Edition: June 12, 2026

SpaceX has made history with the largest IPO in history, raising $75 billion and making CEO Elon Musk the world's first trillionaire. The company's shares opened at $150 on the Nasdaq public exchange and closed at $161.11, up 19%. The IPO has also made many SpaceX employees millionaires, with 4,400 staff potentially benefiting from the company's newfound wealth.

Meta's Applied AI team, comprising 6,500 engineers and product managers, is reportedly on the verge of revolt due to poor working conditions and lack of choice in joining the unit. Employees describe the work as 'soul-crushing' and compare it to a 'gulag'. The team's low morale is reflective of the overall dark mood across the company, which has been plagued by layoffs and restructuring.

Meta's new AI unit is facing internal turmoil, with employees expressing frustration and dissatisfaction over their assigned tasks and the company's restructuring efforts. The discontent has led to record-low morale, with over 1,600 employees signing a petition against a program monitoring their work. Meta's leadership has acknowledged the distress caused by recent changes, with CEO Mark Zuckerberg and chief product officer Chris Cox addressing the issues in internal meetings.

Google is suing a Chinese cybercrime network called Outsider Enterprise, which uses AI to scam hundreds of thousands of victims through fake websites and text messages. The operation has resulted in estimated losses of millions of dollars. Google is working with law enforcement and telecom companies to dismantle the operation's infrastructure.

Jeff Bezos' new startup, Prometheus, has secured $12 billion in funding to focus on 'physical AI', applying deep learning principles to areas like robotics and manufacturing. The company, valued at $41 billion, will use the funds to invest in compute power. Prometheus currently employs 150 people and is co-founded by Bezos and Vik Bajaj.

Mistral AI, a French AI lab, is reportedly in talks to raise €3 billion at a valuation of €20 billion, nearly doubling its previous valuation. The company aims to make frontier AI accessible to everyone and has taken an open approach to its AI development. This funding round would solidify Mistral's position as a leading European AI startup.

Google is suing an alleged Chinese cybercrime operation, Outsider Enterprise, for using AI to send scam texts impersonating Google and other brands, resulting in hundreds of thousands of victims and millions in losses. The operation involved 9,000 fake websites and 2.5 million texts sent to Android users in a two-week period. Google is working with law enforcement and telecom companies to block the scam messages.

Elon Musk has become the world's first trillionaire after SpaceX's IPO, with his net worth surpassing $1 trillion. His wealth includes the value of his shares in SpaceX, as well as his other companies like Tesla. Musk's net worth was boosted by SpaceX's successful IPO, which saw shares open at $150.

SpaceX, Anthropic, and OpenAI are among the companies leading a new wave of IPOs, marking a shift in the tech industry and a stress test for investors. This surge, dubbed the 'MANGOS' era, includes Meta, Nvidia, Google, and Microsoft, and is expected to redefine public tech companies in 2026. The IPOs will have significant implications for valuations and investor expectations.

Researchers have introduced olmo-eval, a new evaluation workbench designed to streamline the model development loop for large language models. This tool builds upon the Open Language Model Evaluation Standard (OLMES) and offers flexibility in defining evaluations and composing workflows. olmo-eval aims to facilitate the everyday work of developing a model by adding and configuring benchmarks, running them across checkpoints, and analyzing results.

The IPO market is experiencing a resurgence, led by a new group of companies referred to as MANGOS, which includes Meta, Anthropic, Nvidia, Google, OpenAI, and SpaceX. Half of these companies are going public, putting investors, valuations, and expectations for public tech companies to the test. This shift is discussed in the latest episode of TechCrunch's Equity podcast.

Coinbase for Agents is a new platform that connects AI to financial execution channels, allowing for automated trading and payments directly from user portfolios. The platform enables autonomous digital entities to execute trades and manage balances within user-defined parameters. It supports spot and derivatives trading, with plans to expand to other assets.

SpaceX's highly anticipated IPO has gone public, allowing the public to buy shares of the combined rocket, AI, and social media company for the first time. The IPO is expected to raise enough money to potentially make Elon Musk the first trillionaire, with a net worth surpassing the economies of several nations. This move is largely based on the promise of launching AI data centers into space.

SpaceX has launched the largest IPO in history, pricing 555.6 million shares at $135 each to raise $75 billion, with CEO Elon Musk set to become the world's first trillionaire. The company's debut on NASDAQ is highly anticipated, with many investors and employees standing to gain from the offering. The IPO has provided a rare glimpse into SpaceX's financials and business prospects, including its Starlink satellite network and xAI division.

Jeff Bezos' new AI startup, Prometheus, aims to develop an 'artificial general engineer' to aid in designing physical products using AI-powered engineering tools. The company has secured $12 billion in funding, valuing it at $41 billion. Bezos co-leads Prometheus alongside Vik Bajaj, with a team of around 150 employees.

