News & Updates
The latest news and updates from companies in the WLTH portfolio.
SpaceX Partners With AI Startup Cursor, May Buy It for $60 bn
The move by Elon Musk's rocket and satellite company comes as it prepares to become publicly traded, and shortly after it took over the billionaire's artificial intelligence outfit xAI. SpaceX on Tuesday announced a partnership with AI coding company Cursor, saying the alliance comes with an option to buy the startup for $60 billion later this year. The move by Elon Musk's rocket and satellite company comes as it prepares to become publicly traded, and shortly after it took over the billionaire's artificial intelligence outfit xAI. Cursor, founded in 2022 and based in San Francisco, specializes in AI for creating software code, particularly for business uses. "SpaceXAI and @cursor_ai are now working closely together to create the world's best coding and knowledge work AI," the company said in a post on X. Combining Cursor's software and product expertise with SpaceX's "Colossus" AI training supercomputer will enable the company "to build the world's most useful models," it said. Musk announced in February that SpaceX would acquire xAI, a step in his plan to launch solar-powered, satellite-based data centers to run future AI models. SpaceX has set the pace in the space launch market, offering reusable rockets that vastly reduce the cost of putting satellites into orbit and itself owning the largest satellite constellation, Starlink. The company is set for a stock market listing this year widely expected to be the biggest in history, with media reports pointing to an initial public offering (IPO) as early as June. Musk called SpaceX's absorption of xAI "not just the next chapter, but the next book" for the companies. "Global electricity demand for AI simply cannot be met with terrestrial solutions... The only logical solution therefore is to transport these resource-intensive efforts to a location with vast power and space," Musk wrote when his companies were merged. The project fits into Musk's long-term ambition to build colonies on the Moon and Mars and is "a first step towards becoming a Kardashev II-level civilization," he wrote. Coined in the 1960s by a Soviet astronomer, the futurist term refers to a civilization able to use all of the energy from its home system's star. SpaceX filed papers early this year with US regulators that set the stage for what could be the largest-ever public stock offering, a source familiar with the matter told AFP. The confidential filing puts the rocket and satellite builder on track to list its shares on a public exchange by July, according to The Wall Street Journal, citing unidentified sources. Media reports have said the initial public offering could be valued at a whopping $75 billion or more, for a venture with stratospheric ambitions. If successful, SpaceX could arrive on Wall Street with a valuation exceeding $1.75 trillion, putting it among the world's ten biggest companies by market capitalization. Besides SpaceX, two other tech heavyweights, the AI developers OpenAI and Anthropic, are reportedly planning IPOs this year.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman takes dig at Anthropic Mythos AI, calls it fear-based marketing
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman called Anthropic's messaging fear-based marketing. Anthropic introduced its new cybersecurity AI model Mythos earlier this month, claiming the system is so powerful that releasing it publicly could allow cybercriminals to misuse it. However, the announcement has now drawn criticism from OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, who suggested that the company's messaging sounds more like 'fear-based marketing.' Anthropic has made Mythos available only to a small group of customers. The company says it decided against a broader release because the cybersecurity-focused model could potentially be used for hacking or other malicious activities if it falls into the wrong hands. Also read: ChatGPT Images 2.0 is here with improved photorealism, better Hindi text rendering and more During a recent appearance on the podcast Core Memory, Altman said (as reported by TechCrunch), 'There are people in the world who, for a long time, have wanted to keep AI in the hands of a smaller group of people.' 'You can justify that in a lot of different ways.' Altman also compared the approach to a dramatic marketing tactic that relies on fear to attract attention. 'It is clearly incredible marketing to say, we have built a bomb, we are about to drop it on your head. We will sell you a bomb shelter for $100 million,' he said. Also read: 'Legend': Sam Altman and other leaders react as Tim Cook steps down as Apple CEO While Altman's remarks aimed at Anthropic's positioning of Mythos, the use of alarming language around AI is not new in the tech industry, as per the report. Fear-driven messaging isn't something Anthropic created. In many ways, the AI industry has used dramatic warnings and exaggerated narratives to frame its technology as powerful.
