President Trump's trade war is inspiring the latest TikTok trend — Chinese manufacturers encouraging shoppers to buy direct and pay less.
Why it matters: The trend highlights American consumers' desperation to avoid massive price increases on Chinese-made goods as Trump's tariffs take effect.
The Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. will produce 30% of its most advanced chips in Arizona when its six Phoenix plants are operational, the company announced on an earnings call Thursday.
Why it matters: Chairman and CEO CC Wei told investors the scope of the company's Phoenix investment will create "an independent leading-edge semiconductor manufacturing cluster in the U.S."
Google's dominance of the online advertising and ad-tech markets violates U.S. antitrust laws, a federal court ruled Thursday, in a decision that could scramble the massive digital ad universe.
Why it matters: It's the second major recent antitrust loss for Google, after a different court ruled last year that the giant has abused its dominance of the search market online.
OpenAI is in advanced talks to buy coding assistant company Windsurf for more than $3 billion, in what would be its largest-ever acquisition, per multiple sources.
Why it matters: This could be the starting gun for an AI apps land grab by foundation models.
Elon Musk has fathered at least 14 children with at least four women, intent on fighting civilizational collapse with a "legion" of genetically gifted offspring, according to an explosive new feature in the Wall Street Journal.
Why it matters: The investigation reveals new details on how the world's richest man has used his vast wealth and influence to recruit, manage — and at times silence — the mothers of his many children.
AI developers are embracing a new technical standard that's speeding up chatbots' capacity to access the rest of the software we use every day.
Why it matters: The faster AI can start using the services and programs that shape our lives and work, the quicker it can save us time and money — and cause us new headaches.
Chris Krebs, a top cybersecurity official in the first Trump administration, is leaving his role at SentinelOne to focus on fighting the new government investigation into his time in public service.
Why it matters: Krebs made the announcement in an interview with the Wall Street Journal, his first since President Trump opened a probe into Krebs' time leading the country's top cybersecurity agency.
OpenAI on Wednesday released two new AI models — o3 and o4-mini — designed to handle a broader range of tasks, from coding to visual analysis.
Why it matters: OpenAI says o3 is its most advanced reasoning model yet and the first in its series of models to handle web browsing, image generation and visual understanding.
The Pentagon's acquisition system must be "much, much faster and agile" to take advantage of the technological leaps achieved outside the traditional defense industrial base, according to Andy Green, the president of HII's mission technologies division.
"Commercial technology used to follow defense technology; this was back when I was much younger. But now it's the exact reverse," he told Axios in an interview.
Why he matters: Green oversees some of the most sensitive tech at HII, America's largest shipbuilder. That includes unmanned systems, electronic warfare, space and nuclear services.
Gecko Robotics and L3Harris Technologies are collaborating on an interactive virtual world where even the smallest aircraft dings, dents and defects can be diagnosed from the other side of the globe.
The big picture: Airframe availability and maintenance are crucial, but complicated by concepts like agile combat employment, which scatter supplies, manpower and expertise.
Scout AI co-foundersColby Adcock and Collin Otis want to, in their words, make large robotic armies a reality for the good guys.
"There's a very big white space for somebody to be the AGI brain for defense robots," Adcock told Axios in a recent conversation.
Why it matters: Scout AI emerged from stealth today with $15 million in funding and Pentagon commitments in its back pocket. It also unveiled a ground vehicle (G01) and aerial drone (A01) fueled by Fury, its marquee product, a vision-language-action foundation model.
A critical avenue of U.S.-China competition has slipped under the public's radar despite its potential outsize impacts on economies, militaries and weaponry: biotechnology.
Why it matters: Better body armor, dynamic camouflage, foods synthesized in trenches, super soldiers, landmine-detecting bacteria and sabotaged materials shipped to the enemy are all promises of this field.
And a new report concludes that Beijing is ascending to biotech dominance, at great risk to Washington.
The AI boom is reshaping the Midwest, driving a wave of data center development, straining energy systems, consuming millions of gallons of water — and triggering a new debate over who benefits.
Why it matters: Data centers power the AI boom — but their soaring energy and water demands often go unreported, with unclear benefits for local communities and few permanent jobs created.
The Pentagon placed two top officials on administrative leave on Tuesday as part of an investigation into leaks at the Defense Department, a department official confirmed.
The big picture: Dan Caldwell, a senior adviser to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, was escorted out of the Pentagon building as part of an "unauthorized disclosure" investigation, Reuters first reported.
