Techmeme: Defense tech firm Leidos acquires VA-based Kudu Dynamics, which provides AI-enabled cyber defense and offense tools to the US DOD and other customers, for $300M (Courtney Albon/Defense News)

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May 31, 2025, 3:45 AM

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Dan Primack / Axios:

Q&A with Mary Meeker on publishing her first Trends report since 2019, its focus on the AI revolution, why OpenAI may have an insurmountable lead, and more — Mary Meeker, the famed internet analyst turned venture capitalist, on Friday published her first Trends report since 2019 — focused on the AI revolution.

More: Bond Capital, TechCrunch, Financial Times, PitchBook, and The Information

Bluesky: @glinden and @eguango. Threads: @benedictevans

X: @davidmarcus, @buccocapital, @refsrc, @pedroh96, @hdubugras, @edsim, @bondcap, @modestproposal1, and @howardlindzon

LinkedIn: Katie Denton and Alexander Krey. Forums: Hacker News

Wall Street Journal:

US v. Google: during closing arguments, a judge queried both sides on ideas to limit Google's monopoly in search and said he expects to issue a ruling in August — Lawyers began making closing arguments Friday in landmark antitrust case over online search market, future of artificial intelligence

Bloomberg:

Sources: Elon Musk is pushing lawmakers to help clear a path for driverless vehicles and has been weighing in on revisions of a bill on autonomous vehicles — In recent weeks, Musk and people who work for him have been calling members of Congress directly to gather support, said the people …

More: CleanTechnica, Benzinga, TechCrunch, InsideEVs, and TESLARATI

Reed Albergotti / Semafor:

Sources: Anthropic has been lobbying Congress to oppose a bill banning states from regulating AI, and pushed against the recent US AI deal with Gulf states — THE SCOOP — Anthropic is going toe-to-toe with the Trump Administration on artificial intelligence policy …

X: @bgurley, @davidsacks, @miles_brundage, and @reedalbergotti

New York Times:

Sources: Palantir's Foundry is now deployed in at least four federal agencies, after Trump signed an EO calling for the government to share data across agencies — Alex Karp, a co-founder and the chief executive of Palantir, at a forum in Washington in April.

More: Wired, New Republic, Politico, The Information, Insider Monkey, TheStreet, MSNBC, The Independent, Benzinga, Yahoo Finance, Mock Paper Scissors, Raw Story, Techdirt, NPR, Talking Points Memo, IJR, and Wall Street Journal

Bluesky: @brockm, @menendez.house.gov, @maxberger, @daviddarmofal, @shawnmusgrave, @joshsternberg.com, @leahfeiger, @timmarchman, @katie-drummond, @makenakelly, @papasc, @50501newyork, @tinyklaus.com, @justinlevitt, and @carlquintanilla

Mastodon: @chrisstoecker@mastodon.social, @wendysiegelman@mastodon …, @KimPerales@toad.social, and @jeffjarvis@mastodon.social

X: @jeffjarvis and @eff

LinkedIn: Christian Stoecker and Jerry Davis

Reuters:

Letter: Synopsys tells staff to stop sales, services, and new orders in China to comply with new US export curbs, and pulls its annual and quarterly forecasts — Semiconductor design software firm Synopsys (SNPS.O) has told staff in China to halt services and sales in the country and stop taking …

Bloomberg:

Sources: Trump administration plans to expand Entity List restrictions to cover subsidiaries of Chinese companies, aiming to block workarounds via new offshoots

More: crypto.news, Yahoo Finance, Benzinga, BeInCrypto, Tom's Hardware, and Financial Times

Bloomberg:

Vista Equity Partners agrees to acquire ERP software provider Acumatica from PE firm EQT, sources say in a deal that values Acumatica at ~$2B including debt — Vista is buying the Bellvue, Washington-based firm from private equity firm EQT AB, according to a statement Thursday that confirmed an earlier Bloomberg News report.

More: Business Wire, Pulse 2.0, Verdict, Seattle Business Journal, GeekWire, Axios, CPA Practice Advisor, PYMNTS.com, and Channel Futures

LinkedIn: Acumatica and Vista Equity Partners

Reuters:

Sources: Anthropic's annualized revenue hit ~$3B at the end of May, driven by business demand, up from $2B around the end of March and ~$1B in December 2024 — Artificial intelligence developer Anthropic is making about $3 billion in annualized revenue, according to two sources familiar with the matter …

Mastodon: @carnage4life@mas.to. X: @annatonger

Washington Post:

Sources: the White House is finalizing EOs on drones that could end Chinese drone sales in the US, update federal rules on where drones can be flown, and more — President Trump is expected to sign executive orders next week that widen his policies targeting China and Chinese companies.

