Top Tech News Today, May 13, 2026

It’s Wednesday, May 13, 2026, and the AI arms race just rocketed into space. Google is deep in talks with SpaceX for orbital data centers, Nvidia’s Jensen Huang is joining Trump on a high-stakes China mission, and Meta employees are pushing back against AI surveillance in the office. Here are the top 15 tech stories making waves today, from frontier infrastructure and Big Tech power plays to fresh cybersecurity threats and global regulation battles.

In the last 24 hours alone, investors poured billions into AI chips and military tech, hackers used AI to uncover software vulnerabilities, and Washington and Beijing pushed deeper into an AI rivalry that now stretches far beyond chatbots and search engines. Meanwhile, a ransomware attack at Foxconn exposed how fragile the world’s tech supply chain has become at the very moment the industry is racing to build the next generation of intelligent infrastructure.

From Silicon Valley to Seoul, and from defense startups to semiconductor giants, today’s tech headlines point to one thing: the AI race is entering a far more consequential phase.

Below are the top technology news stories you need to know right now.

Technology News Today

Google and SpaceX in Talks for Orbital AI Data Centers

Google is in advanced discussions with SpaceX to launch data centers into orbit, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing sources familiar with the matter. SpaceX is positioning orbital infrastructure as the lowest-cost option for AI compute in the coming years, ahead of its planned $1.75 trillion IPO later in 2026. The talks build on SpaceX’s recent deal with Anthropic to tap into xAI’s Memphis data center and on Google’s Project Suncatcher, which aims to deploy prototype satellites by 2027. Elon Musk has touted orbital data centers as cheaper to run and free from terrestrial NIMBY opposition. Google, which invested $900 million in SpaceX in 2015, is also exploring other launch partners.

This move signals a radical shift in AI infrastructure strategy as hyperscalers grapple with power, land, and cooling constraints on Earth. Orbital setups could bypass grid limitations and local regulations, accelerating AI training at scale while opening new frontiers for space tech startups. However, experts note that launch and satellite costs still make terrestrial centers more economical today. The development underscores Big Tech’s willingness to bet on frontier infrastructure to maintain AI dominance.

Why It Matters: Orbital data centers could redefine the economics of AI infrastructure and global compute capacity, giving first-movers like Google and SpaceX a lasting edge in the race for scalable AI.

Source: The Wall Street Journal

Google Reports First Known Case of AI Used to Discover and Weaponize a Zero-Day Vulnerability

Google’s Threat Intelligence Group disclosed that criminal hackers leveraged an AI model to identify and exploit a previously unknown software flaw, marking the first confirmed instance of AI-assisted zero-day discovery. The attackers attempted a widespread attack that bypassed two-factor authentication. Google researchers expressed high confidence in the AI’s role in both discovery and weaponization.

This incident signals a dangerous evolution in cyber threats, in which AI lowers the barrier to sophisticated attacks previously limited to nation-states or highly skilled groups. It has major implications for cybersecurity infrastructure, AI model safeguards, and regulation, as platforms scramble to defend against machine-speed vulnerability hunting. Startups and enterprises reliant on software security face new risk profiles.

Why It Matters: AI-powered zero-day attacks raise the stakes for cybersecurity, compelling faster defensive innovation and stricter controls on AI tools used in offensive operations.

Source: Bloomberg.

Anduril raises $5B as defense tech startup valuation doubles to $61B

Anduril has raised $5 billion in fresh funding, pushing its valuation to $61 billion and cementing its place as one of the most valuable private defense technology companies in the world. The round, led by Thrive Capital and Andreessen Horowitz, comes as the startup expands its work across drones, surveillance systems, AI-enabled command software, and battlefield autonomy.

The raise reflects a broader shift in venture capital. Defense tech is no longer a fringe category for Silicon Valley. With global military tensions rising, investors are backing companies that can move faster than traditional contractors. Anduril’s $20 billion U.S. Army deal around its Lattice AI command-and-control platform gives the company a stronger case that software-first defense startups can compete for major government programs.

