🕶️ When your data center dreams hit a tariff wall

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Ten bullets of updates

1. 🤑 Trump hosts a $55K buy-in crypto dinner for top Trump coin holders, sparking frenzy and ethical concerns.

2. ⚡ EV startup Slate Auto hits 100K refundable reservations in 2 weeks for its $20K electric pickup debut.

3. 🔥 Trump fires Copyright Office chief after AI training report; Musk-linked copyright debates heat up.

4. 💻 GitHub CEO says AI helps but won’t replace coders — Copilot now has over 15M users and growing.

5. 🛡️ European defense startups raised $5.2B in 2024 — 201 Ventures bets on a "gray zone" future.

6. 🕌 Saudi Crown Prince launches Humain — a $940B AI venture backed by PIF as Musk, Altman, and Zuckerberg visit Riyadh.

7. 🚀 Google unveils AI Futures Fund — offering investments, DeepMind tools, and Cloud credits to AI startups.

8. 🤖 No one really knows what an AI agent is — even a16z VCs admit the buzzword lacks clarity.

9. 📥 Google’s Gemma AI models hit 150M downloads with 70K Hugging Face variants — but still trail Meta’s 1.2B+ Llama milestone.

10. 🧮 US–China tariff cut deal slashes rates by 115% for 90 days, but ends the de minimis import loophole.

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OpenAI’s Stargate hits the tariff wall

OpenAI’s high-profile Stargate project—a planned $500 million data center initiative—has hit serious turbulence, largely due to rising tariffs and growing investor hesitation. The escalating costs of essential hardware like chips, servers, and cooling systems (projected to jump 5–15%) are making banks and asset managers nervous, especially amid a broader market shift toward cheaper AI alternatives. Even SoftBank, once a vocal supporter, has yet to firm up its financing strategy. Compounding concerns is the looming risk of data center overcapacity, with major players like Microsoft and Amazon already rethinking their infrastructure bets. Read more.

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The Great Humanoid Robot Hoax

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Trust no one, not even your Zoom call

As AI-generated fraud and deepfakes surge, digital paranoia is becoming a new survival skill in professional life. From fake job offers to video call imposters, individuals like Nicole Yelland are adopting multi-layered verification strategies—including language tests, background searches, and mandatory on-camera meetings—just to feel safe communicating online. Her caution stems from a personal experience with a sophisticated job scam that impersonated a real company and nearly stole her personal data. These scams are no longer limited to spam emails or dating apps; they're infiltrating mainstream communication platforms and workplace tools, aided by AI that can craft convincing personas and even real-time video fakes.

In response, both individuals and organizations are turning to a mix of old-school verification tactics and emerging tech. Some use “phone camera tricks” to expose possible deepfakes, while others rely on biometric verification or social engineering checks like rapid-fire local trivia questions. Experts like researcher Jessica Eise and startup founder Ken Schumacher note that fraud has made even simple interactions feel suspicious, costing time and trust. As fraudsters get smarter, defenses are also escalating—but the emotional and logistical toll is mounting. Without reliable technical safeguards, many professionals are left acting as their own human captchas in a digital minefield where even a friendly message might be a trap.

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Startup Events and Deadlines

1. FemTech Unite l May 14 l Amsterdam

2. Crash Course on Startup Fundraising with Caya (Slidebean CEO) l May 20 l Online

3. Slidebean’s Crash Course in Financial Modeling l May 22 l Online

4. Startup Battlefield 200 | Deadline: June 9 | Global

5. Entrepreneur First London - Summer | Deadline: July 1 | UK

6. Startmate | Deadline: July 13 | Australia

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