Morning Scan

The AI money machine keeps accelerating — valuations doubling, contracts landing, and the job market for software engineers shifting under everyone's feet. SpaceX is simultaneously winning Pentagon contracts and feuding with the Pentagon. Welcome to Thursday.

$11B — Baseten's reported new valuation, more than double its $5B post-money from January, as the AI inference buildout keeps attracting serious capital. (The Information)

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Machines & Minds

Anthropic Growth and Bedrock Mix Drive AWS Margins Higher While Peers Lag

While other cloud providers are seeing flat or declining margins, AWS is inflecting upward — and Claude is the primary reason. (Semianalysis)

How AI Agents Plunged the Tech World Into Chaos

Steven Levy's dive into how Claude Code and OpenClaw effectively kicked off the AI agent era now changing how software gets built. (Wired)

Claude Code Creator on Why the Title "Software Engineer" Is Disappearing

Boris Cherny argues AI will create more jobs than it destroys — but the job of "software engineer" as currently defined may not survive the transition. (Platformer)

AI Inference Provider Baseten in Talks to Raise $1B at $11B Valuation

The inference layer is where AI economics get won or lost, and investors are pricing that thesis aggressively. (The Information)

Suno Reportedly in Talks to Raise $250M+ at ~$5B Valuation

The AI music startup has roughly doubled its valuation since last fall, led by Bond Capital, as the music industry works through its AI moment. (Axios)

“The title 'software engineer' is disappearing.” — Boris Cherny, Claude Code creator, via Platformer

Connected World

SpaceX Wins $2.29B Space Force Contract for Golden Dome Backbone

The Starshield-based Space Data Network Backbone links missile-defense sensors and interceptors — a core piece of the administration's Golden Dome ambitions. (The Next Web)

Musk Says US Military Suicide Drones Used Starlink in Violation of SpaceX Rules

SpaceX and the Pentagon are in a billing dispute over Starshield use during the Iran war — a reminder that the world's most important defense contractor and its government client have a complicated relationship. (Ars Technica)

NASA's Permanent Moon Base Plans Start With Three Missions This Year

Two rover contracts and a concrete timeline mark the most serious step toward sustained lunar presence — competing with no one, for now. (The Verge)

Connected World

Micron Hits $1T Market Cap After Shares Jump 19%

Memory chips used to be the commodity underbelly of semiconductors; AI demand has turned Micron into a trillion-dollar company. (CNBC)

Samsung Plans $1.5B Chip Testing Plant in Vietnam

Legacy chip testing capacity is shifting to Southeast Asia as Samsung diversifies its manufacturing footprint and avoids concentration in any one geopolitical basket. (Reuters)

Hg Agrees to Acquire IP Licensing Software Firm Rightsline for $500M

The platform that helps Disney, the BBC, and WBD track their IP licensing gets a PE owner — infrastructure plays like this tend to be the most durable bets in media. (Financial Times)

Airbnb Leads $58M Series C in WeRoad, Hires Its CEO to Run Hotels

Airbnb is importing the founder of the group-travel startup it just invested in to run its hotel product — which says more about Airbnb's hotel ambitions than the dollar amount does. (The Next Web)

Connected World

The Enhanced Games Happened, and Three Athletes Competed Clean

The first-ever officially doping-permitted sports competition featured 42 athletes — the three who opted out of performance enhancers apparently held their own anyway. (Kottke)