Why It Matters: Anduril’s funding round shows how AI, autonomy, and defense are becoming one of venture capital’s biggest new arenas.

Source: Financial Times.

Meta Employees Protest Mouse-Tracking Software in U.S. Offices

Meta workers distributed flyers across U.S. offices urging colleagues to sign a petition against new mouse-tracking software installed on company computers. The tech captures mouse movements and keystrokes to train AI models for agentic tasks, which employees see as invasive surveillance that could accelerate their own replacement by AI. The action precedes planned layoffs of about 10% of the workforce and coincides with unionization efforts in the UK. Meta defended the tool as necessary for building realistic AI agents.

The protest reflects growing internal backlash at Big Tech firms over AI-driven workforce changes and workplace privacy. It raises questions about data extraction ethics, labor rights under the National Labor Relations Act, and the cybersecurity risks of pervasive employee monitoring. As AI adoption intensifies, similar tensions could spread across the sector, influencing regulation and talent retention.

Why It Matters: The Meta protest spotlights the human cost of AI development and could accelerate scrutiny of workplace surveillance practices across Big Tech.

Source: Reuters.

Anthropic Enters Booming AI Legal Services Market

Anthropic is expanding into AI-powered legal services as the sector heats up, joining a wave of tools that automate document review, contract analysis, and case research. The move highlights AI’s deepening penetration into professional services.

It accelerates disruption in legal tech, offering efficiency gains for law firms and in-house teams while challenging traditional workflows. Startups in the space gain validation, but face heightened competition from well-funded AI labs.

Why It Matters: Anthropic’s entry into AI legal tools underscores the rapid mainstreaming of generative AI in high-value industries, creating new opportunities and competitive pressures for legal-tech startups.

Source: TechCrunch.

U.S. SEC and Musk Set to Argue Twitter Settlement in Court

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and Elon Musk are scheduled to appear before a D.C. judge to argue for approval of a settlement related to Musk’s Twitter (now X) stake and disclosures.

The case continues long-running regulatory scrutiny of Musk’s business dealings, with potential implications for disclosure standards, platform governance, and Big Tech accountability.

Why It Matters: The SEC-Musk Twitter settlement hearing could set precedents for executive accountability and disclosure rules affecting public tech companies and social platforms.

Source: Reuters.

Foxconn ransomware attack exposes weak point in global tech supply chains

Foxconn said operations are resuming after a cyberattack hit its North American factories, while a ransomware group called Nitrogen claimed it stole 8 terabytes of data tied to major customers, including Apple, Google, Dell, and Nvidia. The alleged stolen files reportedly include schematics and project details, though the full scope remains unclear.

The attack matters because Foxconn sits at the center of the global electronics supply chain. A breach at a contract manufacturer can ripple far beyond one company, exposing sensitive product designs and operational data across multiple tech giants. It also shows why ransomware groups continue to target manufacturing, where downtime and customer exposure can create intense pressure to resolve incidents quickly.

Why It Matters: The Foxconn attack is a reminder that hardware supply chains are now battlegrounds for cybersecurity.

Source: Wired.

Canvas owner reaches deal with hackers after massive education tech breach

Instructure, the company behind Canvas, reached a resolution with the hacking group ShinyHunters after a breach disrupted the education platform used by thousands of schools. The incident reportedly affected nearly 9,000 schools and hundreds of millions of users, with the disruption landing during finals season.

The deal reportedly included the return of stolen data and assurances that copied data would be deleted. Instructure did not confirm whether it paid a ransom. The breach highlights a growing risk for education technology platforms, which hold sensitive student, teacher, and institutional data but often operate across sprawling user bases with uneven security controls.

Why It Matters: The Canvas breach demonstrates that educational platforms have become high-value targets for cybercriminals.

Source: The Washington Post.