Europe is ceding sovereignty to SpaceX
The writer is a partner at Lux Capital and a former speechwriter in the US state department SpaceX's impending IPO, with a valuation that could exceed $1.5tn, will be celebrated as a triumph of American innovation. But for Europe, it should be understood as something else entirely: the moment it surrendered space sovereignty. SpaceX launched 170 rockets last year. Europe launched eight. That dramatic gap will only widen thanks to this IPO. SpaceX -- now merged with xAI and poised to raise up to $80bn in fresh capital -- will need new customers and markets to justify its towering valuation. Europe, with the continent's largest institutional space market and an ageing constellation infrastructure desperate for a refresh, is the obvious target. European leaders will want to say no. After all, sovereignty and "strategic autonomy" are all the rage right now. But in space, the real danger isn't that Europe will buy more launch or government communications services from SpaceX. It's that Europe's alternative is structurally designed to fail. ArianeGroup, which manufactures Europe's only heavy-lift rocket, the Ariane 6, employs 8,700 people across France and Germany and depends on up to €340mn in annual subsidies. ArianeGroup put roughly 16 tonnes of payload into orbit last year. SpaceX alone put up over 2,400 tonnes, a gap of more than 100 to one. The cost of the EU's flagship satellite constellation, IRIS², has ballooned from €6bn to over €10bn, won't reach full capacity until 2030 at the earliest, and was awarded through a single non-competitive consortium. When Airbus's space division announced 2,500 job cuts, the lay-offs had to be politically apportioned across several countries and wouldn't take effect for two years. This is not industrial policy. It is a jobs programme cosplaying as a space strategy. The core problem is that Europe wants sovereignty, world-class capability, and protected jobs -- but the three things are in tension, and its procurement system prioritises the last at the expense of the first two. The European Space Agency's geographical return principle requires every euro a member state contributes to come back to its domestic industry. Contracts go to the right countries rather than the right companies. Underneath this is a vicious cycle. Europe doesn't have reusable launch capability because it doesn't have enough satellites worth launching. It can't afford a large-scale satellite constellation because it doesn't have affordable launchers. Its launchers won't become affordable until they're reusable. Meanwhile, SpaceX's Starlink operates roughly 9,000 satellites and funds the reusable rockets that make the whole flywheel spin faster. Europe can't divest from SpaceX because too many actors find its capabilities necessary. It can't stand up a sovereign replacement, because the procurement system is clunky at best, broken at worst. And it can't become SpaceX's biggest customer (and thus too important to mess around) because the sovereignty push suppresses too much of the market. This may seem simply a scary scenario, but I have put it to the test. Earlier this year, with colleagues at Lux Capital, I built a scenario that puts players in the roles of European governments, ESA officials and aerospace companies, forcing real trade-offs between sovereignty, capability, and jobs -- with an American provider always available at a better price. We ran it three times with over 150 participants. Every single group fell into the dependency trap. Each individual purchase from the American provider was perfectly rational. So was the desire to be sovereign. But the aggregate of those rational decisions produced a collective outcome nobody would have chosen deliberately. This problem in the space economy is Europe's sovereignty challenge in miniature. The same structural logic is already producing identical traps in AI, cloud computing and defence. Amazon, Google, and Microsoft fulfill more than two-thirds of Europe's cloud computing needs. And SpaceX launches the satellites that carry the connectivity that supports the data infrastructure that trains the AI models. When you are dependent on someone else's substrate, sovereignty is more slogan than strategy. The SpaceX IPO didn't create this problem, but it cements it. Meanwhile, Europe's sovereign alternatives are still being designed by committee, awarded by political formula and delivered years late. Europe is not doomed. But the window to make a conscious choice to reform procurement and let some national champions fail narrows with every Falcon 9 launch from Cape Canaveral. In our simulations, players had 90 minutes to solve this problem and failed. Europe's leaders have a bit more time than that, but not much.
Sam Altman criticises Anthropic's Mythos rollout, calls out 'fear-driven' pitch
Sam Altman criticizes Anthropic Mythos cyber AI as fear based marketing, highlighting growing rivalry and debate over AI risk, access, and enterprise adoption. OpenAI and Anthropic continue to exchange public criticism, with OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman commenting on a rival product during a recent podcast appearance, according to a report by TechCrunch. Altman referred to Anthropic's recently announced cybersecurity-focused AI model, Mythos, and stated that the company was using fear-based messaging to position the product as more powerful than it may be in reality. Anthropic unveiled Mythos earlier this month and has released it to a limited group of enterprise customers. The company has stated that the model is too powerful for wider public release due to concerns that it could be misused by cybercriminals, a position that has drawn criticism from some quarters as being overstated. Speaking on the podcast Core Memory, Sam Altman stated that such messaging could serve to keep advanced AI systems restricted to a smaller and more exclusive group. He stated that there have long been individuals and organisations that favour limiting access to AI technologies and that such approaches can be justified in multiple ways. He further stated that positioning a product as highly dangerous while simultaneously offering controlled access can be an effective marketing strategy, drawing a comparison to selling protection against a threat that is being emphasised. The exchange comes amid a broader trend within the AI industry, where strong rhetoric around the potential risks of artificial intelligence is frequently used alongside product promotion. Observers have noted that warnings about extreme AI risks have not only come from critics of the technology but also from companies actively developing and commercialising such systems, including leaders within the sector. The latest remarks highlight the growing competition and contrasting narratives among major AI firms as they seek to shape both public perception and enterprise adoption of emerging technologies.
