The Texas Senate race has become a national laboratory for anti-"woke" politics, testing whether voters still recoil from the language of 2020 amid the economic pain of 2026.
Why it matters: Republicans came away from 2024 convinced they had won more than an election — they had broken through on culture, turning Democrats' progressive language and identity politics into symbols of elite detachment.
The company best known for powering the AI boom is coming for the PC: Nvidia is expected next week to debut the first Windows computers that use its chips as the main processor, sources confirm to Axios.
Why it matters: Microsoft's first AI PC push stumbled, but Nvidia's arrival gives it a second chance, this time with the world's hottest chipmaker attached.
AI tools might be hallucinating less, but they're still spitting out inaccurate answers cloaked in polished, hyper-confident language.
Why it matters: The more people trust AI, the less likely they are to catch costly mistakes. It's a growing problem as people increasingly lean on the technology for research, medical advice and schoolwork.
Snowflake escaped the market's software-stock penalty box after posting earnings results, even as traders shrugged off the numbers from fellow software stalwart Salesforce.
The big picture: Software shares have struggled, as investors bet AI will undercut the previous profitability of software-as-a-service (SaaS) companies.
OpenAI is launching a tool to help develop new biodefense and pandemic preparedness capabilities, according to an announcement shared first with Axios.
America's billionaires are developing their own prescriptions for AI-fueled inequality, anxious to defuse a populist revolt aimed at their ballooning fortunes.
Why it matters: The AI boom has dramatically raised the stakes of the wealth-tax debate, unleashing a technology that could wipe out millions of jobs while minting the world's first trillionaires.
Corporations are looking to offload AI tasks to cheaper models as usage blows out IT budgets and returns on investment haven't solidified.
Why it matters: The search for cheaper subscriptions could threaten the three biggest AI labs' near trillion-dollar valuations right as they near record IPOs.
Progressive Democrats taking hardline positions against AI are getting louder.
Why it matters: Five influential progressives are shaping a confrontational Democratic message on AI, distinguishing themselves from party centrists by openly challenging data centers and AI-linked political money.