U.S.-China AI rivalry hangs over Trump-Xi tech summit

U.S. President Donald Trump is expected to raise artificial intelligence during talks with Chinese leader Xi Jinping, but analysts doubt the summit will produce a major breakthrough. The divide has widened after Anthropic’s Mythos model raised fresh concerns about access to advanced AI, cybersecurity risks, and national security controls.

Washington wants safety channels and crisis-communication mechanisms for AI, while Beijing sees U.S. restrictions as part of a containment strategy. The result is a fragile environment where both countries recognize the risks of AI escalation but remain deeply suspicious of each other’s intentions.

Why It Matters: The AI race is now a core part of U.S.-China strategic competition.

Source: Reuters.

White House AI executive action stalls amid internal disagreements

A planned U.S. executive action on AI has reportedly stalled due to disagreements inside the Trump administration. The debate centers on how advanced AI models should be tested, which federal agencies should oversee them, and how far Washington should go in regulating frontier systems.

The delay comes as lawmakers and industry leaders push for clearer federal guidance. The release of powerful new models has intensified concerns around cybersecurity, national security, procurement, and model testing. Without a coherent federal framework, states and agencies may continue moving in different directions.

Why It Matters: Regulatory uncertainty around AI is becoming a business risk for startups and major tech companies alike.

Source: Axios.

OpenAI policy chief says AI is becoming infrastructure, not just software

OpenAI Chief Global Affairs Officer Chris Lehane said AI is entering a new phase as an infrastructure technology, comparing it to a utility for intelligence. Speaking from OpenAI’s Washington office, he argued that government and business systems need to be reworked around the scale of change AI will bring.

The message reflects OpenAI’s growing policy footprint. As AI moves into enterprise workflows, public services, national security, and education, the company is trying to shape how regulators and institutions think about the technology. For startups, that means the AI market is becoming less about app-layer novelty and more about trust, deployment, governance, and institutional adoption.

Why It Matters: OpenAI is framing AI as foundational infrastructure, which could shape regulation, procurement, and enterprise adoption.

Source: Axios.

Cerebras raises IPO price range as AI chip demand strengthens

Cerebras Systems increased the price range for its planned IPO and is now seeking to raise as much as $4.8 billion. The AI chip startup plans to offer 30 million shares at $150 to $160 each, up from its earlier range of $115 to $125.

The move signals strong investor appetite for AI infrastructure companies, especially those positioned around inference workloads. As AI applications move from training models to serving millions of real-time queries, inference-optimized chips are becoming increasingly important. Cerebras’ public debut will be closely watched as a test of whether the AI hardware boom can support a new wave of public-market listings.

Why It Matters: Cerebras’ IPO could become a key market test for AI chip startups beyond Nvidia.

Source: TechStartups via Bloomberg.

SoftBank injects more than $450M into Graphcore as AI chipmaker rebuilds

SoftBank has invested more than $450 million into Graphcore, the British AI chip company it acquired in 2024. Once seen as a potential Nvidia challenger, Graphcore is now rebuilding under SoftBank’s ownership as demand for AI compute continues to grow.

The investment shows SoftBank is still betting heavily on AI infrastructure after years of volatility across its venture portfolio. For the U.K., Graphcore remains one of the country’s most important semiconductor assets. For SoftBank, the company could become part of a broader AI stack spanning chips, robotics, data centers, and frontier AI investments.

Why It Matters: Graphcore’s reset shows how strategic investors are trying to revive alternative AI chip platforms.

Source: TechStartups

Indian AI chip startup HrdWyr raises $13M to build edge AI processors

Bengaluru-based fabless chip startup HrdWyr raised $13 million in Series A funding led by Ideaspring Capital. The company is developing edge AI chip technology, a category focused on running AI workloads directly on devices rather than relying entirely on cloud data centers.

