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# Talent, Turf, and the AI Arms Race, Deals, Bets, and One Very Public Loss, The Lighter Side
- URL: https://adjacent.media/scan/2026-06-19-am/
- Published: 2026-06-19T10:06:03.000Z
- Updated: 2026-06-19T10:06:03.000Z
- Description: The week closes on talent wars, trade friction, and someone at Snap making very expensive decisions. AI is reshaping org charts, supply chains, and apparently geopolitics simultaneously — and it’s only Friday.
- Author: Jonathan Greene
- Tags: #scan-am, #scan

The week closes on talent wars, trade friction, and someone at Snap making very expensive decisions. AI is reshaping org charts, supply chains, and apparently geopolitics simultaneously — and it's only Friday.

> **$1B+** — ByteDance's annual Azure spend, largely on OpenAI models, making it Microsoft's single largest AI customer. *(Bloomberg)*

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### Machines & Minds

#### [Noam Shazeer Leaves Google for OpenAI](https://www.theinformation.com/articles/star-google-ai-researcher-shazeer-joins-openai?ref=adjacent.media)

The Transformer co-inventor — who Google paid $2.7B to get back via the Character.AI deal just two years ago — is now heading architecture research at OpenAI, which is a genuinely remarkable sentence. *(The Information)*

#### [White House Ordered Anthropic to Cut Off SK Telecom Over China Ties](https://www.wired.com/story/sk-telecom-anthropic-mythos-export-controls/?ref=adjacent.media)

The Mythos 5 export restrictions were triggered by a specific, targeted order — not policy drift — and the EU's cybersecurity agency is now meeting Anthropic under that same cloud. *(Wired)*

#### [JPMorgan Hong Kong Staff Lose Access to Anthropic Models](https://www.ft.com/content/de83d303-6a03-456b-bfb9-7b11dd502ab3?ref=adjacent.media) (paywall)

Following Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan has cut off Claude for Hong Kong employees. The US-China AI access wall is hardening faster than official policy announcements suggest. *(Financial Times)*

#### [ByteDance Is Microsoft's Biggest AI Customer, Spending $1B+ a Year on Azure](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-06-17/microsoft-s-china-ai-business-grows-on-openai-model-sales?ref=adjacent.media) (paywall)

While banks are locking out Chinese-adjacent users, Microsoft is running a billion-dollar AI supply line to TikTok's parent — a tension with no obvious resolution. *(Bloomberg)*

### Connected World

#### [Apple and Intel Chip Deal Sends Intel Stock Up 9%](https://www.cnbc.com/2026/06/18/trump-intel-apple-chip-design-deal.html?ref=adjacent.media)

Trump's announcement that Apple has agreed to work with Intel on US-made chips gave Intel its best premarket session in months — whether the deal has substance or is still mostly vibes remains the question. *(CNBC)*

#### [Tim Cook: Apple Price Hikes Are "Unavoidable"](https://www.wsj.com/tech/apple-price-increases-memory-supply-199845b1?st=Yox4Dc&reflink=desktopwebshare%5Fpermalink&ref=adjacent.media) (paywall)

Cook calling the memory cost situation "unsustainable" is a direct signal that the next iPhone cycle will hit consumers' wallets harder than the last several combined. *(Wall Street Journal)*

#### [Thoma Bravo Loses Entire $5B Medallia Investment as Blackstone Takes Control](https://www.ft.com/content/ae4b6c77-9b3d-46fb-a7fc-59f072e7291b?ref=adjacent.media) (paywall)

A complete wipeout on a $5B enterprise software bet is the kind of cautionary tale that will be cited in LP letters for years. *(Financial Times)*

#### [SpaceX's All-Stock Cursor Deal Points to a New Acquisition Playbook](https://www.nytimes.com/2026/06/17/business/dealbook/spacex-stock-cursor-ai.html?unlocked%5Farticle%5Fcode=1.rFA.K2Pm.-Zp7G7fuvb%5FA&smid=url-share&ref=adjacent.media)

SpaceX using its private-market equity as acquisition currency — behaving like a public company without the disclosure obligations — could become a template for other late-stage private giants. *(New York Times)*

#### [Frontier Commits $915M More to Carbon Removal, Anthropic Now a Member](https://www.wsj.com/pro/sustainable-business/anthropic-google-other-tech-companies-commit-915-million-to-pull-carbon-out-of-the-sky-e2ee2c1e?ref=adjacent.media) (paywall)

Stripe, Google, Salesforce, and Anthropic have pledged a combined $1.9B to buy carbon-removal credits — a number large enough to actually move the nascent market. *(Wall Street Journal)*

### Connected World

#### [Snap's $2,195 AR Glasses Send Its Stock Down 8%](https://techcrunch.com/2026/06/17/after-unveiling-ridiculously-expensive-ar-glasses-snaps-stock-takes-a-dive/?ref=adjacent.media)

Pricing a consumer AR device at $2,195 while down 41% year-to-date is a bold strategy — the market rendered its verdict within 24 hours. *(TechCrunch)*

#### [NASA Picks Eric Schmidt's Rocket Company for Mars Mission](https://techcrunch.com/2026/06/17/nasa-picks-eric-schmidts-rocket-company-for-mars-mission-setting-up-a-race-with-spacex/?ref=adjacent.media)

Relativity Space — the startup Schmidt acquired after it failed to reach orbit — now has a NASA Mars contract and a direct rivalry with SpaceX, which is either a remarkable comeback story or a very expensive second act. *(TechCrunch)*

#### [Second Carcass-Eating Fly Species Cleared by FDA for Wound Therapy](https://arstechnica.com/health/2026/06/second-carcass-eating-fly-species-cleared-by-fda-for-maggot-wound-therapy/?ref=adjacent.media)

Maggot debridement therapy is genuinely effective — and the FDA just expanded the menu. *(Ars Technica)*