Daily dispatch

May 9, 2026

Issue filed May 9, 2026 · 24 headlines · By Oz Gultekin

Daily dispatch for May 9, 2026. 24 headlines from labour, tech, and policy feeds, rewritten by hand for the class war in progress.

№ 01 The Verge

Microsoft was worried OpenAI would run off to Amazon and ‘shit-talk’ Azure

Microsoft executives feared OpenAI might defect to Amazon and criticize Azure, according to court documents from the ongoing Musk v. Altman trial examining early communications about their AI partnership.
№ 02 MIT Tech Review

Musk v. Altman week 2: OpenAI fires back, and Shivon Zilis reveals that Musk tried to poach Sam Altman

In week two of the Musk v. Altman trial, OpenAI presented evidence that Musk attempted to recruit Sam Altman, while Musk alleged he was deceived into donating $38 million to the company.
№ 03 TechCrunch

The fax machine is the bottleneck in US healthcare, and VCs are starting to notice

Venture capitalists are targeting fax machines as a bottleneck in US healthcare administration, with AI startups like Basata automating paperwork that currently overwhelms support staff.
№ 04 The Verge

All the latest updates on AI data centers

Tech companies are racing to build massive AI data centers, sparking global conflicts over power grid strain, utility costs, environmental damage, and community impacts from energy-hungry servers.
№ 05 TechCrunch

Cloudflare says AI made 1,100 jobs obsolete, even as revenue hit a record high

Cloudflare announced its first major layoff, with CEO Matthew Prince attributing the elimination of 1,100 jobs to AI efficiency gains that reduced the need for support roles.
№ 06 Fast Company

This company boldly asks you to replace human workers with AI. Its strategy is working well, in one way

Artisan, a company explicitly marketing AI as a replacement for human workers, has generated significant social media attention with its anti-human business strategy and messaging.
№ 07 The Guardian

AI-powered surveillance company Palantir created a chore coat. Great, now I have no choice but to burn mine | Van Badham

Palantir, the surveillance megacorp with $80 million in Australian government contracts, has released branded merchandise, contaminating the reputation of the humble chore coat.
№ 08 The New York Times

Meta’s Embrace of A.I. Is Making Its Employees Miserable

Meta is pushing its 78,000 employees to adopt AI tools while preparing layoffs as the company adapts to the artificial intelligence era and seeks efficiency gains.
№ 09 The Verge

Everybody wants to rule the AI world

Sam Altman's ouster from OpenAI in 2024 involved chaotic CEO selection processes, with executives texting about succession plans while the current CEO was being removed.
№ 10 The New York Times

Elon Musk’s SpaceX Plans $55 Billion Investment to Make A.I. Chips

SpaceX plans to invest $55 billion in Terafab, a semiconductor factory in Texas, as Elon Musk escalates his efforts to dominate the artificial intelligence industry.
№ 11 The Verge

Mira Murati’s deposition pulled back the curtain on Sam Altman’s ouster

Witness testimony in the Musk v. Altman trial revealed details of Sam Altman's November 2023 ouster from OpenAI, including allegations he was not consistently candid with the board.
№ 12 The New York Times

Elon Musk’s Confidante Shivon Zilis Is Cast as His Inside Source at OpenAI

Shivon Zilis, who served on OpenAI's board while working closely with Elon Musk, was portrayed in trial testimony as Musk's inside source at the AI company.
№ 13 VentureBeat

Salesforce rolls out new Slackbot AI agent as it battles Microsoft and Google in workplace AI

Salesforce transformed Slackbot from a notification tool into a full AI agent capable of searching enterprise data, drafting documents, and executing tasks for employees.
№ 14 TechCrunch

Laid-off Oracle workers tried to negotiate better severance. Oracle said no.

Oracle denied better severance negotiations to laid-off workers, some of whom were classified as remote and therefore ineligible for WARN Act protections requiring two months notice.
№ 15 TechCrunch

The “people’s airline” and the enterprise AI gold rush

Enterprise AI has become a major acquisition target, with Anthropic, OpenAI, and SAP all making significant moves to capture market share in the corporate AI deployment space.
№ 16 Fast Company

OpenAI and Anthropic just met with religious leaders at the ‘Faith-AI Covenant.’ Here’s why

OpenAI and Anthropic met with religious leaders at the Faith-AI Covenant roundtable in New York to discuss ethical approaches to AI development amid explosive industry growth.
№ 17 Financial Times

Chris Hohn’s hedge fund slashes $8bn Microsoft stake in warning over AI disruption

TCI, a major hedge fund, slashed its Microsoft stake from 10 percent to 1 percent, citing concerns about AI disruption and the company's ability to manage technological change.
№ 18 The Guardian

‘Being human helps’: despite rise of AI is there still hope for Europe’s translators?

Literary translators in Europe face disruption from AI tools, though human translators may remain necessary for nuanced work in publishing for the foreseeable future.
№ 19 Financial Times

Anthropic weighs deal for near $1tn valuation as revenue surges

Anthropic is fielding investment offers that could value the Claude maker at nearly $1 trillion, potentially surpassing rival OpenAI as revenue surges.
№ 20 The Verge

SpaceX has a $55 billion plan to build AI chips in Texas

SpaceX plans to invest at least $55 billion in Terafab, a chip manufacturing plant in Austin, Texas, seeking tax breaks for the ambitious AI semiconductor production facility.
№ 21 Simon Willison

Notes on the xAI/Anthropic data center deal

xAI and Anthropic have announced a data center deal, marking a significant infrastructure investment in the competitive artificial intelligence market.
№ 22 The New York Times

Anthropic’s C.E.O. Says It Could Grow by 80 Times This Year

Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei said the startup could grow eighty times this year, with explosive expansion dramatically increasing demand for computing power and infrastructure.
№ 23 VentureBeat

Claude Code costs up to $200 a month. Goose does the same thing for free.

Claude Code costs up to $200 monthly, while Goose offers equivalent AI coding capabilities for free, sparking developer backlash against expensive AI agent pricing models.
№ 24 The Guardian

Who is Louis Mosley, the man tasked with defending Palantir against its critics?

Louis Mosley, Palantir's UK and Europe boss, has become a focal point for British concerns about US tech dominance and surveillance capitalism in the region.

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