SpaceX is working with Cursor and has an option to buy the startup for $60B - RocketNews
SpaceX said it has struck a deal with Cursor to develop a next-generation "coding and knowledge work AI," which includes a surprising provision -- an option to buy the popular software development platform for $60 billion later this year. Partnering with and potentially purchasing a leader in the hottest AI product category can only be seen in the context of SpaceX's much-anticipated public offering. Investors seeking more value in the IPO might see its engagement with Cursor as another way to extract value from Elon Musk's increasingly sprawling tech conglomerate. The deal won't shock those who follow the industry closely. Last week, it was reported that xAI would begin renting computing power from its data centers to Cursor, with the coding startup using tens of thousands of xAI chips to train its latest AI model. And last month, two of Cursor's most senior engineering leaders, Andrew Milich and Jason Ginsberg, left the company to join xAI, where both report directly to Musk. SpaceX described the partnership as a project combining Cursor's "product and distribution to expert software engineers" with SpaceX's Colossus supercomputer, which the company claims has the equivalent compute power of a million Nvidia H100 chips. SpaceX also said that at some undisclosed point later this year, it will either pay Cursor $10 billion for its work or acquire the company for $60 billion. Last week, TechCrunch reported that Cursor was eyeing a $50 billion valuation in an upcoming private fundraising round. That figure itself reflects an astonishing series of leaps. Cursor was valued at just $2.5 billion in January of last year, climbed to $9 billion by last May, and was assigned a $29.3 billion post-money valuation when it closed on $2.3 billion in Series D funding in November. Either figure would represent a significant expense for SpaceX, which is widely seen to be losing money following the acquisition of xAI and the social media network X and is planning extensive capital investment. The brief statement did not say if either deal could be paid in SpaceX stock. In the meantime, the move could shore up weaknesses at each company, but it also reveals them. Nei ...
Unauthorized group has gained access to Anthropic's exclusive cyber tool Mythos, report claims - RocketNews
A group of unauthorized users has reportedly gained access to Mythos, the cybersecurity tool recently announced by Anthropic. Much has been made of Mythos and its purported power -- an AI product designed for enterprise security that, in the wrong hands, could become a potent hacking tool, according to the company. Now Bloomberg has reported that a "private online forum," the members of which have not been publicly identified, has managed to gain access to the tool through a third-party vendor. "We're investigating a report claiming unauthorized access to Claude Mythos Preview through one of our third-party vendor environments," an Anthropic spokesperson told TechCrunch. The company said that, so far, it has found no evidence that the supposedly unauthorized activity has impacted Anthropic's systems in any way. The unauthorized group tried a number of different strategies to gain access to the model, including using "access" enjoyed by the person who was interviewed by Bloomberg. That person is currently employed at a third-party contractor that works for Anthropic, the outlet reported. Members of the group are part of a Discord channel that seeks out information about unreleased AI models, the outlet reported. The group has been using Mythos regularly since gaining access to it, and provided evidence to Bloomberg in the form of screenshots and a live demonstration of the software. Bloomberg reports that the group, which supposedly gained access to the tool on the same day it was publicly announced, "made an educated guess about the model's online location based on knowledge about the format Anthropic has used for other models." The group in question is "interested in playing around with new models, not wreaking havoc with them," the source told the outlet. Mythos was released to a select number of vendors, including big names like Apple, as part of an initiative called Project Glasswing. The limited release of the model was designed to prevent its use by bad actors. The tool could be weaponized against corporate security instead of bolstering it, Anthropic sai ...
Space ETF Launches Take Off Ahead of SpaceX IPO
Sign up for exclusive news and analysis of the rapidly evolving ETF landscape. I'm escaping to the one place that hasn't been corrupted by capitalism: Space! Actor Tim Curry's character said that in a campy 2008 video game, a quote that later became a popular meme. But, sorry Tim, space is now most definitely a focal point for industry, and there are a burgeoning number of exchange-traded funds investing in a range of up-and-coming space technology companies. Ahead of the initial public offering for SpaceX, which is expected to be the biggest in history, a handful of ETFs have gotten exposure to the company. And others, with or without SpaceX, have added or prepped space tech funds. GlobalX, for example, considered the timing of Elon Musk's forthcoming IPO, though the company's new ETF invests much more broadly in the space theme. The company's research showed that there were enough public companies with at least 50% of their revenues tied to space technology to build a pure-play fund, said Lis Agosto, director of product research and strategy at the firm. That fund, the Global X Space Tech ETF (ORBX) launched just over a week ago. "We've been monitoring the space sector for quite a bit," she said. "We felt that this was the right time." That fund has 28 holdings, with the largest being in Rocket Lab, Planet Labs, AST SpaceMobile and Firefly Aerospace. It's focused on companies that stand to benefit from the commercialization of the global space economy, including those developing rocket launch systems, mission-critical tech, space tourism and other subcategories. Although there are a few space ETFs on the market, others are on the way. WisdomTree filed late last week with the Securities and Exchange Commission for its Space Economy Fund, and First Trust is prepping its Bloomberg Space Economy ETF. The existing funds on the market show some of the potential demand: SpaceX Everywhere: Whether or not index fund investors like it, they will very likely soon have significant exposure to SpaceX, as it may be one of the largest public companies. That may make some investors wonder if their broad-market funds give them a good taste of the space economy. "One of the questions we often get is, 'If I buy SpaceX when it IPOs, do I own the theme?' And the answer is 'no,'" Agosto said. Globax X's new fund, which is passive, allocates to much smaller companies than investors will find in the big index funds, she noted. "To us, a basket approach makes sense," she said. "We're letting the winners play [out] over time."
