Global smartphone shipments in 2026 are set to shrink 2.1% due to rising memory costs, led by Chinese OEMs; DRAM price surges are set to raise costs by 10%-15% (Counterpoint Research)

Counterpoint Research:
Global smartphone shipments in 2026 are set to shrink 2.1% due to rising memory costs, led by Chinese OEMs; DRAM price surges are set to raise costs by 10%-15%  —  - Global smartphone shipments in 2026 are expected to shrink 2.1% due to rising memory costs.

London-based PolyAI, which makes call center AI voice assistants, raised an $86M Series D led by Georgian, Hedosophia, and Khosla, after raising $50M in 2024 (John Reynolds/Tech.eu)

John Reynolds / Tech.eu:
London-based PolyAI, which makes call center AI voice assistants, raised an $86M Series D led by Georgian, Hedosophia, and Khosla, after raising $50M in 2024  —  PolyAI says it will use the funds to improve its AI tech as it looks to increase its enterprise customer base.

US volunteer fire departments are scrambling to find software amid shrinking options and higher costs, as companies backed by private equity dominate the market (Mike Baker/New York Times)

Mike Baker / New York Times:
US volunteer fire departments are scrambling to find software amid shrinking options and higher costs, as companies backed by private equity dominate the market  —  Rural departments have long relied on cheap software solutions to keep their operations running.

Exor rejects Tether's all-cash offer for its 65.4% controlling stake in Juventus, which valued the Italian soccer club at €1.1B (Zack Abrams/The Block)

Zack Abrams / The Block:
Exor rejects Tether's all-cash offer for its 65.4% controlling stake in Juventus, which valued the Italian soccer club at €1.1B  —  Partner offers  —  Quick Take  — Italy's Agnelli family has unanimously rejected stablecoin giant Tether's $1.3 billion offer to buy the Juventus football club …

Solve Intelligence, which offers generative AI tools to law firms for IP and patent law work, raised a $40M Series B, bringing its total funding to $55M (Mike Butcher/Pathfounders)

Mike Butcher / Pathfounders:
Solve Intelligence, which offers generative AI tools to law firms for IP and patent law work, raised a $40M Series B, bringing its total funding to $55M  —  With most intellectual property or patent law work done with spreadsheets, docs, and PDFs, this is a ripe arena for generative AI …

How media coverage of Trump's AI EO overstated federal authority over states and overlooked how the order's interstate commerce argument could backfire (Mike Masnick/Techdirt)

Mike Masnick / Techdirt:
How media coverage of Trump's AI EO overstated federal authority over states and overlooked how the order's interstate commerce argument could backfire  —  The mainstream media just failed a basic civics test so badly that you'd think their brains have been pickled by the kinds of folks who spend all their time on X (oh, wait...).

A profile of ASML, Europe's most valuable company, as it prepares for a transition to High NA EUV, with high-volume manufacturing expected in 2027 and 2028 (Bloomberg)

Bloomberg:
A profile of ASML, Europe's most valuable company, as it prepares for a transition to High NA EUV, with high-volume manufacturing expected in 2027 and 2028  —  The Dutch company's machines are needed to make the AI chips that power ChatGPT and other models  —  When Christophe Fouquet interviewed …

A look at Netflix House in Philadelphia, a new 100K sq. ft. location for in-person experiences, which resembles a Disneyland attraction and a Dave & Buster's (Sarah Holder/Bloomberg)

Sarah Holder / Bloomberg:
A look at Netflix House in Philadelphia, a new 100K sq. ft. location for in-person experiences, which resembles a Disneyland attraction and a Dave & Buster's  —  The entertainment company's new “Netflix House” experience is bringing the brand's shows into former department stores.

Sources: The Trump administration is drafting a new cyber strategy that would enlist private companies to mount offensive cyberattacks on foreign adversaries (Jamie Tarabay/Bloomberg)

Jamie Tarabay / Bloomberg:
Sources: The Trump administration is drafting a new cyber strategy that would enlist private companies to mount offensive cyberattacks on foreign adversaries  —  President Donald Trump's administration is preparing to turn to private businesses to help mount offensive cyberattacks …

Sources: private capital giant Apollo Global has shorted loans and rapidly cut exposure to the enterprise software sector in 2025 amid concerns over AI threat (Financial Times)

Financial Times:
Sources: private capital giant Apollo Global has shorted loans and rapidly cut exposure to the enterprise software sector in 2025 amid concerns over AI threat  —  Private capital giant shorted loans and cut exposure to sector amid concerns over threat from AI

A profile of Nex, which makes the $249 Nex Playground motion-based gaming system targeted toward kids and projects more than $150M of sales this year (Ben Cohen/Wall Street Journal)

Ben Cohen / Wall Street Journal:
A profile of Nex, which makes the $249 Nex Playground motion-based gaming system targeted toward kids and projects more than $150M of sales this year  —  How an obscure company pivoted, then pivoted again, nearly ran out of money—and built a hit product

EU finance ministers agreed to set a €3 customs duty on low-value parcels from July 2026, aiming to crack down on cheap Chinese imports from brands like Shein (Reuters)

Reuters:
EU finance ministers agreed to set a €3 customs duty on low-value parcels from July 2026, aiming to crack down on cheap Chinese imports from brands like Shein  —  European Union finance ministers agreed on Friday to set a 3 euro ($3.52) custom duty on low-value parcels arriving in the bloc …

Papua New Guinea says Google will build three subsea cables for the country, a $120M effort funded by Australia, amid China's rising influence in the region (Kirsty Needham/Reuters)

Kirsty Needham / Reuters:
Papua New Guinea says Google will build three subsea cables for the country, a $120M effort funded by Australia, amid China's rising influence in the region  —  Papua New Guinea said on Friday that Alphabet's (GOOGL.O) Google will build three subsea cables, funded by Australia under a mutual defence treaty …

Taiwan opens its largest AI supercomputing data center using Nvidia's Blackwell chips, a major effort in its push for sovereign AI and chip industry innovation (Nikkei Asia)

Nikkei Asia:
Taiwan opens its largest AI supercomputing data center using Nvidia's Blackwell chips, a major effort in its push for sovereign AI and chip industry innovation  —  TAINAN, Taiwan — Taiwan has opened its latest and largest AI supercomputing data center with Nvidia's most advanced Blackwell chips …

Israeli startup Port, which offers a proprietary developer portal competitor to Spotify's open-source Backstage, raised a $100M Series C at an $800M valuation (Julie Bort/TechCrunch)

Julie Bort / TechCrunch:
Israeli startup Port, which offers a proprietary developer portal competitor to Spotify's open-source Backstage, raised a $100M Series C at an $800M valuation  —  Spotify may be synonymous with music streaming, but it's also got a wildly popular developer-tool side-hustle called “Backstage.”