profit despite French legal proceedings against founder Pavel Durov.
—AT&T acquires Lumen consumer fiber biz. The all-cash deal is worth $5.75 billion.
—Microsoft internal email crackdown. Following employee protests, emails with references to genocide or other hot-button issues are reportedly blocked.
—Google must face chatbot child harm suit. Did AI chatbots cause a 14-year-old’s suicide? We’ll find out in court.
—Crypto CEO convicted. Former SafeMoon chief exec Braden John Karony is found guilty of fraud and money laundering.
—Zoom offers sunny 2026 outlook. Its revised fiscal year forecast—revenues between $4.80 billion and $4.81 billion—beats its previous as well as Wall Street’s.
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