Morning Scan

The AI infrastructure arms race is moving fast enough that chip companies are partnering with each other to keep up. Samsung is having a moment that would have seemed implausible two years ago. Microsoft's gaming ambitions are cratering.

$300M Series A — Oratomic's quantum computing raise is a striking number for a Series A, suggesting serious capital is now treating quantum as a near-term infrastructure bet rather than a science project. (The Quantum Insider)

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Connected World

AI chip maker SambaNova raises $1B at $11B valuation

Five months after Intel was reportedly trying to acquire it for $1.6B, SambaNova just raised at $11B with JPMorgan as a live customer. (TechCrunch)

Nvidia-backed Nscale secures $900M line of credit for data center buildout (paywall)

The European AI infrastructure buildout is attracting serious money: Nscale's credit line covers expansion across Europe, the US, and Asia Pacific simultaneously. (Wall Street Journal)

Nvidia and d-Matrix are combining hardware in a new joint AI system

Nvidia partnering with a chip competitor rather than crushing it is the kind of move you make when the market is growing faster than you can serve alone. (The Information)

Oratomic raises $300M Series A for quantum computing hardware and software

ARCH, Spark, and Khosla leading a nine-figure Series A into quantum suggests the "eventually useful" narrative is giving way to "urgently fundable." (The Quantum Insider)

Hot French startup ZML releases free inference software for AI chips

Yann LeCun-endorsed ZML is open-sourcing tools to run inference across heterogeneous chips — unglamorous plumbing that tends to matter more than it looks. (TechCrunch)

Connected World

Samsung overtakes Nvidia to become the world's most profitable company

Samsung's chip division is projected to earn more in 2026 than across its previous 40 years in semiconductors combined — that's what an AI memory supercycle looks like. (SamMobile)

Samsung announces Galaxy Unpacked on July 22 in London

Samsung is racing to get its wide-format Fold 8 in front of consumers before Apple ships its first foldable — timing this for July 22 is deliberate. (The Verge)

Bethesda, id Software reportedly hit hard by Microsoft's Xbox layoffs

Microsoft's 3,200-person Xbox cut is landing on the studios it spent billions acquiring, which raises hard questions about what the strategy actually is. (Ars Technica)

Connected World

China claims it found security backdoor vulnerabilities in Claude Code (paywall)

China's CNVD alleges Claude Code sends sensitive location and identity data to remote servers — worth watching whether Anthropic responds, and how fast. (Wall Street Journal)

US lawmakers weigh curbs on American companies using Chinese AI models

A House committee investigation is formalizing what has been an informal anxiety — expect this to become a compliance headache for enterprise AI buyers sooner rather than later. (CNBC)

Apple loses EU fight over App Store gatekeeper designation

Europe's top court dismissing Apple's challenge means Digital Markets Act obligations are now locked in — the legal off-ramp is gone. (MacRumors)

France orders Meta to negotiate in good faith with news publishers (paywall)

After two years of complaints from press groups, France's competition authority is now telling Meta it cannot simply ignore the copyright conversation. (Bloomberg)

Palantir insiders fear Trump embrace is costing corporate clients and talent (paywall)

The concern is commercial: enterprise buyers don't want their AI vendor to be a political brand, and top engineers apparently agree. (Financial Times)

A Telstra outage stopped Australian trains and froze taxi payments

A single carrier going down for a few hours halted public transit and broke point-of-sale payments simultaneously — a useful reminder of how thin the redundancy actually is. (The Next Web)