Biotech company Life Biosciences has begun testing a treatment that aims to reverse aging by 'reprogramming' cells to a younger state, while research into interoception, the sense of internal bodily signals, is also gaining momentum. These advancements could lead to breakthroughs in treating age-related diseases and understanding the human body. The studies are part of a broader effort to slow and reverse aging, with potential implications for various diseases.

The highly anticipated SpaceX IPO is expected to make existing shareholders, including employees and institutional investors, very rich, but individual retail investors are unlikely to see significant gains due to limited access to shares. SpaceX has set aside 30% of its float for retail investors, but high demand and limited supply mean most individuals will only get a small allocation. The IPO has raised $75 billion, valuing the company at $1.75 trillion, making it the biggest IPO ever.

Life Biosciences has begun a clinical trial for a treatment that aims to reverse age-related diseases by 'reprogramming' cells to a younger state, with the goal of potentially reversing aging altogether. The approach targets the 'hallmarks of aging', including cellular senescence and telomere shortening. If successful, the treatment could have significant implications for the treatment of age-related diseases.

The hidden sense of interoception allows our brains to perceive internal bodily sensations, such as hunger, pain, and emotions, and plays a crucial role in our ability to make decisions and function successfully. Researchers have made significant progress in understanding interoception, with implications for treating conditions like obesity, chronic pain, and anxiety. This growing field of study has the potential to revolutionize our understanding of the complex relationship between the body and brain.

Avataar AI has launched Varya, a video AI model built for India's scale, which is faster, cheaper, and culturally aware, with the ability to generate video 10 times faster and at a fraction of the cost of existing models. The model is optimized for local context, such as identifying different festivals, food, and clothing. Varya will be released as an open-weight model, making it accessible to developers and enterprises.

Theker, an AI robotics startup, has raised $85 million to develop a factory robot that can be reconfigured for various tasks, aiming to go beyond traditional single-task robots. The company plans to expand beyond retail into heavier industrial settings and has already received backing from major companies like Samsung and Inditex. With this funding, Theker is set to grow its team and open new showrooms across Europe, the US, and Asia.

Prometheus, a physical AI startup co-founded by Jeff Bezos, has raised $12 billion to develop an 'artificial general engineer' that can automate complex physical system design and manufacturing. The company aims to replace large swaths of engineering work with AI, with Bezos predicting productivity gains will lead to 'labor scarcity'. Prometheus is now valued at $41 billion, one of the largest bets on the physical AI sector.

Apple's iPhone camera chief, Jon McCormack, believes AI can give users 'superpowers' in photography by introducing new generative features to the Photos app, including tools to expand and reframe images. These features, set to arrive in iOS 27, aim to solve compositional problems while maintaining the authenticity of the original image. Apple's approach is more measured, restricting AI edits to backgrounds and planning to integrate invisible watermarks to indicate AI-altered images.

Meta employees are expressing frustration and skepticism over CEO Mark Zuckerberg's plan for a companywide AI hackathon, citing low morale, declining trust in management, and increased workloads following recent mass layoffs. Many feel they lack the time and incentive to participate in the event, which is scheduled to take place from July 14 to July 16. The hackathon is part of Zuckerberg's efforts to reenergize the workforce and address internal criticism.

Claims that the Chinese government is funding data center protests in the US are being disputed by experts, who say that local opposition to data centers is driven by existing tensions over energy prices and local impacts. A recent poll found that over half of Americans support a moratorium on data center development. Despite reports of foreign interference, there is no conclusive evidence of Chinese influence on the anti-data-center movement.

Apple has released a new version of Siri, its virtual assistant, which has shown significant improvement in its functionality. After over a decade of being somewhat useful but often unreliable, Siri now seems to be pretty good, according to early user experiences. This update could have implications for users and the broader AI industry.

A new report from Amazon reveals that AI data centers use significantly less water compared to other industries, with Amazon's data centers withdrawing about 2.5 billion gallons globally in 2025. This amount is dwarfed by the water usage of other sectors, such as US lawns and landscaping, which use around 3.3 trillion gallons annually. The findings suggest that AI data centers are not a major contributor to total water use.

Apple's new Siri AI is designed to be less engaging and less sycophantic than other chatbots, focusing on providing information rather than building a personal connection. According to Craig Federighi, Apple's goal is to create a more utilitarian AI experience. This approach differs from other companies like OpenAI and Google.

A group of librarians, including Ponyboy and Eustace, provide sanctuary to a heat-sick stranger named Gibson in a post-apocalyptic world, nursing her back to health in their library's cellar. The librarians take precautions to defend themselves and their sanctuary, while also showing compassion to the newcomer. Gibson's past and motivations are unclear, but the librarians are determined to help her recover.