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# The OpenAI Industrial Complex, The U.S.-China Tech Cold War, Live, Workforce, Money, and the Fine Print
- URL: https://adjacent.media/scan/2026-05-13-am/
- Published: 2026-05-13T10:06:15.000Z
- Updated: 2026-05-13T10:06:16.000Z
- Description: The OpenAI universe is having a very busy week: congressional probes, a restructured Microsoft deal, a potential new compute venture, and a cybersecurity platform launch — all while Sam Altman is apparently also thinking about spinning up another company. The U.S.
- Author: Jonathan Greene
- Tags: #scan-am, #scan

The OpenAI universe is having a very busy week: congressional probes, a restructured Microsoft deal, a potential new compute venture, and a cybersecurity platform launch — all while Sam Altman is apparently also thinking about spinning up another company. The U.S.-China tech cold war is escalating even as executives fly to Beijing for handshakes.

> **$97B** — The gap between what OpenAI could have paid Microsoft ($135B through 2030) and the newly capped figure ($38B) — a restructuring that redraws the economics of the most important partnership in AI. *(The Information)*

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### Machines & Minds

#### [OpenAI's New Revenue Terms Cap Microsoft Payments at $38B](https://www.theinformation.com/articles/openai-save-97-billion-2030-latest-microsoft-deal?ref=adjacent.media)

The restructured deal is being framed as a win for OpenAI's independence, but it shows how thoroughly the relationship has shifted since the early Altman-Nadella years. *(The Information)*

#### [Sam Altman May Start a New Compute Company](https://open.substack.com/pub/sourcesnews/p/sam-altman-stargate-redux-maybe)

Essentially Stargate with a different legal wrapper — the idea is a standalone vehicle to raise capital and build data centers fast, which raises obvious questions about where his attention actually lives. *(Alex Heath)*

#### [OpenAI Launches Daybreak Cybersecurity Initiative](https://www.theverge.com/ai-artificial-intelligence/928342/openai-daybreak-security-ai?ref=adjacent.media)

OpenAI's answer to Anthropic's Project Glasswing uses GPT-5.5 and Codex Security to find and patch vulnerabilities — the enterprise security market is now an AI arms race. *(The Verge)*

#### [Musk v. Altman: Satya Nadella Says Musk Never Raised Microsoft Concerns](https://www.cnbc.com/2026/05/11/microsoft-ceo-satya-nadella-musk-altman-trial.html?ref=adjacent.media)

Nadella's testimony undercuts a key plank of Musk's lawsuit — if he had real concerns about Microsoft's role, apparently no one told Microsoft. *(CNBC)*

### Connected World

#### [China Seeks AI Independence, Weakening Trump's Leverage](https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/12/business/china-semiconductor-ai-deepseek.html?ref=adjacent.media)

Beijing's progress toward technological self-sufficiency — highlighted by DeepSeek's trajectory — means the U.S. has less to bargain with than the summit optics suggest. *(NYT)*

#### [Jensen Huang Skips Trump's China Business Delegation](https://thenextweb.com/news/jensen-huang-skips-trumps-china-business-delegation?ref=adjacent.media)

Cook and Musk made the list; the CEO of the company whose chips China most desperately wants did not. *(The Next Web)*

#### [Trump Administration Quietly Debates Banning Chinese Cellular Modules](https://www.ft.com/content/48f0cc68-dfae-48d7-8950-c8c72c2ebe93?ref=adjacent.media)

The FCC is already pushing to reduce Beijing's telecom footprint, and a broader ban on cellular modules would hit industrial IoT and connected devices hard. *(Financial Times)*

#### [Trump Actually Started to Decouple America from China](https://www.noahpinion.blog/p/trump-actually-started-to-decouple?ref=adjacent.media)

A sober assessment that structural decoupling is real and underway, even as the administration heads to Beijing looking for a deal. *(Noahpinion)*

### Connected World

#### [ServiceNow Lines Up $4B Bond Sale to Refinance Armis Acquisition Debt](https://thenextweb.com/news/servicenow-4bn-bond-refinance-armis?ref=adjacent.media)

A $4B bond offering to clean up M&A debt is routine corporate finance — until you account for how fast ServiceNow has been acquiring, and how much more it might want to buy. *(The Next Web)*

#### [GitLab Announces Layoffs, Denies It's AI Optimization](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-05-11/gitlab-says-will-cut-jobs-to-spend-on-growth-in-agentic-era?ref=adjacent.media)

"Not an AI optimization exercise" is doing a lot of work in that press release — the company is also shrinking its geographic footprint, which suggests the cuts run deeper than the positioning implies. *(Bloomberg)*

#### [GM to Lay Off 500–600 IT Workers](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-05-11/gm-to-cut-hundreds-of-white-collar-workers-in-push-to-trim-costs?ref=adjacent.media)

The swap is explicit: legacy IT headcount out, staff with skills in newer tech areas in — a template other industrial giants are running in parallel. *(Bloomberg)*

#### [iOS 26.5 Brings End-to-End Encrypted RCS in Beta](https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2026/05/end-to-end-encrypted-rcs-messaging-begins-rolling-out-today-in-beta/?ref=adjacent.media)

Encrypted cross-platform messaging between iPhone and Android users has been a long time coming — this beta rollout ends a years-long standoff. *(Daring Fireball / Apple Newsroom)*