Morning Scan

OpenAI is fast-tracking a hardware play, batting away a spinout idea, and defending its nonprofit roots in open court. Wall Street is already building new firms to monetize wherever AI lands.

$26.6B — The floor valuation Cerebras is targeting for its IPO, powered largely by its deep ties to OpenAI. (TechCrunch)

Machines & Minds

Anthropic and Wall Street Giants Join Forces to Create New A.I. Firm

Blackstone and Goldman are co-founding a new entity to pipe Claude directly into financial services infrastructure — a sign that the "AI partner" model is becoming its own asset class. (NYT)

OpenAI Is Fast-Tracking Its AI Agent Phone

Ming-Chi Kuo reports a custom MediaTek Dimensity 9600 SoC with dual NPUs, targeting mass production in H1 2027 — OpenAI is apparently done waiting for Apple or Samsung to build its vision. (Kuo/X)

Greg Brockman's OpenAI Stake Is Now Worth ~$30B

A Musk attorney's courtroom math — asking why Brockman hasn't donated $29B to the nonprofit — is a creative way to illustrate OpenAI's valuation disconnect with its founding mission. (Bloomberg)

Connected World

Apple Eyes Intel and Samsung as Backup Chipmakers

Early-stage talks, but the direction is clear: Apple is done with single-source chip dependency, and both Intel's foundry ambitions and Samsung's U.S. fab push suddenly have a credible customer to chase. (The Next Web)

Apple Asks Supreme Court to Pause Epic Games App Store Ruling

An emergency stay request signals Apple is genuinely worried about having to restructure its fee model before the highest court weighs in — the App Store's economics remain very much in play. (MacRumors)

Alphabet Taps the Euro Market Again — Three Months After a $30B Raise

Google's parent is back in the debt market with a six-tranche euro offering, suggesting capital appetite for AI infrastructure buildout isn't slowing regardless of rates. (The Next Web)

Connected World

Pinterest Crosses $1B in Quarterly Revenue

The platform hit $1.008B in Q1 2026, up 18% YoY — and the engine was visual search, which reframes Pinterest as an ad platform competing with Google Images more than Instagram. (The Next Web)

Sergey Brin Is Funding the Fight Against California's Wealth Tax

A billionaire worth upward of $260B spending money to defeat a tax on billionaires is either deeply ironic or entirely on-brand, depending on your priors. (Robert Reich/Substack)

Connected World

The Best Study to Date on School Phone Bans

Lockable pouch restrictions are finally getting rigorous academic scrutiny — results matter here because half the country's school districts are mid-policy with minimal evidence to stand on. (Marginal Revolution)