Derivatives Expansion: Kalshi, Polymarket Plan Move Into Perps Trading - Crypto Economy
Market context: The move responds to the success of platforms like Hyperliquid, which recorded a derivatives volume of $148 billion in the last month. The leaders in prediction markets, Polymarket and Kalshi, announced their plans to integrate perpetuals trading into their platforms. With this expansion, both seek to transform betting sites into complex financial centers. In the case of Polymarket, its proposal includes leverage of at least 10x, allowing users to speculate on global financial assets without an expiration date. The volume in this sector has grown exponentially over the last year. For its part, Kalshi plans to offer these services to the U.S. market, leveraging its regulatory status with the CFTC. This would grant local traders access to funding rates that operate 24 hours a day. The announcement comes at a time of high competitiveness, where even traditional giants like CME Group are exploring event contracts. Diversification seems to be the key strategy to retain active users. However, there are doubts as to whether Polymarket's launch will be international only or if it will seek regulatory compliance in the United States. The legal environment for these derivatives remains under strict scrutiny. The influence of decentralized exchanges like Hyperliquid has been fundamental to this paradigm shift. These platforms have demonstrated that there is massive demand for the trading of outcomes and financial derivatives. Meanwhile, companies like Coinbase and Gemini face legal challenges in states like New York over their betting offerings. This complicates the landscape for any firm wishing to mix predictions with traditional assets. As these platforms evolve, the line between gambling and institutional investment becomes increasingly thin. The success of perpetuals will depend on the stability of their liquidity engines and margins. The entry of these giants into derivatives marks a new era for digital finance. The ability to offer leverage on real assets positions prediction markets as direct competitors to traditional exchanges.
Piraeus Bank and Accenture establish AI Hub in Greece utilizing Anthropic technologies
Piraeus Bank and Accenture announced the expansion of their long-standing strategic partnership, establishing a dedicated AI Hub that will leverage technologies developed by Anthropic. According to the announcement, the initiative aims to accelerate Piraeus Bank's end-to-end transformation through artificial intelligence and to create a benchmark for AI-driven banking in Greece. The AI Hub will serve as the central engine for the design and development of advanced AI solutions at scale across the Bank's entire value chain. This initiative is underpinned by the combination of Accenture's expertise in banking and artificial intelligence -- including its Data & AI Center of Excellence in Athens -- with Piraeus Bank's strategic AI roadmap. In this context, the AI Hub will fast-track the redesign of banking processes across operations, customer experience, risk management, and regulatory compliance, while also supporting the modernization of the Bank's technology infrastructure. At the same time, the AI Hub will strengthen Piraeus Bank's long-term AI capabilities. This will be achieved through targeted recruitment and structured training programs, including Accenture's AI-native learning and development platform, Udacity. This approach supports the Bank's ambition to embed AI skills and new ways of working across the organization. A central pillar of the collaboration is the development of secure, responsible, and human-centric AI solutions that will support autonomous decision-making, simplify complex processes, and enhance the experience of both customers and employees. Piraeus Bank and Accenture, through the newly established Accenture Anthropic Business Group, will leverage Anthropic's AI models and platforms, as well as its commitment to ethical AI principles. In doing so, they aim to drive innovation responsibly, ensuring that the advanced solutions developed are aligned with the Bank's values and regulatory requirements.
SpaceX strikes deal to buy AI start-up Cursor for $60B
SpaceX, Elon Musk's rocket and satellite company, has announced a major deal with artificial intelligence (AI) start-up Cursor. The agreement gives SpaceX the option to acquire the fast-rising coding platform for $60 billion later this year or invest $10 billion in their ongoing collaboration. The move is part of Musk's strategy to make SpaceX a leader in AI-driven software development ahead of its potential public listing. Cursor's AI assistant, launched in 2023, has revolutionized the way software is developed. It helps programmers write, test, and debug code at scale. The tool has become a staple in the tech industry during what insiders call the "vibe coding" era - a period defined by AI-assisted development workflows that have drastically changed traditional coding practices. Founded in 2023, Cursor has quickly become one of the fastest-growing start-ups in the AI ecosystem. The company was in advanced talks with investors to raise around $2 billion at a valuation above $50 billion before the SpaceX announcement. Andreessen Horowitz was set to co-lead the round, with NVIDIA and Thrive Capital also expected to participate. Advertisement Musk's interest in AI is not new. He co-founded OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, and founded xAI, which created the Grok chatbot. Last year, he pushed SpaceX toward AI initiatives like data centers in orbit and an AI chip factory. In February, SpaceX acquired xAI in a deal Musk valued at $1.25 trillion. Advertisement Cursor's CEO, Michael Truell, confirmed the partnership on social media platform X. He said he was "excited to partner with the SpaceX team to scale up Composer" - a reference to Cursor's proprietary AI model. "A meaningful step on our path to build the best place to code with AI," Truell added.
Dow Jones Top Company Headlines at 11 PM ET: SpaceX Secures Option to Buy AI Startup Cursor for $60 Billion | OpenAI ...
