Should I Care? Brian Chesky is launching an AI lab at Airbnb, and notably hasn’t partnered with any major LLM provider — suggesting they’re building their own models rather than plugging into ChatGPT or Claude. It’s a sign of how seriously large companies are treating AI as a core product function, not just a feature. techcrunch.com
Should I Care? Anthropic’s annualized revenue hit $47 billion in May, up from $9 billion just six months earlier — one of the fastest growth curves in tech history. An IPO is now on the table, which would make it one of the largest public AI companies in the world. techcrunch.com
Should I Care? Mira Murati quietly left OpenAI last year and has said almost nothing since — until now, as she slowly increases her public presence. She’s one of the few people who built frontier AI from the inside and walked away, and what she does next will be closely watched. techcrunch.com
Should I Care? Australian data center operator AirTrunk is committing $30 billion to build 5 gigawatts of AI infrastructure across India — roughly the output of five nuclear reactors. It’s one of the largest infrastructure bets ever made on AI demand outside the US. techcrunch.com
Should I Care? Token costs are rising faster than anyone planned, and AI companies are now focused on controlling expenses rather than just scaling up. Many enterprises have burned through their annual AI budgets in months, forcing a hard conversation about what the ROI actually is. techcrunch.com
Should I Care? A new wave of startups is building products designed to get people off their phones — from in-person social apps to physical devices that discourage screen time. VCs are now betting that the backlash against digital dependency is big enough to build a business on. techcrunch.com
