Morning Scan

Money is moving in odd directions this morning: China's chip champion is about to pop, DeepSeek has backed away from its own fundraise, and Brussels keeps finding new ways to fine American tech giants. The AI infrastructure buildout continues regardless of who's suing whom.

$9.8B — CXMT's oversubscribed Shanghai IPO haul, with its market cap poised to jump several times past an initial ~$85B valuation on debut. (Bloomberg)

Machines & Minds

CXMT is set for a historic Shanghai debut (paywall)

China's memory champion raised $9.8B and looks headed for a pop that would make it one of the country's biggest listings ever. (Bloomberg)

DeepSeek pauses its second funding round after founder's comments go viral

Liang Wenfeng said something about US-China AI competition investors didn't love, and now the round's on ice. (The Next Web)

Nvidia puts $1B into South Korea's AI buildout via Naver and SK Group

Another data point in Nvidia's strategy of financing the very customers who buy its chips. (The Next Web)

Anthropic reportedly asked SK Hynix for supply to make its own chips (paywall)

Even SK's own chairman calls it notable that a model developer wants to be a chipmaker too. (Bloomberg)

Micron lobbies the White House against Apple's blacklisted-supplier memory plan

The RAM shortage is turning into a supply-chain turf war, with Micron trying to keep a rival off the approved list. (AppleInsider)

Connected World

EU fines Google $1B for DMA violations

Brussels' latest complaint: Google's search results are allegedly too favorable to Google. (European Commission)

Court dismisses Google's lawsuit against SerpApi

A rare loss for Google on the legal front, and a win for the scraping-adjacent search-tools ecosystem. (SerpApi via Daring Fireball)

Warner Bros. sues Amazon over alleged executive poaching

Term employment agreements are about to get a very public stress test in California courts. (TechCrunch)

Connected World

Google all but confirms a Pixel 11 price hike

Blame the global RAM shortage — the same one fueling the Micron/Apple fight above. (The Verge)

Apple's first water-resistant iPad is coming this year

A modest hardware upgrade that's been standard on phones for a decade. (MacRumors)

Blockbuster IPOs are minting new millionaires — and philanthropies want a cut (paywall)

As SpaceX and Anthropic eye public markets, nonprofits are lining up for the secondary-wealth windfall. (NYT)