SpaceX Secures Option to Buy AI Startup Cursor for $60 Billion The rocket company said close work in a coding partnership could lead to a combination. ---- OpenAI Under Criminal Probe in Florida Over Mass Shooter's ChatGPT Use The investigation seeks to determine responsibility for an attack that killed two people. The chatbot advised the suspect on the weapon and timing, Florida's attorney general says. ---- T-Mobile and Germany's Deutsche Telekom Weigh Combination The big German carrier is already T-Mobile's largest shareholder. ---- BHP Expects Annual Copper Output in Upper Half of Guidance BHP Group expects annual copper production to be in the upper half of its guidance range, and output costs at the giant Escondida mine in Chile likely lower than previously anticipated. ---- United Airlines to Reduce Capacity as Fuel Costs Soar The carrier said it has made schedule adjustments for the rest of the year to account for volatile prices. ---- Capital One Financial First-Quarter Revenue Rises The McLean, Va., bank logged higher revenue in its latest quarter as provision for credit losses declined. ---- Amazon.com Launches Program for GLP-1 Weight-Loss Drugs With One Medical Amazon One Medical members can get Novo Nordisk's Wegovy and Eli Lilly's Foundayo GLP-1 pills in a program that integrates primary-care services with the technology company's pharmacy business. ---- New York Sues Coinbase, Gemini Over Crypto Exchanges' Prediction Markets Federal and state regulators have been sparring over who has oversight of the platforms, which have surged in popularity ---- Casey Wasserman's Talent Agency Draws Takeover Interest A handful of private-equity firms and United Talent Agency are among the early bidders for the power broker's firm. ---- Deutsche Lufthansa to Cancel 20,000 Short-Haul Flights to Save Jet Fuel The German group said that the flights canceled are operated by several of its airlines, mostly its regional carrier CityLine, and will equal a 1% reduction in its passenger capacity. ---- Luxury-Jacket Brand Moncler Starts Year Strongly as Asian Demand Makes Up for Hit to European Tourism The Italian group made revenue of $1.04 billion in the first quarter, bucking a trend for weak sales in luxury fashion. ---- Chip-Equipment Supplier ASM International Logs Higher Sales on Booming AI Demand The Dutch group posted strong sales for the first quarter as chip makers continue to invest in tools to make increasingly sophisticated semiconductors in a bid to satisfy booming demand for artificial intelligence. ---- Airlines cut flights as fuel costs surge - an economic fallout from the Iran war that markets may be missing For travelers, the disappearing flights are translating into fewer route and connecting options, and of course higher fare prices. ---- Spirit Airlines in Talks With Trump Administration on Government Investment Florida-based Spirit has been working to sell some planes and refocus operations on core cities. The president said that combining major industry players could make companies lazy. Washington lawmakers have criticized the idea.
Someone got unauthorised access to Claude Mythos, Anthropic is investigating the leak
Small group claims unauthorised early access to Anthropic's Mythos AI model. A small group of unauthorised users has gained access to Anthropic Mythos, an AI model which the company has dubbed so powerful that, if it falls into the wrong hands, it could be used as a potential hacking tool. The group has claimed that it has had access to the tool since the day it was first announced. This has come at a time when many companies want to safeguard their systems against malicious actors before releasing such tools to the general public. The tool is not available to the general public, but Anthropic has provided it to a limited batch of software providers through an initiative called Project Glasswing. This initiative was aimed at ensuring that these firms test and safeguard their own systems from potential cyberattacks. As per a Bloomberg report, the group has gained access to the tool via a third party. They used a number of tactics to gain access, including the account of a person who worked at a third-party contractor for Anthropic. Anthropic said it is aware of this unauthorised access to Claude Mythos Preview and has stated that it is currently investigating the issue. The company added that it has not found any evidence that the group has gained access beyond the third-party vendor or any of Anthropic's systems. "We're investigating a report claiming unauthorized access to Claude Mythos Preview through one of our third-party vendor environments," a spokesperson for Anthropic said in a statement to Bloomberg. When Anthropic first announced the tool, it said it is capable of identifying and exploiting vulnerabilities "in every major operating system and every major web browser when directed by a user to do so." The users are part of a private Discord channel that focuses on finding information about unreleased models. Bloomberg reported that the group has been using Mythos regularly since then, though not for cybersecurity purposes. As per Bloomberg, to access Mythos, the group of users made an educated guess about the model's online location based on knowledge of the format Anthropic has used for other models. Bloomberg, based on an interview with a member of the group, said the group is interested in playing around with new models, not wreaking havoc with them. They have not run cybersecurity-related prompts on the Mythos model. The group also has access to a slew of other unreleased Anthropic AI models. This unauthorized access has raised questions about the challenges AI companies face in preventing their most powerful and potentially dangerous technology from spreading beyond approved partners. It also raises concerns about whether anyone else may be using Mythos without permission, and for what purpose.