Edge AI is becoming more important as companies look to reduce latency, cut cloud costs, and bring intelligence to phones, sensors, industrial systems, wearables, and vehicles. India’s growing interest in semiconductor design also gives startups like HrdWyr a stronger national and strategic backdrop.

Why It Matters: HrdWyr’s funding signals rising global demand for AI chips beyond traditional U.S.- and Taiwan-centered supply chains.

Source: Tech in Asia.

OpenAI, Microsoft, and tech partners push better Ethernet for AI clusters

OpenAI, Microsoft, and other infrastructure players are working on more scalable Ethernet networking for AI systems. The effort aims to improve how large AI clusters move data across thousands of chips and servers, a growing bottleneck as models and workloads scale.

Networking is becoming a hidden constraint in AI infrastructure. GPUs get most of the attention, but AI data centers also depend on fast, reliable, low-latency interconnects. Better Ethernet could help cloud providers and AI labs scale more efficiently while reducing dependence on more specialized networking stacks.

Why It Matters: The next phase of AI infrastructure will be shaped by networking as much as chips.

Source: The Next Platform.

Samsung’s AI chip boom sparks labor dispute in South Korea

Samsung Electronics is facing a labor dispute over profit-sharing as South Korea’s AI chip boom boosts expectations within the company. Workers are reportedly pressing for a larger share of gains as demand for advanced memory and AI-related chips lifts the semiconductor sector.

The dispute shows that the AI boom is not just changing markets; it is reshaping labor expectations inside companies that power the industry. Samsung plays a central role in memory chips used in AI systems, and internal tensions could become more visible as chipmakers generate large gains from global AI demand.

Why It Matters: AI chip demand is creating labor and profit-sharing pressure inside major semiconductor companies.

Source: Yonhap News Agency.

Ambiq Micro surges as edge AI chip demand lifts earnings outlook

Ambiq Micro shares jumped after the company reported stronger-than-expected quarterly results. The Texas-based chipmaker posted $25.1 million in net sales, up 59% year over year, and said more than 80% of its first-quarter chip shipments included AI capabilities.

Ambiq focuses on ultra-low-power chips used in edge devices such as wearables, smart devices, and gaming hardware. Its results suggest that demand for AI is spreading beyond data centers into everyday electronics. That shift could create a second wave of AI hardware winners focused on efficiency, battery life, and on-device intelligence.

Why It Matters: Edge AI is becoming a real commercial market, not just a semiconductor talking point.

Source: Barron’s.

Intel, AMD, and Qualcomm rise as AI chip rally broadens

Shares of Intel, AMD, and Qualcomm rose as investor enthusiasm around AI chips expanded beyond Nvidia. Qualcomm rebounded after a sharp drop, helped by growing interest in its data-center processor ambitions, while AMD and Intel also gained on renewed optimism around AI hardware demand.

The rally suggests investors are looking for second-order beneficiaries of the AI buildout. Nvidia remains the dominant player, but cloud providers, governments, and device makers are all looking for more options. That creates room for companies focused on CPUs, accelerators, custom silicon, networking, and edge inference.

Why It Matters: The AI chip trade is broadening as investors search for winners beyond Nvidia.

Source: Barron’s.

Trump’s China tech trip puts AI, chips, and Big Tech diplomacy in focus

Trump’s China visit is putting American technology executives, AI policy, and chip access back at the center of global diplomacy. The trip reportedly includes major tech leaders and comes amid disputes between Washington and Beijing over AI safety, semiconductor controls, cybersecurity, and market access.

The visit highlights how technology companies have become diplomatic actors in their own right. Apple, Tesla, Qualcomm, Micron, Cisco, and other U.S. firms rely on global supply chains and market access, while Washington continues to view advanced chips and AI systems through a national-security lens. That tension is now shaping boardroom strategy as much as trade policy.

Why It Matters: Big Tech’s exposure to China remains deeply tied to geopolitics, AI policy, and semiconductor access.

Source: The Guardian.