Just dropped · Trial Balloon · Ep. 193
The Magnificent Seven
New York Times: “Elon Musk became the world’s first trillionaire on Friday.”
“The tech mogul reached that milestone when shares of his rocket company SpaceX began trading on the stock market, opening at $150, signaling a new era of ultra-affluence and widening wealth inequality.”
Bloomberg: “Taiwan plans to help bring a $200 million data center to Paraguay, its lone ally in South America, in a rare investment aimed at shoring up the two partners’ diplomatic relationship that’s backed by Washington.”
“Paraguay is hoping to have the data center, which will provide 10 megawatts of computing capacity, operational by the end of 2027, officials say. At the same time, Taiwan’s International Cooperation and Development Fund has reached out to Google, Microsoft and Amazon to gauge interest in investing in the project or becoming a customer for its computing capacity.”
The Trump Mobile T1 phone is just a gold-painted version of the HTC U24 Pro which came out in 2024, iFixIt reports.
NOTUS: “Congressional Republicans are breaking with President Donald Trump over his call to have the federal government take shares in the largest artificial intelligence companies.”
“At least a dozen GOP House and Senate offices are against the idea, according to interviews with lawmakers and their aides.”
Politico: “NASA has begun quietly lobbying Congress for a major cash infusion — perhaps as much as several billion dollars — as the agency pushes to meet President Donald Trump’s ambitious order to land astronauts on the moon in 2028.”
“The exact details of the request are in flux and the discussions are still preliminary, according to two congressional staffers and one industry representative. But the agency needs the money to pay for redesigning a moon landing spacecraft, and after a disastrous explosion on Blue Origin’s launchpad in Cape Canaveral jeopardized key lunar missions.”
Washington Post: “The political energy is slowly beginning to catch up to voter anger. Lawmakers in both parties who have touted the centers as economic boons in their states are backpedaling…”
“But few politicians are embracing grassroots demands for a pause or ban on data center construction, which some on the left see as a missed opportunity for Democrats to distinguish themselves ahead of a midterm election that they hope will hinge on cost-of-living concerns.”
NOTUS: “President Donald Trump said on Friday that he is talking with the leaders of the largest artificial-intelligence companies about having the government acquire ‘pieces’ of their firms.”
“It could prove to be among the most significant federal interventions in the private sector in modern history.”
Financial Times: Trump says US may take equity stakes in AI companies.
New York Times: “Seconds-long GPS outages across Europe on several occasions are the result of interference by Russian satellites.”
“Anthropic is calling for top artificial intelligence labs to weigh slowing the pace of development, suggesting that AI systems are advancing so rapidly that they may soon be able to improve themselves without human intervention in ways that could pose significant societal risks,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
Bloomberg: “OpenAI Chief Executive Officer Sam Altman says he has no plans to make any financial contributions toward this year’s US elections, even as other Silicon Valley billionaires have already pledged to spend heavily to influence midterm races that will decide control of Congress.”
Politico: “Vote tallying in California’s primaries could drag on for days, but one trend is already hard to miss: tech-bred and tech-backed candidates are striking out.”
Wall Street Journal: “Tech companies are earmarking unprecedented sums of money to finance the build-out of massive data centers, with a planned $80 billion equity-raise by Google parent Alphabet being the latest example.”
“But even as the piles of capital secured have grown ever larger, the ability to deploy it in the artificial-intelligence race has become less certain. Supply-chain backlogs, permitting fights and availability of power supplies are among the issues that have caused the construction of data centers to fall behind targeted timelines, with the gap growing wider in recent months: A JPMorgan analysis last month found that more than 60% of data-center capacity planned for completion in 2027 isn’t yet under construction, and another 7% is delayed.”
Washington Post: “President Donald Trump signed an executive order Tuesday that would provide the government with an early look at powerful new artificial intelligence models, giving officials a chance to brace the economy for security risks.”
New York Times: “A Chinese company has been trying to develop artificial intelligence-powered technology that would enable authoritarian governments to not just monitor dissidents but also potentially predict who could become one in the future.”
“The work, which appears to be in the research stage, is ripped out of dystopian science fiction, offering a glimpse of a world in which an authoritarian state is able to move against its citizens before they begin any public dissent.”
Washington Post: “Vice President JD Vance said he is concerned about how artificial intelligence will be used in warfare and urged the military on Thursday to be cautious about the technology, remarks he made as the Pentagon moves forward with using AI on the battlefield.”
Wall Street Journal: “Shares in drone-parts maker Unusual Machines surged premarket after The Wall Street Journal reported that the Trump administration was considering funding a group of U.S. drone companies.”
“The stock jumped over 39% premarket to $26.30, which would be a record if the gains carry over to market open.”
“Donald Trump Jr. is a shareholder and an advisory board member to the Florida-based company.”
“Vice President JD Vance praised Pope Leo XIV on Tuesday for issuing a new theological document rife with warnings about unbridled advancements in AI,” NBC News reports.
“The text, Leo’s first encyclical since his installation as pope last year, urged a restraint that doesn’t stop progress but, rather, functions as the “exercise of responsible care for the human family.”
Said Vance: “What I read of it sounds very profound, and the sort of thing that you would expect and hope from a leader of the church. The thing about morality is that the principles never change, but the way you apply those principles does, because the world changes, right?”
CNET: “My first thought on opening the box was: This is not the shade of matte gold I would have chosen for my flagship phone. It was kind of giving dehydrated pee vibes.”
Taegan Goddard
Taegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire -- which for more than two decades has been one of the nation's most influential political news sites.
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