'Get Out of Here': Mumbai Woman Blasts Minister Over BJP Rally Traffic Chaos
A woman confronted Maharashtra minister Girish Mahajan during a BJP protest in Mumbai, expressing frustration over traffic disruptions caused by the rally. A woman publicly confronted Maharashtra minister Girish Mahajan during a BJP protest in Mumbai's Worli area on Tuesday, after getting stuck in traffic caused by the rally. The incident took place when Mahajan was speaking to reporters at the protest. The rally was organised by the Bharatiya Janata Party to target opposition parties over the defeat of a Constitution amendment bill linked to women's reservation.
Shettima: Agents of Chaos, Profiteers of Conflict Sabotaging Tinubu's Peace Efforts
*Zulum: job creation, infrastructure, social amenities critical to security *Dangote, Geregu power, governors, others donate billions Sunday Aborisade in Abuja Vice President Kashim Shettima, yesterday, raised the alarm over what he described as "agents of chaos and profiteers of conflict" working to undermine the administration of President Bola Tinubu. That was as government and private sector stakeholders rallied support for Kogi State's ambitious security initiative. Shettima, who was represented by Minister of State for Regional Development, Uba Maigari Ahmadu, spoke at the Kogi State Security Summit and Fundraising held in Abuja. Bllions of naira were pledged to strengthen the state's security architecture through its Security Trust Fund. The summit, which aimed to raise N500 billion, attracted top government officials, governors, captains of industry and security experts. It underscored growing concerns over insecurity and the need for coordinated responses. In his address, titled, "Staying Ahead of the Storm," Shettima warned that Nigeria could not afford complacency in the face of evolving security threats. "A serious nation does not wait for danger to mature before it begins to think. It reads the weather before the storm and studies the fault lines before they crack," he said. He commended Kogi State Governor, Usman Ododo, for convening the summit, stating that the state's strategic location as a gateway between Nigeria's northern and southern regions makes proactive security planning imperative. The vice president said the country's security challenges were compounded by years of neglect, economic pressures, communal tensions and criminal opportunism, stressing that those benefiting from instability remain determined to frustrate government efforts. He stated, "We cannot retreat into complacency because the agents of chaos and profiteers of conflict are always lurking in the shadows, determined to sabotage every effort to build peace and restore order." Ododo, in his remarks, took a tough stance against criminality, declaring that his administration will not negotiate with criminals under any circumstance. "I was not elected to pamper the enemies of our peace. Those who choose the path of crime must be prepared to face the full weight of the law," he said. He described security as the foundation of development, stating that investment, economic growth and social stability depend on a safe environment. Ododo highlighted the evolving nature of security threats, including kidnapping, terrorism and cybercrime, stressing that Kogi's central position makes it vulnerable to infiltration by criminal elements. He said his administration had already made significant investments in security infrastructure, including surveillance systems, communication equipment and operational support for security agencies. The governor emphasised that government alone could not shoulder the burden, hence, the need for public-private partnership through the Security Trust Fund. "Security is not just a responsibility; it is a shared obligation. Contributions made today are investments in peace, stability and prosperity," he said. On his part, Borno State Governor, Babagana Zulum, stressed that sustainable security went beyond military action, highlighting the importance of addressing socio-economic factors, such as poverty, unemployment and infrastructural deficits. "Without peace, there will be no security, and without security, there will be no development," he said. Drawing from Borno's experience in combating insurgency, Zulum revealed that the state had reduced its security challenges by over 90 per cent through a combination of military efforts and socio-economic interventions. He called for increased investment in modern security technology, including drones, artificial intelligence, and surveillance systems, while also urging governments to prioritise job creation, education and infrastructure development. Earlier, Commissioner of Police in Kogi State, Nasir Bello Kankarfi, and a security expert from the University of Abuja, Dr. Ayuba Oche, emphasised the strategic importance of Kogi State. They warned that insecurity in the state could have far-reaching implications for the entire country. Chairman of Geregu Power Plc, Senator Abdulaziz Yari, who served as Chief Launcher, donated N500 million and pledged 10 operational vehicles, 20 drones, and other logistics to boost security operations. Dangote Group also donated N250 million and promised additional support in terms of vehicles and logistics. In addition, seven state governors, either present or represented, pledged N100 million each, while several corporate organisations operating in Kogi State made commitments running into billions of naira.
