TSMC, the world's leading chip manufacturer, surpassed expectations with a 35% increase in revenue year-over-year. This impressive growth comes despite challenges posed by the conflict in Iran, which raised concerns about the stability of supply chains.
Anthropic is in the early stages of evaluating whether to design its own AI chips or continue purchasing them. This consideration follows a recent long-term agreement with Google and Broadcom, securing 3.5 gigawatts of TPU computing power starting in 2027. A spokesperson for Anthropic has not provided any additional comments.
Google has extended its end-to-end encryption feature for Gmail to Android and iOS devices, a year after its initial launch on the web in April 2025. This update bridges the security gap for mobile users, allowing enterprise customers with Google Workspace Enterprise Plus and the Assured Controls add-on to securely compose and read encrypted emails directly within the Gmail app without additional steps.
SiFive, the pioneering RISC-V chip intellectual property company founded by engineers from Berkeley, successfully closed a $400 million Series G funding round on April 9, 2026. This oversubscribed round, led by Atreides Management and supported by major investors such as Nvidia, Apollo Global Management, D1 Capital Partners, and Point72, values the company at $3.65 billion. This marks the final funding event before SiFive's anticipated public offering.
On April 10, 2026, CoreWeave announced a significant multi-year partnership with Anthropic, the creators of the Claude AI model. This collaboration grants Anthropic access to Nvidia GPU resources across multiple data centers in the US, enabling large-scale AI production workloads. Financial details of the deal were not shared. This announcement follows closely on the heels of CoreWeave's $21 billion expansion in partnership with Meta, highlighting CoreWeave's growing influence in the AI infrastructure space by hosting nine out of the ten top AI model providers.
Venture capital investment in fintech startups rose by 5% year-over-year, totaling $12 billion across 751 deals in Q1 2026, according to Crunchbase data. This is a notable drop in deal count by 31.5% compared to Q1 2025, pointing to larger average investment sizes, especially in late-stage funding, which reached $6.9 billion, up 8% year-over-year. However, funding declined 33% from Q4 2025 levels. The U.S. continued leading global fintech funding with $6.3 billion, a 47% increase from the previous year’s quarter, while the UK and India followed with $1.2 billion and $900 million raised, respectively. Major funding rounds included Kalshi's $1 billion raise, doubling its valuation to $22 billion, and significant raises by Vestwell and Rain. Investors like QED and TTV Capital remain optimistic, focusing on AI applications within fintech amid broader economic and geopolitical challenges. Predictions suggest ongoing AI integration and potential IPO activity depending on market conditions.
OpenAI has decided to suspend its Stargate UK project, citing concerns over rising energy costs and regulatory challenges. This move hampers the UK government's ambition to integrate AI deeply into the economy, following the major UK-US AI partnership announced last year, which promised £31 billion in tech investments from US firms to boost British AI development.
Publicis is leveraging Microsoft's expansive global media business to strengthen its position in agentic AI for marketers. The company is highlighting the capabilities of Epsilon's identity solution and its consultancy branch, Sapient, as central elements in this strategic move.
AI companies have historically offered users vast token limits, almost as if tokens—the basic units AI processes—were endless. However, rising operational costs, global chip shortages, helium supply issues, and data center constraints have forced major AI providers to start limiting token access more strictly. This shift signals the end of the “all-you-can-eat” AI model and sparks a contest to see who can sustain demand subsidies the longest and potentially claim market dominance. Recent examples include Meta removing internal AI usage leaderboards, OpenAI moving to token-based pricing, and Anthropic restricting subscription usage in favor of APIs due to surging demand. These changes reflect the growing financial pressure in the sector, as serving AI models represents a major cost. Meanwhile, China’s AI players like Zhipu AI are raising token prices substantially, while Alibaba is offering free access to attract long-term users and developers. The scarcity of compute resources points to an ongoing balancing act between pricing, performance, and strategic market positioning.
A Washington DC appeals court has refused to halt the US government's 'supply chain risk' designation against Anthropic. However, the court has recommended that the legal proceedings be expedited to reach a quicker resolution.