More: IT Brew and The Kyiv Independent

Bluesky: @etxgov. Forums: r/politics

Kate Clark / Bloomberg:

Sources: Abridge, which uses AI to transcribe medical chats, is raising $300M led by a16z at a $5.3B valuation, up from $2.75B in February when it raised $250M — The startup is raising $300 million for software that takes notes on conversations with doctors and patients.

Bloomberg:

Docs and sources: Builder.ai faked business with Bengaluru-based VerSe, which runs the Dailyhunt news app, by “round-tripping” sales worth ~$60M from 2021-2024 — Builder.ai, the artificial intelligence startup that recently announced plans to declare bankruptcy …

More: The Captable. Bluesky: @edzitron.com, @mhbergen, and @edzitron.com

X: @patwardhannn, @patwardhannn, @workmj, @patwardhannn, @patwardhannn, @patwardhannn, and @steventey

LinkedIn: Mark Bergen, Bismah Malik, and Yazhou Sun

Katherine Davis / Axios:

Vivodyne, which uses AI and robots to grow human tissues in the lab for drug discovery and development, raised a $40M Series A, taking its total funding to $78M — Vivodyne, a San Francisco-based startup using lab-grown human tissues to discover and develop drugs, raised $40 million in a Series A led by Khosla Ventures.

More: FinSMEs, STAT, Business Wire, HIT Consultant, and VC News Daily. X: @vivodyne

Courtney Albon / Defense News:

Defense tech firm Leidos acquires VA-based Kudu Dynamics, which provides AI-enabled cyber defense and offense tools to the US DOD and other customers, for $300M — Defense technology firm Leidos announced Wednesday it closed a $300 million acquisition of Kudu Dynamics, a company that develops AI-enabled cyber capabilities.

More: Washington Business Journal, Washington Technology, Breaking Defense, Leidos, and Pulse 2.0

X: @leidosinc and @leidosinc

Olivia Poh / Bloomberg:

Sources: TikTok Shop cuts several hundred jobs in Indonesia, leaving Tokopedia and TikTok Shop with ~2,500 employees in the country, down from ~5,000 last year — The Chinese social media giant is reducing staff across e-commerce teams including logistics, operations, marketing and warehousing …

More: Tech in Asia. X: @business

Reed Albergotti / Semafor:

A Replit employee details a critical security flaw in web apps created using AI-powered app builder Lovable that exposes API keys and personal info of app users — THE SCOOP — Lovable, the popular vibe coding app that describes itself as the fastest-growing company in Europe …

More: Analytics India Magazine, Matt's Website, The Information, and Matt's Website

X: @reedalbergotti, @semafor, @reedalbergotti, @doctoryev, @amasad, @lovable_dev, @lovable_dev, @mattppal, @antonosika, and @antonosika. Forums: Slashdot

Allie Garfinkle / Fortune:

NYC-based Empathy, which runs an online platform providing on-demand tools and guidance for bereaving families, raised a $72M Series C led by Adams Street — Ron Gura, cofounder and CEO of Empathy. — Empathy — Ron Gura doesn't use the word “death” every day. — Recommended Video

More: CTech, Empathy, Business Wire, FinSMEs, and VC News Daily

LinkedIn: Ron Gura, Empathy, and Empathy

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From Mediagazer

Benjamin Mullin / New York Times:

NPR retracts an article saying Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito was retiring; he has made no such announcement, and a spokesman called the story “inaccurate”

Rick Porter / The Hollywood Reporter:

Netflix and Eureka Productions worked with ElevenLabs to use AI to re-create Gene Wilder's voice as Willy Wonka for a new unscripted series

Reuters:

The UK says it is leaning towards intervening in Paramount's $110B WBD takeover, citing concerns over media freedom and the provision of on-demand programming

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More News

Vishal Singh / Silicon Canals:

London-based Dojo, a payments tech provider to over 140K businesses, raised $190M from Vitruvian Partners in its first equity raise since launching in 2021

More: FinSMEs, Business Wire, Finextra, UKTN, PYMNTS.com, The Paypers, FinTech Futures, FinTech Global, and Tech Funding News

Max Knoblauch / Sherwood News:

Nvidia reported record gaming revenue of $3.76B in Q1, up 42% YoY, driven by sales of its Blackwell chips that are used to enhance game graphics through DLSS

More: The Motley Fool, PC Guide, and The Verge. Bluesky: @sherwood.news

Chris Metinko / Axios:

Boston-based cloud cost management startup CloudZero raised a $56M Series C led by BlueCrest Capital Management and Innovius Capital

More: SiliconANGLE, CloudZero, and CRN. LinkedIn: CloudZero

Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:

Automattic says it will resume contributing to the WordPress project, after announcing a pause in April

More: Automattic. Bluesky: @ernie.tedium.co. X: @davidrisley, @automattic, @kevin_jahns, @prashant_baldha, and @katiekeithbarn2. Forums: Slashdot

Bloomberg:

Sources: TSMC is evaluating building a “gigafab” in the UAE and has discussed the possibility with MGX and officials in the Trump administration