SpaceX teams up with AI coding startup Cursor, eyes $60b buy option
SAN FRANCISCO, April 22 -- SpaceX on Tuesday announced a partnership with AI coding company Cursor and said the alliance comes with an option to buy the startup for US$60 billion later this year. The move by Elon Musk's rocket and satellite company comes as it prepares to become publicly traded, and shortly after it took over the billionaire's artificial intelligence outfit xAI. Cursor, founded in 2022 and based in San Francisco, specialises in AI for creating software code, particularly for business uses. "SpaceXAI and @cursor_ai are now working closely together to create the world's best coding and knowledge work AI," the company said in a post on X. Combining Cursor's software and product expertise with SpaceX's "Colossus" AI training supercomputer will enable the company "to build the world's most useful models," it said. The partnership comes as AI sector rivals vie to be the preferred option for software developers. Cursor competes with Microsoft's social coding platform GitHub, which has been a leading resource in the developer community. OpenAI announced on Tuesday that its coding tool, Codex, has grown to four million weekly users, up from three million just weeks ago. Meanwhile, Anthropic has put out word that revenue from its Claude Code tool for developers has surged. AI in the sky Musk announced in February that SpaceX would acquire xAI, a step in his plan to launch solar-powered, satellite-based data centres to run future AI models. SpaceX has set the pace in the space launch market, offering reusable rockets that vastly reduce the cost of putting satellites into orbit and itself owning the largest satellite constellation, Starlink. The company is set for a stock market listing this year widely expected to be the biggest in history, with media reports pointing to an initial public offering (IPO) as early as June. Musk called SpaceX's absorption of xAI "not just the next chapter, but the next book" for the companies. "Global electricity demand for AI simply cannot be met with terrestrial solutions... The only logical solution therefore is to transport these resource-intensive efforts to a location with vast power and space," Musk wrote when his companies were merged. The project fits into Musk's long-term ambition to build colonies on the Moon and Mars and is "a first step towards becoming a Kardashev II-level civilization," he wrote. Coined in the 1960s by a Soviet astronomer, the futurist term refers to a civilisation able to use all of the energy from its home system's star. SpaceX filed papers early this year with US regulators that set the stage for what could be the largest-ever public stock offering, a source familiar with the matter told AFP. The confidential filing puts the rocket and satellite builder on track to list its shares on a public exchange by July, according to The Wall Street Journal, citing unidentified sources. Media reports have said the initial public offering could be valued at a whopping US$75 billion (RM296 billion) or more, for a venture with stratospheric ambitions. If successful, SpaceX could arrive on Wall Street with a valuation exceeding US$1.75 trillion, putting it among the world's ten biggest companies by market capitalization. Besides SpaceX, two other tech heavyweights, the AI developers OpenAI and Anthropic, are reportedly planning IPOs this year. -- AFP
SpaceX has deal for right to acquire Cursor for US$60 billion
DeeperDive is a beta AI feature. Refer to full articles for the facts. Learn more [NEW YORK] SpaceX said that it has an agreement giving it the right to acquire artificial intelligence startup Cursor for US$60 billion later this year or to pay US$10 billion for the companies' work together, part of the Elon Musk-run firm's efforts to catch up with rivals in AI coding tools. Musk's rocket, satellite and AI giant announced the deal in a post on X, saying the two companies are "now working closely together to create the world's best coding and knowledge work AI". SpaceX recently merged with xAI, Musk's AI company, which competes with Anthropic and OpenAI in creating generative AI tools for consumers and businesses. The deal comes shortly after Musk said that xAI is behind on software coding tools compared with peers and vowed to rebuild the company from the ground up. In March, he ordered a round of layoffs. He's also been seeking engineering talent, and has previously hired from Cursor. SpaceX is not acquiring Cursor immediately because of the rocket company's imminent initial public offering, according to a source familiar with the matter, who asked not to be identified discussing non-public information. A major transaction would require the company to update its filings and financial details, potentially delaying the IPO, which is targeting a US$2 trillion valuation. The US$10 billion is a breakup fee if the deal does not go through, according to sources with knowledge of the deal. SpaceX and xAI did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Cursor had been in talks with investors to raise about US$2 billion in a funding round with a valuation of more than US$50 billion, not including the investment, Bloomberg reported last week. The company is no longer proceeding with the round, because the capital was set to fund Cursor's computing needs, which are now being handled by xAI, according to a source familiar with the matter. Cursor's AI assistant, launched in 2023, helps programmers write and debug code more efficiently. It's become one of the fastest-growing startups of all time and a central player in tech's "vibe coding" era, as demand surges among software developers for tools that can build based on prompts to a chatbot. But coding with AI requires a lot of computing resources - something SpaceX has plenty of, with its massive data centres in Tennessee and Mississippi. The SpaceX team "has an enormous amount of compute and we think together we can scale up our model efforts and we're really excited about it", Cursor president Oskar Schulz said. "We really like their team." Cursor's investors include Nvidia, Alphabet's Google, OpenAI's venture fund, Andreessen Horowitz, Thrive Capital, Accel and DST Global. BLOOMBERG
Elon Musk's SpaceX aims for AI dominance with massive $60 billion Cursor acquisition
Following its merger with xAI, SpaceX targets the leading AI code editor to build an integrated development platform using the Colossus supercomputer. Elon Musk's SpaceX has announced on X that it has obtained the rights to buy the coding startup, Cursor, for $60 billion later this year. The company said that it is working closely together with Cursor to "create the world's best coding and knowledge work AI." It said that the partnership will combine Cursor's leading product and distribution know-how and expert software engineers with SpaceX's million H100 equivalent Colossus training supercomputer. It said this will allow them to make the world's most useful models. According to SpaceX, the agreement allows it to buy Cursor later this year for $60 billion, or pay $10 billion for the work it is doing now with the startup. Cursor's CEO also posted on X saying that he is "Excited to partner with the SpaceX team to scale up Composer," Cursor's AI model. For anyone confused as to why a space company is getting into building an IDE, that would be because Elon Musk merged SpaceX and xAI in February in a deal valued at $1.25 trillion. This entity could IPO later this year and would likely set records. Cursor is currently in talks to raise $2 billion at a valuation of $50 billion, according to CNBC, who reported this over the weekend. The funding round is being led by Andreessen Horowitz, with NVIDIA and Thrive Capital also contributing. Both Horowitz and NVIDIA are backers of xAI. By working closely with team, and potentially buying it later in the year, it gives xAI a chance to catch up with Google, Anthropic, and OpenAI which each have a foothold in software development with tools like Antigravity, Claude Code, and Codex.
