TL;DR

Meta acquires 49% of Scale AI; US House advances federal AI law; OpenAI cuts API prices 80%.

Highlights

• Meta acquires 49% of Scale AI for $14.8B; CEO Alexandr Wang to lead Meta’s $65B superintelligence lab, recruiting top AI talent 15.
• US House passes OBBBA, advancing a 10-year moratorium on most state/local AI laws and centralizing federal oversight 2.
• OpenAI cuts o3 API pricing by 80% to $2/million tokens; o3-pro launch imminent 3.
• OpenAI finalizes Google Cloud deal, diversifying compute beyond Microsoft ; annualized revenue now $10B, targeting $125B by 2029 67.
• OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Sora experience multi-hour global outage tied to a cloud provider, impacting APIs and businesses 11.
• OpenAI bans ChatGPT accounts linked to nation-state hacker groups from China, Russia, Iran, North Korea, and the Philippines 12.
• Mistral AI launches Magistral Medium model, plans $1B fundraising, approaches €6B valuation, and focuses on open-weight models 4.
• NVIDIA powers Europe’s JUPITER exascale supercomputer and partners with HPE on Blue Lion (launching 2027); reinforces global AI/HPC leadership 8.
• Huawei CEO says chips lag US by one generation; launches AI CloudMatrix 384 cluster, claims some parity with Nvidia on select metrics; $25B annual R&D spend 9.
• Apple unveils 3B-parameter on-device model and Xcode 26 with ChatGPT integration; publishes research on LLM reasoning limits 10.
• Google ’s AI Overviews cut publisher search traffic by 50%+, driving shift to answer engine optimization and new licensing models 14.
• Uber and Wayve to start Level 4 driverless taxi trials in London in 2026 as UK accelerates AV regulation 13.
• Cisco and Nvidia expand AI infrastructure and agentic AI solutions; India’s Krutrim to launch multilingual agentic AI assistant “Kruti” June 12 15.

Commentary

Meta ’s $14.8B investment in Scale AI and the formation of a $65B superintelligence lab—led by Scale AI’s Alexandr Wang—marks a significant escalation in Meta’s AI ambitions. The move consolidates Meta’s focus on foundational model development and talent acquisition, likely intensifying competition for researchers and data infrastructure. The open-source orientation and integration across Meta’s platforms signal continued pressure on closed-model incumbents 15.

The US House’s passage of the OBBBA bill, proposing a decade-long freeze on most state and local AI regulations, would, if enacted, streamline compliance for enterprises but raises unresolved questions about oversight, bias, and state-federal legal tensions. Major tech companies favor the move for regulatory clarity, but legal and constitutional challenges are likely, especially regarding consumer protection in sensitive sectors 2.

On the infrastructure front, OpenAI’s finalized Google Cloud deal diversifies its compute stack beyond Microsoft , reflecting growing demand and the need for redundancy—especially relevant given the recent global outage that disrupted both ChatGPT and Sora 611. OpenAI’s aggressive API price cuts and rapid revenue growth ($10B annualized, $125B target by 2029) further intensify competition, putting pressure on smaller providers and shifting the economics of AI adoption 37.

NVIDIA continues to dominate AI and HPC infrastructure, powering Europe’s JUPITER and collaborating on new systems like Blue Lion 8. Huawei’s cluster-based AI systems and ongoing R&D investments highlight China’s efforts to mitigate chip export restrictions, though the company acknowledges a generational lag behind US rivals 9. Meanwhile, Mistral AI’s new model and fundraising underline Europe’s push for AI sovereignty and open-weight alternatives 4.

Apple ’s on-device model and Xcode 26 integration, along with published research on LLM reasoning limitations, reinforce the industry’s focus on privacy, developer tools, and the current gap between LLM pattern matching and true reasoning 10. Google ’s AI Overviews are forcing publishers to adapt business models as search traffic declines, accelerating the shift toward answer engine optimization and content licensing 14. The emergence of agentic AI—from Cisco /Nvidia ’s enterprise offerings to Krutrim’s multilingual assistant—signals growing enterprise and consumer interest in autonomous AI agents 15.