Ina Fried / Axios:

Microsoft hires ex-Biden administration lawyer Lisa Monaco as president of global affairs and promotes ex-Trump official C.J. Mahoney to general counsel

More: The Information. X: @inafried. LinkedIn: C.J. Mahoney

Duncan Riley / SiliconANGLE:

Prepared, which offers AI tools to modernize emergency response systems, raised a $80M Series C led by General Catalyst, bringing its total funding to ~$135.2M

More: GovTech, General Catalyst, and Fast Company

X: @davidu and @kimberlywtan

Axios:

Sources: Atticus, a stealthy stablecoin banking startup, is in advanced talks to raise new funding led by Palmer Luckey at a valuation of between $1.5B and $2B

More: The Block. Bluesky: @stevenjcbuckley. X: @pitdesi

Earlier Picks

Wired:

German police identify TrickBot and Conti ransomware leader “Stern” as Vitaly Nikolaevich Kovalev, believed to be in Russia and shielded from extradition

More: BleepingComputer. Bluesky: @lhn, @mattburgess1, and @couts. LinkedIn: Matt Burgess

Rashi Shrivastava / Forbes:

Snorkel AI, which pivoted from data labeling to building AI evaluation tools, raised a $100M Series D led by Addition at a $1.3B valuation, up from $1B in 2021

More: Pulse 2.0 and FinSMEs

LinkedIn: André Balleyguier and Dan O'Mahony

Cory Weinberg / The Information:

Source: Chime's IPO is expected to price at ~$11B, down from its $25B private valuation in 2021; every VC-backed IPO in the past 12 months has been a down round

More: Bloomberg and Fortune. LinkedIn: Aman Verjee

Dave Lee / Bloomberg:

Meta's Anduril deal shows how much has changed in the past couple of years in Silicon Valley, where developing war tech was once considered a hard red line

New York Times:

Sources: Elon Musk engaged in intense drug use during the 2024 presidential campaign, as he juggled the messy consequences of efforts to produce more babies

More: HuffPost, Yahoo Finance, Rolling Stone, Page Six, CNBC, Democrats, PCMag, People, Mirror, Australian Financial Review, Cryptopolitan, Esquire, NextDraft, SFist, Los Angeles Times, Gizmodo, USA Today, The Daily Beast, Can We Still Govern?, The Bulwark, Roll Call, The Hollywood Reporter, The Hill, Time, New York Post, The US Sun, al.com, Consequence, TechCrunch, NBC News, New Jersey Online, Gamereactor UK, New York Magazine, and CBS News

Bluesky: @maxberger, @kimmasters, @johnhatchard, @caseynewton, @davelee.me, @akarra, @seanokane, @kashhill, @kjhealy.co, @icantbelievethis, @noupside, @newsjennifer, @skookses, @mcbridetd, @carlquintanilla, and @wooftom57

Mastodon: @anneapplebaum@journa.host, @micahflee@infosec.exchange, @GossiTheDog@cyberplace.social, @dansinker@omfg.town, and @jeffjarvis@mastodon.social. Threads: @tomgara

X: @hadas_gold, @repsherrill, @digiphile, @nhkathysullivan, @shannonrwatts, @inrodwetrustmtl, @skooks, @jondmaas, @djkoessler, and @lindsayballant

Forums: r/grimezs, r/democrats, r/EnoughMuskSpam, r/neoliberal, r/somethingiswrong2024, r/NewsOfTheWeird, r/NIH, r/atlanticdiscussions, r/Destiny, r/teamjustinbaldoni, r/RealTesla, r/Hasan_Piker, r/politics, and r/inthenews

Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai / TechCrunch:

The US Treasury sanctions Philippines-based Funnull Technology for allegedly facilitating “pig butchering” crypto scams that stole over $200M from US victims

More: Krebs on Security, U.S. Department …, CryptoSlate, The Daily Hodl, Decrypt, Metacurity, The Crypto Times, Security Affairs, CoinDesk, Tech Monitor, The Shib Daily, The Register, DataBreaches.Net, Chainalysis, Manila Bulletin, BleepingComputer, PCMag, CyberScoop, CoinJournal, Reuters, Plain Dealer, Protos, Elliptic, crypto.news, The Record, UPI, and The Block

Bluesky: @campuscodi.risky.biz and @ericjgeller.com

Mastodon: @lorenzofb@infosec.exchange and @briankrebs@infosec.exchange

X: @statedeptspox, @treasurydepsec, @ustreasury, @thezedwards, and @fbi. LinkedIn: Brian Krebs

Aisha Malik / TechCrunch:

YouTube plans to roll out Google Lens integration to Shorts in the coming weeks, allowing users to search for elements within Shorts

Kyle Wiggers / TechCrunch:

Perplexity launches Perplexity Labs, letting users craft reports, spreadsheets, dashboards, and more, available on the web, iOS, and Android for its Pro users