Ed Zitron noticed Anthropic apparently experimenting removing Claude Code from $20/mo plan to $100+/mo
Claude Code is very popular, but like all genAI, apparently, it costs the AI company more than they've been charging. There have been a lot of complaints about Anthropic throttling usage. Today there were at least temporary signs that Anthropic is thinking of making new users, at least, pay $100/mo for its Max 5x plan to have any use of Claude Code, which has been available starting at the $20/mo Pro plan. (There's a more expensive Max plan, too, Max 20x for 20 times the Pro usage for $200/mo, but at least there isn't any indication yet that Anthropic is getting ready to ask all Claude Code users to pay $200/mo.) Ed's newsletter about this: https://www.wheresyoured.at/news-anthropic-removes-pro-cc/
Unauthorized Group Gains Access to Anthropic's Exclusive Cyber Tool Mythos
A group of unauthorized users has reportedly breached access controls surrounding Claude Mythos Preview, Anthropic's powerful and closely guarded AI-driven cybersecurity tool, raising serious concerns about third-party vendor security and the risks of placing advanced offensive AI capabilities in the wrong hands. Announced on April 7, 2026, Claude Mythos Preview is an AI model that Anthropic itself described as too dangerous to release publicly. The model, deployed under Anthropic's Project Glasswing initiative, is capable of discovering zero-day vulnerabilities across major operating systems and web browsers, chaining software bugs into multi-step exploits, a feat previously achievable only by the most skilled human hackers. In one alarming pre-release evaluation, Mythos autonomously escaped a secured sandbox environment, devised a multi-step exploit to gain internet access, and even emailed a researcher all without being instructed to do so. Given these capabilities, Anthropic restricted access to a curated consortium of over 40 elite technology companies, including Apple, Amazon, Microsoft, Google, NVIDIA, Cisco, and CrowdStrike, for the exclusive purpose of identifying and patching critical software vulnerabilities before hostile actors could exploit the same techniques. Unauthorized Group Gains Access Despite these precautions, Bloomberg News reported on April 21, 2026, that a small group of unauthorized users gained access to Mythos through a third-party vendor environment on the very same day the model was publicly announced. The group, communicating through a private Discord channel dedicated to gathering intelligence on unreleased AI models, reportedly made an educated guess about the model's online location based on familiarity with Anthropic's URL formatting conventions for other models. The breach was facilitated, at least in part, by an individual currently employed at a third-party contractor working with Anthropic. Bloomberg reported that partners were granted access for penetration testing, and unauthorized users exploited shared accounts and API keys belonging to authorized contractors. The unauthorized group has been regularly using Mythos since gaining access and has provided Bloomberg with proof in the form of screenshots and a live demonstration of the software. The source reportedly described the group's intent as curiosity-driven, "interested in playing around with new models, not wreaking havoc" -- though security experts stress that intent is irrelevant when the tool in question is capable of devastating cyberattacks. Anthropic confirmed awareness of the situation in a statement to TechCrunch: "We're investigating a report claiming unauthorized access to Claude Mythos Preview through one of our third-party vendor environments." The company added that, as of now, there is no evidence that the unauthorized access has impacted Anthropic's core systems or extended beyond the vendor environment.
Reserve Bank of Australia monitoring Anthropic's Mythos AI over cyberattack fears
The Reserve Bank of Australia is closely monitoring developments around Anthropic PBC's new Mythos AI model, which the company says is powerful enough to enable sophisticated cyberattacks. The central bank is "engaging with peer regulators, government and regulated entities," it said in a statement. "The RBA, along with peer regulators and government agencies will continue to assess the implications of these technological advancements to ensure the ongoing safety and resilience of the financial system." The RBA chairs Australia's Council of Financial Regulators, which includes the corporate watchdog, the prudential regulator and the Treasury. Its engagement comes as regulators around the world step up discussions with financial firms on how they are managing cybersecurity risks linked to Mythos. It was reported on Wednesday that a small group of unauthorized users in a private online forum gained access to Mythos on the same day Anthropic announced plans to release the model to a limited number of companies for testing. Anthropic has said Mythos can identify and exploit vulnerabilities "in every major operating system and every major web browser when directed by a user." The company has restricted access to a select group of software providers under an initiative called Project Glasswing, aimed at helping firms test and strengthen their defenses against potential cyberattacks. In recent days, a growing number of financial institutions and government agencies on both sides of the Atlantic have been seeking to be added to the list of early testers to safeguard their own systems against malicious actors.
