Axios PM

May 13, 2026
πͺ Happy Wednesday! Today's newsletter, edited by Alex Fitzpatrick, is 634 words, a 2Β½-min. read. Thanks to Sheryl Miller for copy editing.
ποΈ Scoop: An aide to Rep. Chuck Edwards (R-N.C.) feared retaliation from the congressman after receiving unwanted attention, Axios' Kate Santaliz reports.
- New text messages add to a pattern of alleged behavior by Edwards toward young female aides that prompted a House Ethics Committee investigation.
- Four sources described members of the office staff as deeply uncomfortable during the reading of a flattering poem Edwards wrote for a female staffer's going-away party.
1 big thing: Everything is chips now

SemiconductorsΒ βΒ also called chips β are the new It Girl of the global economy, Axios' Emily Peck writes.
- Chips are essential to the AI boom. That's driving huge demand, creating supply shortages, pushing up prices and creating an investment frenzy.
- It also puts chips at the center of the geopolitical table.
βοΈ Case in point: Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang boarded Air Force One last night during a refueling stop in Anchorage, joining President Trump's CEO-packed China trip.
- Trump called Huang and invited him after media reports that the chip mogul wasn't included in the summit's big CEO delegation, a source tells Axios.
π The stock market is now largely a chips story too.
- Since ChatGPT launched in 2022, the PHLX semiconductor index β which tracks 30 of the industry's biggest firms β has grown to account for 16% of the S&P 500's market cap.
- That's up from 4%.
π§ It's hard to overemphasize how weird the chip market is right now.
- Outside of the pandemic, when supply issues drove up costs, the price of computing power has typically trended down.
- Now, frenzied demand for "compute" to power AI has driven up prices throughout the chip supply chain.
π Geopolitics hang over all of this, as Trump's meeting with Chinese leader Xi Jinping this week casts a spotlight on the global chips trade.
- The U.S. dominates in advanced AI compute that sits at the top of the stack.
- But China owns the bottom β it has the critical minerals and the more basic foundational chips.
πΊπΈ π¨π³ In other words, they need each other.
2. π©βπ» Anthropic pulls ahead


Anthropic passed OpenAI in business adoption in April for the first time, Madison Mills reports from Ramp's latest AI Index.
π By the numbers: Anthropic adoption among businesses using Ramp, an expense management tool, rose 3.8%, to 34.4% overall.
- OpenAI adoption fell 2.9%, to 32.3%.
π€ It's a notable plot twist in the AI world, where OpenAI was once viewed as the category leader.
- Yet OpenAI remains a giant consumer brand βΒ and has said that it's on pace to generate more revenue than Anthropic this year.
An OpenAI spokesperson tells Axios: "We are driving enterprise transformation at scale. These are not engagements where customers pay with a credit card," referring to how Ramp acquires its data.
3. β‘οΈ Catch me up

- π¨π³ President Trump, along with several administration officials and top U.S. CEOs, arrived in Beijing today for a summit with Chinese leader Xi Jinping. Likely topics: global trade, energy, the Iran war and AI. More from Ben Geman.
- π§ββοΈ The South Carolina Supreme Court overturned the murder convictions and life sentence of disgraced lawyer Alex Murdaugh in the shooting deaths of his wife and younger son. Prosecutors say they plan to retry Murdaugh. The justices criticized statements to the jurors by a court clerk. Get the latest.
- π° David's Bridal announced a new "Fit Guarantee" that promises customers that their dresses will fit on their wedding day, even if their bodies change after purchase. Go deeper.
4. π 1 for the road: Snack and white

A popular Japanese snack brand is shifting from its eye-catching polychromatic packaging to staid black-and-white bags.
- That comes as Japan faces a squeeze on naphtha β an oil-derived product used in plastics and ink β amid the Iran war.
π―π΅ Calbee says: "This measure is intended to help maintain a stable supply of products."
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