The Brutalist Report

Techmeme

Analysis: after Trump's World Liberty raised $550M from investors, tokens worth hundreds of millions in USD were privately sold in "white glove" transactions (Olga Kharif/Bloomberg) [12d]
An investigation finds Nobitex was founded by two brothers from Iran's Kharrazi family; the crypto exchange processed hundreds of millions beyond US sanctions (Reuters) [12d]
A Chinese court ruled that companies cannot terminate staff just to replace them with AI, following a similar ruling by another Chinese court in December 2025 (Victor Swezey/Bloomberg) [12d]
Study: OpenAI's o1 correctly diagnosed 67% of emergency room patients using electronic records and a few sentences from nurses, vs. to 50-55% for triage doctors (Robert Booth/The Guardian) [12d]
Sources: Nigerian mobile payments service OPay is preparing for a US IPO at a $4B valuation with Citigroup, Deutsche Bank, and JPMorgan Chase advising (Bloomberg) [12d]
Sources: Anthropic is in early talks to buy AI chips from UK-based Fractile when they launch in 2027, as it seeks deals to gain more leverage with suppliers (The Information) [12d]
A look at casino-style games, considered gambling in some US states, where player "whales" spend tens of thousands via IAP on Apple, Google, and Meta platforms (Bloomberg) [12d]
A profile of OpenAI CFO Sarah Friar, who sources say helped keep OpenAI's Microsoft deal on track and has privately suggested waiting until 2027 for an IPO (Wall Street Journal) [12d]
Ripple Labs investor and exec Chris Larsen plans to spend $3.5M to help Alex Bores, a NY congressional candidate at the center of a proxy war over AI regulation (New York Times) [12d]
Sources: GameStop is preparing to make an offer for eBay after quietly building a stake; GameStop had a market cap of ~$11B as of May 1, while eBay had ~$45B (Lauren Thomas/Wall Street Journal) [12d]
Avoca, whose AI agents let physical services businesses handle inbound calls and dispatch, raised $125M+ across seed, Series A, and Series B at a $1B valuation (Allie Garfinkle/Fortune) [12d]
A UK court orders Samsung to pay ZTE $392M for patents needed to enable phone network access; Samsung faces similar suits from ZTE in China, Germany, and Brazil (Sam Tobin/Reuters) [12d]