Techmeme
May 13, 2026, 12:20 PM

Top News

CNBC:
Nvidia says Jensen Huang has joined President Trump on his China trip; source: Trump called Huang to ask him to join after seeing media coverage of his absence  —  BEIJING — Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang has joined U.S. President Donald Trump's trip to China, after initial indications the executive had not been invited.
Sheera Frenkel / New York Times:
Anduril raised a $5B Series H led by Thrive and a16z at a $61B valuation, up from $30.5B in June 2025, taking its total funding to $6.82B, and could IPO in 2027  —  The start-up, which makes A.I.-backed weapons, was valued at $61 billion in the financing round, double what it was a year ago.
Lily Hay Newman / Wired:
WhatsApp launches Incognito Chat, an AI chat mode built on Private Processing that Meta says lets users talk to AI without Meta being able to access the chats  —  The company says its new Incognito Chat allows you to use its AI chatbot without anyone else—including Meta—being able to access your conversations.
Ben Schoon / 9to5Google:
Mike Isaac / New York Times:
New York Times:
Analysis: a16z is the largest known donor in the current US midterm election cycle, spending $115.5M so far on pro-crypto, pro-AI, and Republican Super PACs  —  The biggest donor in the midterm elections is not Elon Musk, or George Soros, or any of the other billionaires who are often thought to wield the fattest wallets in politics.
Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The Verge:
Gyana Swain / CSO:
Microsoft unveils MDASH, a security system that can orchestrate 100+ AI agents to find vulnerabilities, and says it identified 16 Windows vulnerabilities  —  The agentic tool, codenamed MDASH, will open to enterprise customers in private preview in June.  —  Microsoft has unveiled …
Michelle Del Rey / USA Today:
Trump Mobile CEO Pat O'Brien says T1 Phone pre-orders will begin shipping to customers this week, and the device is assembled in the US, after months of delays  —  Trump Mobile phones are being shipped this week, the company exclusively confirmed to USA TODAY in an email May 11.
Lily Hay Newman / Wired:
Foxconn says some of its North American factories “suffered a cyberattack” in recent days; ransomware group Nitrogen claims it stole 8TB of data from Foxconn  —  Famous for helping build Apple's iPhones, Foxconn just suffered another cyberattack, highlighting the perils of warehousing some of the world's most valuable data.
Lora Kolodny / CNBC:
Waymo recalls ~3,800 robotaxis in the US to fix software issues that may cause them to drive onto flooded roads, after some were seen stalled on flooded streets  —  Waymo is recalling about 3,800 robotaxis in the U.S. to fix software issues that could allow them to “drive onto a flooded roadway …
Ashlee Vance / Core Memory:
Q&A with Alexandr Wang on rebuilding Meta's AI stack, launching Muse Spark, personal superintelligence, acquiring Assured Robot Intelligence, and more  —  Last June, Meta pried Alex Wang away from Scale AI, the company he co-founded and ran, in a deal valued at $14 billion.
Agnieszka Barteczko / Bloomberg:
Poland says it plans to continue working on a digital services tax of up to 3% on large digital platforms, despite the US' threats of retaliation, like tariffs  —  Poland will continue working on legislation to tax digital platforms, Finance Minister Andrzej Domanski said …
Molly Taft / Wired:
Internal emails: xAI has added 19 gas turbines to Colossus 2 over the past two months; xAI is fighting a lawsuit alleging Clean Air Act violations at the site  —  Emails show that Elon Musk's company is expanding its use of portable gas-fired power at its Colossus 2 site as a fight over air quality continues.
Russell Brandom / TechCrunch:
Adaption, co-founded by ex-Cohere VP of AI research Sara Hooker, unveils AutoScientist, which can automate the research loop behind model training and alignment  —  For years, AI researchers have anticipated the moment when AI systems will be able to improve themselves better than humans could.
Google DeepMind:
Google DeepMind details a Gemini-powered mouse pointer that understands what it is pointing at, allowing users to perform tasks without using text-heavy prompts  —  We are developing more seamless, intuitive ways to collaborate with AI  —  The mouse pointer has been a constant companion …
Shiona McCallum / BBC:
The Lucy Faithfull Foundation's Project Intercept, a partnership with Google, TikTok, and Meta, sent 70M+ warning messages to users seeking CSAM in two years  —  More than 70 million warning messages have been sent to people attempting to access child sexual abuse material (CSAM) …

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Earlier Picks

Reuters:
Yazhou Sun / Bloomberg: